FURNITURE STORE: Letters to Lucketts

Showing posts with label Letters to Lucketts. Show all posts

Monday, February 25, 2013

Letters to Lucketts....Running a Creative Business

5:30 AM Unknown No comments

Hey everyone and Happy Monday! The Design House is coming along. We've knocked out several rooms over the weekend to get ready for the Design House this weekend. We'll be shooting some more pictures to share Monday morning, so look for those later in the day.

Here was some background and advice Suzanne gave a few months ago in a post that appeared in Miss Mustard Seed's blog in September. We think it was interesting and gives you some more background about the shop and about us, so we thought we'd share it today...

Hi, I’m Suzanne from Lucketts Store in Leesburg VA. I’m happy to help out with a post about my start and my humble thoughts on business.

Suzanne at auction. 'Nuff said!

As a child I never stopped selling all my stuff. While other kids were playing jump rope on the playground, I basically had a roadside stand set up by my book bag selling whatever toys made the cut that day. My mom could never figure out where all my stuff went and why, as an 8 year old in the 60′s, I always seemed to have money. So it was kind of ironic as I grew up, that I just couldn’t seem to figure out what I would be good enough at to make a living. DAH!

I was a stay at home mom living with my husband and 6 month old son, in a tiny unfurnished apartment in Ashburn, when I discovered Tilletts auction. I was overwhelmed with the cool retro stuff that I thought was amazing and was going for no money. Fortunately I also had no money, so it was a match made in heaven. We eventually moved to an old farmhouse where I would fill the barn with my auction treasures and have epic barn sales, then a tiny booth in an antique mall (yay! I was sure that was it..I hit the big time), then I started working for free, in exchange for space at My Wits End, an antique store outside of Leesburg.

My husband saw great potential in the abandoned building up the road and, since things were going pretty well at My Wits End we decided to give it a go, and The Old Lucketts Store was born.

I could go on from now til next Tuesday with all that goes into owning your own store, but for now I’ll stick to the highlights…

Grow one step at a time with in your own comfort zone. It’s easy to get ahead of yourself and want to become bigger better faster before you really get a grip on what you are doing.
I am always in favor of business relationships being based on a win-win. The more everybody you deal with respects you, and knows you are looking out for their best interest as well as you own, the longer and more solid relationships you will build.
Don’t go into debt. This really goes along with growing one step at a time, its also called don’t get too big for your britches. I started out with maybe a hundred dollars. I would go to auction, buy up the box lots that were going for a dollar…pick out the the items with some interest, clean them up, display them to the best of my ability, and hopefully turn my hundred into two or three hundred. I have done this thousands of times over the last 20 years. When you own everything outright, you can’t get into too much trouble.
Always sell your inventory….do not keep it for your self…that is not a business, that’s shopping! This may seem unbelievable, but whatever I want for my house I generally buy from other people, I do not keep my own stuff.
There is a great saying “without a goal, you have no direction.” I always had one clear thought: to have a neat old place on the side of the road, where you hoped you’d have a great find … and you did! That’s it…my direction was as simple as that.
Be ridiculously nice to your customers, they are your best asset.
Lastly, it is often difficult to find balance when you are running your own business and have a family. Do your best, don’t beat yourself up…..an enjoy both as much as you possibly can, you’re lucky

This post was originally featured on Miss Mustard Seed's Blog in September for her feature called Running a Creative Business.

Need decorating advice? Have a question about running a creative business? Don't forget to send us your questions (as a comment in this post, on facebook, or email us) and we'll answer them in our "Letters to Lucketts" blog series.

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Go Ahead, Ask Us Anything!

{photo credit: Katherine Cobb}

We will be inviting our readers to write in to our blog in the new year and ask us questions. Suzanne will be leaning upon her 17 years in business as owner of the Lucketts Store to help tackle your questions about what it's like to run your own small creative business.

Amy, our lead designer at the Design House will also be open to readers sending in Design questions you may have regarding your home. We will ask for you to send in photos of the trouble areas and specific questions for Amy, and she’ll do her best to help you out.

If you have any questions and would like our humble advice, send your questions (and pictures) to luckettstore@gmail.com (please reference “letters to Lucketts” in the subject line & in your note, so we know its intended for the blog column.)

Letters to Lucketts - setting up a group retail shop

5:00 AM Unknown No comments

Suzanne & Amy's space

This week's Letter to Lucketts is about having the tough, but necessary, discussion on how to set up a rent and vendor charging structure in a group retail shop.

Suzanne has some great advice on this one, be sure to read on!

The Question

I am in the process of opening a little shop in my area. Do you have any advice on how to handle vendors, do you get a percentage? Do they work hours? Any advice you could give would be appreciated. ~Teresa

The Answer

That’s a great question.

First, you need to be somewhat clear in your head what your shop is about. There are great advantages to having a group shop. First and foremost is that the expenses are now shared through all the people selling in the store. That one factor takes an enormous amount of pressure off of the store owner. If any one person falls ill, goes on vacation, or just has a bad month sales wise, it is not going to be the demise of the whole store. I often talk about the deep, strong foundation we have built at Lucketts through all of the talented vendors we have…they’re like blocks in a wall, it’s so solid, that if any single one went out, the building would still stand.

Pat from Twig House's vendor space

The most important thing when choosing who you will allow to be part of your business is that you are somewhat aligned. By aligned I mean their style has to be representative of what you want your store to look like. Their personality has to be on the same page as yours, and their work ethic has to be lined up with yours. Otherwise you are not going to be happy… it’s better to go it alone, than to try to work with people that you are not aligned with.

