 |
| To listen to this Podcast, please select an audio option: MP3 | Streaming Audio. |
|
| The She Unlimited Interview: |
| 1. Tell us a bit about yourself (name, location, personal stuff). |
| We are Savvy Skirts® (www.savvyskirts.com) and we are located in Half Moon Bay, CA about 30 minutes south of San Francisco, but we literally have a girlfriend network all over the world. Both co-founders Shelly Clayborn and I (Sheri Olson) are two life long girlfriends with a passion to shop. |
| We wanted a way to always be connected to one another even though life was taking us in different directions and physical locations, so starting an online business for women was a great way for us to stay in touch on a regular basis. |
| Savvy Skirts has allowed us to not only to stay connected with all of the wonderful girlfriends we have met throughout our lives, but has also allowed us to meet many more new girlfriends in the process! For us it has always been about staying connected and to share in the life experiences, both good and not so good, that we face with the ever changing roles we develop through life. |
| We have launched Savvy Skirts to offer a premiere online gift service both for and about women. We offer gifts and customized gift baskets that celebrate women of all ages. Our signature product, the Girl Basket® gift, is a stylish handbag or tote filled with fun & thoughtful gifts that are designed to reflect special interests or experiences in a woman’s life. |
| What makes the gift really unique is that since the gifts are in a handbag - you can "purse-o-nalize" the gift to match the style or life event of the gift recipient. Not only do they get an adorable gift made especially for them, but she gets to keep a cute little handbag or tote once the gifts are gone. |
| We offer pre-made Girl Basket gifts, but the fun is really in the customer creating their own customized gift set and having a 'tote-ally’ good experience while shopping for themselves or for their female friends and family. |
| All of us are committed to making Savvy Skirts "Tote-ally Her Kind of Shopping Trip" and an experience you can share with all your girlfriends. Our products will definitely make you smile, possibly giggle, and highlight the Girl in you! |
| 2. What inspires you? Where do your ideas come from? |
| Our inspiration for the business actually came from a very sad event, the loss of a close girlfriend. Vicki had always been part of our lives and she had this unique ability to always add that special pizzazz to her overall style, particularly with gift giving. |
| One sad day in 2003, we got the news Vicki was sick only to find out she died 5 days later from an illness she never new she had - let’s just say we were all incredibly devastated. She was 36 years old in the prime of her life, career and the mother of an adorable little 3 year old girl. It just took our breath away and left a void that shook many of us to the core. |
| After many months of trying to understand our loss, Shelly and I decided to re-prioritize our hectic lifestyles and concentrate on our friends and family members that we had been desperately trying to find more time with and so we took our passion for perfection and combined it with things and people we love. |
| Savvy Skirts, meaning Smart Women, is really about being aware that women go through multiple demanding roles and that they are not alone. Life can be incredibly demanding at times and not always fun, so we at Savvy Skirts wanted to find a way to celebrate the positive aspects of the energetic and frivolous spirit of the 'Girl’ that is most often lost in these multiple demanding roles and events that women face daily. |
| Savvy Skirts definitely combines the essence of both Shelly and I, but also embraces the special spirit Vicki had with her knack of always finding just the right gift to make people smile. |
| 3. What are your favorite materials to work with? |
| This is a hard question since we get to shop for so many types of products. We have over 100 fun & stylish purses and handbags with over 700 popular gift items to fill them with to create a "purse-o-nalized" Girl Basket® gift for any occasion, and the product list just keeps growing! |
| We carry books, jewelry & accessories, cards, cosmetic bags and an assortment of other splurges such as teas, cocktail items, gourmet chocolates, notepads and mugs - just to name a few! Maybe at the end of the day since we are all busy women, I would have to say the spa items are some of our favorites. |
| 4. Apart from your on line business, what do you do? |
| Well it is interesting that you ask that. Shelly is an architect by trade and stays active in her field. She has spent most of her career perfecting her art and loves both the analytical and creative design. |
