Summarize this article with an AI assistant.
ChatGPT
Perplexity
Claude
Google AI
Grok
Mistral
In 2001, Lolita Healey was a stay-at-home mom. While enjoying a much-deserved girls’ night out, she had an idea that has grown into a multimillion-dollar business. Here’s how she did it.
Before becoming the president and CEO of Designs by Lolita, Lolita was living an ordinary life as a young wife and mother. In her own words, Lolita recalls, “When I had two babies, I was staying at home and bored out of my mind.”
Then one evening, she went out with her favorite gal pals, and they all ordered martinis. Lolita couldn’t help but notice that each of her friends had ordered a different martini that seemed to match their personality. Then came the idea: a line of hand-painted martini glasses, complete with recipes on the bottom.
Now, more than two decades later, Lolita runs a multi-million dollar business that sells millions of painted wine glasses a year. Her fun and celebratory glassware is a huge hit; some of her fans treat her designs as collectibles. And her story has some valuable lessons that many entrepreneurs can learn from.
Lolita (her real name, by the way) shared how she managed to accomplish this extraordinary business success.
Designs by Lolita – The Early Years
Success didn’t come easy for Lolita. Nor did it happen overnight.
“I started with about 12 designs and started painting for friends,” Lolita explains. “I can remember working sometimes until 2 in the morning painting glasses, just over and over again, and felt overwhelmed completely.” Work-life balance was a bit hard to come by, and the little money Lolita did make went right back into the business. It wasn’t until “a couple of years of really plugging away” that she started to have enough money to produce a positive cash flow.
Lolita worked hard in the early years to get the word out about her hand-painted glasses and handled all the details that went with selling her product, including setting up contracts with retail stores herself. “. . . I just serviced those accounts on my own. I came up with my own hang tags, my own pricing, wholesale sheets, order forms, brochures.”
Eventually, her tenacity led to real growth.
Creating a Licensed Product Line
Lolita’s goal from day one was to create a licensed product line — one that she didn’t have to manufacture herself. “Licensing is so hard to do. I had to get on the wholesale sales market, which means doing wholesale trade shows so retailers could come see my product line in a booth at trade shows across the country so they knew I existed.
“I’m only one person and I couldn’t go all over the country selling my stuff, so for me it was worth the investment of doing my first trade show in Atlanta in 2001. And I got enough orders to break even the first show. The second show I did the next summer; I netted like $3,000, so I was thrilled. That allowed me to invest in a show in California, and then a show in Dallas, and then a gift show in New York. So I just kept plugging along, using my contacts all along, saying ‘I want to license this line.’ I didn’t care who came up – it could have been a rep, it could have been a manufacturer – I told everybody that the line needs to be licensed.
“I didn’t want to do the manufacturing. I wanted to do the design; I wanted to paint the type glasses. I wanted to have full design control, and I wanted to manage the marketing. So if a manufacturer is willing to do that, we’re going to be a good team.
“After I did the trade shows for two years, I got licensed and it changed my life. And all of a sudden, I went from having about $300,000 a year in sales at the time I got licensed, and I was probably taking home about $50,000. The next year I probably had a million-five in sales, and I was taking home $100,000. So the difference was markedly strong. All of a sudden you give up what you were doing – then you’re just designing and getting royalty checks. That’s sort of where I ended up today. Now I’m in over 10,000 stores, and I have eight manufacturers for a variety of products, so it’s definitely paid off. My early story – it was not easy.”
Part of Lolita’s success came from the fact that she set clear goals for herself and then put in the hard work to develop business relationships that helped her achieve those goals.
Determining If licensing Is the Right Entrepreneurial Choice
Licensing isn’t the right approach for everyone. Lolita advises, “Entrepreneurs need to ask themselves, Do I want to license my product?”
“That’s a big decision. A lot of artists think that’s selling out. But the way I look at it is, if you’re an artist and you really love what you do, and you need to make a living, other people might like what you do, too. The more it gets out there, the more you can support yourself. So, there’s nothing wrong with supporting yourself – especially for women being financially independent.”
Second, is the idea viable? For Lolita, this means, “Do you have something that people want out there? And you have to know that before you license, or you’re not going to get a manufacturer to even look at you. You have to know that it sells, you have to know that there’s a demand for it now, you have to already have a business that’s already doing pretty well. If there are proven sales results, and enough creativity behind it, you can get a manufacturer’s attention.”
