Sharon Wollman For Immediate Release
C’est Chouette Home
605.371.2741
Email: info@cestchouettehome.com
Website: www.CestChouetteHome.com
The ‘Point’ of Sharon Wollman’s Business is to Rescue
History
C’est Chouette Home Sells Beautiful, Re-purposed Needlepoint Pillows
Wollman, who lives in Sioux Falls, S.D., started C’est Chouette Home in 2004 after she bought the box of vintage needlepoints, turned one of them into a round pillow and sold it at a local antique store.“It sold so quickly that I started making more,” she says. “I needed to find a way to reach a larger customer base, so I looked to the internet. I’ve sold locally through the antique store and a needlepoint store, but most of my business is through my Web site.”
Her site, http://www.cestchouettehom
Wollman has always felt the need to create and work, and spent many years as a decorators’ seamstress. When her daughter began having health problems, she felt the need to cut back on her workload, but she still longed for a creative outlet and a source of income.
“I decided that pillows would fulfill my desire to create and still allow me to use the quality silks and trims I had been accustomed to using,” Wollman says. “I love creating with the vintage needlepoints, giving them new life and a new use. I think it’s sad that so many people part with these heirlooms, but it makes me happy to ‘rescue’ them, make them into one-of-a-kind pillows, and pass them along to the next owners.”
The name, “C’est Chouette,” is a French idiom that translates literally to “small cabbage,” but is used to mean, “that’s cool.” Wollman picked up the phrase when her daughter, studying French at the time, uttered it after Wollman showed her a pillow she had just completed.
Wollman admits that she didn’t originally have the same passion for running the online part of her business.“I came into the computer world kicking and screaming,” she says. “When my family gave me a computer for Mother’s Day a few years ago to help me with my volunteer work, I cried – I wanted diamonds!”
But slowly Wollman got on board, discovering the benefits of on-line marketing. With the help of computer-literate friends and a lot of reading, learned “HTML” computer language and built her first Web site from scratch. ‘Now the friend who used to help me comes to me for help – I love that!”
Eventually Wollman upgraded her site with the help of Joyce Lucas, founder of Make Mine Pink, who also builds feminine Web sites under the name of CottageCollecti
Wollman discovered Make Mine Pink early on in her business when “clumsily” surfing the Web early one morning.“I read every ‘About Me’ page on every boutique, and I was smitten,” she says. In 2006, she joined the consortium; a move she says has “catapulted me to success at lightening speed.”
“Just to be a part of this wonderful group gave my customers faith in me immediately. Through Make Mine Pink, I gained Internet presence quickly, giving me a jumping-off point to further that presence with diligence on my part.” The support and idea swapping have been invaluable, she adds. Wollman loved her involvement at Make Mine Pink so much that she became the Director of Community Relations, utilizing her late 70's retailing degree in the new internet age.
Wollman’s success has been featured in several national publications, including Needlepoint Now and in the book- Hot Cottage Collectibles. Her work has sold internationally.
One of the best parts of Wollman’s business is that she’s able to combine business and family, since her business is in her home. Her oldest daughter helps repair the needlepoints and stitches backgrounds of unfinished needlepoints to “work off her college tuition.” Her youngest helps with the packing and shipping. "I love that both my daughters have watched me work in my field. They now know that they can always use their own creative resources to make thier way in this world."
Her daughters and her husband spend time with her hunting and “junking” to find the next needlepoint. “My husband and I plan trips in areas where antiquing is advertised as one of the main attractions,” she says. “None of my family seems to mind that a vacation is always a working vacation.”
Wollman’s clients love her creativity and use of vintage needlepoints, frequently sending notes and emails after they have received their purchases.“I admire you so much for what you’re doing … keeping so many people’s pasts alive by preserving all these needlepoints, and creating such beautiful pieces, all while making all your recipients so happy,” writes one. “I just want to shout your name and your Web site to the heavens for all to hear – except then I’m afraid you’ll be all sold out every time one of your pieces speaks to me!”
That’s unlikely, because Wollman plans to continue her business through her retirement. “I love what I do,” she says."I cannot imagine a day going by without creating."
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If you would like more information
about C’est Chouette Home contact Sharon Wollman at info@cestchouettehome.com