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15 Gifted Women: Wendy Rosen

By Meredith Schwartz -- Gifts and Dec, 11/9/2009 12:00:00 AM

Shonnie Bilin

Frances Gravely

Isadora Frost

Jenny Hammons

Anne McGilvray

Maxine Burton

Susan Roghani

Joan Ulrich

Anna Griffin

Barbara Baekgaard

Andrea Grossman

Andrea Sadek

Ande Rooney

Marian Sullivan

Wendy Rosen
President
The Rosen Group
When a potter at a local craft show mentioned to Wendy Rosen that craft artists needed business assistance, she uncovered a market for providing business services to artists. She founded The Rosen Group, Baltimore, MD, in 1981, to provide American and Canadian artists with opportunities and guidance to grow their business and compete in the global marketplace. The Rosen Group runs The Buyers Market of American Craft, a tradeshow founded in 1982, and publishes NICHE and AmericanStyle magazines. The American Made Alliance, the non-profit arm of The Rosen Group, works with federal legislators and officials to create and enforce laws that promote, protect and preserve the American craft industry. In addition to serving as president of The Rosen Group, Rosen wrote Crafting as a Business, which addresses topics such as pricing, product development and public relations, now in its third printing, and created the PBS documentary "Crafting an AmericanStyle."

Gifts & Decorative Accessories: What have your biggest challenges been?
Wendy Rosen: Convincing retailers to “dare to be different.” Retailers often think that buying “Made in America or Canada” means the products have to be expensive. Not true, these artists offer thousands of items priced under $15. So many are sheep, few realize that when you carry something unique that you have an edge on the competition. Often in our craft world that also means that you have an exclusivity agreement that covers your city, sometimes your entire county.

G&DA: What have been your greatest successes?
WR: Watching retailers in other categories enter the Buyers Market of American Craft for the first time and they immediately realize that everything they find at this show is something they won’t see at any gift show or larger national tradeshow or jewelry show. The excitement is really special, it’s the creativity and the personal relationships between the makers and the sellers. I think they appreciate that they are dealing with the actual maker, not a rep, not an employee of an off-shore manufacturer... someone that has a business about the same size as their business. You can see people in the aisles sharing photos of their shop, studio, kids, dogs ... they realize how they are impacting the lives of these creative individuals. Selling something they are excited about, have a personal contact with helps them sell and share that with their customers. There is a mutual respect and admiration between the retailers and the artists.

G&DA: Do you think that as a woman you approached doing business differently?
WR: I think at first I thought I had to have a “tougher” business style. It probably got in my way more than once. In the past, promoting Made in American was difficult, like rolling a huge boulder up hill. That’s very different today as more and more retailers are realizing the greater importance it has to their customers and the growing importance of the “thoughtful consumerism movement” that includes groups like Shop Local, First Friday, Green Retail, Buy Handmade, Sustainable Economies and 3/50 Project movements. We’re working on a new website titled www.FindAmericanMade.com so that consumers can more easily find the products they are looking for ... and the retailers that sell authentic items made in America.

G&DA: How has being an executive affected your personal life and relationships and how do you deal with it?
WR: Whey I was younger, work was 24/7. Today, my daughter has joined the business and has really grown to appreciate our mission of helping artists and retailers sell American-made designer products. Today, I’m comfortable with the intersection of work, family and play. Some of my best memories are from the days I spend with artists at fairs or workshops. The hardest part is keeping weekends free for family; show biz cuts into many weekends.

G&DA: How and why did you get into business?
WR: I was strolling through a local art fair and overheard artists complaining about having to travel to fairs every weekend. And how great it would be if they could grow their wholesale business. Being married to a retailer (office furniture) provided me with an overview of what these artists — and also retailers — needed. I immediately fell in love with the creative minds and the very different designer products that come with the American Craft movement. I tell prospective employees ... I don’t offer jobs, I offer culture and religion ... but no jobs. The culture is about art, the religion is about Made in North America.

G&DA: What advice would you give to a woman starting out in the business?
WR: Fall in love — with the people you deal with, and the products you sell. You can’t sell something you don’t love yourself ... well, you may be able to sell it, but not with integrity and joy. Retailing can be about a whole lot more than opening the doors, smiling to customers and ringing up a sale; it can be about changing the world, the economy, and inspiring others to join your cause! I think the future of independent retailing really relies on finding the passion for what you sell and the people behind what you sell.

G&DA: What is the best — or most memorable — gift you ever received?
WR: Most of my best gifts are just emails or postcards sent by a retailer or an artist ... telling me how I’ve helped their business. I do remember one gift from an artist who had recently emigrated from the former USSR. She gave me a delicate little porcelain basket that she made ... in her “former life.” Today she makes the coolest (and very pricey) teapots with real attitude. I helped her with a booth at her first wholesale show, just six months after she came to America. A few years later she was so successful that she bought a house and brought the rest of the family to America as well. Stories like this make the business of helping retailers and artists really worthwhile. It’s why we’re always saying “Sell a Story”!

For more interviews with the Gifted Women, please click on each woman's image at right.

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