A business 'tail'

By DONNA SCAGLIONE
Published: January 29, 2002

It started with an artist's vision and a businesswoman's marketing sense.

Ceramic artist Theresa LaBrecque was listening to the owner of A Mermaid's Cup of Tea speak about her tea parlor at a women's networking session, an encounter that inspired LaBrecque.

"I saw knickknack mermaids sitting and having cups of tea," she recalls. "I saw that in my mind's eye."

LaBrecque discussed her idea with the owner of the Hyannis tea shop, who saw a niche for LaBrecque's notion.

"She said, 'Theresa, there's a hole in the market for quality mermaids,' " LaBrecque recalls. "And that's all I needed to hear. I've been making mermaids ever since."

LaBrecque's Cape Cod Mermaid Collectibles [now The Cape Cod Mermaid Gallery] began three years ago with a lot of stubborn determination and very little money. On a homemade sawdust kiln in her front yard - "that's how humble it was," she says - LaBrecque created her first sculptured, ceramic, hand-painted mermaids, which sold in the tea parlor for $20 each.

Soon, customers at the tea shop were rattling their stirring spoons for more of the delicate-faced, whimsical creations.

"It took great tenacity," she says. "I chose to make my living off these mermaids and I've had to live extremely frugally to do it. Friends would say, 'Why don't you get a part-time job and do the mermaids part time?' But I just dug my heels in and did everything I could to make it happen. And I'm making my living off of my art. Hallelujah!"

Today, her mermaids range between $80 and $1,000. About 50 shops and galleries on the Cape and islands (Painted Daisies in Sandwich, Cahoon Museum in Cotuit and Oceana in Orleans, among others), Cape Ann and Florida sell them.

LaBrecque's business is one of the more than 6,488 Cape businesses owned by women, according to the 1997 Economic Census by the U.S. Census Bureau. Of the 28,028 businesses on Cape Cod, 23 percent are owned by women. However, this number could be even higher, says Marilyn Fifield, Cape Cod Commission research analyst, because it does not include businesses pertaining to agriculture and horticulture.

LaBrecque credits local business organizations with helping her reach her goal and continue setting new ones. The Cape Cod Women's Organization connected her with store owners interested in selling her work. She met Marie Sultana Robinson, a business adviser who's helping her write a business plan, through the Lower Cape Cod Community Development Corp. The Service Corps of Retired Executives helped LaBrecque write business correspondence, and most importantly, taught her the importance of a business plan.

"They really helped me understand that I wouldn't look serious to a (bank) without a business plan," she says.

Andrea Silbert of West Harwich, chief executive officer of the Center for Women and Enterprise in Boston, says the effort LaBrecque puts into her business plan is key because it will require her to examine the demand for her product, competition, pricing, cash flow projections and more.

"It's absolutely critical to do it," she says. "It's kind of your road map."

LaBrecque has also put together a volunteer advisory board of three retired business women who help with organization, number-crunching and research.

"They all have wonderful, great strengths that aren't my great strengths," she says. "For these women, it's going to be an adventure."

And LaBrecque is talking big adventure. She plans to expand the business beyond the ceramic figures and notecards that feature color photographs of the mermaids sitting at the beach.

"She's not just an artist, she's an entrepreneur," Robinson says about her client. "Her vision is to empower women on Cape Cod and become the Cape Cod Potato Chips of mermaids. In other words, employ many people in her work. She's eventually looking for like-minded investors who want to support the local economy."

"I'm very entrepreneurial," she says. "I'm very motivated by my success and I'm always thinking of how to take my business to the next step."

Copyright, 2002, Cape Cod Times. All Rights Reserved.