Bill Kennerson's Beau Ties

Vermont Business Magazine, Aug 01, 2004 by Marcel, Joyce

Through advertising and word of mouth -"Bow tie wearers are great at sharing," Kennerson said - the company has added about 10,000 names a year to its list; it now has over 70,000 names.

"We don't mail to everybody every time," Kenerson said. "We pick buyers, and People who have gotten the catalog in the last year and a half and haven't ordered yet. It varies. This year we'll probably mad half a million catalogs all year."

Eventually, Kenerson and Venman moved the mailing, distribution, and inventory from AIDC to their home. Soon the business took it over.

"We set up one of the bedrooms," Kenerson said. "We hired our first employee and bought some software. Five and half or six years ago, we looked around and said, 'OK, we've lost the room next to our bedroom, we've lost another room for inventory, we've lost another bedroom to graphics, and another bedroom to shipping, and the garage is full of boxes.' The dining room during the day was taken over by four or five employees. We said, 'If we're going to grow this business, we've got to get out of the house. 'The rent was great, but we had to leave."

Working with the Addison County Economic Development Corporation and the Vermont Economic Development Authority, Kenerson and Venman bought four and a half acres in the industrial park and signed a lease-buy option that allowed them to design and build for about $500,000.

In keeping with the company's beginnings, the building looks more like a home than a factory. It maintains that image by having a huge full kitchen and a patio for barbecues. The company moved in in November of 1999. Four years later, the couple exercised the "buy" option. They now own the building and lease it to the company.

"When we moved in, we also acquired the sewers," Kenerson said. "They became employees of Beau Ties, Ltd. Including

Vivian, who was the proprietor of the alterations business and is now our production manager. And we've grown since then. We've had double digit growth every year since we started the business.

Doing Business in Vermont

Health insurance is the largest problem for all small businesses in the state, and Beau Ties does not offer it to its employees. Instead, it uses a medical savings plan approach.

'One thing that always bothered me when I was in human resources was that health insurance kind of discriminated," Kenerson said. 'Some people didnt need it. They had husbands who had coverage or whatever. So those people didn't get the advantage. It was kind of unequal treatment. We looked at it and said we can't afford medical coverage. So we decided we would give everybody a $500 allowance in a medical savings plan. We're up to $750 now. That's our commitment. We pay $750. They use it or lose it, obviously. And we have found coverage they can buy that's reasonable, but we don't pay for it."

Employees can use the $750 to pay for a few insurance premiums, or to fill in with dentists' bills and doctors' co-payments if they already have insurance. Of course, $750 doesn't go very far in buying health insurance these days, so those employees who don't have other coverage still have to pay a large amount out of their pockets.