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It may sound trite, but it’s true. Joan and Andy Horner simply love people. And that’s the reason they founded jewelry direct seller Premier Designs. Both cut their direct selling teeth at Home Interiors and Gifts, learning from one of the industry’s icons, the late Mary Crowley. She taught them that people are the most important asset any company could have. And they’ve taken that to heart all these years."Mary taught us that you build the people and they’ll build the business,” Andy says. The Horners both followed that advice for the 17 years they were at Home Interiors. But even after they left and Andy started an individual consulting practice in direct selling, neither of them forgot that core counseling. They continued to look for ways to apply it, but they each missed being part of so many lives.
A year after they left Home Interiors, they visited Argentina. There, they saw human need in a way they had never seen it before. So they decided to start a company that would support ministries and charities around the world and provide a way for young mothers to stay at home more. For them, it was one more way to build people. That company became Premier Designs.
So in 1985, when Andy was 60 years old, he and Joan co-founded the direct sales jewelry company on biblical principles with a philosophy of serving, caring and sharing.
Over the years, it has been able to support schools, camps, churches and medical centers in 45 countries.
In fact, at the 2009 Direct Selling Association (DSA) Annual Meeting, Joan and Andy were inducted into the DSA’s Hall of Fame for their years of service and their significant contributions to the DSA, the Direct Selling Education Foundation and the industry.
Their choice of jewelry as their product was serendipitous. In his consulting business, Andy had worked with a jewelry company that was on the verge of going broke.
“I spent eight weeks with them,” he says. “We were unable to save the company, but I learned a lot about jewelry. It’s the No. 1 gift item in America. It’s like men’s ties—the styles change every year, so people can continue to come to more shows, learn more and see more.”
And once they realized that they had been training for it for almost 20 years, offering the jewelry through direct selling was obvious to both Andy and Joan.
“In no other industry do you get into the homes of America,” he says. “It’s a wonderful opportunity for a jeweler and a hostess to earn and let people shop on their seat, not their feet. And our parties are an educational experience. If you come, you’ll learn how to care for the jewelry you already have. You’ll learn about accessorizing and how to wear jewelry properly so that people will be looking at your head, not your feet!”
And offering their merchandise through direct selling lets them support the real jewels of the business—those young mothers they cared so much about.
On a Mission |
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Andy and Joan Horner were active in mission and charitable work long before they considered starting a direct sales jewelry company. But funding those efforts is the very reason Premier Designs exists. After Premier pays its jewelers, associates and operating expenses, it directs its money into a wide array of missions and charities that help others. It established the Horner-Premier Foundation in 1992 to manage its philanthropy. A special priority is supporting U.S. troops at home and abroad. So in 2007, Premier Designs created the Patriotic bracelet and donated all the profits to Operation Homefront, a charitable organization dedicated to making a difference in the lives of American troops and the families of fallen soldiers. Their generosity has earned numerous awards, but the Horners haven’t sought them. All they’ve ever wanted to do was help people. |
“We wanted to get mothers back into the home,” Andy says. “We’re in a generation right now where young mothers are trying to stay at home more. It’s amazing how many young mothers we have as jewelers. This business lets them be at home and hold parties two or three nights a week but make as much as they would if they were working at a full-time job. Single parents are our fastest-growing segment. Many are navigating life after divorce or after living in a bad situation. But all become members of the Premier family. We also offer opportunity to part-time workers, teachers or Christian church workers who need more income.”
For Joan, being part of a direct selling company again was a joy. She had missed her close, daily relationships at Home Interiors, and helping women make income by holding parties in their homes was right up her alley. Plus, she loved learning about jewelry. But more than anything else, she understood that to many women, having a home-based business meant more than just earning income.
“Sometimes women think they can’t do much,” Joan says. “Being an important part of a company again fulfills that need in me. I didn’t know that I had that need, but I did.
I can minister while I reach a lot of single gals who are hurting so badly after their husbands walked out on them and their children. We can include them in many things in our company. They learn that they don’t have to have a husband to build a business.”
The women who have Premier Designs businesses—the company refers to them as independent jewelers—learn that they succeed by serving, not by selling. The philosophy is consistent throughout the company, starting with the voice on the telephone that answers, “Premier Designs, how may I serve you?”
