Work with the Best

•October 3, 2012 • Leave a Comment

The Buffalo Collection at Scenic Mesa has the honor to work with the best craftsmen in the furniture industry. These days value counts. You can’t afford to include under your brand umbrella anything of quality you can’t defend – with pride.

I’m happy to say our buffalo leather tanage and color selection is the best, coming from Milwaukee and from Leone MX. It has a soft “hand”, wears like iron, can be deep-cleaned by a leather professional 9-10 times, and can either be finished smooth or “shrunken” with a rich grain. You can’t get better American Buffalo leather. Period.

Our manufacturers are the best in America. Hancock & Moore in Hickory NC is the quintessential manufacturing firm in America building our core traditional line. Furniture Your Way in Dallas TX builds our mid-priced contemporary line. Both firms will work with one-at-a-time custom orders or by the container-load. This is the best of both worlds – by the best American manufacturers using traditional hand craftsmanship. Hardwood frames, eight-way hand-tied springs and time-honored hand workmanship.

To fill out the Buffalo Collection look, we add tables, lamps, rugs, and home accessories – all made by the finest craftsmen we can find. Look at our website to see the depth of the collection and how these pieces compliment each other.

I can honestly say that in these tough economic times I am proud to be able to rely on these fine people, firms, and leather materials. You can be too!

Warm regards, Julie

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Today

•September 28, 2012 • Leave a Comment

Do we have to wait for the elections to be over for consumer confidence to return and buying to begin? It looks like it. So, what do we do until then? PREPARE.

We’re making pillow, new furniture lines, accessories – all to be ready by early November. Yes, it costs money up front, but when customers begin to buy again, “just-in-time” inventory control doesn’t work. There isn’t time to order and restock. They want it now, for the holidays.

Getting ready up front costs the vendor real money. You don’t know for certain what they’ll buy. It’s a gamble. That’s business. As long as you have a discount outlet to move those items you thought would sell but didn’t., you’ll be alright.

But stocking up and sitting waiting won’t pay this month’s and next month’s bills. So what is your off-season plan?

With us it’s a change in venue. Our store managers switch to sales calls outside the store: to hospitality, to new high-end homeowners, to selling leather as well as specific furniture pieces. And that’s fun. It’s on-on-one. It’s getting outside of the store location. It’s arranging your own schedule.

So far we’ve had some nice sales of custom products during the slow season. People seem to have enough time to think purchases through and decide to move ahead. In other words, its a good time for our managers to get back to those customers who’d mentioned projects and plans earlier. Both buyer and seller seem to have time and inclination to think things through. (We’ve gone so far as to lock the store doors when sitting down on a project with a customer.)

It’s a whole new set of circumstances, yes, but it’s a retail situation as old as the hills.

Hang on. I wish you well! Julie

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Business and Banks Today

•July 19, 2012 • Leave a Comment

Hey Small Business Owners!

We’re in the new world and apparently not going back to the way it was. Cash flow is now the whole game, without good options for borrowing, lines of credit, and general support and encouragement of business by banks. If you were smart enough to build your business the hard way – with cash earned and no mortgage – you are sitting pretty. If not, things are changing and likely to get too tough. But if you can self-finance, you can have anything you want – leases, materials, even contract employees. And that’s the new reality. And that is a great way to operate.

So, if you can slim down your overhead and live on what you make you’ll grow and prosper.

Now the flip side is tempting, but ultimately a killer: don’t be tempted to keep the incoming cash and commingle personal and business expenses. Ultimately that will fritter away the vital operating funds to keep the business healthy and growing.

Fundamentally your plan for success requires that you build a cash cow with your business – generating true net profits that you can indeed spend as you wish. I don’t know why that’s such a hard concept for some of us, but it is the key to success.

Over the years in business, we see a lot of different ways people operate – and we see the results. I’m watching a friend go down the slippery slope of retaining payments without reinvestment. It’s hard to watch; he’s headed for a fall, and I need his continuing services. So, learn from those around you – you don’t have to make those same mistakes.

Success to you! Julie

Posted in Interior Designers

It’s the Little Things that Make All the difference

•July 9, 2012 • Leave a Comment

We make and sell American buffalo leather. It comes in all weights and colors – and soon it gets hard to stay on top of all the iterations. Do you throw up your hands, send wrong material, destroy your reputation in a flash? No. Cooler heads can prevail.

It takes the simple mindset of a housewife. Orderly. One thing at a time. get the dinner on the table all at the same time – meat takes 1 hour, veggies 10 minutes, potatoes 40 minutes, dessert 20 minutes. We do it every day. It isn’t impossible.

If all you can manage in your sales program is three choices, then limit your offerings to that until you can build from there. But don’t let things get so complicated that you lose control, send wrong products, and lose your business reputation in the process.

After all, it IS the little things that make the difference. The right color. The right weight. On time as ordered. A followup call to see that the customer is happy. That’s not so hard – but too ofter overlooked.

