A PASSION FOR FASHION + E COMMERCE = SUCCESS
Like most teenage girls attending high school, best friends Amy Trelenberg and Megan Healy, loved to shop for new clothes. Unlike most of their peers, however, Amy and Megan dreamed of owning their own store filled with trendy, fashionable, and affordable clothes. As adults, this powerful duo, differentiated themselves even more – they actually opened the shop of their dreams. Well, sort of, as we shall see…
Trelenberg and Healy maintained their friendship as they completed degrees in accounting and management at Penn State and Virginia Tech respectively. They continued to shop together, and often revisited their dream of owning a boutique. After a few years in the “9 to 5” corporate world, they became bored. (Yes, some small businesses are born from boredom!) After work each day they began to construct a formal business plan around their original concept of a trendy, fashionable and affordable retail store. They foresaw a lovely retail space, in a great high traffic area, filled with their personal selections from the fashion world.
But, after a year of effort they realized their business plan would not work for them. A brick and mortar retail store was just too expensive, too complicated to allow them to offer the products they wanted and still maintain the affordability they required. But they did not give up. Both of their families had experience in running a small business and encouraged them to keep trying. Trips to fashion shows in Los Angeles and elsewhere spurred them to explore modifications to their plan without sacrificing the core values of trendy, fashionable, and affordable.
Amy and Megan contacted Jayne Armstrong, the district director at the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Delaware office. Jayne offered advice and referred them to Arline Brex, the Lead Business Development Specialist and Women Owned Business representative for the office. Arline had owned designer fashion stores in Seattle and Portland for twelve years. Over the course of several counseling sessions, Arline was able to share her expertise in many areas. Armed with new enthusiasm, they set off to find another way to make it work.
After further analysis, Amy and Megan restructured their plan as an e-commerce business. They would avoid the high cost of a physical retail space and market online and with a ‘traveling boutique’. This model worked on paper, so they opened their website www.shopmamie.com in March of 2008. Sales were strong from the beginning, and their first ‘show’ resulted in nearly a complete sellout of their inventory. This success proved they had a successful business model, but also created new concerns: inventory and cash flow.
Revisiting the SBA, Brex was able to walk the entrepreneurs thru the process of securing a Community Express loan thru Borrego Springs bank. The loan permitted Trelenberg and Healy to increase inventory and expand online marketing. They also began to blog, at www.stylememamie.com and upgraded their website. So successful were these adjustments that the Mamie Girls, as they are now known, moved the business from their apartments and rented office space in November 2008. Sales have continued to grow, and the pair of 26 year olds are working with Brex, at the SBA, for another SBA backed loan to fund additional expansion.
Today, www.shopmamie.com carries several clothing lines and receives an average of 360 orders per month with spikes to 50 orders per day. Trelenberg and Healy personally select each of their offerings and wear what they sell. “Plain just doesn’t fit in our wardrobe “ they say when asked what criteria they use for inclusion in their inventory. They both must like the item to be included, and fortunately they agree most of the time. You can find a variety of styles and brands on their website. But nothing is more than one hundred dollars, and the average is around fifty dollars. So they have indeed been able to live up to their original core values and fulfill their high school dream of providing a place where a woman can “look fabulous on a budget “.
To learn how the SBA can assist you, contact them at 1007 N Orange Street, Suite 1120, Wilmington, DE 19801, call (302) 573- 6294 or visit www.sba.gov/de
This work was contributed by James Provo. James is a business development specialist and public information officer in the SBA’s Delaware District Office.