Cindy Green started her own crafty business after going to work for Michaels.
Actually, going to work for Michael.
“My first job was at the first Michaels store in Dallas, working for an incredible man and businessman, Michael Dupey, the founder,” Green said last week.
Now a maker and seller of unique gift products based on science and academic pursuits, she’s leveraging her company’s growth with an even bigger name in retail: Amazon.
With marketing visibility through Amazon.com and help from the online retailer’s order fulfillment service, Green’s Neurons Not Included has doubled sales nearly every year since 2012, and she’s happy to promote what Jeff Bezos’ behemoth can do for small businesses needing logistics help to ramp up sales, inventory and delivery efficiency.
But first, let’s hear how the lifelong Texan came to run an online sales business on 25 acres in Paron.
“I graduated from Baylor University [in Waco, Texas] the semester before my husband, and I started making miniatures and dollhouses for sale on the side,” Green told Arkansas Business.
She loved to sew, and was soon creating craft products, which led to printing on fabrics, coffee mugs and picture frames. She landed in Paron — “15 minutes from the Kroger at Kanis Road and Chenal Parkway” — last year after her husband, Randy Green, hired on as chief technology officer at Simmons Bank.
Now, along with sons Danny and Andy and daughter-in-law Brittany, Green is expanding the business and its gift product lines. Ideas for a nerdy friend might include a set of drink coasters citing “Lab Rule No. 1: Don’t Lick the Spoon,” or a Christmas tree ornament quoting Nikola Tesla: “I do not care that they stole my idea. I care that they do not have any of their own.”
All this cleverness is aimed at scientific mindsets with a sense of whimsy. (Neurons Not Included advertises its products as “accoutrements of exceptional geekery.”)
“Techie people were not being serviced in the gift industry,” she said. That changed after Green found her niche with a big seller, an embroidered pillow spelling out BaCoN, with the periodic symbols for barium, cobalt and nitrogen. “Not being complete idiots, we decided this might be an avenue worth pursuing,” Green wrote on her website.
When she started it all back in Texas, Green helped keep herself and 13 other stay-at-home moms gainfully occupied. Sales for an earlier brand, Yellow Bug Boutique, were good, and as online retail began to take off, Green opened one store on Etsy and then another.
But in the wake of the pillow’s success, the company didn’t think the name Yellow Bug “fit too well with people who do calculus problems for fun.” So Neurons Not Included was born. “We really hope you like the name, because it damn near killed us to come up with it.”
By 2014 the company had a presence on Amazon. “Once we started selling there, we started doubling our business.”
Neurons gets high traffic via sponsored placement on Amazon.com, and order-fulfillment services help keep pace with growth. Amazon gets a percentage of Green’s sales, which she calls quite reasonable. Green still sells and advertises on Etsy, and through her own site, but those generate a smaller portion of sales.
Customers’ initial response on Amazon swamped Green’s ability to handle orders. Fulfillment by Amazon lets her send products in bulk to Amazon fulfillment centers, which then handle packaging and shipping as orders come in. “Keeping up with orders was our one weakness,” Green said.
“Most of our sales are during the Christmas season, and we couldn’t handle the rush. Amazon has employees to pack and ship the items, and Amazon Prime shipping is available. It allows a small business like ours to plan ahead for the Christmas rush and takes the headache out of filling orders.” Amazon also takes care of any customer service issues, she said.
Meanwhile, the side job she conceived as a stay-at-home mother has evolved into a serious family business in a lovely setting. “It’s a little piece of heaven,” Green said of Paron. “Trees all over, and no houses that we can see. It’s exquisitely beautiful.” Danny and Andy take time to enjoy family and outdoor pursuits, and the addition of Brittany as a full-timer freed up Cindy to do more sewing.
“We’ve been blessed,” Green said.
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