Rhea Lanas Grows Bottom Line by Helping Growing Families

A family business created to help other families has expanded far beyond initial expectations, and its Northwest Arkansas franchise is now among the largest for the Conway-based company.

Rhea Lana’s Children’s Consignment Inc., which holds semi-annual sales featuring upscale children’s clothing, furniture and maternity items, now boasts 58 franchises in 20 states, company president and founder Rhea Lana Riner said.

The business Riner started in her living room in 1997 has posted revenue growth of 305 percent since 2009, she said.

Last year, Rhea Lana’s was added to Inc. magazine’s 500/5000 list of the fastest-growing companies, ranked at No. 1131 overall and at No. 65 in the consumer products and services industry.

The business expanded to Northwest Arkansas in 2006 when Riner asked her sister, Ashley Shaver, to test the business model as a possible franchise.

“If anyone could do it, Ashley could,” Riner said proudly, “and she’s been great. She’s made the Northwest Arkansas business the premier franchise in the country. People love her and love working with her.”

The new location took off, and in 2008, Rhea Lana’s officially began selling franchises.

This month, Shaver’s getting ready for the Washington County spring sale, which will be held April 22-28 at Ozark Center Point Place on U.S. Highway 412 in Springdale.

 

Affordable Quality

Kate Wallis of Cave Springs is a dedicated Rhea Lana’s shopper who also consigns merchandise and helps at sales events as a volunteer.

Wallis said Rhea Lana’s “has been a blessing to our family to help us stretch our budget, and provided us with an opportunity to give our daughter wonderful clothes and toys at affordable prices during tough economic times.

“I can’t believe some of the great finds I’ve been able to get over the years,” she said.

One of her first purchases, made shortly after her daughter was born four years ago, was solid wood Ethan Allen furniture for her daughter’s room. Wallis said she got a nightstand and a double dresser with hutch for $75.

After that, she was hooked.

 “Once you go, you get it and see how the pieces of the puzzle fit together, and see how what you sell can cover what you spend,” Wallis said. “And it’s not just the clothes, but furniture, and also I’ve found some great toys there.”

And now as a consignor, she adds, “I make back what I spend, so basically I’m clothing my daughter for the year at no cost.”

Most franchises hold sales twice a year, in spring and fall. But Northwest Arkansas gets four sales a year, with two each spring and fall.

That’s because the initial sales grew so large that Shaver split them into essentially a Benton County event and a Washington County event to make them more manageable as well as more convenient for shoppers.

However, the split had more of a multiplier effect, Shaver said, doubling the amount of business rather than halving it.

The last sale she held, in March, had more than 1,100 consignors and 87,000 sale items.

In fact, she said the biggest problem she’s having now is finding venues large enough to accommodate the merchandise indoors and parking outdoors.

The sales now require 25,000 SF of indoor space and at least 500 parking spaces, she said.

Besides Ozark Center Point Place, she’s held sales at the John Q. Hammons Center and Frisco Station Mall, both in Rogers.

 

Nuts and Bolts

Shaver begins planning each sale about two months out, first securing the venue. As the opening date nears, scores of volunteers and about 25 paid part-timers begin gathering the merchandise, checking it for quality and tagging each item with a bar code.

The merchandise is displayed much as it would be in a department store, with clothing on racks in sections for boys and girls. There’s also a furniture section, a toy section, and yet another for maternity clothes.

During the weeklong sale, eight to 10 checkout lines are manned by workers with laptops and scanners, while other volunteers offer customer service on the sales floor.

Most of the volunteers are women, Shaver said, but men are always needed to help shoppers such as expectant moms get their purchases out to their cars. The men also help set up and work security at the entrance.

The Sunday after the sale is pickup day, when consignors come by to get their checks, printed using software developed by Riner’s husband, Dave Riner, and pick up their items that didn’t sell.

Consignors can also choose to donate unsold merchandise, Shaver said. Foster families get first pick of the donated items, with the rest going to charities such as the Northwest Arkansas Children’s Shelter, Potter’s House and Samaritan House.

After the spring sales, Shaver said, she takes May and June off just to spend with her kids — though she still handles tasks such as updating her Facebook page and answering emails in the evenings after the kids are in bed.

 

Family Comes First

As a single mom with children ages 9, 7, 5 and 2, Shaver said the business is ideal for her.

“I’m enjoying this more than any other job I’ve ever had,” she said. “I’m able to provide for my family, and yet be able to be a stay-at-home mom.”

That desire to stay home to raise children and still be able to help with family finances is what motivated her older sister to start the business.

Riner, who has two children in college and one about to graduate from high school, said her husband was in ministry when their kids were young, and she was trying to be resourceful.

She never anticipated becoming a business mogul.

“I was just a mom who saw the need in my own life,” she said. “I wanted my kids to look cute, but also wanted to be savvy about our finances.”

She started holding sales every few weeks out of their house, and saw there were lots of moms who were also looking for bargains on high-quality children’s clothing.

There were lots of obstacles to work out as the business took off, she said, but also lots of people around to help.

She could have started franchising sooner than she did, but she wanted to wait until her kids were older and heading off for college.

The recession at that time really helped the business, Riner said.

“Fifteen years ago, people didn’t trust the secondhand experience,” she said. “But with the economy, it’s caused all of us to be more wise with our discretionary income. So now we have attorneys and other professionals coming to our events, as they would rather save that money for their child’s college education or to take them on vacation.”

And no matter how busy she gets, she works hard to maintain balance with her family life.

“I just love spending time with my kids and my family,” she said.

For inspiration on running a successful company, Riner read a lot about cosmetics entrepreneur Mary Kay Ash, and looked to her as a mentor who achieved success in business “at a time when there was really a glass ceiling.”

Riner borrowed from Ash — and a more ancient source — one of the guiding principles on which she built her business.

“I brought into my company the Golden Rule: We should treat others the way we ourselves want to be treated,” Riner said. “I’ve found that if we run into difficult management decisions or business situations, it helps a lot to follow that. It’s been very helpful.”