PITTSFIELD, Mass. (AP) - A Pittsfield business that began as a hobby, became a top online seller - and didn’t even open a store until two years ago - has been named the 2017 Microenterprise of the Year for Massachusetts by the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Yummy Treasures at 10 Commercial St. was recognized by the SBA for being the country’s top seller, and the world’s third-best seller, on Etsy.com, a global marketplace of handmade, vintage and creative goods.
A bead-and-crafts shop owned by Pittsfield residents Beth and Greg Carpenter, Yummy Treasures exports crafts and jewelry supplies on Etsy.com.
The Microenterprise of the Year award is presented annually to a growing business that has used assistance through SBA loan programs or has been a client of one of the SBA’s technical service providers. Each nominee also had to have a least a three-year track record and five or fewer employees.
“We are very honored by this award,” Greg Carpenter said in a telephone interview. “It was not something we expected to be nominated for. We’re absolutely thrilled.”
Greg, Beth and their son, Zac, who is also part of the business, were set to be honored Tuesday, May 2, with this year’s other Massachusetts winners at an SBA awards luncheon at Granite Links Golf Club in Quincy.
Yummy Treasures was nominated for the award by Keith Girouard, the director of the Berkshire Regional office of the Massachusetts Small Business Development Center in Pittsfield.
“It’s a great story,” Girouard said. “They’re very hardworking and they’ve taken simple craft objects and created an amazing business.”
Girouard began working with the Carpenters in 2011 when the couple started planning to move Yummy Treasures out of their home in southeast Pittsfield into their current location.
“Most of these stories are about someone who has a physical presence,” then begins to sell online, Girouard said, “but they went the other way.”
“I know it’s backwards but I think it really helped us,” said Beth, regarding the path that Yummy Treasures has taken. “Our pricing structure and understanding same day shipping that level of customer service translated so much into the store. People complement us on our pricing. We’re coming from the internet side where it’s more competitive.”
Beth began collecting beads as a child, but her hobby really began to take off some 10 years ago when she decided to make a bracelet.
“I just started buying, and buying and buying and I couldn’t decide what to do, and pretty soon I had a lot of stuff,” she said. “It wasn’t until I realized how much was out there and I wanted to see more that it got to the point that we started selling it.”
That was in 2008. Beth originally began selling her material on eBay, until someone told her about Etsy.com.
“I liked what I saw, I liked the philosophy, so I went over there,” she said. Yummy Treasures became the country’s top seller on Etsy.com a couple of years ago, Beth said. As of Thursday, April 27, the Pittsfield-based store had made 391,143 supply sales on Etsy.com, some 20,000 more than second place GoldSwan, a craft and jewelry store in Anaheim Hills, California, according to rankings that are listed on Craftcount.com. Only the top four sellers on CraftCount’s list of 200 craft-based entities in the U.S. have made more than 300,000 sales on Etsy.com.
Yummy Treasures began doing so well online that Greg was able to leave his 20-year career at Big Y Foods corporate offices in Springfield to help his wife manage the business.
“He did a lot of things with numbers, like Excel spread sheets and other things that were hugely needed in our business,” Beth said. “It was going to well that it could support him making that leap.”
Zac joined the business after graduating from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst with a double major in business and communications. His focus is on website design and social media.
The couple decided to open a store to provide a showroom where customers could see their products first hand.
“We started as a home-based business in the basement, but we just ended up bursting at the seams,” Greg said. “Once our son came on board it was clear we needed a bigger space. We happened to come across a space right behind Teo’s (Restaurant) on Commercial Street that had retail grandfathered in as part of the space.
“So we said hey why don’t we give it a try and it kind of grew from there,” he said. “Originally our intention was not to do brick and mortar. It just sort of happened.”
The space has enough room for both a warehouse and a retail outlet. The Carpenters refer to it as “1,500 square feet of beading fun.”
The extra room is useful because Yummy Treasures sells more than just beads.
“Our thing is to help supply not only the home beader but also those who make more of a living off creating jewelry,” Greg said. “We stock all sorts of components. We try to give the artist a wide variety of ideas and products that they can use in their designs.”
Robert Nelson, the SBA’s Massachusetts District director, said it’s possible for other small entrepreneurs to accomplish what the Carpenters have done.
“Start small with big dreams, just like the Carpenters did,” Nelson said in a statement. “Even if you live in a small town, you can utilize free counseling from the Massachusetts Small Business Development Center network and leverage technology to connect with customers across the globe.”
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Online:
https://bit.ly/2qwo1At
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Information from: The Berkshire (Mass.) Eagle, https://www.berkshireeagle.com
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