Family Focus

Family Focus

Growing an organic clothing business organically takes the right

combination of industry buzz and business savvy, two sisters are learning.

entrepreneurs by Mark Gordon | Managing Editor

Even after they turned 30, started families and built up their careers, sisters Melissa Blanco and Michelle Young still held firm to the entrepreneurial dream to run their own business one day.

But after countless phone calls, e-mails and chit-chats with each other, not to mention hours of research on how other successful 'mompreneurs' and woman business owners did it, Blanco and Young were still lacking one key ingredient. They didn't know what to sell or do.

"Neither of us hated what we did," says Young, who at the time worked in marketing and branding for a Sarasota advertising agency. "But we wanted to do something that had some sort of meaning."

Their eureka moment was when Blanco, who also works in marketing for a large financial institution in Miami, called Young one night last year. What about organic children's clothing? They would call the company On Borrowed Land, Inc., a take on their shared belief in doing something positive for the environment when running their business.

Young and Blanco thought they were all set. All they had left to do was design the clothing following organic and fair trade practices, find a manufacturer, market the line, get it into stores, create a Web site and sell it. That, and get some startup financing, too.

Now, after about 18 months at it, Blanco and Young are at a crossroads many entrepreneurs face. Sales, which have totaled about $50,000 since they started selling the line last summer, aren't enough for both sisters to quit their full time jobs to focus entirely on OBLI. The good news for the sisters is that revenues are increasing, says Young, tripling on a monthly basis in the past quarter.

Blanco and Young have hit some out of the park successes, too, such as having a packet of OBLI clothes placed inside gift baskets given to Academy Award winners earlier this year. And singer Sheryl Crow was recently pictured in Star magazine holding her baby son as he wore an OBLI onesie.

"The press [for those placements] gave us a lot of legitimacy for our brand," says Young. "We weren't total unknowns anymore."

But the sisters also have gone through some tough challenges, such as finding a manufacturing partner that could stay in budget while producing clothes under fair-trade practice rules. They ultimately found a manufacturing partner in India. "We were so excited about the fun part of the business," says Young, "that we didn't realize how much work went into the manufacturing of a product."

Other challenges included writing a long-term business plan and figuring out what kind of company they wanted to be, either a fashion or a message company. Or some combination of both. "We want to be fashion savvy," says Blanco, "but we also want to appeal to those looking for just organic clothing."

Despite their business experience, Blanco and Young were slow to write a long-term business plan when they were starting out, mostly because they say they didn't want to get bogged down in details.

In the early going they received $40,000 in angel investing from two relatives, including their father, a retired FBI agent.

After that, Blanco and White spent a lot of time in research mode. They held meetings in Naples, about halfway between their homes. The central focus now is to generate sales through a combination of big retail outlets and boutique stores.

But while working toward those goals, the sisters are cognizant of the big goal they have already reached together. "My sister is my best friend," Blanco says, "and it's the best thing in the world to be able to work with her."

REVIEW SUMMARY

Businesses. On Borrowed Land, Inc., Sarasota

Industry. Fashion, clothing

Key. Two sisters look to grow a new organic children's clothing business during the economic downturn.

Tough times

Another casualty of the economic downturn: High-end jewelry.

It's a hit that especially resonates at Erika Pena Designs, a Fort Myers-based jewelry design and sales company founded by two sisters, which, just like an organic children's clothing business founded by another set of sisters in Sarasota, initially relied on some celebrity product placement to generate buzz.

"The economy has thrown growth right out the window," says Bielka Pena-Bevillard, Erika Pena's sister, who runs the financial side of the company. "People aren't buying like they used to."

Just like the sisters behind On Borrowed Land, the organic clothing company, the Pena sisters' venture was initially given a boost from some free product placement: Paris Hilton, the hotel heir famous for being famous and former tennis star Anna Kournikova were both photographed wearing Erika Pena Designs necklaces when the business was just starting out a few years ago.

The Pena sisters had ambitious plans to capitalize on the buzz in 2008 to grow their company past $500,000 a year in sales and into $1.5 million territory. Instead, like many other businesses on the Gulf Coast, the company is cutting back. They closed their Puerto Rico office, where they also bought materials, and are now importing goods and supplies from Bali. They have cut down on traveling to fashion shows across the world, too, to save money.

Now the biggest sales challenge in surviving the downturn is the same advantage they enjoyed when the economy was rolling a few years ago.

"What we sell is a need," Pena-Bevillard says, "not a want."

The sisters, however, haven't abandoned plans to raise capital to fuel growth, a plan they have been working on for the past 18 months. They are looking for at least $1 million and are targeting the global fashion industry for investors. "We want to branch out," Pena-Bevillard says. "But we need big-time capital to do that."