Shades Of Light/Rugs Under Foot

Background: After helping another home furnishings marketer expand from seven retail stores to 40, Ashton Harrison decided to strike out on her own and founded Shades of Light as a retail store in 1986 in Richmond, Va. Nearly a decade after starting her company, Harrison noted that many of the shoppers in her store were from out of town. Wanting to better serve these customers, she launched a catalog in 1995 so, “we didn’t have to open retail stores all over the place,” she reflects. Biggest initial challenge: Although she had a valid reason for starting the catalog, Harrison admits she didn’t know what she was

© Profile of Success, Catalog Success, November 2006 * Check back in January for an all-new Profile of Success in-depth interview with an industry expert. Catalog Success: How did the company/catalog get started? Ashton Harrison: We opened a retail store in 1986, launched the catalog in 1995, and started the Web site in 1999. Before that I worked for a furniture company. They had 40 stores when I left. I was with them from the time they had seven stores up to 40 stores. CS: So you struck out on your own to start a retail store. AH: Yes, that’s right.

On the following pages you’ll meet the winners of the second-annual Catalog Success Catalogers of the Year awards. We’re honored to recognize the contributions these four professionals have made to the catalog industry. This year’s winners range from an entrepreneur who sells confections made from pecans grown on her 200-acre South Carolina farm, to a retail industry dynamo who transferred her skills to the catalog arena. You’ll meet a cataloger who initially was reluctant to join the family business, but later turned it into a multi-title, national enterprise. And you’ll also read about a woman who engineered one of the greatest catalog success