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Show BUSINESS THE DAILY HERALD (www.HarkTheHerald.com) Cl SUNDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2000 Queens of craft: Some of the owners of Tlilrough the Grapevine (from left, Arleigh Heagany, Cristie Peterson, Susan Ewing, Pamela Hassinger, Carol Mower and Marty Seegmiller) have been part of the 21-person effort to bring about the craft shop. Business thrives out of 24 women's efforts By ANNE GOLDEN The Daily Herald OREM - There's a lot of power in women's friendships. There's even potential for successful businesses when women pool their resources and decide they're going to make a business succeed 'together. This was the case with the Orem shop, Through the Grapevine. It all started when 24 craft-loving women decided to open a craft store together in 1985. It's not often that 24 women become the co-owners of a business together. Initially, some of the husbands were skeptical. "But they were wrong," said Pamela Hassinger, one of the present owners. The women started with very little capital. "We started on a supershoestring," Hassinger said. The women found the Newell K. Knight historic home on State Street, rented it and filled the rooms with crafts and wreathes, porcelain dolls and homemade Santas. They scattered around silk flowers and' candles and birdhouses · and furniture pieces. While many businesses get bogged down looking for venture capital, they just pooled their money and got to work. They had monthly meetings to coordinate their business. They had a sign-up sheet for each of them to volunteer to work in the atore. They had different com. mittees they served on with rotating assignments. ''At first it was hard," said Cristie Peterson, one of the owners, "but before long we could see we could make a profit." The business had been humming along when a large retailer came to town, did some market research and found out that the historic home was in a prime location for a business. With plans to tear the historic home down, the retailer approached the owners of the house to purchase the home. The craftswomen decided . to take action. Some took out loans, others took money from savings, and they pooled their resources together and bought the home out from under the retailer. ''A few housewives got their money together quicker than a large retailer who wanted to tear the house down," Hassinger said, still marveling at the feat. ''We beat out corporate America and kept a house from being torn doyvn." Today, the original 24 owners have been whittled down to 11 active partners. But the store is still going strong with the unique management plan the women dreamed up. A few years ago, AmRon Mercer was an avid shopper at the store. When one of the women wanted to sell her share of the business, some of the owners approached her about becoming a partner. All the women voted on whether to accept Mercer as a full partner, and she passed muster. "It's really kind of amazing," Mercer said. ''We work so well together." Anne Golden can be reached at 344-2562 or agolden@heraldextra.com. 'T,l s the season: Above is one of the homemade Santas made by Susan Ewing, one of the owners of Through the " . Grapevine. |
