You Want Your Business to Last. Here’s How

0:00I do think that it starts with passion. I really do. You will be successful if you're passionate about your product or your service. Really checking in what's giving you so much joy that you can get lost and forget. Hey, what's going on? I'm Benjamin Gottlieb and this is Shopify Masters. If you listen to this program, you know that starting a business has never been easier, especially on Shopify. line. Building it into a financial success, however, that can be harder. Ali Mejia and Mariela Rovito have accomplished something that most entrepreneurs dream of, longevity. Their luxury sleep and loungewear brand, Eber J, has been around since the mid-1990s and has since grown into a multi-million dollar company with retail spaces and a thriving online store.

0:52But it didn't start there. Ali and Mariela are here with me today to share how they've been able to solve this puzzle. It's all part of our focus this month celebrating Latinx and Hispanic Heritage Month. Ali, Mariela, such a treat. Thank you for being here on Shopify Masters. Thank you for having us. Thank you for having us. You're so welcome. Can't wait to get into all of this. And I have to ask you, like many business ideas, Ali, you saw that something was missing in your market. I mean, at the time, men were admittedly mostly designing lingerie and loungewear. How did you know there was a business opportunity here?

1:29Well, I had always had a passion for lingerie and sleepwear. It started when I was a little girl, actually. I'm from El Salvador originally. And in my family, we really cared about what we looked like at home. My mother and my grandmother had beautiful nightgowns and robes and pajamas. So I grew up in a culture of really wanting to feel beautiful at home, as well as outside, but at home and really treating yourself. So I had a passion for pajamas and I headed off to college and I brought my whole pajama collection to college. The whole ensemble. The whole ensemble. And I thought everybody else would have their whole ensemble of pajamas.

2:12But little did I know that nobody cared about pajamas. They all were wearing oversized t-shirts that were beat up and boxer shorts and just they didn't care. That sounds like me. Oh, sorry. So I became the girl with the cute pajamas. Everyone in my dorm was like, this girl just has the best loungewear and sleepwear. So I started knowing then that there was something there. I realized that there was a lot of education that could occur in teaching people about this beautiful ritual that I had learned as a little girl. My mom used to run a bath for me and she would lay out my fresh pajamas. And, you know, I just felt so wonderful after this ritual.

2:57And so I started seeing this. I followed the bandwagon and went to New York and worked on Wall Street because I thought that's what I had to do. And then I had an epiphany, thank God, less than a year later that I really wanted to pursue this dream. I realized then that this was the dream. And I started researching and I saw wide open space. There was nothing. It was Victoria's Secret and it was Calvin Klein and beautiful European brands that were out of my price point. So there was just this huge open market that I saw and that's how it started. You sort of brought your own, whether it's your own family culture or your own culture in general to this business space, right?

3:41Because there really wasn't anything that was like it. Exactly. So I just saw so much potential and people thought I was crazy. They're like, why wouldn't you want to focus on dresses or purses, accessories? Like they actually thought I was crazy, but I'm like, no, no, no, no. It's pajamas and lingerie. This is what I want to do. I never wanted to be a fashion designer, a ready to wear fashion designer. I wanted to make pajamas and lingerie. This was my calling. It really was my calling. Well, speaking of opportunity, that is a big part of being able to start a business that's successful, seeing that opportunity.

4:20And Mariela, you also saw opportunity when you were working with Ali and you decided to join forces. How did you make that decision? And walk me through how you both brought this to life in the early days. Yeah, it was easy, actually, because as you hear in her voice, she was so passionate about it. And she was already playing around with some concepts and samples and ideas. And we became fast friends. We were working together and she would come in and show me things that she was working on. And I really just fell in love with the whole concept. I mean, the brand itself didn't exist, but the product that she was dreaming up was really beautiful and felt like it was very different than anything else that was out there.

5:08And I already had the entrepreneurial bug in me and was looking for some business ideas. And when I met Allie and she just showed me what she had in mind, we decided to go for it quite naively, but we decided to quit our corporate jobs and give it a go. It takes a lot of courage to do something like that. We have a lot of our listeners who are maybe running a business on Shopify as a side hustle and still can't get detached from their, you mentioned, corporate job or their main job. It takes a lot of courage. How did you summon that within yourselves to go ahead and make that jump? It was a classic example of ignorance is bliss.

