Sandy's Gifts & Ladies Wear

In many ways, it is a straightforward business success story. But in many others it is a story of creativity, resourcefulness, perseverance – and personal achievement.

 Last May, Sandy Dennis expanded her business and moved into Sandy's Gifts and Ladies' Wear on Main Street in Yarmouth on the South Shore of Nova Scotia. This might not seem unusual except that it is happening at a time when many businesses weren’t in expansion mode. But anyone who knows Sandy Dennis knows her determination and her aptitude for success.
 
Certainly the Yarmouth Chamber of Commerce knew this when it named her its Female Entrepreneur of the Year for 2008. So did the local Centre for Women in Business, who sponsored her nomination. 
 
“Sandy has achieved continued business success and shown superior abilities in quality, innovation, and leadership,” says Kathleen Mooney of the Centre. She has made a real difference for local craftspeople, tourism, and for other business and the local community in general.” 
 
But Sandy’s story goes back much further than her recent award, and it is rooted in many traditional Nova Scotia values.
 
Early in life, Sandy decided that goals are important. A tall, thin, quiet woman who looks much younger than her years, she had a very difficult childhood that forced her to leave school without a high school education. When she was little more than a child herself, she worked as a housekeeper looking after a house and caring for six children.
 
“It was a tough job, but taught me to be organized, disciplined and creative,” says Sandy. “It also taught be to see the bigger picture, focus on my strengths, and start planning for the future I wanted to create.”
 
When that job ended, she moved to a nearby city where she worked at a variety of jobs to support herself. Eventually, Sandy moved to Truro, where she began making crafts for a local shop. It was there that she met her husband Ken, who was in the military. A native of Yarmouth, his dream, on retirement, was to return to his home town.
 
Sandy and Ken bought and restored a house in Port Maitland, near Yarmouth. The house had a shop from which Sandy sold her crafts directly to the public. A friend convinced her she could do well moving into Yarmouth, so she took that advice and for nine years, she owned and managed Sandy's Gifts in the Yarmouth Mall.
 
“Yarmouth generally was and still is a great place to run a business,” says Sandy. “There are lots of creative, hard-working people and the business community was very supportive.”
 
Soon, working long retail hours and producing her own crafts became tough to sustain, so Sandy settled into selling other people's products and gradually moved into selling giftware. Eventually, she moved the business into the historic home that she and her husband had purchased in 1996. This dilapidated property had once been the home of Yarmouth's first senator, John Lovitt, and was one of several houses built by the senator’s father, a wealthy local shipping magnate.
 
The result of this move was the creation of Lovitt House Treasures, specializing in high quality Victorian giftware, kitchen and bed and bath items. Many of Sandy's regular customers came from Bridgewater and surrounding areas. Sandy also established a bridal registry which proved very popular.
 
“It took us just as long to drive to Yarmouth as it did to Halifax,” says Gloria Warner, a loyal customer. “But we always did it because of the quality of Sandy’s products and the great service and selection she offered.
 
Sandy expects that her current location on Yarmouth's main street, and changing the name from Lovitt House Treasures to Sandy's Gifts and Ladies' Wear, will provide easier access for her older customers and attract a wider clientèle. In addition, the move has allowed Sandy to expand the business to include a line of Canadian made ladies' clothing including brands such as Parkhurst sweaters, Frank Lyman dresses, Soft works, Not Your Daughter's Jeans. “I think the expansion will fill a niche on Main Street,” she says.
 
Not content with simply operating a successful business, Sandy is also an active volunteer in her community. She spent six years on the board of directors with the Community Business Development Corporation (CBDC), in part to pay back the support she received when she started her business in the Yarmouth Mall. “The CBDC was immensely encouraging and supportive, at a time when it was tough to convince the banks to support a woman who wanted to open a crafts shop,” says Sandy. 
 
Sandy is also a member of a promotional committee which aims to draw people into the downtown, and she sits on two committees aimed at beautifying Yarmouth's downtown – “Communities in Bloom,” a provincial program and “Blooms by the Sea,” a gardening and landscaping project . She was also recently asked to participate in an ad hoc steering committee for downtown Yarmouth revitalization.
 
“It’s really important to me to give back to the community that gave me so much over the years,” she says, adding that she counts her husband among those who contributed to her success “taking care of so many things, including the books.”
 
She also feels she has a strong message for young people and others starting out in business. ““If you have a goal and you are determined, you will find a way,” she says. “And Nova Scotia is exactly the right place to make dreams come true.”