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Before becoming known as
“The Silver Lady,” Lisa had a successful career in real
estate. She worked for over four years in the private
sector developing a customer service philosophy that
centers on the client. It has since evolved and is now
the basis of her operations today. Later, she took a
position with the United States Postal Service as a real
estate specialist where she secured properties for
future post office locations. A month in, and Lisa found
out that she was pregnant with her second child. After a
few years, the position changed and Lisa was asked to
travel more. Like any woman who has had to juggle career
and family, Lisa wanted to find a way to spend more time
with her children, Brittany and Alexis. “I realized that
my daughter Brittany, wasn’t going to be nine forever,”
she says as she explains why she made the rather drastic
career change to jewelry retail.
“I contemplated a return
to the private sector [in real estate],” she says, but
then a visit to the beach changed everything. |
Photo by
Fabio Camera
Makeup & Hair by
Kyra Doorman |
“It was because of a rope
bracelet.” Lisa begins. She and a friend had been
vacationing in Myrtle Beach when she happened to notice
a woman’s bracelet. Lisa learned that the woman had
purchased the bracelet locally in Myrtle Beach and she
made a point to seek out the vendor. When she arrived at
the store she learned
that the bracelet had been sold. Even though, on that
particular day, Lisa left without the bracelet, she did
not leave entirely empty handed. After a brief
discussion with the vendor, and the question, “Why don’t
you try doing this?” buzzing around in her head she
began to think that the sterling silver business might
be worth trying. Still intent on finding the original
bracelet, Lisa went to Atlanta to meet with sterling
silver jewelry distributors. Shortly thereafter she
acquired the bracelet that started it all and is seldom
seen without it. The now infamous bracelet was added to
her inventory and it has become one of her bestselling
pieces.
Lisa began by doing
home shows and in 2000, she decided to pitch the idea of
opening a kiosk in the Four Seasons Town Centre.
Initially, the manager told her that they had enough
stores selling sterling silver jewelry. Not one to
accept defeat, Lisa then set-up a meeting to show the
manager some of her offerings.
She arrived at the schedule time and quickly laid out an
array of pieces. The manager took one look, turned to
Lisa and asked, ”How soon can you get in here?”
 The
business thrived and within a year she had outgrown the
small unit. She created the design for the Four Seasons
kiosk that still stands today. Affectionately known as
“the castle” Lisa’s design won the United States 2005
Visual Victory Award for Best Design, and it continues
to stand as a jewel on its own.
In a business where
many sterling silver vendors have come and gone Lisa
says that she is not worried about competition. Customer
service is her main focus and she makes a point of
keeping a staff that shares her philosophy. Unlike many
other retail businesses, Lisa has enjoyed a good run
with her employees. Some have worked for her for over
five years, others return, and contrary to taboo, Lisa
has even had success with hiring her family. In fact,
she has employed her mother, her niece, and her oldest
daughter, Brittany, now 18, works at the Four Seasons
location. Even her nine-year-old daughter, Alexis, takes
part and she creates the designs for some of SGI’s
children’s jewelry. Lisa tells her staff not to
“up-sale” items, but rather to listen to the customer
and to try to meet their needs. She tells them to “show
the product” because the product will sell itself. As a
result, Silver Gallery International enjoys a strong
group of repeat customers that includes, among many
others, Lynda Petty, wife of NASCAR legend Richard
Petty.
Today, she has four
locations: Hanes Mall, The Streets at Southpoint in
Durham, Four Seasons Mall, and another at the Village on
Elm that offers such items as clothing, baby gift items,
handbags, greeting cards and more. Presently, she is
researching areas to put a 5th location.
While many will say that behind every successful man
there is a woman, for Lisa the opposite could be said.
She calls her husband of 25 years, Alan, the “backbone”
of the company. In addition to being the Director of
Emergency Services, her husband also does all of SJGI’s
engraving, and he continues to offer her support and
help whenever it is needed.
In her spare time, Lisa
designs jewelry and researches industry trends. But the
time she truly enjoys is the time she spends with family
and friends. Her family tries to get away as often as
they can to their condos at High Rock Lake or in Myrtle
Beach. Additionally, she loves to entertain at their
home here in Greensboro, and she is honored to tell me
that she has many friends that could be called life-long
friends. Some she has known since grade school, and she
is often as close to them as she is to their mothers. In
other words, Lisa is the epitome of a people-person, who
happens to have a great sense of style, and just happens
to be able to turn silver into a golden enterprise.
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