by Kathryn Orth
(Richmond Times-Dispatch - Jan 20, 2002)

FARMVILLE - They call themselves the Downtown Divas, eight women who own and operate retail businesses on Farmville's Main Street.

For almost a year, the Divas have met for breakfast every Wednesday to trade ideas and advice. The group is part investment club and part book group, but mostly it is a business support group.

"We get to talk," said Sandy Henderson, who owns Rug Rats, a retail showroom for high-end carpeting. "When you're in business for yourself, you don't have anyone to talk to, so when anyone has a problem, we bring it up and say 'What do you think?'"

There is no planned agenda, just breakfast at a local restaurant and discussions of anything anybody wants to talk about, from personnel problems to taxes and merchandising ideas, or advice on juggling family and business responsibilities. The questions often seem surprisingly practical.

"Can I borrow some dishes? Everyday dishes, anything you want to sell," Rosa Mann of The Ivy Trellis asked Margaret Atkins, owner of Martin and Atkins Fine Jewelry, at a recent breakfast.

The Ivy Trellis had a new shipment of table linens, and Mann wanted the dishes to set off a display of Waverly placemats.

One of the first things the Divas did after organizing the group was to tour all the stores to become familiar with each others' inventory. They soon found that cross-merchandising among their stores worked well.

Carol Broadwater often borrows linens from The Ivy Trellis to add to furniture displays at her store, Amish Originals.

"We set a table with Rosa's linens and somebody bought the whole thing, the table and the linens," Broadwater said.

Diane Andrews and Annice Schuler carry Belle Pointe sweaters at their store, The Fashion Post. When Belle Pointe recently incorporated Christopher Radko designs, Andrews took a sweater to The Ivy Trellis to display among Mann's Christopher Radko Christmas ornaments.

While cross-merchandising on Main Street, the Divas also link their Web sites. Each store's Web site links to a Farmville site that features all the Divas' stores, as well as others nearby.

Most of the Divas have done well with Internet sales, Henderson said. "Oh, my, it's really amazing. I like the fact that we're in historic, small-town America, and doing business all over the country," she said.

The Internet has allowed the Divas to tap into markets they would not have had access to, Henderson said.

Mann estimates her Web site averages 120 hits a day, with about 40 percent of The Ivy Trellis's sales coming from the Internet. Mann has shipped linens and gift items as far away as Alaska and the Virgin Islands.

Caryn Kayton, of Caryn's Bridals, Formals and Tuxedos, shipped a designer wedding dress to a customer in Japan, where a local seamstress did the final fitting.

Henderson estimates 30 percent of her business is from Internet sales. She is working on expanding her Web site links to include antique shops and bed and breakfast inns in the area. "A lot of people fly into Farmville to shop, and people will often ask what else there is to do in the area."

The Divas also provide encouragement for each other in using the computer.

"We were dragged kicking and screaming into the world of computers," Andrews said. "The group helped us learn."

Schuler agreed. "The Web site, the computer in general. That's what I've gotten from this group."

The Divas credit Henderson with organizing the group, but they got their name from Chris Brochon, of radio station WFLO.

"He wrote something like that on a Christmas card one year, teasing me about being a Downtown Diva," Mann said. "We laughed about it and the name just stuck. Then when the group started getting together, I said this must be the Downtown Divas."

"I think I was watching Aretha Franklin on VH1 at the time," Brochon said with a laugh.

The Divas loved it when local investment counselor Kerby Moore gave the women glittery tiaras for Christmas as a joke, Atkins said.

But as much fun as the Divas have, they take the group seriously.

"This meeting is very important to me," Broadwater said. "I'm finally learning to run the business, instead of it running me. I couldn't have done it without the group."

"The single most important thing I have learned with the group was when we all read The E-Myth [Revisited by Michael E. Gerber] and learned 'working on your business, rather than in it.' We didn't have that concept," Kayton said.

"I like everyone's different viewpoints," Atkins said. "You can present one problem and get eight different takes on it."