Waste not | A conversation with Betty-Jane Shreve, owner of TRANSFORMATIONS...Buy: Shreve
Photo/Courtesy Betty-Jane Shreve
Betty-Jane Shreve
TRANSFORMATIONS...Buy: Shreve
Founded: February 2010
Employees: 1
Startup costs: $3,000
Projected revenue, year one: $2,500
Projected revenue, year two: $5,000
Contact: 939-1548
192 Ocean House Road, Cape Elizabeth
www.designerwastebaskets.com
What is TRANSFORMATIONS...Buy: Shreve?
It’s a business I started making decorated vessels of different sorts. I craft handsome, artful, metal wastepaper baskets, pails and buckets. My vintage wastebaskets are my main line, but I’ve added a Maine lobster pot and a Yankee bucket (made from retired Vermont sap buckets). They’re beautifully rendered, hand-decorated pieces that are functional gifts.
Why did you start the company?
Because it is something creative I can do at home right now. I was laid off from my longtime nursing position in Portland a year ago and my mom, who is 91 and has Alzheimer’s, came to live with us. Since I was a young girl, I have had a fascination and unusual appreciation for the classic, oval-style wastepaper baskets. You know, the ones with the gold-painted rims our parents or grandparents may have had? They often had nature study or hand-painted tole flower designs. I recreate and customize them for my customers. The wastebaskets I design were recently described by a supporter as, “Museum quality; elegant.” That kind of feedback only spurs me on, of course.
Where do you find your materials?
My part-time helper goes out to yard sales to scout and buy true vintage wastebaskets. Then she cleans them, gets the dents out, sands, removes any rust, etc. What I cannot find in true vintage, I purchase like-style, wholesale.
I have to watch the copyright laws, but I have compiled quite a collection of old prints that includes Monet, Daumier and Eulalie. I also have many lithographs, illustrated paintings and antique maps that I use. With today’s high-resolution copy capabilities, I have great latitude in what I can create. I can take a section of a map, say a cove, lift it and use it in the wastebasket’s design. People love to see their special places incorporated that way.
How do you market the company?
My niche seems to be with interior designers/decorators and boutiques of home furnishing accents who carry my work. I develop themes. For instance, the coastal shops I presently have accounts with are in the Old Port, Biddeford Pool and Kennebunkport areas, which carry ocean-related baskets: yachts, shore lines, lobsters or swordfish breaching the water. I have one account located on Route 1 by Scarborough Downs that features baskets with lithographs from my Currier and Ives collection related to harness racing. Inland, I offer subjects like my 1920 Maine Farmer’s Almanac cover, or a serene farm scene, horses, harvest still lifes, that sort of thing. My new website is another way to get my baskets out there. I have been most fortunate because a few enthusiastic supporters “connected” in merchandising have helped to get word around.
How do you finance the company?
Personal savings.
What has been your biggest challenge?
Keeping up with the darn bookkeeping and making time to market the niches. Pricing in this economy, too, is a challenge. It helps that I have functional items; they are easier for folks to justify buying. Most of my items are priced between $65 and $95.
What has been successful about your business strategy?
Designing a functional product that has particular appeal to a buyer’s taste in decorating or gift giving. I seem to have hit on a good nerve with the vintage-look being so popular now.
What are your goals for your company?
It may be a bit early to figure any expansion, but I give it a thought when I dare. I’m afraid of expanding too fast, so with the exception of trays that I think I will add to my line, I intend to focus on promoting what I already make. I do envision having a studio somewhere where the prep work and spray painting could be done, and perhaps the packaging, with some automation. Basically, my goal is to keep the learning and creative process enjoyable while building the business at a pace I can keep up with.
Interview by Carol Coultas
New Ventures profiles young businesses, 6-18 months old. Send your suggestions and contact information to editorial@mainebiz.biz.
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