Start Me Up: The Power of Networks
A profile of Sandy Stein, Alexx, Inc.
Sandy Stein founded her business, Alexx, Inc., with an unwavering belief in the power of women’s networks. After 35 years working as a flight attendant, Stein fell asleep one night and dreamed of her deceased father, who gave her the idea for creating the Finders Key Purse®, an ornamental hook for keeping keys accessible inside a purse. The product took off thanks to Stein’s determination and her willingness to rely on an ever-growing web of friends, contacts, and consultants to market and sell Finders Key Purse to other women.
“Women who tell women is the best way of advertising,” says Stein. During her years as a flight attendant she had the opportunity to connect with hundreds of women travelers. Stein observed how products, ideas, and trends hopscotched across the country via word of mouth among this widespread community. Later ready to market her own unique product, Stein knew exactly where to start.
She tested her friends’ reactions to Finders Key Purse and received nothing but positive feedback. Harnessing that energy and their belief in the product, Stein asked those supporters to serve as sales consultants. “I started with 50 of my friends and at the end of the year I had 2,000 new friends,” she says. This distribution method allowed Alexx, Inc. to exceed Stein’s expectations and pull in approximately $4 million in revenue during its first year.
Success grew up around the company’s sales representatives and their ability to tout the product’s usefulness to their own friends and acquaintances. “These women had a passion for it and that’s how it moved into the marketplace,” says Stein. That passion has propelled Alexx, Inc. to remarkable levels of achievement that also bring a new round of challenges. Although the company has thrived on an informal structure and grass roots marketing strategies during its first four years, Stein recognizes that in order to meet her next big goal—an even greater jump in growth—she and her team will need to adapt. “I’m looking at maybe a little more structure. Not totally bohemian like we have been called,” she says with a laugh.
As more indicators of Stein’s accomplishments pop up, she doesn’t lose sight of the values that gave birth to Finders Key Purse. For example, as an exhibitor at NAWBO’s 2007 Women’s Business Conference, Stein showed her product to NAWBO Corporate Partner HP. As a result of that meeting, she was selected as the featured woman business owner in a recent HP direct mail campaign. “I would never have met them would it not have been for NAWBO.” In December, Stein celebrated the approval of a utility patent for Finders Key Purse—a major victory that will protect the product from copyright infringement—but she hasn’t let that success stop her from continuing to develop new product ideas. Stein aims to produce outstanding results armed with the same innovation and belief in the power of personal connections that launched her success four years ago. “I do really appreciate how I got here.”