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My name is Denis Bastien. I am 59 years old. My role is simple, I do everything.<\/p> <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n
Also, he alone manages social media, the eCommerce site, press relations, meetups and several other projects.<\/p>\n\n\n
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His 22-year business has come a long way. Denis started from eBay, that allowed him to present his work to the world, and ended up with an outstanding eCommerce website and lots of subscribers on Facebook. Now he is here to share his secrets about his remarkable experience in the eCommerce industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Grab your daily portion of motivation and do something great as well:<\/p>\n\n\n
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Tell us a word or two about yourself. What are you responsible for in this business?<\/p>\n
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My name is Denis Bastien. I am 59 years old. And I\u2019m the owner of Affordable Designs Canada. My role is simple, I do everything. From designing the dolls, the outfit, shoes, to selling online and shipping the orders around the world. You can say that Affordable Designs Canada is a one-man show.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
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You\u2019ve been running this eCommerce business for over 22 years already. Wow! That\u2019s a good deal of time. How did it all start? Who was your moving spirit, your Muse?<\/p>\n
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I started the business because at the time I needed a job. Although I have never worked as a designer, manufacturer, or business administrator, everything came about very quickly and I discovered that this could be something I would enjoy doing. But most importantly something I was good at.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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Who is your audience? It looks like that not only children are fond of what you are creating. There are people of all ages among your fans, too.<\/p>\n
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Not everybody knows that but there is a huge subculture of adult doll collectors who enjoy playing with your dolls. Usually, doll collectors are thought of being people who put expensive dolls in a cabinet and look at them. In fact, most doll collectors today take the dolls out of the box, redress them, pose them and take pictures and often create elaborate stories to share with other collectors. Most of my customers are adults. Although many of them enjoy the fact that my dolls are affordable to buy a few extra and share their passion with their grandchildren. Maybe hoping they will become doll collectors too.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
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I see your dolls have the voice. At least Leann, as she is managing your Facebook page and sends replies to your subscribers. Do you think your dolls have got a soul, either?<\/p>\n
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I decided to give Leanne a voice from the very beginning. Just because I thought it would be fun to read what she was thinking. It became obvious the collectors were enjoying hearing about her life, her thoughts. I do not really believe that dolls have souls but I do believe they provide the collectors with a way to use their imagination. By giving a voice to Leann it has given the opportunity for my customers to talk to her as well. This has given me a lot of information, the inspiration to continue to create for the Leeann line.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
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I can suppose that your website is named after your first doll, LEEANN. Am I right? Tell us a few words about this doll.<\/p>\n
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Correct. Leeann is my \u201cstar\u201d. Everything revolves around her. Every new character in the line is either a friend, a neighbor, or someone from her school. I\u2019m giving her a voice I also decided to present her as my daughter. I soon became known as Leeann\u2019s Dad in the business, a title I am very proud of. I also think it is part of its success. Because Leann has a voice, has a dad, I believe it contributes to the play value of each item in the line.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
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I noticed that it\u2019s you who does the face paint and, oh, all your dolls look so real, just like living beings. Is it hard to make them look like that? How much time does it take you to create a doll?<\/p>\n
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At the beginning, I worked with other artists to create the prototypes for the first collection. Each doll is hand-painted by talented artists at the factory based on the prototypes. To be honest I think the production dolls are even better than the prototypes. For me to create a doll it could take a week, a month, six months, even longer. It depends on the doll, it depends on my inspiration.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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Why do people keep asking you about LOULOU? Is it a limited edition? Tell us the story behind this doll.<\/p>\n
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Every item in the Leigh Ann line is a limited edition. When I create something new for the line it gets produced in a Bergson quantity. Once they are sold, they are gone, never produced again. The reason people are talking about Loulou at the moment is that she is the latest character to be added to the line. In the future that will be new outfits, new shoes, new characters, and then we\u2019ll talk about that. The important thing is to keep them interested, excited about my work. That\u2019s a kind of trick that helps me sell online.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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