500 Hats…
October 7, 2009
Tony Hurst
Tags: 500 Hats, Bette Holleman, entrepreneur, Mary Kay..., Social Media
Logo By: Janusz Biela
Put your hat on for this one!
Logo By: Janusz Biela
A couple of months ago Bette Holleman and her husband fell behind on their mortgage despite being honest hardworking people.
What did Bette do about it?
She got her yarn out.
“From August 3-31, 2009, I issued the 500 Hat Challenge. My plan was to knit 500 hats. You can buy one (10, 20, 100!) for only $10 each, and keep it for yourself or a friend.”
Bottom line: Buying a hat from Bette would save her house. She even offered to let you donate your hat to the homeless at Modesto Gospel Mission.
Bette’s Squidoo page is here: http://www.squidoo.com/500hats
Supporter Megan Morris with her hat! Author of "That Idea Blueprint Girl"
“The results have been miraculous, really a God Thing! The grand total is 168 hats, but so much more happened to lift me up. I have always wanted to have my own online craft business, and 500 Hats gave me the confidence to go ahead and do it.”
Bette describes herself as, “A wife, homeschooling mother of five kids, and a self taught machine knitter.”
I would add that Bette ranks among the pioneer entrepreneurs in social media.
I learned about Bette from Sally Kuhlman’s feature on The 500 Hat Challenge in her blog, Sally Around the Bay. Below is Sally with her hat.
Sally Kuhlman with her hat! Author of "Sally Around the Bay"
“I received a lot of help from my Twitter and Facebook followers as well as various bloggers and El Mundo.es; the digital version of Spain’s El Mundo newspaper.”
Supporter Alex Beattie and his hat! Author of "The Hound Dog Blog"
“I have also found extra work as a freelance copywriter with companies who were impressed with my Squidoo page and videos for the 500 Hats Challenge.”
Bette has been able to keep the bank at bay with payments but our heroine is not quite out of the woods yet.
“We have kept our status at 30 days past due,
and they can’t start foreclosure until it’s 60 days past due. If we can get enough together to make 2 payments in 1 month, we’ll be caught up. Trying to find enough part time work (3 jobs already) to help make that extra payment. 500 Hats gave us enough money to make a payment to bring it back to 30 days.”
The Lady Herself with Husband John!
So here’s my challenge to all of you:
To keep this ball rolling I’m posting every photo of everybody who has bought a hat and submits a photo with their hat on. If you have a business or website that you want to promote just include a link and your name along with the name of the business and I’ll post you!
Click here to buy your hat ($10!)
Click here to submit your hat pix!
See my 500 Hats Wall here: ~The 500 Hats Wall
What’s more? Everybody whose photo is on that wall will receive a 25% discount
on any single order placed from my Mary Kay website: http://www.marykay.com/tonyhurst
Just mention 500 Hats in a note on the order and I’ll verify you with my wall.
If you’re a regular Mary Kay customer that will more than pay for your hat.
The 500′th hat person will receive a 50% discount on any single order through my Mary Kay website!
So get your hats on people! These are top quality. Very well made. For mine she even matched my Mary Kay Pink!
This is going to be this year’s holiday gift for every member of your family (and our gift to Bette for the holidays!)
Lets make this happen!
Love, Tony
The Author with his hat!
Entry Filed under: Entrepreneurs
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