A FIRST PERSON ACCOUNT OF RUNNING A SMALL BUSINESS.AFTER six years as a location scout, casting agent and production manager, SalRovero had had enough of Hollywood. So he left the industry to sell cowboy hats and other western attire to the Latino community from his father's three stores in Boyle Heights. Then, Orthodox Jewish friends complained to him that there was no place in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. where they could get a quality black fedora. So the 38-year-old UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX graduate with a degree in political science opened up Hollywood Hatters. "I'd tell people my dad sells cowboy hats and the Orthodox Jewish people in the community said, 'Why don't you sell these black fedoras?' They were getting them out of New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of by mail order, when relatives would send them or when they would visit. "In 1995, I started selling them part-time out of an office above a kosher kosher [Heb.,=proper, i.e., fit for use], in Judaism, term used in rabbinic literature to mean what is ritually correct, but most widely applied to food that is in accordance with dietary laws based on Old Testament passages (primarily Lev. 11 and Deut. 14). pizza place on La Brea La Brea (lə brā`ə), area, S Calif., formerly in Rancho La Brea. The La Brea asphalt pits, which yielded prehistoric animal and plant remains, are in Hancock Park, Los Angeles. . I was open 10 hours a week - two evenings a week and Sundays. I only paid $300 a month rent. I (opened with) 36 Borsalinos. They are Italian and among the finest fedoras in the world - $180 each. When I investigated I found that the American distributor for that hat was the distributor we were using for the cowboy hats in my father's store. They allowed me to take them on credit. "I advertised within the community. I sold a hundred hats my first year and nearly 200 hats my second year. In 1997 I moved to a place on Beverly Boulevard Beverly Boulevard is one of the main east-west thoroughfares in Los Angeles. It begins off of Santa Monica Boulevard in the Beverly Hills and West Hollywood border and ends on Lucas Avenue near Downtown Los Angeles. that I share with a guy who sells suits, ties and shirts. Rent is $800. "Over time, I came to realize there wasn't a good hat store in all of Los Angeles supplying fine hats for the general community, not just the Jewish community. So I expanded my line to fedoras, straw hats and Ivy caps - some people call them golf caps - in more than 100 colors and brim brim (brim) the upper edge of a basin. pelvic brim the upper edge of the superior strait of the pelvis. brim n. styles made from all over the world. "The felt caps are $40 to $200 and the straws are $30 to $3,000. The $3,000 hat is a Montecristi Fino hat made in Ecuador. I've oniy sold one of those but I've sold five in the $1,000 to $2,000 range. I will do close to $200,000 this year, as opposed to $15,000 my first year. "There are some hat aficionados out there. They find me on the Internet and come from all over the state. We are expanding to address African-American business. They wear more colors and varieties of fedoras." |
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