Just wanted to add a picture today of all the great folks that make up every facet of Heritage Lace in Pella, Iowa. This picture was taken last fall in celebration of our 25th anniversary. A greater group of folks couldn't be found anywhere! Just a note, our road selling starts on February 1, so I am spending time tying up loose product development ends and studying up on my accounts to prepare to hit the road. I have laid all current accounts out on maps so I can visualize where the accounts actually are. I used a color-coded system indicating the level of sales they have achieved, so I can find A, B and C accounts on the map. I am learning quite a bit about geography and where our customers physically are. This has been a great exercise and should prove very helpful in breaking down the territory to attempt to cover all the accounts and discover areas where we have no retailers. We will see!

2009 – a year of sales adventure, and change. That is how this year will be, good or bad – it will be an adventure and a year of trying my hand at something completely different. I work for Heritage Lace, a truly great family owned business. Imagine the first week of December that you are in product development and finalizing your new January product introduction. There is some looking ahead and anticipation of where product development will go in the next year, based on the reception of the beautiful new catalog and products. Halloween intros, along with harvest and Christmas are being put to bed, as photography for sales materials commences. There is a meeting the first week of December and now you find out that you are going to be a road rep for the coming year, traveling a 5-state area, and selling the line that you just helped develop for the last couple of years. Driving your own car and going from independent retailer to independent retailer, selling the things you so passionately worked to develop with two awesome designers. It honestly, comes as a huge shock, because along with the job change, come pretty huge financial changes in compensation….it will be through the aggressive selling of this line that you believe in, that you will be financially compensated. Mixed emotions, yes.

I work for a textile company and distributor, Heritage Lace, still manufacturing here in the USA. Between our mill in Oxford, North Carolina and our manufacturing, customer service, product development and design, and marketing in Pella, Iowa, we work to keep nearly 200 people employed, in an industry that has been ravaged over the last 15 years by an ever-increasing mountain of textile imports. Fully 95% of our product line is made in the US, and this year for the first time, we have linens that are 100% US made to coordinate with our US made laces and products from our own mill. By adding these US linens to our line, we have added to the numbers of US textile workers that our line hopes to help support.

The why of my job change has to do with the fact that in today’s economic climate, a company such as Heritage Lace needs increased sales, plain and simple. We have always relied on a tremendous network of independent sales representative to carry our line in their respective territories to independent retailers. Some of our sales representatives have been with us from nearly the beginning, 25 years ago - we continue to work with some of the best in the industry. Believe me, I am seeking advice from these kind and experienced folks! Talk about putting your money where your mouth is, I am now going to go out and try to do what I have admired that they do every day – they hit the road and sell, sell, sell.

The independent retailers, to whom we sell, have pressures put upon them by the ever-increasing number of big box stores over the last 15 to 20 years; these box stores with homogenized product offerings and lack luster choices, overbuilt all to satisfy our need for disposable, low-priced goods. These independent retailers we work with, offer the US buying public differentiation, unique products and a chance to ‘buy local’ keeping the dollars they spend in their own communities. My hope is that there will be a rise in independents as our economy adjusts. I hope that people will spend their money with more thought, on products with value that they will keep and cherish. Naïve, perhaps, but it is what I hope for and believe. And with our US made products, I hope I can find folks that still care that things are made here by our citizens.

With the gift of faith, I am planning to go out and do my best, and join the ranks of our best independent reps, to see what I can do for my company in the field. This blog will be a creative outlet for me to share my year on the road. My Subaru, with 170,000 miles and counting, will hopefully carry me to new and interesting places, where hopefully, I will connect with independent retailers and build relationships and business from South Carolina to Delaware and every point in between. Check back and see what I am up to! Thanks for reading, Barb