SBA NEWS RELEASE

Release Date: June 4, 2008

Contact: Kate Herrington (802)828-4422

COCO’s FRAME SHOP AND GALLERY RECEIVES VT MICROENTERPRISE AWARD

For more than 20 years, creative expression has been Coco Dowley’s ticket to success.  It landed her a job at Hallmark Cards, it guaranteed the success of her design licensing business, and it was instrumental in starting her picture framing company in Stowe. 

Coco Dowley, owner of Coco’s Frame Shop and Gallery in Stowe, has been selected as the 2008 winner of the U.S. Small Business Administration Vermont Microenterprise Award.  Nominated by Linda Ingold, Director, VT Women’s Business Center, Dowley came to Ingold’s attention when she was a VtWBC client receiving business start-up counseling.  Dowley was chosen for the award based on her company’s staying power, increase in sales and contribution to the community.  Coco’s Frame Shop and Gallery specializes in the custom matting and framing of paintings, drawings, photographs, textiles, needlework and a variety of small memorabilia. 

“This award affirms and encourages anyone who dreams of owning a business, especially women,” Dowley said.  “I think that has been very important for my daughter, because she watched the business move from an idea to its presence as a reality.” 

When Dowley opened the frame shop in Nov., 2005, she was inundated with urgent orders for Christmas.  “I had to hit the ground running because word got out quickly,” Dowley explained.  With the Christmas rush, she launched her reputation as a quality framer, and the business took off.  When an experienced mat cutter appeared at her door offering assistance, Dowley took her up on it with some freelance take-home work.  Today her assistant, Christina Monroe, is a valued employee working 30-35 hours a week.  By the end of the second year, Dowley says sales had increased by 40%, and have been steadily climbing ever since. 

When Dowley first moved to Stowe in 1996, she was creating art work out of her home and selling it through her design licensing business to different companies around the country.  As a former employee of Hallmark Cards in Kansas City, Dowley had discovered a virtually limitless capacity to produce art every day, 7 days a week if necessary.  Always leaning toward independence, Dowley left Hallmark when she realized she might translate her personal style into lucrative, freelance work. 

For the next several years, Dowley sold her creations to Hallmark and others who licensed the work under their own logos.  She hadn’t thought about licensing her own work, but after spending weeks on the design of some dinosaur characters, she found herself in a bind.  How could she simply sell them and walk away?  She says she was in tears at the thought of giving them up.  She told the story to a knowledgeable friend, who advised her to change what she was doing and get into design licensing.  It would be challenging, because it meant her immediate income would disappear while she dealt with agents and waited for sales.  But it also meant her work would remain her own.  She sold her dinosaur characters to meet a deadline but decided the licensing venture was worth the risk.  Commenting on the risks of the entrepreneurial gamble, Dowley said, “If you fail at something, it’s not really over because you will learn from that failure and it will make you stronger for the next opportunity.”
To her credit, the Coco Dowley name is now well-known in illustration design and has appeared on product lines nationwide, including calendars, dinnerware, cookie jars, tee shirts, shower curtains, kitchen textiles, greeting cards, etc.  One of her products even made a surprise television appearance when Katie Couric introduced a Coco Dowley “fish” cookie jar on the Today Show.  Curious about the effects of different forms of marketing, Dowley bought a page in an artists’ directory and was hired by Simon and Schuster to illustrate a children’s book, The Wonderful Happens, written by Cynthia Rylant. 

A self-described “artistic machine,” Dowley cranked out her art work with true entrepreneurial passion.  Then came a burnout phase.  “For so many years every design had to be profitable or have the potential for use as a product,” Dowley recalled.  “As a result, I went through a period where my creativity was very low.” 

Looking for ways to re-engage her creative energy, she discovered the Stowe Arts Festival and decided to participate in an art exhibit.  At the time, the decision seemed relatively unimportant but it led to meaningful changes for both Dowley and the local community.  Needing to prepare her work for display, she looked up a local framer.  What she found was the only shop in town (now closed), and it had a backlog of unfilled orders.  Typical of Dowley’s persistent and curious nature, she went to work for the owner as an on-the-job trainee, a fortunate first step toward her future business.  She loved the work and, after shoring up her skills at a picture framing school in NH, decided to start her own business.

Her next step was a business planning appointment with the VtWBC.  “I really felt this business would work, but it was like being at the edge of a cliff and leaping,” Dowley said.  “The Women’s Business Center gave me a great blueprint for working through the process.” 

The rest is history, as is Dowley’s connection with the Stowe Arts Festival.  Not only did she exhibit her own work, she made a significant contribution to her community.  “For the last two years, Coco has taken an enormous amount of her own time, and the resources of her business, to make a presentation of student art work to the public,” said Nathan Suter, Executive Director, Helen Day Art Center, Stowe.  “For two years running, Coco donated her time and framing materials to organize a professional display of student art work from this area.  This past year, she designed and helped populate and educate an arts booth that was all about arts education for youth.  It was a long, 3-day arts festival, and the arts booth was peopled by volunteers, arts teachers and loads and loads of kids and their parents, coming by to enjoy that.” 

As for the future, Dowley says she’s receptive to change but her primary challenge is finding time to do her own creative work.  “Creativity is your individuality,” Dowley said.  “We’re all full of color and energy, and creativity is tapping into that and letting it out.”  For more information on Coco’s Frame Shop and Gallery, call 802-253-1918, or visit cocosframeshop.com.

Coco Dowley was honored by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) at a ceremony sponsored by Vermont Business Magazine.  The event took place at Burlington’s Waterfront Park, June 4, 2008, 4:00 to 7:00 p.m.