As a young child, Mark Garrett had an almost insatiable appetite to build plastic World War II airplanes. Since his weekly allowance from his parents was not enough to buy paint and glue for his P-51 Mustangs and other plastic planes, he answered an ad in the back of his favorite comic book and began selling flower and vegetable seeds door to door in his neighborhood.
While sales had been part of his life from a young age, he began to develop an interest in the law when he joined his high school debate team. It was not until his thirties that he finally left the field of marketing and sales behind to attend law school. However, a lifetime of trying to meet customer needs is not quickly forgotten, and in his final year of law school at West Virginia University he opened a candle store. Several years of intense studies had left him eager to be in front of customers and friends once again.
His first store was opened on High Street in 2003. He expanded to Cheat Lake in February 2004, and shortly afterwards combined the two retail stores into one Cheat Lake location. Garrett continued to run the Cheat Lake location and attend law school full-time until he moved his business to the WVU Business Incubator in December 2004. He advises against running a brick and mortar business while in the last year of law school.
While trying to merge business and law school may appear unfocused to some, Garrett cites a quote from Conrad Hilton which says, “Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.”
After running retail locations with only moderate success, he decided that retail focused too heavily on the local market. “If you have a 1,100 square foot store, that space acts as a governor to sales. Only a certain number of people can be in your store at any one time, and so sales are capped” says Garrett. Commerce now happens freely world-wide, and he wanted to capture this unique moment in time. This prompted the move to the WVU Business Incubator, so he could retain a local customer base, reduce overhead expense, and buy and sell globally.
While Sweet Scentz began as a candle store on High Street in downtown Morgantown, the company has gone virtual with several web sites and various items on eBay. By selling online, Garrett was able to satisfy a much larger market than just local fans and lower costs. He found distributors from various states to produce items for numerous college and pro football teams, although his long term goal is to manufacturer these items in-house.
He sells a variety of sports related goods, along with Mountaineer embroidered, customized clothing. He recently started to offer more WVU items after studying what other colleges have been successful in selling. His web site, customclothingstore.com, allows the buyer to pick the type of clothing, color, and type of Mountaineer logo to be embroidered. The web site has a growing selection of apparel for men, women, and children. In the web site’s first two months, Mountaineer gear has been sold coast-to-coast. Garrett finds it satisfying to help the University gain more national exposure.
On the Sweet Scentz web site, a variety of candles, football helmet air fresheners, and custom paper air fresheners are for sale. Garrett puts a few select items on Ebay to be sold world-wide, as well as to test various pricing structures. He has sold to people all across the country as well as France, Australia, Germany, England, Italy, Canada, South Korea, Virgin Islands, Scotland, Belgium, and Brazil.
While still in an early stage of development, with constant struggles for time and finances, Garrett is comforted by the words of George Lucas, “My first six years in the business were hopeless. There are a lot of times when you sit and you say why am I doing this? I’ll never make it. It’s just not going to happen. I should go out and get a real job, and try to survive.” Garrett points out that George Lucas has brought millions of people happiness with Star Wars and hopes his contributions will also help people enjoy life. May the Force be with him.
Posted by Matt Livengood on January 4, 2007 at 2:37 pm in the following categories: Sweet Scentz
