By: Unknown
From: The News & Observer
Sep. 20--DURHAM -- Like many entrepreneurs, Sandy Heard dreamed of her small idea becoming big.
It took just seven minutes to make that dream a reality.
In a live appearance on shopping network QVC this month, Heard sold her entire inventory -- 1,600 items -- and took 200 additional orders that she's working to fill.
Her product? An 11-inch blue dinner plate with a matching journal that she calls her "Shining Star" kit. The set is intended to be used at family dinners to honor special achievements.
Heard, who lives in Durham, got the idea about four years ago after watching the interactions in her own household.
"We were focusing on negative criticism and punishments more than positive reinforcement," Heard said of her family, which includes four children, ages 6 to 11.
She gave a few kits to friends and family members and then decided to turn her idea into a business, her second one. She also runs the Durham marketing and advertising firm Heard & Associates.
The 1,600 kits that sold Sept. 9 were her first real attempt at selling Shining Star. At $18.27 each, she netted $29,232 in sales in her seven-minute spot. Add 200 on back order, and the total comes to $32,886. Of course, Heard won't keep all that money. QVC typically takes 35 percent to 50 percent of product sales, depending on how steep the "QVC price" discount is.
Still, appearing on the network can propel an unknown inventor into a successful small-business owner in a matter of minutes, and that makes it worth the money.
Getting on the network, however, is more complicated than just having a good invention.
West Chester, Pa.-based QVC introduces 13,000 new products to the U.S. buying public a year, and last year had $5.7 billion in annual sales. On an average day, 180 products are shown on air for six to eight minutes each. Most of the businesses that appear are small startups. But the network strikes deals with larger distributors of jewelry, cosmetics and apparel.
"We look for products that solve a common problem," said Marilyn Montross, vendor relations director. "We can demonstrate them on the air and describe them and tell the story behind their invention."
Heard first interviewed with QVC in March in Alexandria, Va., at one of several open calls for products for the show's "Decade of Discovery" tour, a 10-series run celebrating the 10th anniversary of QVC's first product search. Of the 4,000 items "auditioned," only 100 were selected.
"When we do the product searches, we guarantee each person will get a 10- to 15-minute meeting with a QVC buyer," Montross said. "We know very quickly whether it's a product that's going to come across on QVC. ... If you can't get your message across to a QVC buyer in 10 minutes, you'll never get it across to a QVC customer in six or eight minutes."
If you pass the buyer test, you face another hurdle: If QVC likes your product, you will be required to make a large shipment, typically no less than $20,000 worth of merchandise at wholesale costs, before appearing on the show.
"We ask them to make sure they're ready and they can afford failure," Montross said. "And the other thing is, can they afford success? You have to be ready if your product takes off."
If QVC buyers like your product during the initial interview, they ask for a sample and put it through quality-assurance tests. "The performance of the item and the quality of the item is what delights the customer, and they open the box and they take it out," she said.
That's the core of QVC's business model, which differs from a retailer who operates storefronts, said Dan Butler, vice president of retail operations for the National Retail Federation.
"There's just a big difference between connecting with a person face to face and interacting over the phone," he said. "It just is a different set of challenges. Building repeat business and getting people to respond are the two toughest things, and QVC does both well."
It takes about three months for a product to get an on-air slot after it passes quality tests. In the interim, the entrepreneur learns how to present it effectively.
"They call it the backyard fence approach," Heard said. "There's no script, and the host actually gets live feedback from producers while you're on the air about which things you said triggered responses from customers. ... Like they said when I talked about it making my kids feel motivated, there was a spike in sales, so they had the host ask me to talk more about that."
The network's selectiveness and planning pay off. About 62 percent of items sell out on the air, as Shining Star did. As long as the product does not have a high number of returns, the vendor is usually asked back for a second appearance.
Heard hopes she will be asked back in time for Christmas. She said she's relying mostly on sales from QVC and her Web site, www.shiningstarplate.com. She does sell the plate at a few stores, such as A Southern Season in Chapel Hill, but it is more expensive there, retailing for $34.
"We're already looking ahead to maybe some line expansions and other products that celebrate family and family traditions."
Would QVC be interested?
"We're always interested," Montross said.
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