| Her artistic skills have helped lead to our logo and overall design for our website. I am a scientist and have spent many years in medical research that has taken me from landmark breast cancer work, to the Human Genome Project, and even into stem cell research. |
| In my field I have worked with so many different aspects of human condition and disease, I always try to keep a positive perspective on life and bring a fun and frivolous spirit to Savvy Skirts. When we are not working at Savvy Skirts, we try to find time with our friends and family - and when Shelly & I get together, it is usually at the spa (ok well sometimes the mall too)! |
| 5. When did you start Savvy Skirts? |
| We started the business in February 2004. After the events of 2003, we started out the New Year with new objectives and a new outlook. We needed to take the energy we had been focusing on the loss of Vicki and use it in a positive way. |
| With much support of friends and family members, we launched our custom gift basket business idea locally in California. News of our new gift basket idea really took off and we were asked to place a few baskets in a local gift store, Half Moon Bay Wine & Cheese (www.hmbwineandcheese.com). |
| The owner, Nancy Girard, a woman entrepreneur who made many gift baskets that she shipped all over the world, said she had never seen anything as creative as our Girl Basket gift ideas. |
| We had so much success that we had been asked to create custom baskets for special birthdays, anniversaries and even hostess and shower gifts. From there we expanded into a few other boutiques and then later that year we opened our own boutique on the web. |
| 6. Did anyone inspire you to start your business? |
| Certainly the loss of Vicki forced us to re-evaluate our lives. Just about everyone we talked to about our idea - to create a personal shopping portal on the web for women to design customized gifts to reflect special emotions, occasions or experiences in a woman’s life - all had creative ideas. |
| Our girlfriends, mothers, sisters, sister-in laws, grandmothers, and neighbors and even husbands to name a few, all had ideas on what products they liked and why. |
| There has never been a lack of ideas, and now being on the web we are able to tap into women everywhere! We even offer an incentive for women to create custom gift ideas and if they get accepted as a Girl Basket® gifts on the site, they receive a gift certificate from Savvy Skirts - hopefully to spend on themselves. |
| 7. What powers your website? |
| A very patient guy named Charlie at The Congaline (www.thecongaline.com). He has become a true 'girlfriend’ in the process of designing the Savvy Skirts website. He deserves a Cosmo! |
| Name 3 websites or businesses that inspire/captivate/captures your attention. |
| 1. We are huge fan of Starbucks, not only for their delicious coffee but for their creative business insight. When you go into a Starbucks (as many people do), you not only get a customized coffee drink made to your liking or perhaps mood, but you also enter an atmosphere that transcends location. It does not matter where you are in the world; the minute you step into a Starbucks you immediately get the feeling of a warm inviting environment. |
| 2. Build-a-Bear Workshop® is another great experience for all ages. They take the lovable aspects of a cuddly teddy bear and allow customers to customize them any way they like, provide millions of children and adults worldwide with smiles daily. They offer products and services that are meant to make people happy everyday. Also they have a wonderful interactive website, especially for kids, with games and gift giving ideas for people of all ages |
| 3. And it goes without saying - Oprah. She is the quintessential business queen who has taken her unique ability to tap into common feelings and emotions of women all around the world and translate those feelings into positive outcomes. She is a true role model to many women. |
| 8. Your Favorite Music? |
| Well we do have an eclectic yet motivational mix of music played in our office. We have selected music from many eras that motivates each one of us - you know that particular song on the radio that just makes you want to get up and dance and will put you in a good mood. Since we are all different in our styles that can really be a fun mix! I have to say the band Buckfast (www.buckfastmusic.com), who has also helped with our web design in their spare time on tour buses from gig to gig, has earned 'girlfriend' status too! |
| 9. Do keep up with the business trends regularly? No, why not? |
| Of course! Well since we love to shop, we keep up to date with the latest products for the business as well. That means combing the web, the blogosphere, magazines and other media. |
| We also get quite a few product ideas from vendors or customers that contact us directly. As far as business goes, we need to follow trends to keep our ideas fresh and up to date with new ways that allow women to search, purchase and suggest products they have seen and would recommend to their girlfriends. |
