Going after the A-list: Businesses pursue celebrity clients

It's a dream for many small-business owners: A-list celebrity clients.

The owners of 5001 Flavors knew when they started the company 23 years ago that they wanted to sell custom-made clothes to rap and R&B musicians. They sought out artists and record company executives at parties and music industry events. They looked in particular for up-and-coming artists. Now musicians like R. Kelly and Kid Rock are among their fans.

"We were able to really work with a lot of artists and help them go from obscurity to fame," says Sharene Wood, CEO of New York-based 5001 Flavors.

Some businesses court celebrities because they want to be part of the excitement of the entertainment or sports industry, and perhaps become well-known themselves. For other businesses, a famous client can bring publicity and a bump in sales.

Just one or two celebrity clients can help a small business build a high-profile customer base.

"Once you're 'in,' a lot of it takes care of itself," says Brian Menickella, a financial adviser in King of Prussia, Pa., who works with professional athletes such as Los Angeles Angels center fielder Mike Trout.

Menickella, co-owner of the Beacon Group, networked his way into advising athletes, attending baseball tournaments and befriending college coaches and sports agents.

The company's designs, strategy and timing were right, Wood says.

Some of the artists eventually started their own record labels and brought more singers to the company's list of celebrity clients. Because 5001 Flavors is well known in the music industry, athletes and actors have also bought its clothes.

"One client can turn into 10. Ten can turn into 100 in a year," Wood says.

NorthStar Moving Co. began getting celebrity clients soon after the Los Angeles-based company was founded 20 years ago, owner Laura McHolm says. It has done work for production companies, and that has helped bring it many clients in entertainment; McHolm estimates 15 percent of NorthStar's work comes from the industry.

Its reputation for discretion has also helped build its celebrity clientele, including Angelina Jolie and singer Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys.

"We have decoy trucks. If someone's being hounded by the paparazzi, we will have trucks go off in different directions," she says.

NorthStar will also do middle-of-the-night moves.

"We've done celebrity breakups, when they didn't want the press to know they were breaking up," McHolm says.

Less than a year after Paul Trible and Paul Watson started their shirt maker, Ledbury, they sent some of their styles to Joe Scarborough and Willie Geist of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program. Geist became a customer, and has mentioned Ledbury on the air occasionally.

Trible and Watson, who started the Richmond, Va., company five years ago, hoped targeting celebrities would create buzz about their brand.

When Geist and Scarborough first discussed the shirts on air, Ledbury's business would blip up 20 percent, Trible says.

"The phone would ring as soon as soon as they mentioned them," he says.

Joyce Rosenberg is a business reporter for the Associated Press.