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Carol Bennett (left) and Adrienne Birecree are also educators, and they often talk business while commuting to work.

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E-commerce

by Wanda Combs

It’s a story of two educators who became friends and eventually business partners, and now they’ve opened up a new store – on the internet.
Floyd residents Adrienne Birecree and Carol Bennett have forgone a traditional business model in favor of e-commerce. All of their jewelry can now be found at http://www.lechatnoir1.com.
The web store makes business sense, the women explain. Consumers are concerned about high gasoline prices and the safety of shopping at malls. Last year, internet jewelry sales increased 20 percent. “More and more people are willing to buy online,” Birecree comments.
While getting on the internet is a good strategy, they note, it’s not as simple as it may appear. Building a website is time consuming. Birecree, who has a doctorate in economics, tackled that job with the help of brightbuilders.com. In addition she did a lot of research and took a web design class.
The jewelry designers learned a valuable lesson quickly – the importance of hiring a marketing firm. Any web site when first submitted goes to the bottom of the pile, Birecree explains. If a Google or another search doesn’t get your site on the first or second page views, surfers “won’t look at you.”  A marketing firm knows the strategy to get a good page rank sooner, within four to six months. “If you try to do marketing on your own, it will take two to three years.”
The bracelets, earrings and necklaces at Le Chat Noir are original designs. Jewelry pieces are a combination of several different stones. They feature such things as vintage hand-carved bone, Thai silver, hand-woven beads, garnet, and African turquoise.
The jewelry also incorporates cube beads. The store’s ear threads and waterfall necklaces are popular items, say the designers. All of the jewelry appears to have broad appeal with teens as young as 15 “all the way to women in their 70s.”
Solid copper earring trees, the design of Birecree’s husband, George Dill, are part of the available items, too. Dill does the photography for the web page. Although the site has been up less than a month, there are already 170 pieces shown. Dill also handles the shipping aspect of the business, and Birecree’s brother does the accounting.
Birecree and Bennett first met when they were teaching at Floyd’s high school. Birecree was a French teacher there. Bennett worked in alternative education.  They now teach at Pulaski High School, where Bennett works with the GED program and Birecree teaches alternative education.
The two say they did not really get to know each other until they were working in Pulaski. Their mutual interest in art was soon discovered, and they found they had other similarities.
During her teaching days at Pulaski, Birecree began doing beadwork as a stress reducer, but she says her hobby turned into an obsession and eventually an addiction. She had planned to major in art in college, but she didn’t want to do commercial art. She chose math and economics for practical reasons and went on to get her doctorate in economics. But, she says, she has always been “an artist at heart.”
Bennett says she waffled between art and geology, but took art. “It did not put food on the table,” she adds, so she got her degree in teaching. She has a Bachelor’s degree in metal smithing and teaching and a Master’s degree in teaching and instruction.
She taught art for awhile, but didn’t like it for a job. She preferred art for pleasure and actually made “New Age” jewelry when she lived in North Carolina several years ago. There she had a studio in her home. Maya Angelou bought a piece of her jewelry at that time. “It’s petrified wood,” she comments. “It looks like a piece of corn.”
After Bennett and Birecree became friends, the two gave jewelry as presents to each other on different occasions. Bennett taught Birecree how to do wirework.
At PHS, the English teachers saw their earrings, and encouraged them to sell them.
The first teacher sale in January, 2006 brought in $200. Another one, $500. And a third one, $1,000.
The jewelry designers took their show on the road to craft fairs. It didn’t take them long to tire of that routine; however, they got encouragement from people there to go to cities where there were bigger markets. They went instead to the internet.
They both say they are living out their dream in this new career in art. Birecree, who taught at the university level for 20 years, says she moved to Floyd County because of the arts in the community. She is impressed with the economic development plans that have been put in place by county leaders.
Both Birecree and Bennett paint as well. Bennett has done drawings of the six rock churches, of Childress fame, and showcases them on cards. Birecree has exhibited paintings of flowers from her garden. She also has a set of cards that were printed from watercolor paintings of local wild flowers. They both helped to put on the women’s art show at The Old Church Gallery in Floyd.
Dill also does artwork, and his work is being displayed at the Bell Gallery and the new Hotel Floyd.
Birecree and Dill live in a French Hugenot house on Huckleberry Road. The Martel LaSoeur house was built in 1877. Birecree says the business partners would also like to expand into metal clay and lost wax metal casting. She has a metal casting machine, which belonged to her father (who used to be a lapidary), a kiln, and an outbuilding with electricity and plenty of room. They would like to secure grant money to finish the studio.
The business owners have applied to Round the Mountain and would like to offer a tour of the older farmhouse and open a studio store in the future. Visitors would be able to buy jewelry and watch the artists at work.
Le Chat Noir is also a member of the Floyd County Chamber of Commerce. The business owners have applied to the Floyd Artists Association.  They have also started a cooperative arrangement with local business owner Jeanie O’Neill. Their jewelry is now available at her shop on Main Street.
The business name was inspired Birecree’s and Dill’s cat, a rescued stray who has turned out to be a “lucky charm.”
Bennett and Birecree live within 10 minutes of each other, and they carpool to Pulaski during the week. During the 45-50 minutes they’re traveling to and from school, they have plenty of time to talk about the business. But if they want to talk about other things, that’s easy, too. “It’s strange,” says Bennett. “We have the same tastes, likes, background.”
“Carol and I work well together,” remarks Birecree. When they design their jewelry pieces, they work independently, but their finished products are so similar, it’s difficult to distinguish them.
Although the initial investment to the online business was considerable, the business owners are enjoying a much lower overhead with their electronic storefront. There’s no rent or utilities to pay. That enables them to sell more competitively. Le Chat Noir also offers a 20 percent discount to local friends and family.
In order to keep its page rank on the internet, the web site must be updated every week, Birecree comments. The business owners have found an easy way to do that, too. They have chosen to offer a gemstone of the month. This month, in honor of St. Patrick’s Day, they are featuring celtic things.