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 Artist's Business Booms, But Work Remains.
Since her Business Monday Makeover, Conni Gordon's blue eyes have been ablaze with entrepreneurial zeal. After her story appeared in The Herald in January, the artist, author and motivational speaker said her phone has been ringing off the hook with requests for her group art lessons. Gordon claims that anyone, including the blind, can learn how to paint and think.
``I couldn't even go to the bathroom I was getting so many calls,'' Gordon said from her home and art studio in Miami Beach. ``It was great.'' But, she said, sighing, it's wasn't what she had wanted to gain from her professional business makeover. Gordon, 82, had hoped to attract a partner and investor to help franchise her enterprise by teaching instructors she calls ``Conni Clones'' in the Conni Gordon method. reatively through instruction in four easy-to-learn steps. It's the Conni Gordon Method - the crux of her multitiered, decades-old business. It takes more than enthusiasm and publicity to build a business, however. After consulting with a makeover team of eight business professionals who advised her on how best to make her dreams become reality, Gordon has implemented few of their recommendations. She is twice as busy as before and accomplishing many things, but she is no closer to achieving her principal goal. In November, the consultants - which included an attorney, an accountant, a graphic designer, a banker, a professional organizer, a make-up artist and hair stylist, a marketing expert and an image consultant - met with Gordon at the behest of an assistant who said Gordon needed an updated look for a new half-hour TV show scheduled to air on Cable Tap. Gordon needed advice on franchising and also increasing her corporate speaking engagements, which at the height of her career earned her thousands of dollars per booking. An inventory of 30,000 art books were getting dusty and Gordon wanted to sell those. She was also seeking marketing ideas for her latest books, How to Think Creatively and Oops and Ahhs - 1001 Speaking Tips. In the not-so-distant heyday of Gordon's business, she would appear before large corporate groups such as IBM, Hewlett-Packard and JCPenney to speak and teach executives how to paint. A NEW LOOK With a TV show on the horizon and other public appearances scheduled, Gordon needed a more modern look. She was given a cosmetic makeover, which included ditching her signature blond wig for her own hair dyed a vibrant red. She's kept the hair color, which she said her friends and students love. She also said it made it much cooler under the TV lights. Whether the hairdo had anything to do with the success of her TV show is uncertain, but Gordon's first year went so well that she's been booked for a second year on Cable Tap this winter. To expand her audience, she's brought a Spanish-speaking assistant aboard to translate her art instruction materials. Gordon doesn't get paid for the show, but she said appearing on TV six times a week was an invaluable marketing tool for her products and services - not to mention providing a great community service. Those products - instruction manuals, books and other marketing materials, including her website and business cards - were also in desperate need of a new look that moved beyond the 1960s. Barry Zaid, a Miami Beach-based graphic artist and illustrator, designed a new website and company logo for Gordon using bold colors and crisp lettering. The website is up and running with detailed biographical information and up-to-date event listings, but Gordon has not ordered a batch of the snappy new cards. Gordon was also advised by Ana María Fernández Haar, chairman of AMF Holdings and a marketing expert, to update the covers of her books to make them easier to sell. ``While they might not look cutting edge, their content is timeless and the lessons clearly illustrated,'' Fernández Haar said earlier this year. ``They have value. They can easily be sold at demonstrations, seminars and bookstores.'' Fernández Haar also suggested Gordon reach out to mass retailers like Wal-Mart or Target about selling her videos and books in their stores. ``What's the point?,'' asked Gordon recently. ``I see no reason to do any of this stuff if I'm turning people away.'' She's so busy, she said, it's not possible for her to make those efforts on her own. UPCOMING PROJECTS Gordon has busied herself on new books - an illustration guide called Cat Lovers Pawtraits and, next on her to-do list, one for dogs, horses, and so forth but she hasn't made any attempts to sell her materials wholesale. She's also devised a new learn-to-draw column that she's pitching to newspapers and magazines. She also hasn't made much progress in organizing her office and work space, as recommended by Craig Badinger, president of Chaos To Comfort - a firm that helps homemakers and business owners reorganize. Papers and files are still stacked high on desks and tables in her studio. ``The piles have come down a few feet,'' Gordon said. ``But they've gone up again because I've been working on a new book.'' As for clearing out the books, manuals and other administrative accumulations typical of entrepreneurs, Gordon shrugged, saying, ``I need this stuff around me.'' ``Out of sight is out of mind, and I need them for instant refrences,'' said Gordon. ``That's why I am surrounded by a lot of book and reference pictures.'' Cosmetic remedies aside, reorganization of her business structure was also recommended. Attorney Steven Kozlowski said the most important thing Gordon needed to do was shore up her business plan starting with incorporating her sole proprietorship, taking an inventory of her copyrights, and securing those she does not already have. Gordon dissolved her corporation last year, she said, in anticipation of attracting a partner. ``It's been registered since 1948. I've been on TV since the 1950s. I've protected the name, and my books have been published. In 1950 I was published by Simon & Schuster.'' Gordon speaks about the promise of her company with the enthusiasm of a newly minted MBA, but her motives are not just pecuniary. ``I'm 82,'' she said. ``I can't just keep going and going. I want someone to work with me now and to develop this and to make it available for people - so they can enjoy life more.'' As for Gordon's slow pace in implementing the recommendations, Fernández Haar said it was all a matter of taking small steps. ``She took a lot of things that came up - she did the show; she did it well; she has new clients in the offering. Now she can select those things she wants to do, take a pause and take some of the recommendations into stage two,'' Fernández Haar said. Source: MONICA HATCHER,
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August 29, 2005 Section: Business Monday Edition: Final Page: 26G Memo:COVER STORY
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