Sarah Shaw Interview: Founder of Entreprenette
With experience in everything from working on movie sets to launching her own handbag line, Sarah Shaw realized that she wanted to share her successes and failures with other entrepreneurs so that they could learn from her ups and downs. And so, entreprenette.com was born. The goal in founding her site, she says, was to share her hard-learned, hard-earned knowledge with women entrepreneurs in order to help them tap into their inspiration and realize their dreams.
Moolahoop: Tell us a little bit about what you do. Sarah Shaw: “I coach women on starting product based businesses. We go through everything from how to conceptualize the product and make it if they don’t have prototypes already to getting the products into stores, celebrity hands and magazines.”
Moolahoop: How did you get your start in this industry? Sarah Shaw: “After graduating from college, I worked in the movie business for about twelve years. I worked in the costume department and I didn’t see my future there. I was getting bored with my job but I definitely never thought in a million years that I would be an entrepreneur. I am actually third generation entrepreneur in the US and probably 4th or 5th generation back in Europe. Both my grandmothers were fashion designers. I had no interest in being an entrepreneur and then I came up with this idea for a handbag in 1997 and I started making them at night on my dining room table. I didn’t tell anyone about it because I was embarrassed that I was even contemplating making bags when I didn’t know anything about sewing. I could hem a pair of pants but didn’t know anything about pattern making and I certainly couldn’t draw.
So here I was on my own trying to make this bag that I envisioned that was cut with pink shears and stitched on the outside so that you could see the details. After months and months of figuring out how to create it, I finally perfected the technique. I had to get up at 6 in the morning and go to different vendors and manufacturers who could do the work for me. I finally figured out how to do it and I launched my company called Sarah Shaw Handbags. In 5 years it grew to be a million dollar company. We sold to over 1200 boutiques around the country including all the major department stores. I made bags for Julia Roberts for Oceans Eleven and America’s Sweetheart. We had a bag in Legally Blonde. All of these different avenues with celebrities helped me grow the brand much more quickly because it got me a lot of media exposure and huge store sales. Nordstrom and Bergdorf Goodman bought from us once we got into all these different movies. Then after 9/11 I lost all my financing and had to close that company. In 2004, after I had finished crying the loss of my brand, I patented a closet organizer for handbags. I had a business partner at the time and we just did online sales. I wanted to start selling to stores, because in my mind that’s where the big money was but she wanted to open our own store. We ended up going our separate ways when we were unable to agree. With all my experience, people were constantly telling me that I should teach others how to launch products. It sounded the craziest idea I had ever heard. I had no idea how this concept worked and what people would be expecting from me or willing to pay me. So I hired a coach myself to teach me how to build a service-based business and I have been coaching with Entreprenette full-time ever since. I really love helping other people either create their product or tweak it or figure what their secret sauce is how they can best market it and sell it. “
Moolahoop: So what does entreprenette.com offer in terms of coaching for entrepreneurs? How successful has it been? Sarah Shaw: “I offer a combination of written and audio content. It is a 10 week program and includes private coaching. The site was really successful from the beginning. I reached my sales goals the first time out. I belonged to Ladies Who Launch, where I had been teaching for 4 years, and some other networking groups. I reached out to all of them and built an email list through these organizations.”
Moolahoop: How has social media changed your delivery and content? Sarah Shaw: “I got my first private client through Twitter, actually. I also really believe in blogging. My blog posts are the real deal and people see that I am generous with my information. I am not just talking about something that I learned how to teach. I have real world experience.
Moolahoop: Who are your customers now? Sarah Shaw: “ I just do product based businesses, whether new or existing. Many of my clients come to me and say ‘I have a product that I have been creating for about a year and now I have a whole garage full of stuff and my husband is going to divorce me if I don’t learn how to sell it. Can you teach me?’ And then there are the people who are just starting out or who are rebranding. I have several people who have shut down their companies and are relaunching with a whole new concept or a revisited concept. Redoing their website and doing it right this time. They are trying to give themselves the best opportunity to do well. Those are interesting companies to work with because they know how to do everything but need help fine-tuning.”
Moolahoop: What is next for you? Sarah Shaw: “ I am working on a book proposal. I am really excited at the prospect of writing a book and getting it published. I have read a ton of self-help and DIY start-up books. Many are written by professors who teach the topic at school but have little actual experience. These books are quite dry and technical but they don’t have the real stories of ‘this is the disaster that happened to me and this is how I survived and made a million dollars.’ My book will have real anecdotes of my experience and strong advice on how to leverage PR to get more visibility.”
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