Designer learns creativity is not enough to sustain her company: SBA consultant gives priceless advice on product mix, marketing.

* How many entrepreneurs start by landing marquee actress Jamie Lee Curtis as their first customer? And not only that, Curtis then waves the new product on national television and for hordes of clicking photographers while waltzing down the red carpet at the 1999 Golden Globes awards.

The launch was hard to top, but small-business owner Erin Lareau has turned beginner's luck into the start of a cottage industry, based on not only her design skills, but also help from the North Los Angeles County Small Business Development Center.

"I have always been creative, and I know how to make things" says Lareau. "What I learned from the SBA is that I had to market, and then how to market."

But back to the fairy tale beginning. It started when Lareau was enjoying a little downtime backstage at the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, where she worked in the costume department.

Lareau passed the downtime by applying small, high-quality crystal jewels to almost completely cover her father's vintage home movie camera, with the idea of turning it into a woman's purse. Lareau had previously beaded a pair of shoes and liked the results, and so was playing with the medium.

Curtis, awaiting her appointed moment with Leno, espied Lareau's camera creation and demanded it for her own. Less than a week later, she waved it to the assembled hordes at the Golden Globes, and even held it up to her eye and pretended to take pictures of the photographers. It was a million dollars of publicity overnight.

"Worldwide, something like a billion people saw my bejeweled purse," says Lareau.

After Curtis did her thing, others wanted in. Actress Rachel Griffith showed up at the 1999 Oscars waving her Lareau purse. By late 1999, Lareau was a featured artist at the Mendenhall Gallery in Pasadena.

As beautiful as the purses are, Lareau knew she had to expand the product line if it was to become a real business, a conclusion she reached in part after discussions with Peter Krause, a Small Business Development Center consultant provided for free. She added higher and lower-priced items to both make money on a regular basis (the lower-priced items) and to make an occasional killing (the big stuff). She also attended SBA workshops for a nominal sum. Unlike many SBA clients, she did not apply for a loan.

The North Los Angeles County SBDC is a partnership between the Small Business Administration, the California Trade, Technology and Commerce Agency and area cities. The Valley Economic Development Center Inc. hosts the center.

"It's a common misperception that the SBA only helps by guaranteeing loans, says John Tumpak, SBA spokesman in Los Angeles. "We actually help more business through what we call technical assistance, which can include counseling or tutorials."

Lareau found the SBA help invaluable. "It helped me define my product mix, to start making larger works as well, and to spend time marketing."

Hence, today Lareau makes globes of the world, or even small carousel horses, completely bejeweled, and utterly fascinating to watch--much of her larger work is kinetic. As a piece rotates or otherwise moves, the jewels catch and refract light in changing patterns that are enchanting and even a bit hypnotizing. "It is akin to watching firelight," says Lareau. She just finished a nearly 7-ft. tall statue for the new Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City.

Larger pieces take considerable amounts of labor to produce: "There are 24,000 jewels on a globe," says Lareau. "Each one applied by hand. A globe, however, fetches $15,000.

On the other end, she also bejewels computer mice, which she calls "ice mice, and has sold nearly 600 of them at $250 a pop, retail.

Production has risen enough that Lareau has added two employees, freeing her to spend more time marketing. Such magazines as Style, People and Wired have featured her work.

Lareau's diverse background and exposure to the arts and entertainment fields serves her well. She was a professional dancer from youth through her 30s, doing everything from movies (think Grease) to stage, to Broadway to Vegas. Along the way, she picked up work in choreography, then costuming, and even ventured in home acquisition and remodeling.

Lareau's next step, again considered carefully with help from her "mentor" Krause, is to upgrade parts of her business that have been run seat-of-the-pants style. Step 1 is to install an accounting program onto her PC and start using it to run accounts and keep tax records.

Step 2 is to follow up on leads and seek more sales representation. And it looks like Step 2 is already bearing some fruit: Lareau has just agreed to exclusive representation in Las Vegas at the Le Reve, which will he Steve Wynn's latest masterpiece on the Strip, to open in 2005.

"I sense that will be a major step forward for me" Lareau says. It is the sort of enduring exposure, in the right market. But I don't forget what the SBA did for me either."

Small Business Development Centers

What: Offer one-stop assistance to small businesses and people interested in starting a business. Each state has a lead organization which sponsors the SBDC and manages the program. Services are delivered through more than 1,000 locations.

Funding: SBA provides 50 percent or less of the operating funds for each state SBDC; one or more sponsors provide the rest. Matching funds are provided by a variety of sources, including state legislatures, private foundations, chambers of commerce, colleges and universities.

Services: Include assisting with financial, marketing, production, organization and technical problems and feasibility studies. SBDCs make special efforts to reach minority groups, veterans, women and the disabled. In fiscal 2002, the centers served 651,421 clients with a total of more than 3 million hours of service.

First step: For more information about SBDCs and to find locations, visit www.sba.gov/sbdc/.

Erin Lareau Inc.

Owner: Erin Lareau 2645 Desmond Estates Drive Los Angeles, CA 90046 [phone]

www.erinlareau.com

Year founded: 1999

Employees: 2