Customized purses turn into big business

Some women go shopping for a purse. Natala Gahm designs her own.

“I like my bags to pop,” the Louisville, Ky., woman said. “Bright colors. Polka dots. Zebra stripes. Things that just kind of show, I think, my personality.”

That’s why Gahm is a regular customer of B’s Purses, a Louisville company started by three young mothers in 2004 that allows women to customize their bags.

“You get to design every aspect of this bag, from start to finish,” with a choice of fabrics, colors, designs, shapes, monograms and other options, co-founder Lisa Henderson said.

That approach, combined with a marketing technique that has attracted 1,700 sales representatives across the country, led the company to explosive growth from its first day.

When B’s began, co-founder Susan Guillen sewed each bag by hand. But the company quickly turned the sewing work over to a Kentucky plant. Sales reached $1 million in the first year and are projected at $2.5 million this year, Henderson said. The fifth-year goal is $10 million in sales.

B’s sells purses, baby bags, computer bags, pool totes and other carriers, with prices ranging from about $75 to $125. The average is $100. Purchases are placed with the representative or can be made online. It takes about a month to produce and deliver an order.

The opportunity to design your own bag has powerful appeal, Gahm said. People with conservative tastes can devise a purse accordingly. But those looking for more flash have many options.

“You can take a basic bag with a print and put a funky trim on it or a funky handle on it and just kind of make it a lot of fun,” Gahm said.

B’s has its roots in a small purse-making business that Guillen ran in the basement of her Birmingham, Ala., home beginning in 2001. She hadn’t worked in textiles before, but had a knack for the business because her mother is an interior decorator.

Guillen met her future partners though her sister, Angela Clark, who lives in Louisville and helped Guillen sell purses to friends when she visited Kentucky. One of those new customers was Henderson, and it wasn’t long before the pair teamed with Sandra Masters to start a company. Masters is in charge of operations.

Henderson, who had a background in marketing, said she was confident that a direct-sales plan was the best way to sell the product. The representatives hold small sales parties for friends and acquaintances.