In the Very Beginning...

I started my business, Warm Heart,  in the basement of my house with very little business knowledge, a knitting machine, sewing machine and a burning desire to create my own product.  I was a mother with a wonderful husband and two young children aged 4 and 6.  My previous experience in the business world had been working in the children’s department at Nordstrom; West Coast Claims Manager of a Japanese steamship company and knitting Christmas stockings for a small manufacturer.

While I was working at Nordstrom during the Christmas Season I became fascinated with “hand-loomed” wool Christmas stockings that were beautifully made and then personalized.  As it turned out the woman who owned this company lived within about 5 blocks of my house. I called her, went over to her home based business and asked her what I could do to help her.  We hit it off right away and I began to work for her part time.  My purpose was not to make money by working for her (although it certainly came in handy) but to learn from her about how her business was run and what I needed to do to start my own business because what I wanted at the time was to be able to send my children to private school. Betty became my first mentor.

See Jane Run !

The work that I actually started doing for Betty was hand-personalizing the Christmas stockings. I was what she called a "name girl".  When Betty received an order she had only about 48 hours to personalize it and ship it out so that the customer could receive the stocking in time to hang up and enjoy.  As Christmas came closer and closer it became critical that shipping occurred not only on time but sooner.  Talk about a sense of urgency!  Because I lived so close to Betty I became the designated urgent personalizer.  I also was able to learn a great deal from her about operating a knitting / hand craft business.  She showed me how to price, taught me where to order wholesale yarn, how to make samples and where to get brochures made and how to keep track of the financial end - including accounts receivable and payable.

 I was fascinated and when I told Betty I wanted to start my own hat business, she not only encouraged me but loaned me a knitting machine and had her husband teach me how to knit.  I failed to mention that I had no idea how to use a knitting machine - I could hand knit so I understood the principles of knitting - but I had never touched a knitting machine and I was already thinking of myself in business.  The first item I knit was a Christmas stocking and I think it took me about 15 hours.  At that time Betty was paying her regular knitters about $1.50 per stocking - so at that rate had I been knitting for a living I would have been making $.10 per hour.  Of course this would have been illegal (see my notes later about HOME KNITTERS), but this was my starting point. I am telling you this only to encourage you - if I started here then you are probably far ahead of where I was.

Dreams Really Do Come True

My knitting skills improved and I think I bought nearly every book I could find about machine knitting.  I searched though stores and looked through endless catalogs and magazines trying to come up with ideas that would sell.  I bought various yarns - at cost - through Betty; made hat samples and various swatches; did my pricing according to Betty’s advice and I was in business.  Because I had worked at Nordstrom I decided to approach them first.  I made an appointment, and with samples in tow I managed to get an order for several dozen hats for about 7 stores in the infant / toddler department.  I was elated - my first order and with Nordstrom!  From there I contacted other small stores and took several more orders - all for delivery in September.  This was April - so I had all summer to knit everything myself.  My orders totaled about $7,000 so I was pretty happy.  I was doing something I liked and I would make some extra money.

 I was able to deliver all my hats on time.  I took my knitting machine with me on our summer vacation and invited my friends over for dinner with an ulterior motive to have them make pompoms with my homemade pompom machine.  The hats all sold quite quickly and I even had a few re-orders for certain designs.  I was in business!!!  The next year, I thought I could expand by selling my hats to some ski stores.  In February I was in New York visiting my sister, with all of my samples when there was a huge snow storm.  Fifth Avenue was closed and there were people cross country skiing down the middle of the street!  A few days previously I had met with a buyer for one of the major ski outfitting stores, she tracked me down at my sister’s sounding quite desperate.  The store had sold out of all their hats and would I sell her my samples and that way she would be able to test market my hats?  Naturally I was in her office within the hour.  She sold all the hats that day and placed an order for the following season!  That’s called BEING AT THE RIGHT PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME !!!!

           The year was off to a great start.  Next I went to Nordstrom with new samples.  I met with three buyers for Washington State - one for boys, one for infant/toddler and another for girls.  I was showing them all of my samples (in a room about 4’ x 5’) when one of them asked if could I make sweaters to match.  She thought my designs were better than an order they had already placed with another company but they would have to have sweaters and hats to match.  Quickly calculating costs in my head, I knew I could beat the prices from the other company - so the three buyers actually took the time to write me an order on the spot for both hats and sweaters (even without me ever showing a sample of a sweater).  Believe me, this does not usually happen.  I quite calmly helped them write up the orders choosing colors and sizes etc. and I walked out of the tiny office with a handful of signed purchase orders and a big smile on my face.

Can You Believe it ?  $40,000!!!!!!

I couldn’t add up the numbers until I got home - and I can’t tell you how nervous and excited I was.  My husband, John and I sat on the floor, orders spread all over, and when we finished adding up the orders they totaled $40,000.  I was in shock. John, being the practical kind of guy he was asked me where I was going to find the money to do this.

I knew I’d figure out a way.  For me getting the order was the important thing and now that I had it I’d find a way to get the production done and find the money to pay for it.  I did find the money - after all what was that credit line we had already put in place going to be used for anyway?

