Alexa Lett, owner of Harmony Crafts, says that sounding big means going big. In giving advice on how to transform a beginning crafter into a highly successful craft business owner, she advises, "Remember, when you're talking to the big guys on the phone, you always say "we" even if "we" is one mom in a basement." Lett joins host Carol Duvall in studio to share many more of her tips.
Now selling crafts nationwide, Lett got her start in the craft industry after making pins as gifts for her piano students. "(I had) a very humble economical beginning," she admits. "I was going to make less money giving them a gift than I'd done all year, so I had to come up with something inexpensive." Having crafted a little on the side as a hobby, Lett created Christmas pins for her students. A student's mother, who owned a gift shop, particularly liked the pins and suggested Lett try selling them in her shop.
Soon Lett began selling her pins at craft fairs, and decided that making and selling many of the same pins at once would be the most successful way to market her craft. "I decided I personally wanted to do volume," she says, "because I thought volume would bring more money than selling units. I wanted to take one thing and make 200 of the same thing. It would look the same, it would be the same, it would make more money." Lett made a sample of each item she sells and took orders at a local wholesale craft fair. She was quite successful.
Lett then started an assembly line. With a staff of stay-at-home moms, Lett and her staff pieced the pins together efficiently. Branching off from the piano pins, Lett began making wood pins because wood was a popular medium at the time. Soon she learned of several craft trade magazines and looked to them to find hot trends in the craft industry. "I myself am not a purist as far as an artisan goes," Lett says. "I'm more commercial. I want to make what the public will buy. I'm not driven by my own passion to make something a certain way."
Desiring a less country and more contemporary look for her crafts, Lett began making pins out of metal, still adding some wood to the pins since wood had become somewhat of a trademark for her company. Lett then learned that utilitarian-type items were becoming the trend, so she and her staff began making pins that also sat in frame stands to double as pictures.
At this point, Lett decided she wanted to expand her company even further and so she advertised the need for a sales representative. "You can only wear so many hats," she says, "so if you're going to produce volume and go anywhere beyond where you are, I mean nationwide, you've got to get somebody to sell it for you." Lett hung a sign at a major wholesale gift show that said "Sales Reps Wanted!" She got several responses.
Many sales representatives will only sell made-in-America, handcrafted items. Upon finding a craft line that fits in well with their sales theme, they will often agree to sell the crafts, charging a set amount of fees to the crafter. "You jump through their hoops and then they take it on the road and start selling it," Lett says. After finding sales representatives, Lett's crafts were being sold all over the country.
Lett's biggest piece of advice to a crafter trying to sell his or her work is to keep updated on popular craft mediums. "I've always felt for Harmony, my company, that no buyer should come back the next season and see the same thing," she says. "You've got to always be changing because trends change, fashion, colors, etc., so I always try to stay a step ahead of the game."
Soon Lett began making quilt jewelry, where she framed pieces of a quilt in several tiny frames to make necklaces. From that idea, Lett begin making Wear Art "Frame It Up Jewelry" kits, which allowed crafters to frame their own quilt pieces. These experiences prompted to author a book entitled Home Made, teaching the crafting techniques that got her to where she and her company are today.
Resources Home Made: 200 Creative Concoctions and Practical Potions for Crafts
by Alexa Lett (ISBN: 0399526978)
Perigee, 2001
Click
here to order this title.
The full title is
Home Made: 200 Creative Concoctions and Practical Potions for Crafts, Beauty Aids, Household Products, and Gifts from Your Kitchen.
Guests Alexa Lett
Craft Expert, Harmony, Inc.
PO Box 28267
Chattanooga, TN 37421
Phone: 423-894-4720
E-mail:
Alexalett@aol.com
Website:
www.alexalett.com
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