CLEtc

Butch Hale, CEO

William “Butch” Hale, CEO, B.B.A. in Computer Information Systems from Middle Tennessee State University

• Technology Developer at Kimberly-Clark from 1993-2000
• I.T. Consultant at Fortis from 2000-2002
• I.T. Consultant at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey from 2002-2004
• Founder and Owner of Christmas Lights Etc. from March 2000- present*
• Founder and Owner of Yarn Envy from April 2005- present*
• Founder and Owner of Mr. Costumes from June 2008- present*

* these business are all grouped under the Wintergreen Corporation

"I am a perfectionist. I sometimes spend too much time on things that are not as important and make things bigger than they need to be."

CHRIS MILLER AND FIRST IDEAS

Chris Miller: CFO and COO, Bachelors in Finance, Masters in Computer Information Systems

• Entrepreneurial ideas started in college (ex: vending machine for VHS ca. 1994)
• Started work in the corporate world, too much politics, longed for for MORE out of life
• Reconnected with Butch at Kimberly-Clark, knew each other from college but became friends here

"Chris is patient, task-driven, and doesn’t give up. He keeps me focused and we have a good balance.”

First Idea: Virtual Recruiting (1997)

• Problem: Costs companies money to fly people (like Butch) to interview candidates
• Solution: Video interview candidates with pre-recorded questions pulled from a database.
• Pitched to IT executive at KC
• He was not on board to Butch and Chris’ dismay - “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
• Gave up on the idea

STARTING CLEtc

• Butch’s sister, Rebecca was in commercial real estate in CA and got into decorating houses there for Xmas
• Very lucrative, $10,000+ per house
• Decorated Streisand's, Armani’s, other Beverly Hills homes
• She bought the domain name (like online real estate) and had “christmaslights.com”
• Search engine at time was simple, she got a lot of traffic to her website with this name
• She couldn’t/wouldn’t sell to smaller consumers but she wanted Butch and Chris to build websites for other installers/suppliers and host them on these sites to make money (thinking franchise but not all the way thought out)
• Butch and Chris said that they could drop-ship product from her store or other suppliers on the website
• Drop-shipping: their website would be intermediary, customer orders here and order is sent to be filled at supplier who sends product out with Christmas Lights Etc’s name on it
• This was not really what she wanted to do so they did not end up partnering
• Butch’s mom suggested domain name christmaslightsetc.com and Butch and Chris began to work on coding (2000)

RAPID GROWTH OF CLEtc

• Wanted to remove things that would inhibit or slow growth for the future
• Reduce the need for manual labor in order fulfillment
• Integrated electronic ordering and invoicing
• Needed to address warehouse and storage space needs
• Wholesalers may run out of product before the holiday - it was necessary to keep some on hand in their own warehouse
• With the success of keeping product on hand, warehouse space needs increased year after year starting from 10,000 sq.ft and reaching up to 90,000 sq.ft
• Still relied on drop-shipping as their main supply chain method for larger order fulfillment

"This is America"

Stopped most business with Roman

Went to Roman's competitor, Bethlehem Lights, to do business, but they wanted to buy out CLEtc

Gradually changing from drop-shipping to buying product from main supplier, Roman

What should they do?

Went from $15K in revenue with Roman to $1M in 1 yr

Roman decided they wanted to do what CLEtc was doing

CLEtc couldn't compete with their lower price and asked them to honor the minimum advertised price

ALTERNATIVES

• Sell to Bethlehem Lights
• Stop Drop-Shipping and buy directly from the source
• Reach Out to Roman’s Competitors

SOLUTION

• Felt that they were being taken for granted given their technology background
• Did not want to try to work with anyone else who would underestimate them
• Did not want to exit the business
• Used Google tags to locate the factories that sourced the supplier’s product and emailed and met directly with the factories
• Stopped drop-shipping completely and bought directly from the source
• Now regular customers make up 70% of their sales and wholesale make up 30% of their sales
• Could now innovate if they had ideas for new products
• The Macy’s tree in Atlanta is one of CLEtc’s products, and it is patented for its design