Turning Body Parts — Mannequin Body Parts — Into a Business

JANUARY 9, 2014, 7:00 AM

Turning Body Parts — Mannequin Body Parts — Into a Business

By COLLEEN DEBAISE

Judi Henderson-Townsend has a resolution for the new year: She wants to hit a million dollars in revenue.

It won’t be easy. For nearly 15 years, Ms. Henderson-Townsend, a resident of Oakland, Calif., has been selling, renting and recycling mannequins — a quirky line of work that she stumbled upon, quite accidentally, while looking for a garden sculpture on Craigslist in 2000. Annual revenue for her company, Mannequin Madness, has fluctuated over the years, sometimes topping $500,000 but always falling shy of $800,000.One challenge with expanding such an unusual business, Ms. Henderson-Townsend said, is that there are not a lot of similar success stories to emulate, especially for a woman who is African-American. “When you see more inspirational role models, then you think it’s possible for you,” she said. “When I look at business publications, I don’t see anyone who looks like me, especially being out near Silicon Valley.”

Ms. Henderson-Townsend, now 56, worked in corporate sales — Johnson & Johnson, United Airlines — until she joined a small dot-com 13 years ago. Right around that time, she happened to spot someone who was selling mannequins on Craigslist. She decided to check out his entire collection, about 50 dummies in all, to pick one for her garden. “And he says, ‘Now that I’m leaving the state, there won’t be a place to rent a mannequin in the Bay Area,” she said. “I had one of those Oprah ‘aha’ moments.”

Mostly on a whim, Ms. Henderson-Townsend bought his entire inventory, spending about $2,500. She had long wanted to do something entrepreneurial, so she ran the rental business as a part-time venture — until her dot-com employer went belly up a year later.

Since then, she has spent most of her waking hours peddling parts of all kinds — hands, heads, feet, legs and torsos — not to mention full-body forms of men, women and children. Early on, she expanded into sales. The first challenge was to find more inventory. She asked department stores to give or sell her their used mannequins, which she could essentially “recycle” by selling them to smaller retail stores, eBay vendors or anyone with an interest. It was a good deal for retailers, who often have to pay a big fee to dispose of the bulky, nonbiodegradable forms.

The first to bite was Sears, which sent hundreds of used mannequins her way. “We had 500 mannequins in our basement, in our backyard, in our garage stalls,” she said. “It truly was mannequin madness.” Nordstrom, Ralph Lauren and Kohl’s followed. In 2003, she won an award from the Environmental Protection Agency for recycling more than 100,000 pounds of mannequin in one year.

About seven years ago, Ms. Henderson-Townsend expanded from her home to a 1,300-square-foot warehouse. “We came back from a long vacation and got a note from city officials because we had all this inventory coming out of our driveway,” she said. “Sometimes you need a push.”

The bigger space allowed her to step up her business. She decided to become the “F.T.D. of mannequins,” creating a network of about 40 independent mannequin suppliers all over the country. Much like the floral chain, she serves as a broker, connecting retailers who wish to recycle or buy mannequins with small suppliers in a variety of major cities.

Still, sales have not grown as much as she would like, and she has had setbacks along the way, such as a failed expansion attempt in Las Vegas. The recent recession also took a toll. But 2014 could be the year that changes that, Ms. Henderson-Townsend said. She has essentially committed to a three-step process to build her business that boils down to the following: Drill down on the numbers. Find another revenue stream. And change the mind-set.

To analyze Mannequin Madness’s financials, Ms. Henderson-Townsend, who has no employees, hired a controller as an independent contractor in October. “She is looking at the numbers and figuring out where to put revenues,” Ms. Henderson-Townsend said. The controller has created spreadsheets with graphics that Ms. Henderson-Townsend finds easy to understand. “That is a huge step,” she said.

Next, to increase revenue, she is considering introducing a product line. “It is a protective cover for the mannequins, for when they are being stored or transported,” she said. Potential customers would be large retailers. She has found a local manufacturer and is looking to introduce the line in the third quarter, typically a slower time of year for her.

Lastly, she is working on embracing a “million-dollar mind-set” — something she thinks is hard for women in general. Female entrepreneurs often “don’t think they are worthy,” she said. “When you walk into a place feeling powerful, people treat you differently than when you sort of slink in.” She has taken classes on business leadership over the years and is currently reading the book “How Rich People Think” by Steve Siebold to help conquer these perceived inabilities.

If she is successful at creating a million-dollar business, Ms. Henderson-Townsend believes, she will accomplish more than just a financial goal. “Most women businesses, and particularly most minority women business owners, don’t ever get to that target,” she said. “I want to show that it’s possible.”

Colleen DeBaise is director of digital media for The Story Exchange, a nonprofit media organization dedicated to telling the stories of women who own businesses. You can follow it on Twitter.