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BelleauWood
Farms Alpacas ~ Charlotte, NC |
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| In
This Issue: |
January
2003 |
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As
we enter a new year, we want to take a moment to
thank our 2002 customers. We started the year by
moving our farm from upstate NY to Charlotte,
NC. We are thrilled to be back home (at least
home for Erin who grew up 3 hours from Charlotte
& Megan who was born in Charleston, SC ~
Steve is a Jersey transplant, but left to come
South to Charleston for college).
We have truly missed our Northern Tier friends
and are thankful to be able to visit with them
at shows and events. North Carolina has given us
a warm welcome! We have had the opportunity to
meet many of the southern breeders - we were
thrilled to have many visit on our Open House
days.
During 2002, we have begun to see the fruits of
our labor. We began raising alpacas in 1996 with
2 females and little money to invest. We have
slowly worked our way up and built a herd that
we are very proud of. It has been difficult to
part with each animal we have sold this year,
and we are thankful that they have gone and are
going to some excellent homes around the
country. We would like to thank the following
farms for their purchases this year:
Deb Wright ~ Wright Choice Alpacas ~ Poultney,
VT
Amy Lewis ~ Warren, PA
Philip & Myah LaMachio ~ Kiva Alpacas ~
Greensboro, NC
Linda & Hal Powell ~ Gemstone Farm Alpacas ~
Low Gap, NC
Sharon & Mike Maynard ~ Harmony, NC
Joy & Chris Patterson ~ Foxfire Village, NC
Kim & Scott Kline ~ Havenfield Farm ~
Birdsboro, PA
Dawn Green ~ Ashtabula, OH
Sherrie Ivie ~ Ivie Acres Alpacas ~ Herriman, UT
Michael & Charlotte Goldston~High Meadow
Alpacas~Brentwood, TN
Blaine & Cindy Mangum ~ Kissimmee, FL
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wanted to share a report on our first six months
of product sales. In July, we converted a 10X12
bedroom of our house into a fiber sales room.
The room is a small and unimpressive room close
to our garage door. We made a hand painted
"Open" sign and another sign that
lists our products. We leave them out by the
road and turn them over when we are home and
feel like having visitors. We purchased some
inexpensive shelving and stocked the room with
about $6,000 (cost) of inventory from AFCNA
(including an APS store in a box), NEAFP, and a
few importers. Since then, we have added about
$3,000 more in inventory. We placed four ads in
the Charlotte Observer and were open every
weekend through the holidays. We also attended
one fiber show this Fall, the Southeast Fiber
Festival in Asheville, NC. With a minimum amount
of effort, we have been able to make about
$3,000 in profit. While this is not
earth-shattering, given the low effort we put
into it and the enjoyment it has given us, I am
very optimistic about the growth of our fiber
business in 2003. We feel it has also been a
major enhancement to our farm visit experience
to be able to see the gorgeous products that are
made from alpaca fiber. We have learned a lot
about what sells, how to sell, and have set up
our process for processing credit cards, keeping
accounts, and restocking inventory. I hope to
build an order site in the coming months, and we
are planning a few more fiber festivals in 2003.
We think this will be a great year to build this
part of our business. While the fiber retail
part of the alpaca business isn't for everyone,
we encourage you to consider giving it a try.
You can start with a very simple set up and grow
from there.
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