UPTOWNflavor

Harlem’s Heaven, a small company based in New York City (Harlem) has achieved large growth by expanding marketing efforts online. The business, which is a participant in the Emerging Entrepreneurs Program, has used the resources provided by the initiative to design a new website and market the site by using a variety of online marketing methods.

Evetta Petty, the owner of Harlem’s Heaven, sells hats out of her store in Harlem. After connecting with the Emerging Entrepreneurs Program, an Inc. magazine and William J. Clinton Foundation Partnership, she was able to expand her business online.

Her site, www.harlemsheaven.com now receives several thousand visits for hat shoppers each month. Sales from this year have more than doubled compared to the same months in 2006 and her success continues to grow. So far, she has gotten a new site online and started implementing some online marketing in the form of search engine optimization and pay per click advertising. She plans to soon focus on optimizing her conversion rates.

“My involvement in the initiative has given me the tools to take my business to the next level by generating internet sales. Going forward, I feel that the website will be the main focus of my business” says Ms. Petty.

Evetta, well known in New York City for the church hats she designs, has created several new collections for the website. She has designed a collection of red hats specifically for the ladies of the Red Hat Society®, a collection of highly stylish hats designed for women attending the Kentucky Derby and other horse races, and a collection for the professional woman. Men can also find hats on her site including fedora and panama hats, but the most popular men’s hat is the Apple-Jack cap, since they are so hard to find.