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| WOMEN'S FUND EN ESPAÑOL |
Shelly Dick, Inventor and Entrepreneur of FROCKZ I was born and raised in El Paso, I graduated from Socorro HS in 1978. After HS I went to NTSU then to UT Austin where I graduated in 1981 with a business degree. After College I took a job in sales with Dow Chemical in Baton Rouge. After training in Baton Rouge Dow assigned me to their Cincinnati Ohio sales office. After about 18months I moved back to Baton Rouge to marry the love of my life Kelley whom I had met in Baton Rouge. Dow transferred me back to Baton Rouge and I continued to work for Dow for another 3 years before going to Law School at LSU. I graduated from Law School in 1988 and have been in private practice ever since. In 1991 I started my own practice. Forrester & Dick has 7 lawyers. We practice commercial, defense and employment litigation. My husband of 26 years, Kelley and I have 3 sons, Kelley J age 22, Barrett, age 19 and Austin age 16. I have also been a “wanna be” artist. I love to paint, sew, make jewelry, decorate, build all manner of things. I’ll try just about anything creative. What’s the origin of FROCKZ? In the fall of 2007 a friend and neighbor and I Wanda Guadamud talked about opening a retail lighting store in Baton Rouge. AS researched lighting styles and lamps we wanted to be able to carry trendy lamp shades. We discovered they are expensive to buy and expensive to make. Additionally we felt it doubtful that the average consumer would want to invest in a trendy shade only to have it go out of style. We started trying to figure out a way to cover and update existing shades and hit upon the idea of using 4 way stretch fabric. Kind of like the fabric book covers. We made a few prototypes and realized it worked so we researched whether the idea was patentable. We applied for a patent in Feb 2008. We found a fabric supplier and a cut and sew manufacturer and launched FROCKZ, lampshade slipcovers in June 2008. As of today we have been featured in some national magazines like Southern Living, and Frocks was identified as one of the best new products of 2009 by the Chicago Tribune> Frockz also appeared on QVC on Jan 21, 2010 and 1 of the 4 styles offered sold out in less than 4 minutes. Approximately 180 independent retailers carry FROCKZ and we also sell direct to the consumer on www.frockz.com What’s been the best part of this new venture? Meeting other inventors and entrepreneurs, especially women. What advice would you give women interested in starting a business? If you feel passionate about an idea, pursue it. Just take baby steps and put one foot in front of the other. Develop a business plan. It is tedious and can seem mundane to the creative mind but it forces you to consider questions and plan for contingencies that you may not otherwise consider. What do you like to do for fun? Anything with my hands! Sew, paint, make jewelry, ceramics, paper crafts etc. etc. etc. Where can someone in El Paso buy FROCKZ? Charlottes 5411 N. Mesa (at PepperTree Square) 915.581.1111 Points of View Article Related Link: http://www.frockz.com |
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