| 10. Did you design your own Website or business idea? |
| Yes, we came up with the name, business idea and website layout ourselves. Shelly and I use our creativity & strengths together to build a business we could be passionate about and provide something really special for our customers. |
| We had a great time working on the logo. One skirt is a little bold and the other is more traditional, to represent different styles of women. We realize that not all women are 'girly girls’ or wear pink everyday, however there is a little bit of girl in each of us no matter how we choose to express it. |
| And even though Shelly and I have roots as best friends, we are very different. We often look back at the history we have made together and draw our energy from experiences we have collected as girlfriends. And, a funny bit of info on us - is that neither one of us wear skirts!! We did have some wonderful help from www.iconwerx.com on our final logo design. |
| 11. What do you think makes your business interesting? |
| The customized or "purse-o-nalized" gifts we provide and also allowing our customers to have fun in the process! Customers can fulfill their retail therapy needs and shop by Occasion, Emotion, Style, Color or Price when browsing our colorful selection of gifts. Customers can create a gift for just about any women's life event: New Mom/Pregnancy, 40th Birthday, Hostess, Anniversary, but we have also done some great customized gifts for Divorce/Bad Breakup, Menopause, and New Diet Support. Not only do we provide a great method for women to send gifts to other women, but we also offer a unique way for men to purchase gifts for women. Men are encouraged to also enjoy in the creativity, and Savvy Skirts provides a thoughtful way for them to send meaningful gifts to their wives, girlfriends, sisters, moms and other female family or friends while either overseas or simply just the convenience of avoiding a trip to the mall. We have had several customized orders come in from men in Iraq sending gifts to their wives and girlfriends. They are always incredibly touching and ever so creative. |
| 12. Your advice for people just beginning to start a new business, new design or product? |
| Be passionate about what you set out to do. So many people have lost the passion for what they are doing and it is always quite sad to see people just going through the motion in life. |
| Also, persistence is important, since you have to fight for things you are truly passionate about - not every day is great, but through persistence one can make it better. And lastly, but very important is patience. Good things come with time. |
| 13. 3 years from now how do you see your goals? |
| To still be having a great time with an even bigger network of girlfriends - who knows maybe even an official Savvy Skirts® Spa Retreat? |
| 14. Your motto in life and business is? |
| Our motto from the very beginning has always been to make women aware that they are not alone in their feelings and to celebrate everyday, no matter what stage they are at in life. Our motto is on every newsletter and communication we send out to our customers: |
| "Understand your stresses, celebrate your successes, and most importantly make life special!" |
| 15. If you were not running your business, what would you be doing? |
| I think both Shelly and I still have great passions for our educational training and would be active in our respective fields of Architecture and Biology. But first and foremost, we enjoy spending time and building history with our friends & families. And when time allows, of course we would be at the spa - reading, relaxing and recharging. |
| 16. What is your favorite search engine and why? |
| Yahoo - for shopping, of course! |
| 17. Do you have a celebrity following? Have you been in any press, tell us about it? |
| We have local press in Half Moon Bay for our products & services, but also for our promotion of www.freecycle.org. |
| We use Freecycle to recycle our cardboard boxes and Styrofoam peanuts we use in shipping our gifts. |
| We did get picked up by Belly Magazine (www.bellymagazine.net) last holiday season for some of the creative gifts we sell for pregnant women. Well as far as celebrity following, not yet, but we would love to have a celebrity create their own signature Girl Basket for sale on our website - and we would even send them a Savvy Skirts gift certificate in return! Paris Hilton, Julia Roberts, or Cameron Diaz Girl Baskets? |
| We bet they could all be really creative in their style and message they want to convey and women would love to receive a special gift like that - who wouldn't want to receive a signature Oprah Girl Basket...the possibilities are endless! |
|