Our World Turns Upside Down

The twist that year had was yet to come and has impacted the rest of my personal and professional life in ways I never could have dreamed about that day sitting on the floor.  During the middle of July, while in the midst of production John was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor.  Our whole world was turned upside down and the next three years we lived with our feet planted firmly in mid air.  As a family we did everything we could. There were surgeries, radiation, chemo therapy, trips to various hospitals in and out of state.  It was a very difficult and stressful time.  My company, Warm Heart, and the creative work that I did kept my sanity. 

            At one time I told John that I wanted to quit and not make my deliveries and simply cancel the orders that I had started.  He talked me in to keeping the company going saying that I might need to have the business some day.  I did continue on.  John’s illness combined with Warm Heart worked very well for us.  I was able to be at home to take care of our children and John, and I was also able to have a creative outlet for the stress.  Certainly there were times when I stayed up all night with deadlines to meet, but in the long run the business was a blessing for me.  Unfortunately fast growing malignant brain tumors can be a time bomb.  Although John was originally given six months to live we were fortunate to have nearly three years together as a family.  He died in May nearly 3 years after the initial diagnosis.

What's Next?

After John’s death I thought a great deal about what I was going to do with my business and our lives as a family.  I figured I really had two choices - I could sit around and wallow in self-pity and feel sorry for myself or I could get on with my life and develop my business. I am an optimist at heart, so I made the decision to move on and see what adventure I could conjure up.  

 I had kept the company at about a level of $75,000 per year in volume.  I hired a  friend who was a sales rep and she sold for me on a part-time basis. In many ways it was great to have a seasonal home-based business.  My decision though was to expand my company and attempt to double the sales.  After all, if I was doing the amount of business I was with one part time employee and one part-time commission sales person then surely I could do much more.  So I went to New York with my children to visit my sister.  I talked to someone who knew someone who knew someone who knew “the best Kids rep in New York” and found myself interviewing my first full time sales rep.  We hit it off immediately and Jack told me he thought he would be able to sell $100,000 the first season.  When all was said and done his sales were about $95,000 and that combined with what I was already doing on the West Coast meant that I more than doubled the business. 

Warm Heart continued to grow, and finally when it took over the living room, dining room, extra bedroom and the entire two car garage, I decided Warm Heart needed a real home of it’s own.  We moved to our first permanent location which consisted of two very tiny offices and a warehouse. 

Prior to this time I was using all home knitters and was spending a great deal of time delivering and picking up yarn and sweaters.  The majority of these knitters were a group of Vietnamese women whom I had helped form a cooperative venture called Warm Hands International.  One lady had had considerable experience in Viet Nam with her family’s knitting business and I was able to both learn from her and teach her my techniques.  In turn she trained the rest of the women.  We were able to have the county government supply knitting machines and then these ladies were able to make a living staying home with their small children.  However, when I moved to the new space I set up a small factory in house and hired the knitters as employees.  By setting up knitters as employees I had far more control over the production and the finished product and we were able to get the sweaters and hats finished and shipped much faster. 

See Jane Grow

Three years and six more sales reps later, we were bursting at the seams and needed to move again to a space where there were both more offices and a warehouse twice the size.  By this time it was apparent that we could no longer keep up with the orders through our factory knitting nor could we use home knitters.  The cost was becoming prohibitive and the demand for our designs was so great that we had to find another way to make the sweaters that was faster, and at a more reasonable rate - not to mention more consistent and reliable.  The knitters we had were good but hard to find and becoming very expensive.  We therefore began production using industrial equipment in small domestic knitting mills.  We also experimented with an off-shore knitting company in the Philippines.

I finally got tired of hearing our retail customers say, “Oh I’ll go buy so-and-so’s pants and turtlenecks to match your sweaters,” so we introduced a full line of coordinated sportswear.  We used the sweaters as a basis for the total clothing story.  This concept was quite simple, “Dress the whole child like a child,” pay attention to details and give the child something comfortable he or she will like to wear. 

 Although Warm Heart was well known in the industry for outstanding sweater designs, the sportswear was also able to stand-alone.  Each collection was designed around a theme and the clothing within the group was merchandised to tell a story.  Sales expanded greatly and production became a much more complicated process.  We added on employees, several sample makers, pattern makers and a production manager.  Now we had more samples to make, more raw materials to buy and more systems to set up. 

A License with Disney!

With continued growth and the distinct possibility of a license agreement with Disney we began a search for a private investor. A deal was finalized and I sold the majority share of the corporation.  With the influx of capital we were able to establish the major portion of our production in Hong Kong.  It was marvelous because we could again produce beautiful hand-loomed and hand knit sweaters with beautiful embroideries and intarsia designs.  All of our coordinated designs were beautifully executed and we consistently shipped on time with very few problems.

Again sales skyrocketed.  We were able to hire a National Sales Manager and open a cooperative showroom in New York with two other children’s wear companies. We finalized a licensing agreement with Disney for Classic Winnie the Pooh clothing and sweaters - a dream come true for me.  Life became less frantic but more complicated and intricate.

 Two years after selling the majority share of the company I left Warm Heart to embark on a new career and am currently coaching and consulting creative product entrepreneurs with small to medium sized companies. It is extremely rewarding to be able to use the skills and knowledge that I have to help others achieve their dreams and see their businesses grow, flourish and succeed. 

P.S. Since that time I also created a successful travel company www.dollyvardenalaska.com and actually went back to the beginning and purchased Betty's Christmas Stocking company when she retired!