Maybe it’s the Golden Rule applied as well. How would you want to be treated? Now that we’re mired in the Recession, each sale is a blessing, each customer to be cherished and treated right. And it’s good for your soul as well; a sense of peace. knowing that you have indeed done things right.

So that’s how we do business at Great American Bison. How about you?

Regards, Julie Littlefield

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Confidence in the New Economy

•July 3, 2012 • Leave a Comment

Interesting opportunities abound in this transition time. Plenty of commercial rental space is available in key locations. New items are hot, while what worked 5 years ago is not. Yes, more than ever it is the relationship and spirit of trust that give buyers the confidence they need to buy from you.
The Buffalo Collection at Scenic Mesa has two rental storelocations: in Aspen and Scottsdale. We can put our buffalo leather furniture and home accessories in front of the world for sales and comment. Feedback has been terrific. Sales are growing. We have our finger on the pulse of what consumers like and want.
These locations were unavailable and beyond us 3 years ago. Today’s market brought changes and new opportunities we’re taking advantage of. In addition to these stores of our own, we’ve been able to partner with Maverick’s in Santa Fe, Gun Powder Ranch in MD, and Rawhide in Oklahoma City. These stores now carry our products and expand our reach to customers.
It isn’t enough to be “Made in America” – the products today have to be beautiful and seen to be of real value. No more “cheaper by the dozen” running off the assembly line.
So, the time is right for us. For you too? I encourage you to look at your American product with the eyes of the new consumer. Are you making something classic and of lasting value here in America? If so, the time is right for you as well. Take advantage of this market and bet on the future. Now is your opportunity.
Warm regards, Julie Littlefield, proprietor

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Opportunities in an axnous time

•May 17, 2012 • Leave a Comment

Funny how tough times can present opportunities you’d never have otherwise.
Our brand new Scottsdale store, The Buffalo Collection at Scenic Mesa in Old Town, suffered a flood from a broken water hose in April. What a disaster just as the visitor’s season began. Everything out, tear up the floor, redo the wallboard. But then we took the opportunity to expand into the adjacent vacant space, doubling the store and giving us the opportunity to showcase so much more of our unique buffalo leather furniture.

We will open again tomorrow: bigger, brighter, (cleaner, for sure).
What looked like a disaster is turning out to be a n opportunity to grow.
If you’re in the neighborhood, come celebrate with us. We’re back in business and stronger than ever!!

Have you made use of an opportunity in tough times? Those stories are great to share. I’d love to hear how you took a gamble – and came out better than ever!

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Interior Designers

•August 5, 2011 • Leave a Comment

Contracting an Interior Designer is a great way to make sure your expensive décor is tasteful, works together as a whole, and that you have the widest selection of furnishings, fabrics, and fixtures.  Many resources are available “to the trade only” that are not available to the retail public.  One of  Designers’ most valuable functions is as general contractor for decorating, handling specifications, scheduling, shipping, and installation.  People with busy lives find it much easier to work with an Interior Designer and Architect than to handle all the details of building and furnishing themselves.

That said, Designers increasingly find the savvy client asking to purchase furnishings themselves, hiring the Designer only for the actual design.  Thus the customer takes on much of the role of the Designer, caught up in the inevitable hassles of scheduling, shipping, installation, and returns. This alternative model for using Designers does expand the potential customer base for Designers.  It also forces the Designer to change their fee structure to charge enough for the design itself if they are no longer able to up charge the customer for furnishings and installation services.

As a manufacturer, The Buffalo Collection works with both Designers and the public.  We specialize in American Buffalo leather furniture and home accessories.  American buffalo hides are purchased in the Midwest, tanned in Mexico, and built into furniture by Hancock & Moore in Hickory NC.  Furniture designs are from ranch tradition and western Designers.  Local skilled artisans enhance our designs with braiding and appliqué trapunto coming from Western handcraft traditions of rein-making and leatherwork.

The Buffalo Collection works with both Interior Designers and direct retail customers.  Price levels are set at wholesale for Designers and at retail.  We are in the process of placing furniture vignettes in 20 showrooms across the country (7 are currently in place today).  Prices to these showrooms are set at the wholesale level and they mark up to their retail price. Our website supports both price levels and can be accessed  by certified Designers using an access code.

We are seeing the value of displaying a Scenic Mesa Style in putting together a complete room setting, including furniture, rugs, tables, and lamps.  Local artisans work with our designer to develop complimentary pieces using material endemic to the American West.  Understanding that Designers are always on the lookout for new resources, we are happy to work with them in selecting furniture pieces to fulfill their requirements and encourage them to consider the complimentary items we have found as well.

Want to talk more?  Contact me at 970/872-3548 or julie@scenicmesa.com.

Julie Littlefield

The Buffalo Collection at Scenic Mesa, owner

Posted in Interior Designers

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