With the help of Upper Albany Main Street Interns, My Dream Cheetah has begun to draft new changes for their website.  Paulette Trowers-Lawrence, CEO & Founder of My Dream Cheetah has focused her business on creating toys & backpacks with an educational purpose.  Sold on Sears, Kmart, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon, her business continues to grow throughout the United States.  Paulette found the need to create a new website to keep up with changing trends in the eCommerce industry.  Her new website will be available online at MyDreamCheetah.com and will feature a new easy-to-use design, new navigation links, and an enhanced online store where customers can shop her vast array of educational products.

Upper Albany Main Street wishes Paulette Trowers-Lawrence & the Cheetah Company great success with her new website as she continues to expand her business to new areas of the country.

Paulette will be featuring a book signing event on June 1, 2014 in Hartford.  Please contact Upper Albany Main Street for additional details & free tickets.

On Tuesday, May 13, 2014, Upper Albany merchant, Rose Frett of CRL Enterprises, opened a new business selling personalized gifts through her website.  This new business is located online at YoursPersonally.us, and sells custom printed name plaques that  can be printed for virtually any name in the world.   The interns at  Upper Albany Main Street helped Rose to complete the new interactive website where customers can build their own plaques, and choose their own frame designs and color options.  Once the customer is satisfied with his or her creation, their customized frames and/or plaques will be shipped to them within seven business days.

Upper Albany Main Street wishes great success for Rose’s new business venture as she continues advertising her business nationwide.

On a recent visit to Connecticut, Seth Goodall, Regional Administrator for the US Small Business Association, came to the Upper Albany neighborhood to meet Vivian Akuoko, CEO of Evay Cosmetics.  Mr. Goodall and the other visitors chose Evay as one of the businesses that they wanted to learn more about.  Ms. Akuoko, a participant in the Upper Albany Main Street/University of Hartford’s Micro-Business Incubator, regaled the group with anecdotes of her early beginnings; the ups and downs on her quest to produce quality products, finding employees from her church home, and and recently moving the manufacturing from New York to Connecticut.

For more than 30 years, Ms. Akuoko has been on Albany Avenue.  She attributes much of her success to Upper Albany Main Street.  “Working with them is how I received my first business loan…”  With expert assistance from UHA /MBI intern, Justin, Evay’s product line has gotten a facelift, moved online and gone international.  “Exporting on a grand scale has always been a dream of mine,” says Akuoko. Now that I’ve strengthened my business knowledge, got a new marketing plan, and financing is in place, I’m ready to fly.”

My Dream Cheetah has expanded their marketing model to include sales on iTunes.  The album titled “Not Another Me,” by Lachase De Cheetah is available now at a price of 0.99 cents per song or $9.90 for the entire album, which includes 10 songs.  You can enjoy Cheetah’s custom made songs on any Apple iPhone, iPad, or iTunes desktop software program.

Upper Albany (UAMS) is very proud of this achievement and we look forward to growing her business to new levels.

With continuous help from Upper Albany Main Street (UAMS), Evay Cosmetics, LLC., was accepted into Sears Holding Corporation (stock ticker SHLD:NASDAQ) on March 13, 2014. Sears Holding Corporation was founded in 1886 and has been a prominent staple in the retail industry. Sears is the third largest general merchandise retail company in the United States.

In an effort to take their Albany Avenue business global, Evay Cosmetics LLC. of Hartford, CT  is now able to expand its reach to millions of customers around the world by virtue of the fact that all 13 Evay products are now on Sears.com and are available for next day shipping from Sears’ Connecticut and Georgia based warehouse locations.

This achievement came approximately three months after Evay completed the branding process that assigned Universal Product Codes (UPC) codes to all their products, which facilitated their marketing strategy to register their products with companies like Amazon, Sears, Kmart, and other national retailers.

Sears will provide this Hartford based business the opportunity to globally showcase their products in front of millions of  potential customers.  Vivian Akuoko, (CEO), and  Rhonda (her assistant), along with the entire Upper Albany Main Street (UAMS) team are proud of these noteworthy achievements.

To shop Evay’s full selection on Sears.com, please click here.

Upper Albany Merchants Association (UAMA) member, Vivian Akuoko of Evay Cosmetics has been invited to Amazon’s Brand Registry program.  This invitation- only program is sought after by many start-up businesses.  Membership is offered to large companies such as Hasbro Toys, Chanel, Dell Computers, Rolex, and other corporations. This is truly a special honor for this fast-growing Albany Avenue business and UAMS commends Evay for their great achievement.

Located at 1465 Albany Avenue, Evay Cosmetics has 13 products currently in production and caters to a large audience of people who are looking to beautify their skin.  With the help from Upper Albany Main Street, the company released their skin care line on Amazon in order to reach a global audience.  Amazon’s Brand Registry will enable Evay to receive a more targeted presence on Amazon.com, thereby making her brand more distinct than other smaller cosmetic companies.

With help from Upper Albany Main Street, Dr. Paulette Trowers-Lawrence has released a collection of children’s books and musical CD’s, which are now being sold in Barnes & Noble, on Amazon, eBay UK, and other popular global retail sites.  The books were released on January 2, 2014, and they have already been accepted by more than 20 retailers.

CHEETAH™ Books & Educational Plush Toys are dedicated to delivering higher education through fun and interactive activities to all children. With a focus on fatherhood, devoted fathers may visit http://mydreamcheetah.com and take the pledge to support and provide their children with a nuturing and safe home.  CHEETAH™ utilizes proprietary plush and stuffed backpacks (often with music), plush dancing and singing toys, books, puzzles, songs, audio CD, mascot, and our puppet. The company’s tools coupled with enrichment programs within schools, among other things, are the vehicles used to deliver our message of a “no-excuse attitude” towards learning.

To view all books published by CHEETAH™ and follow the animals on Bag of Baggins Islands, please visit Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/paulette-trowers-lawrence?store=allproducts&keyword=paulette+trowers-lawrence

With help from Upper Albany Main Street (UAMS), Karibu Clothing & Gifts, located on Park Street in Hartford, CT had a lot to cheer about over the Christmas holidays.  Karibu which retails African American clothing, cultural gifts, and fabrics has experienced a tremendous increase in their online e-commerce sales over the period of November through December 2013.    They received orders from across the United States and the month of December proved to be the largest percentage of online sales growth for the company since it was established in 2003.

Karibu Clothing & Gift store is continuing to grow steadily through their online e-commerce platform.  Visit Karibu Clothing & Gifts online at karibuclothing.com