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Goddess dresses get expanded home base ; Watch: Employees 'passionate' about marketing company [Topeka Capital Journal (KS)]
[June 07, 2014]

Goddess dresses get expanded home base ; Watch: Employees 'passionate' about marketing company [Topeka Capital Journal (KS)]


(Topeka Capital Journal (KS) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) The "goddesses" are getting a new warehouse to improve delivery.

Nikki Lewien, who runs a business selling "goddess dresses" through representatives who hold parties or attend events, said she will go on the road in the near future with her family to set up new franchises. Amanda Rollenhagen will take over Topeka operations and run a new warehouse at 5612 S.W. Topeka Blvd.



Most of the time the warehouse will be used only for distributing to buyers for their selling parties, Rollenhagen said, but it will be open to the public from 6 to 8 p.m. the first Thursday of each month.

Lewien said she got interested in the dress business after her second child was born. Goddess dresses stretch to fit most people, she said, so they were a comfortable and attractive option while she had to wear pads for nursing.


Lewien got one at a craft fair and wanted to buy more, she said, but they were only available wholesale, and she had to figure out how to sell the others. It didn't turn out to be difficult, she said, because her family then told their friends, and her first shipment of dresses sold out quickly.

Demand grew faster than she could keep up with by working out of her garage, Lewien said, and the warehouse will help improve logistics and allow them to buy in bulk.

"I'm sending hundreds of dresses to Oklahoma every day, so we needed to expand," she said.

Training and marketing materials cost $300, Lewien said. Dresses sell for $20, and the seller keeps $7 from each sale.

For information, call Rollenhagen at (785) 224-1160 or visit the Goddess Dress Party Facebook page.

Employees take over business Three employees took over Sunflower Marketing when they heard the owner intended to sell it.

Mike Eldridge, Craig Hughes and Bill Kampsen were long-term employees at the company, which prints custom T-shirts and promotional items. Eldridge said the three reached an agreement with the former owner in October, but it took until the end of April to get financing together, in addition to what they pooled from personal savings, and close the deal.

"It's something that we were all passionate about," he said.

Eldridge became president, Hughes is chief production officer and Kampsen is chief creative officer. Most of the company's operations will stay the same, Eldridge said, though they added a computer system they hope will make processes like purchasing, entering orders and scheduling production more efficient.

They can print designs customers bring or create something based on their needs, Eldridge said.

"We have people come to us with designs -- with designs that are on a napkin and designs in their heads," he said.

For information, visit sunflowermarketing.com, email [email protected] or call (800) 337-1097.

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