Thirty-One Gifts Grows Over 1000% And Targets $1 Billion Mark

Cindy Monroe, Thirty-One Gifts, CEO

 

Thirty-One Gifts founder Cindy Monroe on the secrets to her success.

Cindy Monroe had a pretty good year in 2009. Her direct sales company, Thirty-One Gifts, brought in $38 million in revenue.

But 2013 was much, much better. That year, Thirty-One Gifts pulled in $760 million.

No, there’s no typo in that last sentence. Monroe grew her business 1,900 percent in four years, with the help of 110,000 consultants in the U.S. and Canada.

The question you’re probably asking now is, How did she do it? It’s a good one, and of course one that doesn’t have a straight-line answer.

So let’s break down the major business decisions that got her to where she is today:

She launched: Monroe, 39, started her business 10 years ago. She was working in insurance and had noticed a bunch of boutiques popping up in her town in Tennessee. The shops had unique products and out-of-the-box gifts, but they all closed at 6 p.m. Monroe had two small children to get home to at night and could never find the time for a shopping trip.

During college, Monroe had worked as a rep selling Pampered Chef products, so she knew how the direct-sales business worked. She also knew no one had really tried it with fashion. So that’s the model she chose for her company: Bring the boutique to the customer with sales reps around the country hosting parties and distributing catalogs that would put high-quality products — tote bags, purses, accessories, stationary — right in front of their faces.

“That’s really how I started: giving women an opportunity to come together and socialize and have fun because women love to connect with one another,” Monroe told me in a recent interview. “But then I wanted them to be able to have fun products that they were proud of and that they wanted to be able to use every day and be able to gift.”

Part of her success, she explained, was tapping into a network of women sales consultants, giving women an opportunity to come together and socialize and have fun because women love to connect with one another. Monroe has her sights set on $1 billion in annual revenue, she said, but It’s not about the size of the company we are, and for me, it’s not even about the bottom line. It’s about helping these women. 

Thirty-One Gifts aim is to simplify life with a product line featuring utility, purses, totes, accessories, monogramming, personalization, women's accessories, men's accessories and more.

Source: Biz Journal

Get more information, facts and figures about Thirty One Gifts, click here for the Thirty One Gifts overview.

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