The International Licensing Industry Merchandisers’ Association, Inc. (LIMA) is an organization that Lolita wishes she had known about when she first started out and now heartily recommends:
“They are a wealth of information. They publish a licensing letter once a month. They’ll send you a book and it has every licensing agent in the country and what they specialize in. And it lists manufacturers by product type, and licensing attorneys, which you would need. It tells you when the licensing shows are. It also tells you how you can order consumer spending data. And even if you’re starting a business, it’s a good organization to join just because of the research that’s available. When I started out, I didn’t know that there was an organization out there for me that I could go to for resources. I didn’t know that I could do the licensing show and rent a booth and show my stuff, and have manufacturers walking around looking for new things to license.”
Protecting Intellectual Property
By the time Lolita was a mere 12 years of age, she had filed for and obtained a copyright for her own cartoon character that, incidentally, she had plans to relaunch: “It’s a little bug. My girls love it.”
“Protect and never give away your intellectual property,” advises Lolita. “If it was your idea, don’t share it with your friend and say, ‘Oh, we’ll do this together.’ Copyright every idea you’ve got, every sketch. Just protect yourself. Don’t ever give away your stock to someone who just helped you out. I’m talking from experience here. You need to be smart about business. Make yourself the 100% owner of the corporation.”
Key Takeaways from Lolita About Building a Successful Business
Entrepreneurs who want to follow Lolita’s example and build a successful business, even if they’re still at home raising a family, can learn from her. Here are some of the top tips she has to build a whole business from scratch.
1. Passion creates successful entrepreneurs
Lolita’s passion for her craft and for her business is undeniable: “I live and breathe this business. There’s not one morning I wake up and don’t think about what’s going on. Sometimes I’ll wake up in the middle of the night, thinking about what I’m going to do … it’s definitely because I love it. I’m checking email 9/10 o’clock every night because I’m just dying to know what’s going on. I just can’t shut it off, and I’m always coming up with new product ideas.”
Before setting any tangible business goals, Lolita firmly believes that a business owner should ensure they’re passionate about the company they’re interested in building. Her words: “Don’t do it unless you love it. I can tell you that is the biggest thing right there. If you want to start an accounting business and you really don’t love it; it’s just a way for you to make an income – you might want to think twice about it. Because, in the long run, you’re going to be miserable. And so will everyone around you. It’s not worth it.”
2. Build a good business strategy with research and education
A business owner can gain confidence and the skills they need to succeed by researching their industry and educating themselves about their customer base. Here’s her advice:
“Know the industry that you’re getting into, and know your business model. Just go to your local bookstore and look under ‘How to Launch a New Product.’ In every one, there will be a chapter on how to build your business model.”
“Peter Drucker is one of my favorite marketing writers, and I studied him in college. If you’re unfamiliar with marketing, and this goes with ‘know your industry,’ know your marketing. Read a Peter Drucker textbook, or something he’s written, because he talks about the four ‘P’s’ of marketing, and the Hierarchy of Needs. These are things that you are going to need to understand if you’re going into business for yourself.
“Knowing your industry includes knowing your customer. Who is your customer? Identify them. It can be more than one type. Write them down.”
3. Business owners should get help where they’re weakest
It’s wise for business owners to do what they can to improve their skills, such as taking online courses to understand the basics of marketing or learning how to use digital tools like Canva to improve their social media design. But even with the best time management strategies, no entrepreneur can conquer every single task themselves. Sometimes, it’s wise to get help, especially with things a business owner knows they don’t excel at.
Here’s Lolita’s advice: “If you’re weak in accounting, hire a bookkeeper; even to help you with your personal books. Get help with the kids. You know, I wish I had done that more … even if it’s your local neighbor’s kid to come over and be Mom’s helper for a little while.”
Designs by Lolita – Today and Tomorrow
Today, “Lolita lovers” can find her products in thousands of stores around the country, as well as on her website at designsbylolita.co. Some of her newer products include a Holiday line releasing this fall, “Best Doctor Ever” and “Best Hairstylist Ever” glasses, and more. Some of her most popular products are stemmed wine glasses with designs that are reminiscent of stained glass windows.
And Lolita says she’s having a ball. “I have a staff of eight full-time people. I have a studio in Savannah, Georgia; a studio here in Providence, Rhode Island. I have a team of graphic designers. Every design I paint on a glass is turned into flat art, which I then put out to my manufacturers to put on various products, which I have full control over. I’m doing everything from designing beach bags and beach towels, designed a line of flip-flops. I’m going to be getting into cosmetics … but the bottom line is, I start every design, I come up with every idea, but I have a great team to help me implement and get the design work out to the manufacturers.”
Note: Lolita gave these quotes in 2014, so the exact number of employees and studios she maintains may differ today.
Disclaimer: The content on this page is for information purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax, or accounting advice. For specific questions about any of these topics, seek the counsel of a licensed professional.
