Do you guys remember how excited we were about our BIG REVEAL and the 5-day store closing leading up to it? Well, we got national recognition for it! Furniture Today, the furniture industry’s leading business newspaper, did a whole story on it!  If you don’t remember anything about THE BIG REVEAL, here is a little recap:  We closed our doors Thursday, September 2 and did not re-open until Tuesday, September 7.  During that time, we gave the store a face lift!  We had built in shelves put in the back to house our pillows and bedding.  We had Virginia Weathersby do a stencil on the wall behind the front desk.  We had the walls repainted.  We put a new finish on our concrete floors.  We cleaned the upstairs like it has never been cleaned before.  We re-organized the ENTIRE resource library.  We got new sconces and skirt to go at the front desk. We brought 52 new pieces of furniture over from the warehouse.  And….. That might be about it! So, as you can see, we were BUSY during those days! THE BIG REVEAL was the party we held the week after our re-opening where we invited friends and family to come celebrate our new look with us.  We had a blast!

We owe a huge thanks to Gary Evans, the sweet man who wrote the article.  Thanks to him for taking a genuine interest in our store.  Throughout his information gathering process, we grew to love Gary!   We also owe a thank you to Karen Maxim, our amazing business consultant, for getting Gary to notice us! It was because of her hard work that he even gave us the time of day! 

In addition to being noticed because of THE BIG REVEAL, Gary also touched on the unique marketing and business practices we implement here at SummerHouse!  We have gotten really into the Facebook and Twitter thing (as well as blogging!) to reach out to a whole new audience.  Social media is a nice outlet for us to show our fun side! We love interacting with all of our fabulous customers, friends, and admirers!

“[Maxim] said that Palmer is fun and full of energy, and “has the talent and the passion.  A lot of businesses fail because the owner doesn’t have the passion.  When she goes on that floor, that’s something she has.  You can’t bottle that up.”  -Gary Evans, Furniture Today

The unique business practice that Lisa was noted for is her purchasing.  Unlike most furniture stores, we sell directly off of our showroom floor, which really keeps Marty (our merchandiser) on her toes!  She has to fill holes pretty much on a daily basis in order to keep the showroom looking full.  Once we sell something off the floor, we have our warehouse guys bring over something to go in place of whatever sold.  Then we place orders for new things! It is a pretty cool system that works really well for us.  It is a lot of work, but Lisa says it is worth it! She says, “Selling off the floor really forces me to stay up to date on what’s current, which I love.  I want to keep my store interesting, so the opportunity to order new furniture items on a regular basis helps keep the showroom fresh.  My designers love when we bring new furniture over; It keeps them excited about the product they get to show and work with.”

To read the full article, click on the pages posted above and they will enlarge.  We hope you enjoy the article as much as we did!