For 10 days in 1997, Taba Dale, a corporate art consultant and golf- art dealer, stood in a tent with 19 other merchandisers at the U.S. Open in Bethesda, Md. In just 10 days, she sold $200,000 worth of golf-themed art.

"My gross receipts weren't too shabby," says Dale, who has selected art for the office suites and conference rooms of such corporations as IBM, Merrill Lynch, and MCI WorldCom. "But it was exhausting. It's easier to sell on the Web." Not to mention less time-consuming and costly.

When she sells online at scottsdalecollection.com, the art is shipped directly to the customer. Prices go from $30 for a poster to $3,000 or more for an original oil painting. Dale, who started her consulting firm TABA Inc. in 1979, launched the Scottsdale Collection of golf art in 1994, simultaneously building her business online and off.

While her online revenues still just account for 25% of total golf-art sales and less than 10% of TABA's $800,000 in revenues last year, she's expecting them to hit 50% this year. If this pace keeps up, her Web business could eclipse consulting revenues.

This year, Dale plans to invest $50,000 to $100,000 in her Web site to make online transactions easier and expand her gallery to include other sports.

To gain the control she feels she needs at this stage, Dale decided to stop outsourcing her Web- site maintenance and design. "I wasn't willing to acquire all that knowledge," she says. "So I acquired a partner." She and George McLennan, a 53-year-old computer whiz she met at a party, expect to relaunch their Web gallery this summer.

Scottsdale might not become the amazon.com of the sports-art world just yet, but Dale is hoping to land in the green.

By Carole Ashkinaze

This article was originally published in the May 24, 1999 print edition of Business Week's frontier. To subscribe, please see our subscription policy.

Return to main story