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About two years ago, Kim Pedersen, a former employee of the city government of Fremont, CA, got an idea from Pia Callesen, a relative in Denmark: personalized baby pacifiers.

Drawing on his knowledge of American business from his career in the local business tax division, he and his wife Carol thought they might take a stab at selling the product stateside.

So by March of last year, the two had set up MyPacifier (www.mypacifier.com), a company that markets only pacifiers with the baby's names on them.

"We personalize them so they don't get switched at the day care center, so there's no germ swapping," says Pedersen. "Plus it's just a cute gift for baby showers."

But marketing the firm was admittedly a from-the-ground-up process, says Pedersen.

"Neither Carol nor I have a marketing background but Pia does so we've been able to get a lot of tips from her. But a lot of it's self-taught and a lot of experimentation on how to figure out how to get attention," he notes.

At first, getting press attention was key.

So the company began doing things like holding "pacifier parties" where it gave out free product and attending press events like a charity event at Universal Studios with celebrities such as actresses from "Desperate Housewives."

MyPacifier.com got mentions on other TV shows and in the family sections of local newspapers, he says. The company also began running ads in magazines like American Baby, Parents and similar publications.

By far, the company's principal revenue source is its Web site, says Pedersen, and it's currently enjoying some high rankings. For example, on Google earlier this, the firm ranked number one in paid and number two in organic under the words "personalized pacifiers."

To date, the company has amassed about 20,000 customers, says Pedersen.

"Were really quite pleased, especially given the more we learn about how difficult it is to start up a business and get attention," he says, noting the firm has given him an unexpectedly different view of what retirement would look like.