The Publisher Globetrotting kids brings the wide world into every child’s room. The two founders, Stephi Wallenborn and her husband Ben, publish children’s books about different countries. The first year of the young company was marked by the corona pandemic and legal disputes and was therefore not easy. But the two founders did not allow their vision to be discouraged. And you can now also put a stop to the vexed topic of preparatory accounting. Because with the product combination of lexoffice and GetMyInvoices, this runs automatically to 80 %. This leaves more time for writing and for your entrepreneurial ideas.
Stephi, please briefly introduce yourself and Globetrotter Kids. “My name is Stephi Wallenborn and I founded the Weltenbummler Kids publishing house with my husband Ben at the beginning of 2020. The first book (“Never Wash Without Soap”) has already been published and the second (“The Troll King’s Treasure”) will follow in a few weeks. In addition to the books, we also want to offer travel accessories in the future. Because we ourselves and our three children are passionate about traveling and have gained a lot of experience on our trips about what equipment should not be missing on any trip. During our travels, the idea of publishing child-friendly books about different countries came to fruition. In 2019 we put everything on one card, quit our previous jobs and founded the publishing house Weltenbummler Kids. We also moved from Berlin to Münsterland, near my parents.”
What was the intention behind starting a company? My husband and I had the idea of creating a country-specific children’s book series five years ago. At that time, our eldest daughter’s best friend moved to Abu Dhabi. We couldn’t find any suitable children’s books to give our daughter an idea of where her boyfriend now lives. In the end, we sat in front of Google images and decided that this had to be done in a more child-friendly way. It was important to us that the books were above all fun and not just books of knowledge. That’s why we invented the classic motorhome B-OB as protagonists, which can even transform into an airplane or a boat. B-OB experiences exciting adventures with his best friends Line and Benni - in a different country in each book. We integrate child-friendly information about the respective countries into these adventure stories. This also includes numerous pictures. In the first book, Line and Benni travel through Germany, in the second, planned through Sweden.
Where do you see yourself in three years? We hope that Weltenbummler Kids will then be so well known that children will be able to associate something with the brand. Our brand should specifically stand for cosmopolitanism, a sense of adventure and optimism, because these are the values that we want to convey. We also hope that parents who are active outdoors or traveling with their children will use our practical travel accessories.
From the idea to the start – what have been the biggest challenges so far? Corona was certainly a challenge. We moved near my parents, one reason being that we could occasionally park the children with Grandma and Grandpa during the hectic start-up period. But then the pandemic came along, which threw a spanner in the works. One of us would look after the children while the other worked. This has pushed our schedule back. There were also two warnings regarding the names B-OB and Globetrotter. Of course, that cost us a lot of money and energy. At times we were on the verge of giving up everything. The high level of popularity that we received above all about ours Instagram channel received, but encouraged us to continue.
You have been using GetMyInvoices for a month. How did you come across us and how does GetMyInvoices support you? “We are very happy that we found you. We simply underestimated the time that preparatory accounting takes. When looking for suitable solutions, we quickly came across lexoffice. However, using this accounting software does not relieve you of the task of downloading invoices from portals and merging them with those received by email or post. That’s why we use your invoice management software and integrate it with lexoffice. We were able to automate many processes, which I am very happy about.”
I used to spend two working days a month on preparatory accounting, but now I only need two hours. I can devote the working time gained to creative things or to sales. Another big help is the integration of GetMyInvoices with our online store, which we created with Ecwid.
GetMyInvoices pulls the data from the shop and then automatically creates the outgoing invoices, which I can then import into lexoffice. This is of course an extreme relief. Previously, we had to create all customers manually in lexoffice and create the invoices ourselves.
Would you recommend GetMyInvoices to startups? Yes, definitely, especially in combination with lexoffice. We also work with a tax advisor, but he only prepares the annual financial statements for us. Above all, I give start-ups the tip to get their accounting on the right footing right from the start - this saves time and nerves later.
