Leon & Lulu

What if I came to you recently for advice on opening a business? What if I said I was going to open a 15,000-square-foot, brick-and-mortar, retail store selling gift items and furniture? What if I told you I was going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars creating this store? What if I told you it was in suburban Detroit? Put down the phone, there is no need to have me committed. The suggestions I’m making are exactly the choices made by Mary Liz Curtin and Stephen Scannell just a few years ago, and thanks to their understanding of The Awesome Experience, their store, Leon & Lulu, was in the black in less than four months, and today, it is a highly profitable multimillion-dollar destination store in Clawson, Mich.

http://www.sbnonline.com/National/Columnists/19448/1065/Forethought_focus_and_fun_yield_fabulous_results.aspx

Hiring Employees' Kin: A Worthwhile Family Affair?

After converting a roller rink into a furniture and gift shop in 2006, Mary Liz Curtin sought to preserve the original essence of the 15,000-square-foot facility by hiring workers to serve fresh coffee to shoppers—while wearing skates. To handle the task, she hired several of her existing employees' teenage kids.

"They thought it was a fun place to work," says Ms. Curtin, who co-owns the Clawson, Mich., retail concern, Leon & Lulu LLC, with her husband, Stephen Scannell.

Watch our interview in Crain’s Detroit.

Crain’s Detroit Interview

Leon & Lulu has won the ARTS Award for 2008!