AN ENTREPRENEUR SPIRIT

I was looking forward to having a small vintage stall for the last year - knowing I was retiring to Naples the end of 2015 from Hong Kong.  Problem was I only had 110 sq. feet to work with but I was determined to make it successful immediately and grow even during the slow months. One of my faults is I over analyse but I figured out how to use the social network to grab new customers at no cost - only time. 

LOTS OF TIME!

But the store I was in - didn't understand my methods after I tripped up on one sale for personal reasons and we parted ways. 

"Take a little chance...

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose."

I am an entrepreneur!

Start out with a customer problem and a product that solves it. Get capital. Make the product, market it, win customers. Someday you’ll wake up and realize what you’ve become: a gal who took a risk, started a business, and made money. An entrepreneur.

For the last 40 years my professional career has spread across 2 continents with multiple job descriptions - always reinventing myself and the company I'm with. 

I first moved to Hong Kong in 1992 with only a few boxes.  Furniture stores were scarce back then - everything was imported from Europe and very modern, metal and leather - totally not my style and I wasn't going to change. Having to set up from scratch, I took my House Beautiful to the Philippines and designed most my furniture to be made-to-order. That was in September and it finally showed in time for Xmas. Some of the items I still have today but after moving 11 times since I've been married - I sell them off and change them out.   

In 2007 I returned to HK a second time, again with nothing and and found it very expensive with an even narrower selection.  After sourcing for myself in China, just over the border, and finding boutique old world factories - I was again set up in no time.  I decided to open a business to help younger couples transplanted the same way I had, everyone working on a very tight budget with children.  

I research internet web providers and found one with a template that I could write myself to create business in 2008 and also created a free blogspot in 2010.

It took me 2 months to design and write the website, and then one day scared to death, I had to push that button to activate. Almost immediately I was up and running the business from the comfort of my home.  This created a marvelous flexible schedule where I could play tennis and travel. My adventures led me to far corners of Asia: like Mongolia, India, Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand, Myranmar, all corners of China,  New Zealand, and more. During the summer months, most expats leave for a home break - so I would returned to Naples, FL. where we owned a home for the last 18 years. 
Life was good. 

Below is an article that was written in Xpat Magazine about my business. 

 
My website was closed when I departed HK, but my blog is still available to show my past adventures and clients in Zhuhai. 

Home Redesign HK 

The website was hosted by Network Solutions.  It was so easy - only $25 a month and I had as many as 100 pages at one time - showing countless pieces of inventory from the factories. I eventually narrowed it down to a dozen pages and took people to China instead to shop.  I also designed furniture for my clients and had them made in the old factories - using no nails - only peg and groove. It's a 3rd world business I was trying to control. 

Creating Lamps and Shades

In the 90's it was possible to purchase beautiful antique porcelain lamps in HK and I still have many of them today - but this time - not only was it difficult to find a decent lamp - but the costs were thru the roof.  Lamp shades were terrible quality and did nothing as a final product.  I sourced local linen fabric imported from China at $4.50 a yard - and bought loads of it. I then sent it to a factory I had found on Craig's LIST! I found out later a man in his 80's made each one by hand - a trade that is no longer used or found.  Just before I departed HK I had learned he had past away and hadn't trained a younger generation, but his wife was kind enough to make a few for me to take back. 

 During my China tours I took clients to a small shop filled with porcelain lamps and vases and they spoke no English. Everything was then crated and shipped to my home where I matched up a shade and provided it to my client at half the cost of retail.

In 2010 my home was on the Home and Garden Tour to benefit the American Women's Association benefits. 

PITTSBURGH, PA  2000 - 2007

There are 7 years where I didn't work  We were transplanted from HK to Pittsburgh with one son in college and another in high school.  To keep me occupied - I renovated the house, played on several tennis teams and gardened every afternoon. One year my home was on the Home and Garden Tour.

MS HOME volunteer and mentor. 

In 2004 I helped the Multiple Scorosis foundation in Naples open a resale thrift shop - I designed the floor plan, wrote the inventory spread sheets and designed the logo and name: "MS HOME". My son was attending the local community college so I also flipped a few houses during this year while I was living there supporting him. My husband was in Pittsburgh but he was traveling back and forth to Asia multiple times a year.   

My mother was diagnose with Non- Hodgins lymphoma in 2005 so I moved her into my home in Naples and took care of her during her Chemo while I was flipping 2 more houses.  

In February 2007 - we had a pipe burst - and $50,000 later - with me being the contractor - I had the home redone. We also learned we were finally going back to HK with Dick's Sporting Goods. 

