In 2005, Severe Erase was a restaurant cashier with her eye on a designer handbag she couldn’t afford. Her mother gave her a gift of $50 to purchase some fabric so she could make herself a similar bag. Family and friends saw Erase’s bag and wanted one of their own. From there, Erase spun her talents into a line of handbags and apparel called Sèvy that caught the eye of New York fashion influencers, including the editors of “InStyle” and “The New York Post,” to name a few.
Erase got married and became a mother, and with that her life changed. Sèvy took a backseat for a while. But now she is working to re-launch the brand and grab the attention of customers with her beautiful handmade leather handbags.
Erase talked with us to share her journey to successful entrepreneurship, including the challenges she’s overcome along the way.
The Start
How did you start your business?
It was Christmas, I was working at this restaurant and I wanted this really nice handbag, but I couldn’t afford it. My mom suggested for me to make my own handbag. She funded me by giving me $50 to buy some fabric. Her friends started supporting me by buying bags.
My father was my coach. He was coaching me as far as what to do with backing, how to stitch the leather, what kind of needles to get … So I was taught in my basement on how to proceed with handbag making. We’re from Haiti and my father was a professional tailor back there. My mother’s father was a milliner, a hat-maker. It just sort of runs in the family. Most people in Haiti do what they have to do to survive, so I was brought up learning how to be crafty.
How did you fund your business in the beginning?
My mom gave me that $50 as a gift to start. I was also working as a cashier at a restaurant, so I was able to put that money into my business. Now that I’m re-launching it, my husband is doing the full funding. We got my website updated and everything just looks much better. Everything is at a different level now. My business has graduated.
I’m sure we will have to take out a loan at some point. Right now, as orders are coming in, we fill them. It’s not as if we have an inventory sitting around. We have samples for shoots, but when we get orders from stores, they have to give us a percentage up front for us to get the order going. I’m sure later on we’ll have to do micro-loans or some kind of loan in order to have inventory to send out to stores.
Running the Business
How did you learn to run your business?
I’m still learning right now. I’m doing an entrepreneurial course online. It teaches you a lot. And my parents run their own office cleaning company, so I’ve learned from them. My mom is very good with managing money and bookkeeping, so I learned from my mom and this financial business class to get more of an understanding of how to run my own business.
It’s an ongoing process, I think. You learn from every day. I can never stop learning how to run my own business, no matter how many books I read or classes I take, I’m sure it’s always going to be a process.
Who was your first customer?
My first customer was my mom’s friend. She believed in me and was always encouraging me and asking, “What are you doing now? Let me see! I want a custom bag made for me!”
It’s really great to have support from family members, but it can be hard for them to say, “No, this is not as great. I would not wear that. I would never buy that.” But to have support from outsiders is really big. It‘s major.
Even outside, when I just run in to people on the street and they ask, “Where did you get this bag from?” it’s really nice to see that. Once you start a business, you really want to get the honest opinion of the target customers you’re trying to reach. You want them to see the products and know if they would purchase them and at what price because you want the product to be a success.
What’s the biggest mistake you made in the first year?
I had a licensing offer. A licensing company wanted to license my handbags, my design. I was in a cloud somewhere! Now I wish I could have that offer again! I’m sure it will come again in due time. But, oh my goodness, I re-read that email over and over again and ask myself, “What could I have done better?”
I really didn’t do enough research. My mistake was I should have reached out to someone who knew better than me for advice or for a little nudge. Talking to someone else with more experience in the industry might have helped me understand what a big deal this was and the opportunities that were ahead. I feel like I didn’t prepare for what would come tomorrow or plan for three months from now or five years from now. I was living in the now too much. I should have set goals. My company would have been much further along by now.
What’s the smartest thing you did in the first year?
I really took a lot of risks and put myself out there. I was fearless. I said I was going to do it and I did it. I did not sleep. I worked hard. I could have worked smarter, but I worked hard and it paid off. I was in a lot of stores, I got a lot of coverage. Wherever something was happening, I was there. I wanted to be sure that my brand was out where people were. I was creating a buzz.
I created a big buzz in New York City about Sèvy. Whether or not I had a degree in business, I believed in my product and people saw my product and started believing in me as well.
What’s the most rewarding thing about running your own business?
Now that I’m a mom, seeing that I’m able to somewhat pave a financial way for my daughter while spending time with her at home is really sweet. Not having to call home and say, “Honey, I’m running late. Can you grab takeout?” We eat dinner as a family and that’s really precious. And my daughter is watching mommy work. That’s a great feeling.
Besides that, the feeling that I get once I’m done making a bag and seeing the end-product and knowing that someone’s going to be satisfied with the work I do with my hands makes me feel really good. It’s very rewarding.
What’s the most challenging thing about running your own business?
Bookkeeping! Sometimes receipts add up and you need to stay on top of things. Plus, you have to spend money to make money. But I see my bank account depleting and I’m like, “No!!” That’s hard! I have to come to embrace that you have to spend in order to make. You can’t keep the money saved up if you want to see the growth.
What’s the most surprising thing about running your own business?
Branding. It’s not just offering a product, it’s the lifestyle of the product. It’s like a person in itself. I think that’s a surprising part. You think, “I know I have a great brand and I know what it’s all about,” but branding is helping other people to acknowledge that this is a brand, not just a name, not just a product. I think a lot of entrepreneurs come across this and find the brand is bigger than life. It’s bigger than just a name or a logo.
What business owner or entrepreneur do you admire most?
Tracy Reese. She’s a designer who started off working with one of the top designers and then she decided she wanted to start her own label, Plenty. It did not work out and she ended up closing it, but later on she started the Tracy Reese label and that took off.
I really admire her clothing, it’s very girly and flirty. I admire her because it takes guts to stop working for someone who’s on the top to work on your own, and then to fail at it but then start again and take another chance.
I’ve always admired her, but since I’ve started re-launching my own business, I think of her a lot. From what I hear and what I’ve read, she’s remained true to her craft and what she believes in as far as design. If I could have the chance to be mentored by her, I would take it!
What I’ve Learned
What do you wish you had known before you had started your business?
There are so many resources out there. So many resources offered to women, small businesses, minorities … All you have to do is research, research, research. If you call and ask, the worst they can say is, “No.” Just call, do research, ask someone to extend a hand to you. If they say, “No,” just move on. Tap into the resources that are available to you.
What advice do you have for others starting their own business?
I was given this advice not too long ago: If you are going to start your own business, be a perfectionist at what you’re doing and be an expert in that industry so that you are an expert at what you’re doing. If you find something that sparks your interest, do your research and be an expert in that field so that your product will not only speak for itself, but you can speak for it as well.
About the Author — Ashley Sweren is a freelance marketing writer and editor. She owns her own small business, Firework Writing, located in San Jose, California.
This article was originally written on December 25, 2014 and updated on July 14, 2016.
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