<http://schema.org/articleBody>
" Where she works: New York City Sales in 2005: $1 million Her inspiration: Cristina Ambrosino can still see herself as a child standing with her two big sisters -- all three wearing crisp, A-line shift dresses. &amp;quot;Our mom dressed us in timeless outfits,&amp;quot; Ambrosino, 36, recalls. She and her sister, Victoria Brown, figured lots of parents today would want to do the same. So the two pooled $20,000 in savings to create a well-tailored and stylish children&amp;#039;s clothing line.  How they got started: In the spring of 1997, Ambrosino raided the closet where her mom had stored the sisters&amp;#039; old clothes. Using some of those vintage dresses as models, Ambrosino roughly sketched five summer designs -- all with pretty patterns for smocking. Then she needed a manufacturer to turn her drawings and ideas into clothes. That search could&amp;#039;ve been tough -- many U.S. entrepreneurs spend months flying back and forth to Asia looking for the right match. But Brown had an advantage: She was living in Hong Kong at the time and quickly found a reliable plant to do the job. A small step: Ambrosino threw a launch party for the company -- which she and Brown called Little Follies -- in her own home. Friends and family viewed the collection and, as the sisters had hoped, bought all the pieces. &amp;quot;The reaction was incredible,&amp;quot; Ambrosino says, so she held another party. Word of mouth began. Branching out: Ambrosino hired reps across the country to host similar events (called trunk shows) at homes, hotels and halls. It was hard to trust strangers at first, but, she soon realized, &amp;quot;you have to delegate or disintegrate.&amp;quot; Today, she manages 20 employees, who help her run about 50 shows a year. The business turned profitable in 2002, and Ambrosino started paying herself &amp;quot;a comfortable salary.&amp;quot; The big jump: Sales at Little Follies nearly doubled last year, hitting the $1 million mark. Ambrosino credits the Web. She refused to create a site until she was sure the company could distribute orders on demand, 24 hours a day. But once the sisters were ready, they launched littlefollies.com, and sales took off. Her personal payoff: Ambrosino helps moms enjoy that brief window when their kids will still dress adorably. &amp;quot;If you&amp;#039;re lucky, you have until they&amp;#039;re six years old,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;Then they want to wear jeans and a T-shirt like the rest of us.&amp;quot; Read Cristina&amp;#039;s Web-exclusive Q&amp;amp;amp;A!  You partnered with your sister, Victoria Brown, to start your business, Little Follies, which makes and sells classic kids&amp;#039; clothes (littlefollies.com). Any advice on keeping a partnership strong? Have separate jobs that don&amp;#039;t overlap -- and trust your partner to do her end independently. You can&amp;#039;t spend every minute together, and you need to have trust and respect for each other. Some people warn against using a credit card to start a business. Your thoughts? We had an American Express Small Business Capital line to start. But it wasn&amp;#039;t for major expenses -- it was more for peace of mind. But you have to be careful. Credit cards can be deadly if you overuse them. In the August 2006 issue of Good Housekeeping you say that it&amp;#039;s tough to trust representatives across the country with your business, because some are virtual strangers. How do you make sure you&amp;#039;re keeping control of things? I find ways to be hands-on without being there. For example, if a representative on the West Coast is running a trunk show (an event at which our clothing line is displayed and sold), I&amp;#039;ll send him the clothes I want him to present, with pictures of how I want them laid out.           What advice would you give start-up entrepreneurs about developing new ideas? Stay focused on your original idea until you build your name and reputation. It&amp;#039;s easy to expand too quickly. In the meantime, keep all your ideas in a notebook. And come up with millions -- that&amp;#039;s one of the best part about being an entrepreneur!  What advice would you give on spreading the word about your company? We sell our clothes through trunk shows and our Website, so reaching out directly to potential customers is the best way for us to go. Whether you have a Website or not, you have to spread the word about your business to as many people as possible. That means sharing your story with everyone you meet and passing along information on where they can buy your product. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/inspirational-stories/a16751/entrepreneur-ambrosino-0806/?click=smart&kw=ist&src=smart&mag=GHK&link=-SMT-GHK>