We have had every combination of personality types here at Lucketts…I have learned the ultra hard way that it's better to fill the space myself and wait for the right person to come by, than to put just anyone in there for the rent… I have even had ultra-talented people who had fabulous stuff, that just weren’t team players, or were snippy to customers, and it just wasn’t worth it. I really need to be happy and joyous when I’m at my store, and if I’m not, I don’t even want to go there.

Regarding how to handle the financial aspect of having different vendors, I have also tried many variations over the years. What I have found works best is to keep things cut and dry. If you do a "work for space" scenario, you don't always get the best customer service people behind the counter. And even though I don’t believe I’ve had a lot of this…you open yourself up to the counter person steering the customers to their products versus the other vendors. So I think its best to have vendors who want to be vendors and counter people who want to be counter people.

Old seltzer bottles and twine wrapped book

Lucketts charges rent for each of the rooms in the store based on square footage. We then charge a 10% sales commission on each vendors’ sales. That way, any vendor who sells more than another, hence, takes up more of our resources, bags, time, moving guys etc. pays more by virtue of the 10% we take at the end of the payout period.

I wish you the best of luck in your venture..and will be happy to answer any further questions…I’m just trying to not make this too long! Sometimes I just don’t know when to be quiet!

Lucketts has been the most work and biggest joy of my life, I literally am grateful every day that I get to do what I love with a great group of people and am able to make others happy…what more could anyone ask for!

Love,

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Go Ahead, Ask Us Anything!

{photo credit: Katherine Cobb}

We are inviting our readers to write in to our blog and ask us questions. Suzanne will be leaning upon her 17 years in business as owner of the Lucketts Store to help tackle your questions about what it's like to run your own small creative business.

Amy, our lead designer at the Design House will also be open to readers sending in Design questions you may have regarding your home. We will ask for you to send in photos of the trouble areas and specific questions for Amy, and she’ll do her best to help you out.

If you have any questions and would like our humble advice, send your questions (and pictures) to luckettstore@gmail.com (please reference “Letters to Lucketts” in the subject line & in your note, so we know its intended for the blog column.)

Letters to Lucketts - charging for services

5:00 AM Unknown No comments

Last week, we had a great question about charging for services left as a comment on our blog.

When you are just starting out, our clients may be friends, or friends of friends, the waters can get a little murky. When should you start charging? Should you ever do a home consult or walk through for free?

Amy answers your question this week!

The Question

Having done interior redesign & holiday decorating for friends & family for many years, I have begun charging for my services. Usually a woman has been in my home & then asks if I would come and rework her things for a fee. I suggest I come have a look at what she wants and talk about what her desires for her home are before signing on to work for her. That initial visit is usually 2-3 hours as we walk through the spaces and she tells me her plans & I make suggestions & throw around ideas.

I am unsure if I should be charging for that consult time or only the hours I am there after we agree to work together. For holiday decorating I do not do a preview visit as it is unnecessary. What do you think?

~Anonymous

The Answer

Good question. I too asked myself that when I began decorating. After my first few initial consultations, I quickly learned that they really were "working" visits. Yes, you should definitely charge for your initial consultation. Your time is valuable and you are giving design ideas, tips, and feedback during that visit. What to charge is a personal choice. A good gauge would be to look into what the average rate is for your area and take it from there. Good luck and continued success!

Best,

*****************************************************

Go Ahead, Ask Us Anything!

{photo credit: Katherine Cobb}

Ask Amy - Uncluttering Bookcases

6:00 AM Unknown No comments

This week's Letters to Lucketts is all about bookcases. Amy stages and designs most of the spaces in The Lucketts Design House, our monthly interior show house.

This column is all about Amy tackling a real question from one of our blog readers while imparting some of her design knowledge and ideas for your spaces.

The Question

Hi Amy:

I'm completely stumped. I can't seem to accessorize and stage my bookcases so they look like...anything worth looking at. The freestanding bookcase is a favorite piece that sits in our hall entry. It was supposed to house favorite books, collections & items. It's 4 feet wide by 6 feet high.

Did I put too many books in there? Should I display other objects too? If so, how many? When arranging books, should they all be upright, or should I lay some sideways? How do I make them look uniform --- organize by book subject, color?

The second issue is my bookcases on the sides of the fireplace. I have small kids, so my treasured items become props for super hero battles. I want these bookcases to showcase a few special pieces and some of my antique books but everything ends up getting moved around and it all looks cluttered by the end of the day (pictures attached). Any suggestions? Help, I don't want to live like this!

Theresa

Amy's Answer

Ok Theresa, I'll take your question in two parts. Here's what I would do... Make the glass door cabinet all about the the books. Remove everything else and load it with just books. They can very in color, shape, and size. It doesn't matter because the theme is books...just books. Have fun with it stacking some horizontally and lining some in a row. Let the organization be random and a bit haphazard...like a well loved bookcase that is visited all the time. The random organization will be consistent with the random size & color and voila...you have a theme! Here are some examples below:

Next, a good way to mix storage and display in your open bookcases is to mix attractive baskets into the display. The baskets can house any "not so pretty" item while becoming part of the display themselves. It is also a good idea to unite your photos in similar frames. They don't need to be the same frame, but pick a theme or style of frame and be consistent. This will give your bookcases a more harmonious and uncluttered look. You can then mix your favorite items to display amongst the baskets and books. Have fun with it...play with different arrangements until you find a balance that you like. Here are two examples below. Hope this helps and good luck!