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Gunbarrel, Colorado company, Spirit Elements grows biz on Web

Spirit Elements offers garden, home products

If you look away and look back you’ll see something different. That’s how fast Spirit Elements in Gunbarrel is growing.

The company started in 2001 with an idea, five products and a Web site, http://www.Spiritelements.com. In January, the company had 400 products — now it has 800 and expects to feature as many as 1,500 in its catalog by the end of the year. It expects to send half a million catalogs out this year.

By Suzan K. Heglin, For the Camera

http://www.dailycamera.com/bdc/local_business/article/0,1713,BDC_2461_3300043,00.html

"We’re probably one of the largest catalog and Internet retailers of high-end home and garden products in the United States," says Seth Chernoff, chief executive officer of Spirit Elements. "We sell more gazebos and garden sheds than anybody."

Seth, along with his wife, Stacey, the company’s president, started the company four years ago after searching for products for their own home.

"We had an immediate response," Stacey says. "We sold something in the first few days."

She attributes early and continued success to three elements: choice of products, presentation and customer service.

"We pick products that are not easy to find, something different, something done really well," Stacey says. "We really try to cover the scope of design and whatever’s trendy. We try to find things in every taste level."

Presentation is important and has been successful in part because of

Seth’s background in Web design. He still owns Streamline Interactive Communication, which operates out of the same building as Spirit Elements.

"I didn’t want it to be another database shopping site," says Stacey, who says to completely avoid that impression they didn’t use any white on the Web site. "It’s very rich with visual design. You’re into the products and you say ‘I want that feeling in my home.’"

Their average sale is $1,500 to $2,000, so customers are treated accordingly. "When something goes wrong, we send flowers, wind chimes, whatever it takes to leave that relationship a positive one," she says.

California resident Rich Murrell has been a customer of Spirit Elements. "I found them on the Internet. I typed in ‘playhouse’ and came up with several companies," he says. "I liked them best."

Murrell does a fair amount of shopping on the Internet and feels comfortable with the process. "I think you have to follow a lot of rules for shopping on the Internet. For instance, if you use a credit card, you use just one."

With an eye for security, Murrell also takes note of a company’s presentation. "I think you can tell a lot about a company by how they write about themselves. Spirit Elements didn’t exaggerate themselves."

He was also impressed by a handwritten thank-you note after the sale. "How many companies do that? They really have gone above and beyond after the purchase of the product."

Project Living is another company owned by the Chernoffs that has grown out of Spirit Elements this summer.

"It’s a dedicated resource for the trade professional," Seth says. "It will act more as a distributor."

Although a separate company with a separate Web site, its products are the same or in the same vein. Project Living’s newest products are pine sheds and cedar playhouses from Europe.

Spirit Elements has a warehouse in Los Angeles and a "warehouse in the wings in Philadelphia," Seth says. The company’s wall fountains are being featured again on ABC-TV’s "Extreme Makeover" and are finding a market in spas and wellness centers.

"We can keep growing," Stacey says. "There’s a lot of uncharted territory ahead of us."

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