LEXINGTON, KY - Isle of You may be closed but you'll find pieces of the business all over town. "John's Run/Walk Shop bought several fixtures that were handcrafted for our store and other businesses have purchased some of the local art we featured," said Isle of You's owner Lori Houlihan. "There are children's paintings done by Harrison Elementary students years ago that are still on the outside wall; last week a young woman came into the store, pointed to one of the paintings and said it was her's. She's now a college graduate. We still have some art and sculptures for sale in the store."
I stood in the nearly-empty store observing customers coming in to buy one more last thing and say goodbye to Lori. One young woman proudly told me she still wears two of the special outfits she bought 10 years ago. "There's no place else in town like Isle of You," she said. "Where can we go to find cool stuff and unique, stylish, funky clothes?" Another customer collected her purchases, marked down 75 percent, and insisted on giving Houlihan a hug. "I'll miss you," she said. Houlihan had a camera set up with a timer and insisted on a photograph of herself with each customer.
I first met Houlihan in 1997 when she had the shoe kiosk at Bella Rose and was just starting to think about her own store. She had a unique idea even then: her plan was to create a service business that just happened to sell clothes. "I love playing store," she said. Houlihan has learned over the past 12 years, however, that running a successful business is more than playing store.
"First of all, don't put all your eggs in one basket." In 1997 Houlihan discovered the newly created Juicy Couture, a brand of chic and sophisticated casual wear made popular by the likes of Brittany Spears and Gweneth Paltrow. "They were just starting out and so was I. I decided to buy big time and bring Juicy Couture to Lexington." Sales exploded and young Lexingtonians found a comfortable style and design that no one else carried. They could own outfits that the stars wore. Juicy Couture was good for Isle of You, comprising more than 40 percent of sales in the early days. "On a good day, we'd sell $4,000 or $5,000 of Juicy," Houlihan said.
Soon enough, however, the popular Juicy Couture was in all the big stores: Nordstrom, Macy's, Saks Fifth Avenue, and because they could buy in bulk, their prices were lower. Houlihan had more inventory on hand than she could sell with her mark-up. The big stores were also introducing the brand on EBay and everyone loved buying on EBay in the late '90s. "Ironically, I also used EBay to dispose a lot of excess Juicy inventory. I learned the hard lesson, that to sell $10,000 worth of clothing, you need $20,000 in inventory."
"Fashion is a very fickle business. You have to keep anticipating what's new, what fads and trends are ahead, and know your customers well." She expanded her designer lines, but now admits she wishes she'd applied what she learned in accounting class -- if you want to stay in business, get control of your cash flow. Her head wasn't attuned to the business side of things. She wanted to play, to decorate the store, to have fun with fashions and work with customers. A creative entrepreneur, one who uses her right-brain intuition and inspiration to launch and grow a business typically falls short on the business side. "Girls come in today and tell me they want to open a store just like mine someday. I tell them it's not about play, you've got to have someone who knows business."
Houlihan's passion these days is "buying local." She's one of the founders of Local First Lexington, a group promoting this theme in Lexington. "When people come in and tell me they're sorry we're going out of business, I want to say 'well, where were you? Why didn't you support the store?' But I don't say it. I'm ready for this phase of my life to close. I'll think of some other things to do; that is, unless the ghost of Ed McMann shows up on my doorstep with a check for $10 million."
Janet Holloway is president of j. holloway & associates and co-founder of Women Leading Kentucky. A national columnist for womenentrepreneur.com, she can be reached at: jhollow@womenleadingky.com