The Byron Reese Story
Byron Reese founded his company, SantaMail.org, which sells fully personalized letters from Santa Claus throughout North America (they’re even postmarked from the North Pole, Alaska, to give them a sense of authenticity). Reese sold 10,000 cards in 2001, her first year in business. Although Christmas sales increased each subsequent year, he was still looking for ways to expand his offerings. Now, parents can also order birthday cards for their children from Santa. The strategy boosted 2005 sales to $1 million.
Even so, the key to Reese’s success is organization. After realizing that he and his staff didn’t want to do the marathon 36-hour shifts they did the first year, he sought out outside vendors to help him with the yearly rush. He also takes care of any problems as soon as he gets past the rush and then starts planning for the next year. By February, he is up and running. “The temptation is not to start working until you get closer to that season, and we’ve made that mistake in the past,” says Reese, 37. “Things always take much longer than you think they will. We think it’s much better to work constantly.”
“When I was a kid, my parents gave us letters from Santa. My mom died three and a half years ago and I wanted to do this in her honor,” says Byron. “I went in with low expectations, but we sold 10,000 the first year.” The magic of Christmas is a great deal of confidence to Byron, so he implemented a rigorous quality control program in which multiple people (his elves) check each letter, ensuring complete accuracy on each one, as well as a greeting card. Santa’s birthday and post-Christmas “Greetings from Hawaii” postcard of a tanned, beach-wearing Santa.
Byron’s childhood Christmas memories include installing 200 strings of Christmas lights and decorating dozens of Christmas cookies each year. He loves the postman’s face when he goes to buy 40,000 Santa Claus stamps at the post office every Christmas. What’s next on this Christmas devotee’s agenda?
“Someday I hope to be able to deliver snow coolers to people in hot climates.”