5:53I always joked that if we had any idea what we were getting ourselves into, we probably wouldn't have done it, but it didn't feel risky at the time. It felt fun. It felt adventurous. We were young and kind of fearless. And we knew that if it didn't work out, we could always go back to corporate life. And I think that that was also tied to the fact that we really started the business with our own savings and we didn't have investor money. We didn't feel responsible to anyone else. We didn't feel like we had to, you know, make this work because we would let this one down or that one down or, you know, sort of waste people's resources or time or money or whatever it may be.

6:40So it was really just the two of us and it became our dream and it became something that we wanted to do. You were beholden only to yourselves, no responsibilities out anywhere else. You both started with just 10 grand each, putting it into the business. I want to ask you about that because I'm so curious, how did you begin to grow a customer base with that little investment? Take us through the early stages because that's a big pain point for a lot of folks who are starting a business. Yeah, it was a big pain point for us too, quite honestly. Our first distribution channel was wholesale and customer acquisition came solely through sales reps and trade shows, right?

7:24So sales reps were very hard to find at the time. We were rejected multiple times by multiple showrooms. But once we found those right partners, they became strategic partners that opened up the right doors for us and helped us get into the best stores. And it was low investment because when you work with sales reps, they work commission and they don't typically get paid until you get paid. So it's not like you're, you know, having to invest a ton in the sales channel itself. And then, you know, my gosh, we just traveled and traveled and traveled and went to every single show, you know, in America.

8:09You know, we went to all the trade shows and not just in America. I mean, we went to London Fashion week, we went to the parish shows. It was pretty nonstop. But all in all, it was sort of a low cost way to acquire new customers. And the customers, because they were wholesale, could buy volume. And Ali, there wasn't a lot of options back then, right? I mean, we had wholesale catalog and maybe a storefront and that was it. Yeah, we actually started as a catalog. Nobody knows that. Fun fact, because we were both working in direct marketing, we thought, oh, we can make a catalog. And we made the catalog and we got a great response rate, but it wasn't enough.

8:51We realized we were going to need so much money to go down that route. So that's when we pivoted to selling the retail. So yeah, it was a very different time back then. Yeah, much different. We didn't have the options in e-commerce like we have today. So the landscape was completely different, but still the learnings are applicable. I want to maybe one more question about these early days. You have this idea, you meet Mariela and you're like, let's do it. We have the, we have the drive. We have the energy. We're going to launch this business. And then you're sitting down. It's like, gosh, what do we make?

9:23Like, what are the first few products? I'm looking at your website right now. You have hundreds, if not more products. There's so many things on there. I'm sure it didn't start like that. So Ali, how did you decide what to make first? Well, I think I was solving a problem, right? I was solving a need. I specifically wanted a certain type of cotton. So we were making actually beautiful Sea Island cotton pajamas in the beginning. Now I could never even afford that fabric, but it was just, it was like what I loved and what I craved. Also soft cup bralettes at the time were not a thing. People were into the pushup and just, it was a very different aesthetic.

10:00And I was just trying to satisfy what I was looking for. So they were little bralettes, they were little, they're called chemises, little nightgowns that women could feel beautiful in. So it was a combination of pajamas, nightgowns, some bralettes and underwear, and some robes. So that was it. It was very small, but it was impactful. I think when we started going to the shows, people saw that we had a point of view. We definitely have an aesthetic and the aesthetic has always been very calming colors, soothing, you know, soothing palette, deliciously soft fabrics. That has always been the DNA of the brand from the very beginning.

10:41And the prints were more micro prints. They weren't loud. So I think when we started doing these shows and we were seen in stores, people started recognizing our brand. That's Auberge. Or they didn't really know, you know, they didn't know us specifically, but they could see that there was, you know, there was a point of view. I think that's always been there from the beginning. We've evolved, our fabrics have evolved, and obviously the line has grown. And, you know, now we cover so many categories, but the aesthetic has always remained quite consistent. You've evolved, but you're both still together doing this together, right?

