A successful business model

Last week Robyn worked feverishly preparing to participate in a relatively new and wildly successful venture known as Rhea Lana's Children's Consignment. It is a business idea that Rhea Lana Riner of Conway, Ark., started from her living room in 1997. Her dream was to get her friends to bring clothes and toys their kids had outgrown and sell them for them at a reduced price to other moms. After several years the idea exploded, and now they have 52 franchises in 17 states.

Robyn washed, ironed and hung 100 pieces of our children's clothing to sell. She did all the work except that I helped pin the price tags to about half the items. Tuesday I volunteered to help with the setup of the consignment sale because if you volunteer a certain number of hours, you get a pass to go shop early and beat the crowds. Plus, I wanted to see what all the hoopla was about. Maybe I could learn some things for our business dream.

Having never been to it, I had no idea what to expect. They rent approximately 25,000 square feet of warehouse space for the west Little Rock sale, which other workers told me is smaller than their typical sales space. This year they rented room on the east and west sides of the Little Rock Climbing Center, which I've wanted to see since it will be competition for our business dream. "Kelly" and another lady, who work regularly with Rhea Lana, welcomed me and gave me numerous tasks during my shift. The organization was impressive, and the number of racks on which to hang clothes was equally impressive.

A few days later we went to shop at the consignment sale for clothes for our son. The warehouse, as you can imagine, is chock full of clothes. You can hardly walk through it because of the clothes and the people. But I think what impressed me the most is how Riner and her partners have put together such a fine product/organization/service that people like myself and my wife would take hours (and days, really) out of our lives to volunteer to put this venture on twice a year.

It's a win/win situation. Rhea Lana provides the space, organizes volunteers and advertises the sale. Consignors provide the clothes and toys. Volunteers set up the racks, take the consignments, man the cash registers and then come back to buy what other people no longer need. Riner collects 30 percent of the sales; consignors get to keep 70 percent, and everyone is happy.

Here's a business model from which we all can learn.


Just a reminder...


We're hoping more people will go to our Facebook page to give us ideas for the perfect message to print on our T-shirts that we plan to start selling soon. The other day I thought of "Get a piece of the rock," but one of you reminded me that Prudential Insurance might not appreciate us using their trademarked slogan. Please share your suggestions with us soon.