Direct From Africa to the Internet: Elizabeth Bennett
 CHICAGO
(Reuters.com) - Many people develop travel interests as a by- product of their
business pursuits. For Elizabeth Bennett it was the opposite.
Wed Sep 16, 2009 found at reuters.com
By Deborah L. Cohen-- Deborah L. Cohen covers small business
for Reuters.com. She can be reached at smallbusinessbigissues@yahoo.com --
In 1994, the former regional McDonald's executive, human resources
professional and franchise owner needed a time-out from the business world.
Nelson Mandela had just been elected president of South Africa. So she and
her partner, Sara Luther, both avid supporters of the movement against the
country's former racist apartheid system, took off for an extended tour of
southern Africa.
They pulled their three youngest children out of school, bought a used food
panel van they converted into a camper, and set off on an eight-month trek
through South Africa, Lesotho, Mozambique, Botswana and Swaziland.
Throughout the winding 15,000 mile-journey the family bought up trinkets - a
basket here, a few weavings there, carvings, masks and beads - with the
intention of keeping some for themselves and giving the rest to friends back in
the States.
"I got very interested in the women who were making the
baskets," recalls Bennett, 60, who says she wasn't consciously thinking
of beginning a new business at that time. "I was very interested in the
craft. I got interested in the artists' co-ops."
It wasn't long, however, before Bennett's new found passion for accumulating
African art - and how the proceeds could benefit local communities - reignited
her entrepreneurial spirit.
"Several months before we came home I knew it was going to be," she
says of the business now known as Africa Direct. "I was thinking in
terms of shows and wholesaling."
Instead, the model that has proven most effective for Africa Direct has been
a virtual one, allowing the company to cultivate buyers throughout the world,
including gallery owners, art collectors, academics, museums and everyday
consumers.
There's something for everyone, with many items priced below $50 and some
one-of-a-kind pieces topping $1,000 or more.
Last year the company grossed more than $1.2 million in sales, all of it on
the Internet through its proprietary website www.africadirect.com
, and on eBay, where it has a growing presence.
Bennett feeds her ongoing interest in African art (she has also written
several books on the topic) with direct responsibility for buying and pricing
merchandise, which is procured from more than 100 traders, mostly Muslim men.
They come regularly to the company's Denver location from both coasts and
Europe, often informally setting up their wares in the business's driveway.
The idea of fair trade is good in principle, says Bennett, but right now
there is no way to guarantee that the proceeds from her company's purchases are
always fairly distributed to the African artisans. She says she operates in good
faith, and has built some longstanding relationships with individuals she
trusts.
"If somebody offers me a price that works, I say ‘yes,'" says
Bennett, whose company pumps more than $500,000 annually into direct purchases
from small villages throughout sub-Saharan Africa. "It's getting some money
into the continent that's badly needed."
COPTIC CROSSES, METAL CURRENCY
Africa Direct's vast inventory is representative of a multitude of peoples;
along with baskets, carvings, textiles, masks and beadwork, it includes
artifacts, weaponry and jewelry. On the company's Web site, you'll find
everything from Coptic crosses from Ethiopia to metal currency from the Yoruba
tribe in Nigeria, all meticulously catalogued with photographs and detailed
descriptions.
The company operates with a lean staff of just five full-timers besides
Bennett. They include co-owner Luther, who overseas billing and shipping, a
full-time expert on African art and three other staffers with backgrounds in
photography. Bennett insists they all wear a lot of hats.
"You have to clean dirty beads," she jokes. "We all do
lots of carrying art around. Everybody does a little bit of everything."
At a time when brick-and-mortar retailers are struggling to keep their heads
above water, the company is holding its own, says Bennett, who conducted a
recent phone interview with Reuters from San Diego, where she was being
recognized as part of Fortune Magazine's Most Powerful Women in Small Business
Initiative.
"I think African art is increasingly appreciated beyond the
traditional mud cloths and Ghana fertility dolls, and the two or three objects
that most of us, including me, thought was all there was to know about African
art back when we took Art History," she says.
Bennett forecasts that overall sales for the year will be flat; meantime her
business on eBay is up 10 percent, a trend the company is paying close attention
to. "I'm very interested in how to increase my eBay sales," she says.
Africa Direct represents a growing contingent of small business sellers on
the site, says Lorrie Norrington, president of eBay Marketplaces. eBay, which
logs a staggering $60 billion worth of transactions annually, is host to sellers
ranging from individuals dabbling in part-time sales to formalized businesses of
all sizes.
"Our business sellers, like Elizabeth - very focused on high quality -
those are growing disproportionately well," says Norrington. These
so-called high-quality sellers, or those with the best ratings from consumers,
saw sales increase 14 percent in the second quarter on average, she says.
Bennett sees additional profit as the means to affect social change. A number
of the traders have told her that Africa Direct's buying efforts have led to
more children in their villages attending schools, many of them young girls. In
addition, the company has given more than $33,000 through eBay Giving Works, a
program set up to give a portion of the proceeds from sales to specific
charities.
In the future Bennett says she wants to play a more active role in creating
new markets by consulting directly with the co-ops, helping local artists gain a
better understanding of what appeals directly to Western buyers.
"Longer range, I'm trying to figure out ways to expand the reach; that
doesn't necessarily mean more profits, but how we do this to touch
communities," she says.
© Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved.
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