Happily with a newly renovated and staged home - I sold it myself in July.  During that month my mother was visiting and what we thought was just a bad flu was a massive heart attach.  When she returned to Florida after her short visit - I was notified that she was in the emergency room being revived.  She had lost 85% of her heart muscle with the initial attack.  I flew down and arranged for her rehab and found her a marvelous assisted living home. I was moving her and myself the same week - driving back and forth with 2 dogs to Florida from Pittsburgh several times. 

Eventually, in 2010 I renovated my mothers villa and also sold that myself.  Sadly, she passed away a week before I sold it. 

This was one of my favorite jobs while in Hong Kong and my career.  I had been manufacturing as a silent vendor for Hallmark thru my own trading company.   Small world - they found out because the Managing Director was sitting next to my husband on a flight to the USA, they also played baseball together and he asked what I was doing.  When he came back - they hired me.  In one year I re-trained the Chinese Merchandisers to think outside the box and work and develop products with our Chinese factories.  As storyboards for counter top accessories arrived for us to develop - I reviewed them with my merchandisers - picked out a factory for the piece and the target price point.  When the product was developed - I review and approved every item for production. If standards weren't met or were misinterpreted - I traveled to the factory and worked with them one-on-one to get it right. Many of the programs were private labels like Harry Potter, Crayola, Maxine, Disney, Veggie Tales, Thomas Kinkade, Harley Davidson, and Marjolein Bastin.

At this time, my husband was Managing Director of LL Bean however, they informed us after 3 years they were sending us to Maine.  

Instead we searched around and my husband was picked up and became a VP at Dick's Sporting Goods for Sourcing and Product Development - which meant we were heading to Pittsburgh and I had to leave my dream job at Hallmark. 

I had developed so many contacts over the last 10 years in the Asian region - it was time to do something with them.  Working full time in an office on the other side of the city meant being away from my 2 boys - now 11 and 13. My youngest had been a challenge with special needs and will continue to be so until he graduated college at 25.  I needed to be available for the school and for him. 

By an old friend, I was introduced to a large Exporter for Hallmark Cards.   They wanted to develop a new costume jewelry line for Precious Moments. I took on the task - working with 14 factories and drop shipping from a final point in Fuschow, China (a 3 hour flight away from HK) - all while working from home and shipping $1M my first 6 months of production. I  sourced, wrote orders, approved the production and handled my own bookkeeping. Sadly, the program was not successful at the retail level and was eventually discontinued.  I didn't design the product - only manufactured what they gave me in packaging, display and jewelry.  I would have gone a different route with my past experience in tow - but they needed to find out for themselves.  They were much too large to tell them otherwise.  

In 1992 my husband was working with Claire's Boutique developing a small amount of products from overseas.  I was working with a Sterling Silver jewelry company as a merchandiser and designer in Chicago.  Only a year after transferring to Chicago we were surprisingly transferred to Hong Kong to open Claire's overseas office.  In 2 years we increased their import program from 10% to 90% as they doubled their stores to over 6000 in 4 countries. My first task was to take the buyers to the overseas factories - which were small cottage industries out of small office or homes.  I had to teach them how to work the manufacture by being aware of the pit falls and how to avoid them. The largest was not to design beyond your price point. 

We were told that we were being brought home with no jobs (common for this company to turn their employees every 3 years) - so we sought out other employment with the competitor owned by Woolworth Corp. and stayed in Hong Kong. 

Few people know that they own multiple subsidiaries like: F. W. Woolworth Company, Afterthoughts, Champs Sports, Eastbay, Foot Locker, Kinney Shoes, Northern Reflections, SF Music Box, and more - and he eventually worked for all of them. 

This is when I opened my trading company. 

I started a small jewelry company out of my garage while pregnant and after 6 months my husband joined in when we moved it to a warehouse.  We traveled to the Philippines, India and China to develop a costume jewelry line which we sold national 2 times a year with 15 sales reps.  When the inventory became too large - we opened 25 consignment stores in 4 outlet companies located in 5 states.  I traveled to each store to update the floor placement and add new inventory - and also worked showrooms in NYC to purchase close outs to sell with my jewelry line at these stores.  We sold the company and went with Claire's.

I started with MF& Co the summer of 1973 on their college board.  After college I stayed with them and stayed another 6 years in multiple departments of women's apparel.  I was even a furrier.

I was President of my Sorority senior year - A Salukiette for 3 years - and a singer in a band and greek variety shows.  I also directed the HomeComing Queen pageant senior year. 

My career has not had a normal progression - but it's offered me very unique opportunities and obstacles along the way. 

An entrepreneur is “a person who starts a business and is willing to risk loss in order to make money” or “one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise.” Note the common keywords business and risk. If there’s no real business or risk, you’re not an entrepreneur. 

Thru the years I look for the risk to make the job interesting - creating a challenge to make it better and/or different. 

Entrepreneur + Capital = Products + Customers = Business.