Partnership Success Story: a High Fashion Entrepreneur Goes Global
Partnership Success Story: a High Fashion Entrepreneur Goes Global
The Finest Accessories (TFA), a five year old privately-held luxury hair accessory products company with clients such as Macy’s, Bloomingdales and Nordstrom.
Situation:
CEO Laurie Erickson had previously owned a hair products company when she sold it and after a period of time, this self-proclaimed “chronic entrepreneur” started a hair accessories product based on the idea of authentic, French-manufactured hair “ornaments.”
Issue:
Without funding or established contacts, Erickson had to create manufacturing partnerships that extended beyond a vendor relationship.
Value-basis at TFA:
Laurie and her designers created unique designs using Italian, French and other ethnic fabrics and incorporated these into hair clips. Setting fashion trends would prove easy, but not the manufacturing process. To realize her product vision, Erickson had to create a custom manufacturing process and provide this to her manufacturing partners.
Partnership strategy:
Erickson would deliver her orders as well as her processes to the manufacturing partner in return for exclusivity and first right of refusal for potential competitive clients.
Partnership formed:
Joint development and manufacturing with eight Oyannax, France based manufacturing companies. It is considered “joint development” in addition to manufacturing because TFA “introduced them to new ways of creating products that had never been done in the last 500 years of business,” she explained. This requires continual adjustment with each new accessory design.
Risk factor:
Low, but now without exceptions. Many companies have been in the same family for generations, and work on oral contracts which require a lot of trust. But one manufacturing company took on a TFA competitor and were going to use TFA’s proprietary manufacturing process. After that, Erickson reacted by telling them “that the market is very small and if you lie to me I’ll pull my business.” She backed this up by asking for an audit which showed the revenue from her business as opposed to the other firms. “It was clear that as a percentage, my business was growing faster and at a more consistent rate than anyone else.” Ultimately, “this proved more of an incentive to maintain a partnership with me than any contract.”
Initial investment:
Several thousand dollars for the plane tickets.
Partnership return on investment:
Millions of dollars in time to market advantage.
Words of advice:
“Don’t badger your manufacturing partner on price. If you operate on a basis of fairness, everyone walks away satisfied. Fighting for a percentage of a penny is worth less than having my calls answered, my faxes returned and my order being manufactured in a crunch.”
Partnership Success Story a High Fashion Entrepreneur Goes Global - To learn more about this author, visit Sarah Gerdes's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
Company Profile:
The Finest Accessories (TFA), a five year old privately-held luxury hair accessory products company with clients such as Macy’s, Bloomingdales and Nordstrom.
Situation:
CEO Laurie Erickson had previously owned a hair products company when she sold it and after a period of time, this self-proclaimed “chronic entrepreneur” started a hair accessories product based on the idea of authentic, French-manufactured hair “ornaments.”
Issue:
Without funding or established contacts, Erickson had to create manufacturing partnerships that extended beyond a vendor relationship.
Value-basis at TFA:
Laurie and her designers created unique designs using Italian, French and other ethnic fabrics and incorporated these into hair clips. Setting fashion trends would prove easy, but not the manufacturing process. To realize her product vision, Erickson had to create a custom manufacturing process and provide this to her manufacturing partners.
Partnership strategy:
Erickson would deliver her orders as well as her processes to the manufacturing partner in return for exclusivity and first right of refusal for potential competitive clients.
Partnership formed:
Joint development and manufacturing with eight Oyannax, France based manufacturing companies. It is considered “joint development” in addition to manufacturing because TFA “introduced them to new ways of creating products that had never been done in the last 500 years of business,” she explained. This requires continual adjustment with each new accessory design.
Risk factor:
Low, but now without exceptions. Many companies have been in the same family for generations, and work on oral contracts which require a lot of trust. But one manufacturing company took on a TFA competitor and were going to use TFA’s proprietary manufacturing process. After that, Erickson reacted by telling them “that the market is very small and if you lie to me I’ll pull my business.” She backed this up by asking for an audit which showed the revenue from her business as opposed to the other firms. “It was clear that as a percentage, my business was growing faster and at a more consistent rate than anyone else.” Ultimately, “this proved more of an incentive to maintain a partnership with me than any contract.”
Initial investment:
Several thousand dollars for the plane tickets.
Partnership return on investment:
Millions of dollars in time to market advantage.
Words of advice:
“Don’t badger your manufacturing partner on price. If you operate on a basis of fairness, everyone walks away satisfied. Fighting for a percentage of a penny is worth less than having my calls answered, my faxes returned and my order being manufactured in a crunch.”
Partnership Success Story a High Fashion Entrepreneur Goes Global - To learn more about this author, visit Sarah Gerdes's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
 | |
 |
Really innspiring site content. Case studies to biographies and lots of stuff that form the backbone of what I see as repeated success building blocks. Really great work!
Commented on Partnership Success Story a High Fashion Entrepreneur Goes Global. |
| |
good
Commented on Partnership Success Story a High Fashion Entrepreneur Goes Global. |
| |
Leave Your Feedback |
 | |
| |||
Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
|||
Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
|||
David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
|||
Cheryl MatthynssensCheryl is a life skills coach, licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and a 20 year entrepreneur. Cheryl's dedication to achieving a life of balance led to her expanding her teaching from the simple managing of life's daily challenges to adding financial well being as well. A direct marketer with DrinkACT, she is gaining ground in the online community with her concepts of making sure business owners, entreprenuers and employees have well rounded life styles. She opened up a small affiliate site - The Balance Guide- to help others find resources for mental and emotional well being. Visit Cheryl's blog to see more of the diversity beyond business she has began offering online at www.thebalanceguide.blogspot.com - Visit Cheryl Matthynssens's Website |
|||
Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
|||
Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
|||
Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
|||
|
To learn more about the Evan Elite Author Program please contact us. | |||
 | |
|  |
Subscribe to Sarah's articles
 | |
|
|  |
 | |
|
| |
 | |||||||
|
 | ||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
|
| ||
 |
| Have you written articles that would be of value to entrepreneurs? Become an expert on our site by publishing them! Expose yourself to a wide audience, drive more traffic to your website and get more sales! Click Here for details. |
|
|
 |
| Modeling the Masters: Learn the true secrets behind Walt Disney's business success factors & grow your company! Video produced by Phanta Media |
|
|
 |
"Learn straight from Evan how you can Make a Full Time Income (And More) from a Website"
Click Here To Learn More |
|
|
|
|
Get advice & tips from famous business owners, new articles by entrepreneur experts, my latest website updates, & special sneak peaks at what's to come!
|
|
|
 Opposing a Franchisor’s Motion Instant Business Letter Making Networking Work Definitions of Success Instant Press Release |
|
 | ||
 |
Email The Reporters
Press Release Builder | |
 |
Top 50 Political Blogs
Top Political Blogs of 2009 | |
| ||
 | ||||
| ||||
|
| ||||
| ||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
Email us your ideas on how to make our website more valuable! Thank you Sharon from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for your suggestions to make the newsletter look like the website and profile younger entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez and Sean Combs!
|
|
|
