Not every business owner starts out with entrepreneurial ambition. A family tragedy set Carrianne Recla on her odyssey.

After her husband became incapacitated, Recla built a furniture consignment business with three Boise-area stores and $1.2 million in annual sales in less than five years. Business was so good she created a licensing arrangement and planned to sell the Trading Places name around the Northwest.

But the business had fatal flaws from the beginning, and Recla didn't have the experience to recognize them until it was too late. When housing sales slumped, so did her sales. Her business was quickly overcome with excessive debt and overhead. Now she's looking for work and determined to pay off the people to whom she still owes money.

'I FELT LIKE CINDERELLA'

In 1997 Recla, now 36, left a marketing job with Hewlett-Packard in Boise to stay at home with her newborn daughter, Caitlin. Three weeks later her husband, Curt, was diagnosed with a degenerative brain disease. His condition worsened quickly, and soon he was unable to take care of himself, let alone support his family.

So Recla went back to school and took a part-time job at Renewal, a consignment furniture store at 517 S. 8th St. in Boise.

In October 2002, she was managing the store when a customer, commercial property manager Bob Nahas, introduced her to Roy Coneen. Coneen had a commercial building that had been empty for two years. He needed a paying tenant. He offered to finance a new consignment store and make Recla a partner if she would manage it.

"We met on a Tuesday and signed the papers on Thursday," Recla said. Trading Places opened in Coneen's strip mall at 12505 W. Chinden Blvd. that month.

A year later Recla bought Coneen's share of the store.

"I felt like Cinderella," Recla said. "I never dreamed I'd have an opportunity like that."

In reality, she had already sown the seeds of problems that ultimately would kill her business.

Recla said she did not read the terms of the deal closely enough, nor did she have a lawyer to advise her. After the sale Recla discovered she owed almost as much as she had paid for the store.

"I didn't understand I was buying all the debt along with the business," she said.

EASY GROWTH

By 2005 real estate was booming, HGTV was a big hit on cable television, and second-hand furnishings were as trendy as iced mochas. "We called it a furniture frenzy," Recla said.

"The whole second-hand, reuse movement was taking off, and then the housing market spiked, so it was too easy to keep growing," she said.

Recla opened a second store in the Pinion Square at 2141 Broadway Ave. in Boise.

Six months later, another real estate investor with an empty building came knocking.

"He made me an offer I couldn't refuse," Recla said.

The building was in Garden City, at 5777 N. Glenwood St. Recla thought she would close the Chinden store.

But to her delight, the third store found its own market in new customers from Northwest Boise.

"It didn't touch the numbers on Chinden," she said. So she extended the Chinden lease for another year.

Committed to three leases and a debt burden, Recla was overextended. But cash was still rolling in on hand-trucks along with sofas and armoires, so she didn't see trouble brewing. She was ambitious and enjoying her success.

She was collaborating with Jim Meadows and his Home Enhancement Co., donating furniture for charitable home makeovers. Meadows' home decor and makeover business has been featured in the Idaho Statesman and on TV.

Recla felt she had found her niche in the community.

"That was the best part," she said. "The first time we did a makeover, everyone was crying, and I told myself, 'This is what it's all about.' "

Meadows remains a friend to this day.

"I think she just grew too fast," he said. "Carrianne is really good at marketing, but there was no way for sales to keep up with her overhead forever."

Late in 2006 her sales plateaued.

CUSTOMERS ANGRY

The consignment game is doubly dependent on clientele. Customers provide both income and inventory.

Although Boise's housing market had just begun to slow - prices and sales began to fall in mid-2006, beginning a slump that continues to this day - Recla had to cut costs and closed the Chinden store because her expenses and debt burden were too high.

"I thought that adjustment would be enough," she said. "But moving services and advertising costs increased, and rent at the Broadway store jumped 30 percent."

Late in 2007, she hired a consultant to help analyze the business. "I felt like I needed professional help because what I was seeing was new, and I just couldn't make the numbers work," she said.

At first, Recla says, she was relieved to relinquish some of the burden and have someone else making decisions.

The consultant told her to sell the Glenwood store to eliminate some debt.

She did that last May (the new owner has changed the name to Ricochet Home Consignments), and she moved the Broadway store to a cheaper space in the Linen District at 1322 W. Main St.

Recla changed the split with consignors from 60/40 to 50/50, keeping 10 percent more for the store. She cut her advertising budget.

"July was typically one of our hottest months, and I knew if we weren't making it then, we were in trouble," she said.

She wasn't. By August consignors weren't getting paid on time. Cash from sales of their furniture went to pay operating costs, not them. Many came to the store angry.

"It was awful," said Meadows, who came in to help Recla with what was beginning to feel like a bank run. "People were aggressive and abusive. I told her, 'You can't be here anymore.' "

Recla says a Boise TV station reported the business's demise even before she closed it, creating even more confusion. She spent that night trying to call consignors to explain the situation. Most of them were understanding, she said.

One customer who had furniture in limbo was Denise Nygard. She said Recla has gone out of her way to stay in contact and make things right.

"I have sold a ton of stuff at Trading Places over the years," Nygard said. "We had a couple items left in the store (after the closure). Carrianne actually paid to deliver a king-sized bed to the Glenwood store. She's been making payments to me on a couple items that were still there at the end."

Recla would not say how many consignors are still owed money or how much. She isn't declaring bankruptcy and is determined to pay people what she owes them. "I use any extra money I have to pay them," she said.

She has learned the value of getting good advice to begin with, "before you think you have a problem," she said. "If I ever did it again I would be very careful about growing slowly, not reaching beyond the business's financial ability to pay for the expansion."

The Better Business Bureau and the Idaho attorney general's office say arrangements have been made to forward complaints to Recla. She is still making payment arrangements with consignors who contact her (her e-mail address is ccrecla@hotmail.com).

After the closure, Recla took Caitlin and moved to Colorado to live with her sister. But now she's back in Boise, looking for work - although not in furniture consignment. Her husband has been in a care facility in Boise for several years. She still visits him regularly.

She says talking to her former customers persuaded her to come back.

"It has been humbling to do that, but it has been rewarding," Recla said. "One woman even offered to help find me a job. Boise has been so supportive and patient, and that is something to celebrate."

Brad Talbutt: 672-6737