Today I introduce you to the first giveaway and Simply Natural Mom sponsor,
Little Red Hen Consignment Tagging Service.
With over five years of experience consigning her children’s outgrown clothes and gear in Knoxville’s children’s consignment sales, Kristen Yartz, owner of Little Red Hen Consignment Tagging Service, decided to start a business helping other families who were too busy to consign their own items.
Today is the start of Little Red Hen’s free Early Bird Drop-offs for the 2012 spring sale season.
For future updates on events, follow Little Red Hen on Facebook.
Simply Natural Mom: Tell us about your business.
Little Red Hen: I’ve always talked up seasonal children’s consignment sales to friends and colleagues as a way of earning money from items that they’d either been donating or keeping in storage. The response has often been a sigh of exhaustion and the response, “It just seems like so much extra work! How do you price things? I just don’t have the time.” A friend of mine planted the seed for Little Red Hen in early 2010, saying, “How about you do it all for me and I pay you half?” It was definitely an “A-ha!” moment, and I ran with it. In conjunction with a talented trio of a local graphic designer, artist and web designer, I developed our logo, business materials and website. At Little Red Hen, we aim to make things as simple as possible for our clients: for them, it’s as simple as gathering their items together and checking them for sale-ability, folding them neatly in large plastic bags (kitchen or lawn size work well) then scheduling a Drop-off at a convenient Knoxville location on either the east or west sides of town. Clients complete a Consignor Agreement and pick a sale in which to participate, and we take care of the rest: registering them for the sale, ironing, hanging, tagging, storage, plus delivery to the sale of their choice. All supplies are provided by Little Red Hen. Each client is registered under a specific Little Red Hen consignor number and password and clients can follow their sales online through the consignment sale’s website. Clients get all the benefits of sale participation, including access to the Private, Pre-sale shopping event, and the option to work a sale shift for greater sale benefits if they choose. Post-sale, we generate checks for our clients, splitting the Final Proceeds from the sale 50/50, and applying our $10 administration fee. Easy peasy! In the off-season Little Red Hen features a free Early Bird service, where folks can send on their items to us for early preparation, tagging and storage. This provides more space in their closets, attics and garages (as you can imagine, Dads love Little Red Hen!) and ensures their spot as clients for the upcoming sale season.
Simply Natural Mom: There is an earth friendly aspect to reusing and reselling clothes. Is that important to you?
Little Red Hen: Absolutely! In our home, we are avid recyclers, and the process of consignment (especially seeing how many items are barely worn when sold) has led to a more conscientious approach to how much we purchase, especially clothing-wise. Most of our daughters’ clothes are purchased second-hand, but you’d never know it to look at them. Folks new to consignment are amazed at how many next-to-new outfits, shoes and gear are for sale at children’s consignment sales, and at prices that are much lower than brick and mortar consignment stores or on ebay. As a parent, there’s a freedom that comes from knowing you paid very little for an outfit that is meant to be worn, played-in and enjoyed. The aspect of our business that enhances re-use in our local market is very enriching, as is our clients’ genuine enthusiasm for our service. Equally important: monies spent and earned from local consignment stay in our local economy. It’s a good feeling to know that when I purchase items at consignment, that money is going directly back to local families, not to a national chain retailer. The consignment sales that we work with also raise monies for local charities as part of their sales efforts. Little Red Hen has been a natural offshoot to my role as the Cooperative Relations Administrator of Three Rivers Market. I’m a big proponent of supporting local, independent businesses and making sustainable choices for my family in how we live and what we eat.
Simply Natural Mom: Tell us about your clients.
Little Red Hen: Our clients are busy Moms and Dads whose schedules are jam-packed as they balance raising their children, work commitments, and all those extracurricular activities that families juggle. Most of them share the feeling of being overwhelmed, with consignment as something that they’ve been “meaning to do, but just can’t get to,” sometimes for years! We have clients who send along items outgrown by their children in the past season, and others who send their entire stash of items that they’ve been storing for many years. Before finding Little Red Hen, many of our clients had been simply donating their children’s outgrown items or stockpiling their items in totes in spare rooms and garages, with a sense that they would get to them “some day.” In the current economic climate, every dollar counts, and we’re welcoming new clients each season who are either new to consignment or so busy that they don’t have the hours of time to devote to the process. Our clients don’t necessarily have the time for item preparation or pricing, but all are fiscally conscious and keen to retain funds by selling their children’s outgrown, un-used items. Most of our families roll these monies back into the next season’s wardrobe needs, whether or not they choose to shop at consignment sales.
Simply Natural Mom: What is the most items one of your clients has ever sold in one sale?
Little Red Hen: The most saleable items thus far from one client was 538, generated by a family with five children. In 2011 alone, we prepared just over 6,700 items for sale over the course of 4 seasonal (spring/summer and fall/winter) sales.
Simply Natural Mom: What’s next for Little Red Hen?
Little Red Hen: This fall we’ll launch Little Red Hen Consulting tailored to individuals who plan to start their own consignment tagging services. In the past year, we’ve had e-mails and calls from folks all over the country, asking for advice. We’re looking forward to being that go-to resource for tagging service start-ups!
For today’s giveaway, Little Red Hen is generously offering a free administrative fee for the first five customers to sign up for Early Bird Drop-offs for the 2012 spring sale season. Just tell her, “I’m a Simply Natural Mom.”
Thank you to the Little Red Hen!
If you like this deal, please go to Facebook and “like” Simply Natural Mom and Little Red Hen.