11:19It's a remarkable journey that I think bears repeating. And it's a question I think a lot of folks might have, Who do you choose to work with? It's a big decision that can make or break your business. We were just in Montreal as a team talking to a merchant there. Seven co-founders still there from the very beginning working together. Remarkable. This is a company called Transformer Table. So what I want to ask you is, what is it about your dynamic that works? And what should other entrepreneurs look for when trying to find the right partner? I think our dynamic works because we are so different, yet in our core, we always agree somehow.

12:00It's really uncanny. I'm very creative. I'm the dreamer. I'm kind of all over the place. I love making products. I find that if I'm not creative every day, I start getting anxiety. And Mariela is the opposite. She's methodical. She's analytical. She loves executing on my ideas. And so I think when we come together, we're coming at problems or at products or at vision from different places. But the vision has always been the same. She bought into my idea and loved it as much as I did. So we do everything possible to always align. And we're incredible partners and best friends and have so much respect for each other.

12:48I do my thing. She does her thing. But we come together in the critical moments. And the weird thing that I say that sometimes like it's so strange that we both think the same, like we'll be in a room, someone will ask me, what do you like this or this? And I'll say this, she'll be somewhere else. She'll come in. She'll be like, oh yeah, I agree. Yeah. And it's, and I swear people like you told her, I'm like, I didn't, I did not tell her. It's just this, it's an amazing. So trusting your gut. I mean, it's always been, you know, part of how I operate, we only knew each other six months before we left our corporate job.

13:22So it wasn't that we had been friends forever, but we trusted that we knew how to work together. We worked on the same account. So we supported each other. We knew that we had similar drive. I think that's really important too, to have similar drive and passion, even though the passion comes from different parts of the business. And honestly, just a loving relationship. We're willing to talk things out. we're pretty mature, I think, in how we connect and handle our relationship. Yeah. Marielle, I mean, what do you think, right? There's lots of visionaries. There's lots of folks that have big ideas.

13:54It's another thing to execute, right? So how did you know that Ali was going to be, or could be the right kind of partner for something like this? Well, I knew I loved the product and I knew I, you know, I loved what she brought to the table that I lacked, right? And I think that it was sort of the classic, you know, left brain, right brain kind of marriage, right? There are a million and one ideas out there, go execute, right? And then there are a ton of people who can execute but don't have any ideas, right? So it was just, yeah, I mean, you know, both are equally as important, right? So we just happened to meet at the right time where it was someone who had the idea and someone who was going to help bring it to life.

14:40But other than trusting our guts and our intuition, I think that we've always trusted each other. And we really stay out of one another's way. It's like the creative side of the business is her side of the business. I don't second guess. Sure, I have opinions. And sure, she has opinions on my side of the business. But like, ultimately, the decisions are made by whoever is heading whatever function. One other thing I'd love to share is that we were each other's cheerleaders. And there are so many points in this business. I mean, there's so many highs and so many lows. We had each other. So I was down, she would prop me up, and she wasn't down that much.

15:28No, I'm the one that rides the waves. I mean, I used to, I hate selling, and we were at these trade shows and I would have anxiety attacks. And she's like, Alice, just come back. Go, let me take care of this. And she could just talk to anyone, sell anything. And I would go get a tea and come back. But those are the moments. Those are the things you have to think about. Who do you want to share this journey with? Because there are a lot of moments that are hard and tough and times when we didn't think we were going to make it. I think those are great learnings. We often hear on this program, like, trust your instincts, trust your gut.

16:06And it's like, you know, that's a little cliche, but more this advice, these ideas of complementary skills, offloading some of this work to someone else and trusting them to take care of it. I think that is a really important learning. My guests today, Ali and Mariela, the co-founders of EverJay. And before we get back to our conversation, I want to take a quick moment here and thank you for listening. You know, Shopify Masters is your companion for starting and building a business, but we can only keep going with your support. So please, if you're listening right now, leave a review wherever that is and make sure you share the episode and others like it.

