A Mother, Seeing a Need, Builds a Popular and Growing Business
You have probably heard that the Greek philosopher Plato once described "Necessity as the Mother of Invention." If this is true, then a local Salt Lake City, Utah mother of three young children has expanded a "need" she saw into the "invention" of her own very successful internet-based business.
Mara Joy Luker used to have a very different career from what she is doing now. For nearly 20 years she made her living at the piano. She taught piano lessons in her home, performed at restaurants and weddings, and played for dance classes at the University of Utah. She had the credentials, having earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the U of U.
While Mara was an accompanist for children's dance classes at the well-known Virginia Tanner Creative Dance Program at the U of U, Mara noticed that the leotards, dance skirts, and other outfits worn by young girls at dance class were often faded and worn out, as little girls often wear their favorite dress-up clothes to shreds.
Just for fun, Mara designed a tutu for her own daughter, Lily Anna, who was turning two years old. When Lily wore it to the dance studio, the dance teacher was enthusiastic about the lovely, handmade tutu and suggested that Mara sell her tutus to mothers of dancers at the studio. This she did, with a very positive response from other mothers wanting to see their daughters dance and play in beautiful, high quality tutus, which were clearly made with love and attention to detail.
In a short time, Mara was designing other dance accessories to go with her tutus, including matching leotards, ballerina slippers, tiaras and wands. In fact, before long, she had designed a whole wardrobe of ballerina costumes and fairy dress-ups for little girls, with fairy wings, flower wreath crowns and other unique designs of her own creation.
The demand for Mara's fluffy tutus and ballet accessories continued to grow. By request, she handmade dozens of tutus for other dance studios and for local holiday gift shows and craft boutiques. Word of mouth created such a buzz about her unique designs and handmade items, soon the full-time pianist closed her keyboard cover and became a full-time seamstress.
In order to offer her tutus and other products to a worldwide audience, Mara had a website designed to serve as an online store for mothers of little dancers everywhere. It seemed natural for this proud Mom to name her business after her very own little girl, Lily Anna. Three years ago, the website of Lily Anna for Girls - Fairytale Creations was launched at www.lilyannaforgirls.com.
That same year, Mara and her husband had another baby girl, Ginger, and the two sisters now enjoy being models for the tutus, fairy wings and other dress-up costumes on the website. The interest in the site has grown each year, and as satisfied customers have told others about their experiences with Mara and her unique designs, their friends have visited the site and purchased Mara's beautiful tutus.
"Many customers order my tutus and fairy wings for Halloween costumes, as well as for Christmas and birthday gifts," Mara explained. "Not only do mothers fall in love with the variety of my handmade items, but grandmothers have expressed their joy in being able to find unique and memorable gifts for their dancing granddaughters."
One very happy customer, who came upon the site when using a Google(R) search for "ballerina outfits", was Margo Barry of Houston, Texas. Margo is a strong patron and guild member of the well-known Houston Ballet. As a guild member, Margo has been very active in the annual fundraising events for the Houston Ballet Company. Each fundraising event is so successful that over $1 million is raised at each of two annual fundraisers held.
After seeing the selection at Lily Anna for Girls, Margo solicited a product donation from Mara for the ballet fundraising auction. Happy to participate, Mara contributed a total of three multi-piece ballerina costumes, including tutus, leotards, tulle skirts, ballet slippers, tights, fairy wings, crowns, fairy wands, and glitter dust for an extra touch of magic.
Mara's contribution was a big hit with the bidding patrons, who remarked about the detail work in the design and the high quality of the costumes. Margo also was impressed with Mara's work and ordered two outfits as gifts for her nieces, who she says, "absolutely adore the dresses they received."
"The costumes were so well made, with lots of detailing, and so impressive as handmade apparel," Margo said. "I recommend anyone desiring top quality products for dancers to go to the Lily Anna for Girls website."
Another regional ballet person also was looking for unique products online when she came across Lily Anna for Girls. "I needed to find unique products for a new boutique we were opening during the first performance of the Colorado Ballet in the recently remodeled and historic 1908 Ellie Caulkins Opera House," explained Angel Canann, sales manager for Colorado Ballet.
"When I came upon the site for Lily Anna for Girls, I was so delighted to find exactly what I was looking for. In addition, the site had many useful links to other information I was seeking that made my search so easy," Angel said. "This is the 45th anniversary season for Colorado Ballet and I needed unique and appropriate products for the boutique. This is a storybook season, very child friendly with productions like The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, and Cinderella.
"When I spoke to Mara and she said she could meet my needs within a short deadline, I was so impressed with her customer service. She custom made products exclusive for our boutique, and not just products that she sells on her web site. Mara even sewed labels customized for the boutique into the tutus and leotards," Angel added.
"The items were of beautiful quality, and patrons remarked about the wonderful detail. Within the two weeks of the performance we almost sold out of all the items we had ordered from Mara. We are ordering items for each performance throughout this season from Lily Anna for Girls," Angel shared. "When I opened up the shipment and saw all these beautiful and wonderful things, I wished I was eight years old," Angel concluded.
Mara is delighted to hear of her customers' great satisfaction with her products. She continues to design and create new products, and feels very successful as a work-at-home mother. Her young son, David, joined the family a year ago, and he naps while she fills orders from the website. Just like her family of three children whom she adores, Mara's home-based business continues to grow.
So if necessity is the mother of invention, Mara Joy Luker understands well how filling the "needs" of her own daughters and thousands of other little dancers can lead to the "invention" of a unique product line and an enjoyable and thriving business.