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:::2006::: Chamber of Commerce Nevada  Charlie Palmer Group  |
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Sandy Sandler BOWDABRA, Founder - Biography - Crafty entrepreneur Sandy Sandler, a successful international marketing consultant, wanted to develop the world’s easiest bow-making machine. With her independent spirit, Sandler created Bowdabra®, an easy to use and understand bow-maker that has surpassed over five hundred thousand units since its launch in 1996. After graduating with a MBA from Thunderbird, The Garvin School of International Management, Sandler immediately began working as a marketing consultant where she held various executive positions. Classic Items, importer of children’s toy’s hired Sandler to launch the wildly successful children’s toy KLIKA. Sandler learned the logistics of the international toy trade and became known as a leading expert in the field of import/export marketing. Her valuable knowledge and experience inspired Sandler to open her own company, Blue Zebra. Sandler positioned Blue Zebra as an importer of toys from Belgium. While building Blue Zebra, Sandler remained an advisor to other companies and an authority in the field of international trade. While importing products she realized the growing demand for corporate gifts. Sandler analyzed the market and Blue Zebra expanded into the Corporate Gift Business. Corporate Gifts International (CGI) was Sandler’s next venture where she championed a corporate gift basket business that encouraged average individuals to design and sell their own line of custom gift baskets. Sandler marketed this sensational idea through infomercials. As Sandler’s company quickly expanded, she was invited to teach marketing classes nationwide to professionals who owned small retail businesses. Through her teaching, she realized that trade professionals could not tie designer looking bows and the bow-making machines available to them were either too expensive, poor quality or too complicated to use. In her own business Sandler had difficulty finding staff that knew how to tie bows by hand, even once they could construct acceptable bows, they had difficulty keeping up with production. With her frustration, Sandler commissioned an engineer to design the perfect bow-maker. After several dozen prototypes, Bowdabra was invented, a small machine that can tie any bow that can be made by hand. Bowdabra can also make a wide variety of crafts including wedding favors, hair accessories, table decorations, and more. Since it’s development, Bowdabra has been selling all over the world. Retail outlets selling Bowdabra include Michaels Arts & Crafts Stores, A.C. Moore, Spotlight of Australia, floral wholesalers and Germany’s QVC, where Bowdabra is a top--ten selling craft item. Sandler has been a Las Vegas resident for more than 14 years and was born in Atlanta, Ga. Throughout her life she has resided in Brussels, Paris, London, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Francisco and more. |
