Grace & Lace is an inspirational story of an entrepreneur named Melissa Hinnant. Custom boot socks and leg warmers are what Melissa is famous for. Melissa is a most caring and loving mother. Her story starts with a tragedy when in 2010 she lost her first child.
Grace & Lace is a women clothing and accessories company owned by a beautiful couple Rick and Melissa. The team of husband and wife appeared on ABC’s most popular show Shark Tank. Before the Shark Tank appearance, the business had approximately $1million sales and after attending the show their sales surge to $6.5million within a year.
The Story
Melissa, on her website, stated that as a child she was like a Do It Yourself girl. Her mother made homemade play dough, cakes and their dancing costumes, which led her to learn how to sew at early age. Melissa’s story begins with a tragedy as she has mentioned on Grace & Lace site that in 2010 she was pregnant with a five months old baby girl. She visit doctor for a routine checkup and found out that she ‘must’ give birth to her daughter within 24 hours otherwise the baby would not survive. She was rushed into emergency surgery to save her child. She was restricted to complete bed rest. By lying idle, she comes with an idea to crochet a blanket for her baby girl and she knitted a one.
After two weeks a girl was born but she did not survive as her lungs were still developing at the time of birth. It was a heart wrenching moment for both Rick and Melissa. According to Melissa, it was the great tragedy they have encountered but it has become their greatest triumph. Soon they got another child, a beautiful daughter named Sienna.
Melissa’s first pair of leg warmers, lacy leg, took five hours of knitting, which was really tiring. She made it and told her husband that it required too much efforts and she would never going to make other at all. She learned knitting skills and it helped her business to take a start. She used to wear her knitting socks, which look so amazing that people stopped her and asked about them. Therefore, she put them for sale and had received 400 orders within 2 days. That is why its owners call it ‘an accidental business.’
To manage the order influx, both the husband and wife started hiring people form their friends, family and neighbors who knew the skills of sewing. A perfect gathering of people that allowed them to work hard, enjoy and deliver the products. In past three years Grace & Lace have sold out more than 100,000 pairs of frilly boot socks and leg warmers.
By looking at the growth, they had rapidly turned into an official company and now have trademarked designs. At initial stage, Melissa hired people and trained them to meet the sales order. Now she is having staff mostly from their friends and family circle and enjoys working together.
On small business and revolution site Rick and Melissa shared their beautiful experience:
“Three and a half years ago, we had no idea we would one day be running a women’s apparel company. It feels like we were invited into something much larger, and we worked hard to capitalize on the opportunity.”
Marketing Strategy
Melissa used Facebook for her marketing. She also Pinned one of the image that went viral. This had helped them in recognizing the opportunity to do something different. She utilized the benefits from Social Media including Pinterest, Facebook and Blogs, asking people to like and share. Both Rick and Melissa think that their journey started from a dream and prayers backed it. Because all the things work in positive manner and in just few years their small business turned into a company.
Appearance at Shark Tank
The company was already having high sales of $1.25 million but their appearance has added more value, more fame and more revenues to their business. After presenting their products at Shark Tank Grace & Lace Facebook likes have surged to 40,000 with strong fan base and its sales increase to $6.5 million in less than a year.
At ABC’s hit show, Hinnants received $175,000 investment against 10 percent share from Barbara Corcoran. The show gave outstanding exposure for their brand that gave them the opportunity to expand their product line to full women apparel. In 2013 Grace & Lace sales climbed to $2.8 million.
Biggest Challenge Encounter
The biggest challenge they have faced were scaling as the company is growing by amazing 300 to 500 percent and to meet the orders within the deadline is a difficult task. Therefore, the company is improving its manufacturing processes and company infrastructure so that they can fulfill orders without any hurdles.
Social Work
Rick and Melissa Hinnant have also worked for social welfare as they have inaugurated two orphanages for around 100 homeless children in India.
Products
The company offers a number of products for both ladies and girls including beautiful boot socks, leg warmers, scarves, lace extenders, collegiate and other clothing for your stunning look.
In the end we would say that the joint efforts of Rick and Melissa are remarkable as they magically turned their journey as an inspiration for entrepreneurs. Grace and Lace success is truly hard work of its people and most importantly their luck and passion to go beyond the limits. You never know that how things turn into your best interest and how the destiny helps you out in becoming a successful entity.
To get something done you have to keep your hopes high. Grace & Lace represents itself to a journey from tragedy to triumph. A great idea and right marketing strategy has made this brand a true entrepreneur entity, dealing with perfection, generating new ideas and implementing to get their job done.
No comments:
Post a Comment