Happy Accidents
If there’s one thing that I tell young entrepreneurs, it’s to be aware of opportunities around you because they may be different than what you expect. My business life has been a series of “Happy Accidents” that began over 30 years ago.
It all started with an antique shop, Creations Unlimited, that I launched while going to college part-time in Dallas, Texas. I was a newlywed – and my husband and I would attend furniture auctions by night and I would refinish and sell the pieces by day, but I had a problem: I often had trouble finding suitable replacements for the missing vintage hardware and parts on the furniture.
About the same time, a few reproduction furniture hardware companies were also forming. Once I discovered them, I started buying their “brasses” in wholesale quantities. In order to meet minimums, I had to order more than I needed and I wondered, ‘What do I do with all of these leftovers that I don’t use in my own store?’
Enter Happy Accident # 1:
On a whim, I displayed a few of the pulls on my front counter and they started selling like crazy. I reasoned that if my retail customers bought a few pulls at a time, other antique dealers like myself might need even more. Using a borrowed typewriter and an old copy machine, I created a catalog showcasing a few dozen common furniture pulls and put a stack at the checkout of each of the local furniture auctions across north Texas. Though I gave the auctions the catalogs for free, they could charge $3 for each one, making a nice profit in the bargain. That also motivated them to sell a catalog to each antique dealer as they checked out.
One thing led to another and within 2 years I had over 1,000 customers buying from my little hardware catalog. The catalog itself had expanded to hundreds of pulls plus refinishing supplies and even specialty parts.
My parents had retired by then so they joined my little enterprise. I can vividly remember assembling thousands of catalogs in their living room and applying stickers to bulk mail postcards until our hands ached. With my husband's and parents’ help, our customer base soon blossomed to 5,000 customers nationally and we added several new and wonderful staffers.
Happy Accident #2:
It was around that time that one of our suppliers began offering reproduction door hardware, so we decided to carry a few of their products. Our average sale climbed from less than $100 to well over $250 per customer. It didn’t take much to see that these larger sales required about the same amount of effort and yet yielded a much higher return.
Our team renamed the company Hardware+Plus to reflect the enlarged selection. We soon added wood trims, columns, light fixtures, plumbing fittings and so on. Before long we were outfitting high-end homes, restoration projects and eventually even hotels and casinos from coast to coast. Some of our famous customers included Spaghetti Warehouse restaurants, Harrah’s Casino and all of the Disney theme parks, worldwide.
Happy Accident #3:
In 1989, one of our customers, a local woodworker, was contracted to build some backdrops for a movie that was being produced in Dallas; The Problem Child with John Ritter. Since the film was not being made in LA, the production company did not have access to their normal suppliers, so they came to us for hardware and other accoutrements. Our total sales to the film were over $10,000 – with fantastic margins. A light bulb went off in my head and I wondered if there were other films that were shot on locations in cities around the country that had similar supply problems.
Once again, our team capitalized on this new sideline and we became a major vendor to movies all over the world. Over the next 10 years, we supplied hardware, wallcoverings, plumbing fittings, and other materials to close to 300 films, TV shows and theater productions.
When Bill Murray takes a shower over and over again in Groundhog Day, you can see our clawfoot tub, faucet and shower curtain ring. When the hardware turns old before your eyes on the front door of the home on Jumaji and the monkey goes crazy in the kitchen, our products made those scenes shine. And when Silence of the Lambs won an Oscar for Set Decoration, we felt that a piece of the award was ours too. Casper, Truman, Six Degrees of Separation, Oscar, The Ghost and the Darkness, The Rocketeer and the list goes on. We had so many films under our belt that we would even joke with customers that we supplied the doorknobs for Toy Story – and we would all get a good laugh. Well, it did look like our hardware even if it was animated!
Happy Accident #4:
All during this journey, our true hardware love remained in restoration work. One of our largest customers in Dallas was The Meadows Foundation, a philanthropic group that refurbed vintage homes and then rented them to non-profit organizations at a reduced rate. Because these buildings were often utilized by mobility-challenged clients, we became experts at creating ADA-compliant hardware from antique or reproduction backplates and new levers, maintaining the vintage appearance of the homes but accommodating the needs of the users.
Soon, other customers wanted the same vintage appearance with modern function for their own homes or office buildings. For the first time, we decided to fabricate our own hardware from start to finish. We contracted with an overseas supplier to make the components for us and then did extensive machining and finish work in Dallas to create the completed doorsets. Our favorite design was called “Meadows”, named after The Meadows Foundation.
Within a year, this new grouping expanded to a few dozen products and we christened it “Nostalgic Warehouse”. We were soon selling the hardware all over the country and began to wholesale the products to other showrooms. As this sideline business grew, I realized that my attention was being split in too many directions. By then, my husband and I had three wonderful children but it seemed that I worked so much that I could not be the mom that I wanted to be. Something had to give so I decided to sell Hardware+Plus and devote myself to Nostalgic Warehouse and my family. Much of our team opted to remain with us and we grew Nostalgic to over $1.2 million in sales with margins of well over 55% in just four years.
In the fall of 2001, Nostalgic Warehouse was also sold and I was out of the hardware biz for the first time in two decades. We bade a fond farewell to our staffers, many of whom went to work for our two previous companies, and I finally had a chance to be a full-time mom for the first time in my life. For six months, I puttered around the house, took the kids to every museum in town and began to look for my next adventure.
Happy Accident #5:
One of my friends at that time was the host of a gardening radio program and he mentioned that I might try hosting a show of my own. My slightly offbeat voice would be easy to recognize on the air, he reasoned, and besides, I never stopped talking!
With the support again of my family, Ask Andrea - The Radio Show, launched on my birthday in the fall of 2002. It went national within a year and led to numerous TV appearances. What a thrill it was to do a live TV shot from downtown Chicago and host my radio program from the National Hardware Show in Las Vegas. I even was a guest as the Cool Tool gal on the DIY Network’s, Tools and Techniques. But my most exciting moment was writing a book for Harper Collins Publishers, If I Had a Hammer, about some of my favorite home improvement tips and projects.
Happy Accident #6:
As things often come full circle, I once again found myself in the hardware business but it actually came back to me through a TV project. A couple of years ago, I was hosting a radio show for Mother Earth News magazine and working on a TV pilot called Down to Earth. My team and I were meeting fascinating people during the filming process, many of whom made eco-friendly products. The TV show was put on hold due to budget cuts, but we hated to break up our team, so I hatched an idea to open a hardware store that specialized in green merchandise. It seemed to be a natural fit.
In the spring of 2012, we met with the folks from True Value and Gecko Hardware was born. Some of the old gang from HARDWARE+Plus and Nostalgic Warehouse even returned to help run the new company. We went on to win The Beacon Award for the Best New Small Hardware Store in the Country during our first year. Our mascot rooster, George, came to us by accident and was terrific for helping bring attention to the store. I recently sold the business to Sharon Anderson, CEO of Half Price Books, whom I met accidentally in my store one day.
So listen to that little inner voice and watch for Happy Accidents in odd places. You never know where they might take you!
