Monika interviewed on alixrose.com

I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Alix Rose, a Seattle based fashion blogger. Here are some excerpts from her post, Monika Desai, CEO of Sole Envie - on how her company will change the way women shop for shoes. Visit alixrose.com for the full interview.

 

From the post:

I love the idea of being able to customize a pair of shoes. I know your passion for it comes from a personal place, but what exactly motivated you to make it into a career move?

I’ve always wanted to be an entrepreneur and I think that started when I was a kid and was living in Europe. Whenever my dad came back from business trips to the States he would bring back boxes of my favorite candy, which I would promptly turn around and sell to my American school classmates at a 100% mark-up instead of eating them myself! I kept the idea of starting my own business in the back of my mind and then a few years ago when I was having a pair of custom shoes made for my wedding I got the idea for Sole Envie. I really enjoyed the experience of designing my own shoe - choosing my style and materials and seeing my design come to life. The light went on that this would be a great idea for a business. I did some research and discovered that no other companies were offering custom shoes and for good reason - it’s not the easiest business to get off the ground. I didn’t come from a footwear background so I took some shoemaking classes, started networking, connected with some key people in the space and got to work. 9 months later I had developed my first collection, put on a fashion show and was invited to speak at a mass customization conference at MIT. Since then I’ve been working on setting up the manufacturing side of Sole Envie.

You expressed in wanting your online shoe factory to be more than just a shoe store but a community. Why and how would you go about doing that?

Shopping for women is a very social experience. We want customers to not only be able to design their own shoes, but have a place to share them with their friends and other fashion enthusiasts. Who doesn’t love creating something new and getting compliments from their friends? At Sole Envie customers will be able to rate and comment on each other’s shoe designs, participate in shoe design contests, and have a say on new product offerings. We’re also making it easy for them to share and monetize their designs on other social networks such as Facebook and StyleHive. We think we’ll be able to build a loyal following and strong brand by engaging and listening to our community.

Is there anything you would like to say to people who are looking into starting their own company, any words of advice?

Disclosure: I don’t always follow my own advice, but here are a few tips that I try to put into practice:

1) Passion. You need to have a vision and keep your eye on the big picture. At the end of the day this is what’s going to keep you going when things get tough.

2) Trust your instincts. Believe in yourself and treat mistakes as learning experiences. I struggle with this one everyday. I want everything to be perfect from the beginning and that sometimes causes me to end up with analysis paralysis.

3) Be flexible. Be open to making changes to your vision. Most likely your business will end up being a lot different than what you initially envisioned and that’s o.k. You need to be able to roll with it.

4) Seek advice. Get a mentor who knows your industry and is willing to invest time with you and guide you. This will go a long way and could open a lot of doors for you.

5) Don’t operate in a tunnel. Talk to as many people in the industry and across various disciplines as you can even if they just don’t get it (and trust me you will come across a lot of people like that and it’ll irk you to no end). It’s painful but you need to learn to listen to stuff you don’t want to hear. Let people poke holes. If nothing else it’ll make your future pitches that much stronger because chances are if one person is questioning you about something, others will too. As an entrepreneur you should expect to spend a lot of time “selling” your business whether it’s to manufacturers, suppliers, investors or customers.

6) Get structured. Formalize your company as soon as possible. Choose a business entity, form a board, spell out ownership and job responsibilities. This will help establish in your mind as well as others that you are a “real” company. There are also potential tax benefits to forming an entity as soon as possible.

7) Network, network, network and make sure you follow up with everyone you network with. You can’t do too much of this. I couldn’t have gotten this far without help from all the people I’ve met along the way. You’ll be surprised how many people are willing to go out of their way to help you.

Be resourceful. If you are self-funded and looking for capital (like Sole Envie is right now) you may not have the money to pay for legal fees, employees, marketers, etc. That shouldn’t stop you from pursuing your goals. See if your lawyer is willing to defer fees till you get funding or revenue, hire an intern, trade services, or look for people willing to work for sweat equity. It takes effort to find people, but it can be done.

To read the rest of the interview, visit alixrose.com.

Posted by Monika on Saturday, February 21st, 2009 | Entrepreneur, Fashion & Style, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Tags: alixrose.com, Custom shoes, design your own shoes, Monika Desai, Sole Envie