The SCORE on startups: Marie Forland
by Glenn RittMarie Forland knew it was time for a change when she realized she was seeing her hairdresser far more frequently than her two daughters and grandchildren on the East Coast. She laughs about that revelation, which triggered a series of life choices that has seen her trade in the glitz of Beverly Hills for the spirituality of Cape Cod.
As a single woman in California, Forland operated her own beauty products business, which included consulting to some of the world’s most renowned plastic surgeons. Now she is developing Angelic Solutions, a line of highly customized art cards and collectibles from her home office in Centerville. She not only designs the covers but creates all the copy, which often includes poems.
At 50, Forland is among the wave of baby boomers trading in their previous business experiences for a new, entrepreneurial life that better combines work, family, community and nature.
“It is about seeking balance. In California, I was calling five people at the same time. I used to eat over the sink. I had two suitcases packed – including one for the dry cleaners – at all times.”
She chose Cape Cod because of warm, vivid memories traced back to her childhood visits here, as well as its proximity to family. She chose her new business venture because its spiritual roots meshed so well with her new home.
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Despite experience running her own business, Forland understood it was an entirely different world for her on the opposite coast. Not only was she unfamiliar with the ways of the Cape, but her new venture was 180 degrees from her previous enterprise.
It’s one thing to consult with plastic surgeons and sell beauty products; it’s another thing entirely to build a business that must rely on artistic talents to turn oil paintings and spiritual creations into profits. “I know market trends in Beverly Hills, but I did not know the language of this area.”
That’s why she reached out to SCORE and encountered John Howitt.
Like so many at SCORE, Howitt is not the retiring type. It’s not easy to slow down when you are author of more than 30 technical papers in the field of automobile emissions, hold two original patents on catalytic converter technology, served as president of the Manufacturers of Emissions Control Association and are a member of the Automotive Engineers Hall of Fame. During his career, Howitt frequently worked to enact legislation and regulations to control automobile pollution.
Since moving to Marstons Mills in 1997, Howitt has worked with more than 300 clients at SCORE, while finding time to be general manager of the Hyannis Mets in the Cape Cod Baseball League and a member of the industrial advisory board of Northeastern University.
Despite his illustrious engineering background, Howitt always saw himself more as a businessman than technologist. “I love getting involved in small business, particularly from the marketing standpoint.”
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Forland’s business journey on Cape Cod took two years to materialize. “At first, I didn’t really know how to be alone on Cape Cod. I missed Los Angeles. I started to paint while trying to decide how to build a new business. I had the financial wherewithal to take my time,” she recalled.
“But after two years, I knew I could not goof off any more. Nor could I envision making a sufficient living just selling my paintings. So I determined to turn my artwork into something less emotional and more business-oriented. I also knew I wanted my products to be affordable and easy to market.”
Forland gravitated to the concept of gift cards created with high-quality, beautiful paper that would be embellished by hand and targeted toward her own generation of baby boomers – those receding from the pace and values of corporate life to a more balanced lifestyle where place proves as important as work.
“I wanted something beyond ‘Congratulations’ and ‘Happy Birthday.’”
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What Howitt saw immediately was a greeting card that is the gift itself. “It is unique and highly saleable,” he said.
At SCORE, Howitt partners with another colleague, Roger Day. “He’s brilliant at what I am not.”
“I call them my godfathers,” said Forland. “Once a month, we get together to tackle specific objectives. They have helped me prepare price points, get ready for national trade shows, proof my work.”
Howitt and Day also have connected Forland to an accountant and helped design her financial books. “They put me in a comfortable pair of shoes in the community,” she said.
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Forland’s SCORE team has contributed three ways to her business:
• Support. That is daily encouragement and other support intimately involved in her business model. “In the beginning, it was emotional; then, it was familiarity; now it includes real resources,” she said. “Inevitably, it is about brainstorming together. We will establish an agenda for our meetings and go right down the list.”
• Identifying markets. The team quickly focused on the bereavement market. “I remember walking right into a local funeral home after one meeting. That took some guts,” she said. “I never had envisioned that market, but I encountered a very positive reaction. I sold 100 of my cards in California using them for that very purpose.”
• Tracking progress. Cash flow. Financing. Pricing. These fundamentals are the bread and butter of SCORE’s model – and they can get lost as priorities when a single owner must manufacture her entire product line herself, travel across the country to sell at trade shows and develop strategies for a Web site and e-commerce. “John and Roger have helped me keep focused on my mission statement and goals.”
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“Artists work alone and that can inhibit good business sense,” observed Howitt. “If I stayed in my basement or studio and was alone every single day and did not interact and discuss my feelings and accomplishments, I would run out of juice.”
The SCORE team has helped Forland select which cards make the most sense from a sales standpoint. They helped her pick out the first eight cards to be merchandised.
“We picked out paper together. We picked the type together. We decided how large the cards should be and how much they should cost,” said Howitt. Larger ones cost $4.30 each wholesale – Forland sells directly to shops – and retail for between $8.25 to $10 each.
SCORE also helped Forland choose Sunderland Printing to produce the cards. “The owner, Mark Sunderland, believed in the cards and actually carried me for my first 90 days,” Forland explained.
Howitt and Day also helped Forland visualize her best customer. It has turned out to be women 35 years of age and older. “They buy not only for others, but also for themselves. The cards can be framed inexpensively. It was John’s idea to have them all matted so that customers could have them hanging on walls for under $20.”
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“I am steadfast reflection of the great mother. I gather all of my children; ancient and new, to the healing ground. They will find forgiveness and be washed clean of hurt and sorrow and injustice. I will illuminate their hearts with courage to live the truth of love in all things. All will be one and a blanket of peace will unfold across the land.”
That is among the many original messages found inside Forland’s customized cards, whose fronts are embellished with real pressed roses or feathers. So far, she’s sold thousands through wholesale and retail outlets, primarily boutiques and fine gift stores. So far, most of these venues are off-Cape. Two lucrative markets are California and Connecticut.
So far, however, Angelic Solutions has not quite moved into the black. “We’re getting there. Progress is steady,” she observed.
“There are days that I am upbeat. Other times, I will meet with John and Roger feeling really beat up. ‘What am I going to do? What was I thinking? I must be crazy. No one wants my cards.’
“But they will say, ‘Wait a minute.’ They track my sales. They help me open up other connections, especially through Roger’s connections with the Cape artistic community, especially the Falmouth Artists’ Guild.
“Ultimately, they honestly believe in my business. If they didn’t, I am convinced they would tell me so.”
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Howitt sees his primary role now as helping his client focus on established priorities. “She has lots of irons in the fire. What is her number one priority today? Then, move on to number two.”
“I have to make 9,000 cards while setting up a business, feeding the dog, carrying for my mother,” Forland said.
“John has helped me immeasurably with time management. Also, he taught me how to watch my expenses. For example, I would drop $5,000 going to national shows to sell and be exposed. But successfully having a story about me published in Angels on Earth magazine let me be seen by five million readers. And that did not cost $5,000.”
Published in Cape Business July/August
Glenn Ritt Glenn Ritt is editor and co-publisher of Cape Business Publishing LLC. He is the former publisher of Cape Cod Community Newspapers and editor of The Bergen Record in New Jersey. 