Andy says, “I’ve never talked about selling to any of our people in 24 years. You can’t sell without serving. Serving does more.” He adds, “People have a need to belong, to feel a sense of acceptance and recognition and fulfillment. One of my goals is to convey that they have worth and potential. You can do that by serving other people.”
The philosophy clearly works. The Horners treasure the hundreds of letters they’ve received from jewelers who report that their lives have changed because of Premier Designs. Many of those have stayed with Premier for years.
“Every time I open a letter where a young mom says thank you for letting me stay home with my babies, it makes all the hard work worthwhile,” Joan says. “I get two or three of those every day, all handwritten.”
Andy asserts that the company’s 52 percent retention rate is the result of its intentional attitude of service to those jewelers.
“If you bring people into a business, you must be able to support and service them with care and honesty,” he says. “You have to consistently let them know how important they are to you.” His current title even demonstrates that philosophy. For years, he was the company’s CEO. Now he’s the Chief Service Officer. “If you’ll be the chief servant of all,” he says, “people will follow you.”
Premier Designs now has about 31,500 jewelers in the United States and Puerto Rico, almost all of whom are active, even though the company requires no quotas. Instead, it pays a 50 percent commission on every item a jeweler sells. In June, the company’s top retailer sold almost $8,000 in jewelry. And to show how much it values the way more experienced jewelers mentor newcomers, jewelers who sponsor others into the business earn a 10 percent commission on the wholesale sales of everyone in the first three levels of their downline—even if only one person is in each level.
Premier requires that each jeweler renew her relationship with the company annually. It’s a way of controlling growth and ensuring that the maximum number of jewelers are working the business. It also helps Premier Designs ensure that it can live up to its commitments to serve the jewelers.
“If you want to sponsor thousands of people, you’d better know how to serve them,” Andy says. “The key to retention is to keep our word and serve people. That’s why we’ve controlled growth since we started. We never tried to get big.”
Each jeweler serves her customers through the same method—home shows. An annual catalog helps her show pieces she doesn’t personally own, but the home is where sales are made. No high-tech online stores for Premier Designs. The company values relationships so much that it doesn’t want to risk that a Web interface would replace the personal touch.
“I’m kind of against technology, e-mail and selling products on the Web,” Andy says. “What concerns me the most is that for us to be able to fulfill our purpose of enriching lives, we have to meet people. There’s no faster way to make money and build a business than through home shows. In two and a half hours a night, our people make good money. I’ve battled technology. I know that it saves you a lot of money, but I’m still hesitating to put our full line on the Internet because of our purpose. I know that there are great companies who are doing a wonderful Web business and giving points to their distributors when their customers purchase. But right now, we only sell one way—through home shows. We don’t want to set up anything to compete with that.”
Joan couldn’t agree more.
“My passion from Day One has been to keep business personal,” she says. “We try to have a warm and caring attitude here in the office and to express that to the field when they call in. We’re filling in the places where technology has taken over. Life is much more joyful when you can relate to people personally.”
The major annual jewelry catalog is issued in July and contains around 800 pieces. Interim brochures supplement it with selections such as the company’s holiday collection and the spring collection, which the company introduces at rallies in January. Like everything at Premier Designs, catalogs and supplemental brochures carry the personal touch—this time, from Joan. She leads a small committee of four jewelers and, most recently, her granddaughter, who select merchandise from among 14 suppliers.
“We choose one jeweler from each region of the country,” Joan explains. “They know what their customers want, so their input is priceless. It takes hours and hours to select the jewelry, and then we actually name every piece.” The current catalog carries rings named Madison Avenue, Opera and Couture, as well as necklaces with whimsical names, such as Hoop-De-Do and Stack ‘Em Up.
Then new styles are introduced during a fashion show at a national rally or annual convention. Premier makes the introduction fun, asking a variety of jewelers and even the missionaries the company sponsors to model the new pieces.
The Horners love their company so much that, even though they’re well beyond the age when most people retire, they have no plans to exit the business. In fact, Andy says he doesn’t believe
in retirement.
“My son took over as president two years ago,” he says. “Joan and I spend our time now with our people, especially new people in areas where we’re growing. If it were just about jewelry and making money, we’d have quit a long time ago. But it’s about a value system, people and keeping it all in balance. I finally learned to put God first, family second and business third. If this business ever interferes with our family, we’ll get out of it. But our jewelers know that we really care. We’re not smarter than anyone else, but we just love to be around people.”
