Erin Lichy.
Taylor Hill/FilmMagicThe Real Housewives of New YorkIt is Erin Lichy considers her previous handbag business a learning experience.
“I don’t consider it a failure, but we lost a lot of money,” Lichy, 37, said on the Monday, January 20, episode. Jason TarticIt is “Trade secrets” podcast. “Technically, it kind of failed.”
Lichy shared that she lost “over $100,000” because of this business. (The Bravo star later noted that she invested “over” $100,000 in the company, noting that that was “probably” the starting amount.) “We just kept pouring money in.” money,” Lichy said.
In Lichy’s view, the fashion business is “impossible” unless you have prior experience in the industry or “have support from someone big.”
“You get screwed on the minimums in Asia, or if you win anywhere overseas, you get screwed on the minimums. Then you start making it in New York, and you get screwed, for example, on labor costs,” Lichy asserted. “It’s very difficult. In fact, we really believed in the need to create things in New York and, for example, in our studio. We used to make them in China and that made me very uncomfortable for many reasons.
Lichy remembers visiting factories that she says are “not what they say they are.” She added: “They are not working properly. Not all of them, but the one I went to.
Lichy shifted to manufacturing in New York but said everything was “slower.” She added: “You have to go buy materials in Italy that are transported to New York and then you pay the brokerage fees on top of that. And then it costs a lot of money and you can’t offset that with the markup.
Lichy called the process a “never-ending battle.” When asked if she had raised any capital, Lichy said, “No, and that’s what I’ve learned to never do again.” »
Erin Lichy has revealed she’s far from nesting after announcing her fourth pregnancy last month. “I didn’t do anything,” Lichy, 37, exclusively confessed to Us Weekly on Friday, December 13, while attending iHeart Radio’s Jingle Ball at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The Real Housewives of New York City star revealed she was “not prepared…
Although business didn’t take off as she hoped, Lichy noted that she had “no regrets” in her life.
“I ended up selling the name, but on the other hand, it was the best learning experience of my life,” she said. “I would never know how to build a business the way I’m building it now if this hadn’t happened.”
Erin took the lessons she learned from the handbag industry and applied them to her business with husband Abe Lichyhis co-founder of Mezcalum. “This time, Abe and I embarked on this journey with a business partner, advisors and a capital raise,” she said.