What secrets have you learned in terms of marketing?
I learned a long time ago that there is no better marketing tool than to have a great product and women who talk about it and share it with others. Up to this point our marketing has been strictly word of mouth.
What has been your greatest success or “high point” in the process?
My highest point was when Liz, our controller, announced that we had hit $1 million in sales—within the first four months. THAT seemed like a dream!
We opened our doors on December 9, 2005, and by December 9, 2006, we had sold over 1 million pieces of Finders Key Purse®. Our original reps grew from 50 to 2,000 and my employees grew to 10. We got lucky and more office space opened in the same building, and we could move into that as well.
From this one little item, my husband and I both have a source of income (a pretty good one at that). We now employ three customer service representatives. Our sales reps have made working with us a hobby, a part-time job or a full-time job depending on their needs—they make as little as $10 a month or as much as $9,000 a month, depending on what they want to do with their time. And all of this from one tiny little keychain.
In 2006 we sold another 1 million+ pieces of Finders Key Purse®, and with a little luck, my patent should be approved in 2007 (after almost 3 years of waiting).
Do you have new ideas in store? How do you come up with them?
Currently, I am working on a couple of other inventions that I plan to introduce in July 2007. I never knew that I was an inventor. I did always know, though, that I was tenacious and willing to try just about anything. In my life as a flight attendant, I was always selling something to supplement my income. For over 30 years my friends told me, “Some day you will hit it big.” I always hoped I would live long enough to say they were right!
