One of the best kept secrets in Lynnwood, WA is Anna’s Home Furnishings, which has been furnishing customers’ homes for almost 10 years. Anna’s Home Furnishings is a family-owned business that has become a successful local treasure offering high-end furniture at amazingly low prices.

"We first started back in 1995, when my dad and a business partner opened a small, low-end furniture store that was across the street from us, called Today Furniture," said Tysen Nguyen. After owning Today Furniture for a few years, Tysen’s parents, Ky Nguyen and Anna Vu, decided to venture off and start their own business. Ky sold his portion of Today Furniture to his business partner, and the two of them took a leap of faith and opened Anna’s Home Furnishings.

New business ventures and challenges were nothing new to Ky and Anna. In 1979, the family came to America as refugees from Vietnam, and Anna worked three day jobs, attended school in the evening and took care of Tysen. Soon, Anna and Ky found work at a coal mine, where Anna was an accountant and Ky was a mechanic. "My mother left her job [at the coal mine] to open a few nail salons, and my father left to open a sewing factory, which made Jansport and Eddie Bauer bags," Tysen said. When the sewing factory didn’t take off, Ky and his business partner opened Today Furniture.

When Anna and Ky opened Anna’s Home Furnishings, they went from having a showroom with 8,000 square feet to over 35,000 square feet and decided to transition from selling lower-end furnishings to high-end furnishings. They now offer products from over 100 different national brands, with their top manufacturers being Universal, Flexsteel, Standard and Schnadig.

When the store first opened, many manufacturer’s reps believed in Anna, Ky and Anna’s Home Furnishings and took a risk on them, often times loaning them their own money to purchase furniture. "A lot of our reps believed in us in the very beginning, and we built strong relationships with them. Many of them actually put their necks out for the business. When we didn’t have the money to purchase the furniture they would actually put out the money for us, and we would pay them back. We are very thankful for them," Tysen said. Without the help of these reps, Anna’s Home Furnishings couldn’t be the success that it is today.

Tysen became involved in the business a few years ago when Anna and Ky started to look into retiring. Anna called Tysen, who was working as an engineer in the Silicon Valley and told him she was tired of the business and ready to retire. Never thinking that he would do anything other then work in the I.T. (Information Technology) industry, Tysen decided to pack everything up and move back to Washington to help his parents with the business and transition them into retirement. A few months later, Tysen called his fiancée, Sandy Wong, whom he met when he was living in California and asked her if she wanted to move to Washington and help him run the store.

When Tysen starting running the store, he used his experience in the I.T. industry to update many of the store’s processes and systems. "When I came back, nothing was done on the computer — we didn’t even have a computer — so I went from high tech to no tech in this industry," he said. "It was amazing, and it blew me away at how archaic everything was. All of our invoices and price tags were written by hand and nothing was automated. So when I moved back, I implemented a new software program that does everything for us like, point-of-sale, payroll, price tags, reports and inventory which is now completely bar coded." By implementing a software program, the store became much more efficient in their day-to-day business and employees were able to focus more on the customers.

Anna’s Home Furnishings has 13 employees, including Tysen’s parents and fiancée. Since it is a family business, Anna’s Home Furnishings treats all of their employees like they are a part of the family. "There is no favoritism here, and we treat them all like family," said Tysen. The hard work of Anna’s Home Furnishings’ employees is seen in their great success.

Other then their hardworking employees, Anna’s stands out from their competition due to their sales, delivery and advertising model. Within five square miles of Anna’s Home Furnishings, there are approximately 40 other home furnishings stores, all competing for the same customers. Out of their 40 competitors, Anna’s Home Furnishings is one of the only ones to offer same day delivery and satisfy the customer’s need for instant gratification. "As long as the schedule is open, we can often deliver items the same day or customers can pick it up on the same day. When we tell our customers that they get instant gratification, they love it," said Tysen.

Anna’s is also very successful in sales because they are able to offer unique and high-end furniture at lower prices then their competitors. "There are several reasons why we are able to sell items at affordable pricing," Tysen said. "One is we buy direct containers from overseas, and when we do that, we are buying in bulk directly from the factory where the furniture was built. The furniture is coming straight to us from either China, Vietnam or Malaysia. When we buy direct from the factory, the manufacturer gives us a huge discount, so we in turn, sell the product at 40 to 60 percent off retail prices.

"The second reason why our prices are so low is because for the last 10 years, we have never done any advertising. It is kind of different, and it is a business model that has worked for us." Since Anna’s Home Furnishings doesn’t advertise, their overall expenses are less and they are able to have a lower profit margin on their items. Not advertising has been the secret to Anna’s success and because of their great location — right off of the freeway and in the middle of a furniture row — they are well known in the area. About 20 percent of their customers drive-by the business and stop in. The other 80 percent of business comes from loyal, repeat customers or people who have been referred by previous customers.

Even though Anna’s Home Furnishings doesn’t do traditional advertising, they do get their store name out by furnishing model homes in the surrounding area. They work with their store’s interior designer, Joel English, to create amazing interior designs with their store’s furniture in the model homes. "We have plaques made that display the name of the community, the name of the builder, that the home was furnished by Anna’s Home Furnishings and designed by Joel English, and then we will leave our business cards there," Sandy said. "We actually get a lot of builders that say they have heard from other builders about us furnishing their model homes and are interested in our home staging services." By having their furniture and information in model homes, Anna’s Home Furnishings is able to attract new customers in a unique way, without costing them anything.

Anna’s Home Furnishings also takes the time to give back to the community and is very involved with the local Catholic church, Holy Rosary. "We donate a lot of furniture to our local church, and that is actually where my sister, Elanie Nguyen, attends school," Tysen said.

With all of the exciting things that Anna’s Home Furnishings has done over the last few years, the future looks bright for them. Tysen would like to increase the store’s foot traffic and sales volume. "Doubling it would be nice," he said. "I would also like to grow the company and make it more automated so that it is self-sufficient without us having to manage it, like a fine well-tuned machine."

As Anna’s Home Furnishings continues to offer customers high-end furniture and low prices, the future is sure to be thrilling for Tysen, Sandy and the rest of the Anna’s Home Furnishings family.