16:41And thank you so much for your continued support. Back to our interview here. I want to ask both of you about production costs. These are huge, huge barriers for folks who are starting businesses and they want to scale. That's why we see a lot of drop shipping today in this new e-commerce landscape. You don't have to have a lot of inventory when you run something like that. So I want to ask, how do you both keep your production costs low and manageable? Well, in the beginning, that was our biggest challenge. Quite honestly, with$10 ,000 each, we just didn't have money to meet minimums, make big bets on inventory and production runs.

17:19So you may want to not hear this, but first we maxed out our personal credit cards. That was fun. And then it was really a practical lesson on managing cash flow. I mean, we didn't have a choice. So we had to go slow and only spend what we could afford. There was no dropship back then. Just didn't exist. Right. So it was it was really tricky because the wholesale channel, unlike e-commerce, usually stores will ask for payment terms. Right. So and of course, we were a new business and we weren't getting favorable payment terms from any of our vendors. So we often had to pay for product up front and not see the money back until 30, 60 days later.

18:10So we had to make very small quantities in the beginning and sell through those before we could buy more. Luckily, we had local factories in Miami then that were willing to make smaller lots. and that's how we managed it. And when you say small, how many are we talking about? Oh gosh. I mean, we still have a lace vendor today that laughs because he used to sell us sample lace as our entire production. You know, like a sample roll was like our entire production. So like, I mean, sometimes we'd make 20 units, you know, you make 20, 25 units, whatever. But also our products are really small. So yeah, yeah.

18:53So the consumption, it makes sense. I mean, it's hard to meet minimums in lingerie because they are really small garments. But the local production helped because there was no way we were going to be able to afford offshore minimums. And we just got stuff made in whichever way we could, you know, wherever we could and whoever we could find that would say yes, because that was a big, big challenge. And it is a big challenge still today for many folks who are trying to start a business or trying to scale a business. It remains a challenge. But as you mentioned, things are different today, right?

19:30Even with your own store. So before revamping your site, I think it was something around 70 % of your sales were coming from wholesale partners, retailer relationships. Now that has switched, right? You have almost the opposite where a lot of folks are coming directly to your website to buy. So I got to ask you, if you don't mind, how do you think for folks starting today, what is the best strategy for starting a clothing business like yours? Lean heavily online? If we were talking two, three years ago, yes. Today, it's gotten a lot more expensive. It's gotten tougher. And we leaned into it 20 years after we already had a brand in the market that was the best-selling brand.

20:15You were already established. Right. We had presence in all U.S. department stores and internationally, and we were really established by then. So turning on the e-commerce machine was much easier because we did have a lot of brand awareness. But it is harder for folks now to go out and advertise and acquire new customers at a cost that is reasonable and makes sense. really having an omni-channel strategy is the best way to go. Of course, that's very difficult when you start as well, right? You can be in every channel and you sort of have to pick a lane, but you have to pick the lane that's right for your business and your product.

20:58And like we spoke about earlier, there are different ways of distributing, even online. How do you show up in different marketplaces? Like, how do you piggyback off of, you know, other people's businesses? How can you partner with folks to get that visibility? How can you talk to, you know, influencers? How can you, you know, right? So there's a whole bunch of different channels that aren't necessarily paid channels. And I think that that's really the way forward for digitally native brands, at least. Finding your customers where they are, trying to be present in all those places, whether it's in the store, whether it's online, whether it's on social media, those are things that are paramount to having a successful business today.

21:46Let's talk about your iconic PJ set. This is called the Giselle. It blew up during lockdown, and it has since sent copycats into an absolute frenzy. I mean, talk to us about creating this look and how other founders can approach developing a staple product that helps them grow their brand in a way that yours has. Yeah. So the Giselle is our hero product. I came up with it, I think about eight or nine years into the business. So it wasn't immediate. I was making, like I was, I told you before, cotton pajamas and pajamas in more traditional fabrications, but I was already working with this Modal fabric.

22:25but making other things. So I was making camisoles and little shorts. And one day I'm in the design studio and I see the pajama and I see the camisole with the tap shorts, they were called. And I just had an aha moment. I'm like, no, no, no, we need to make this in this fabric. And it just felt right. It was the modern pajama. You know, the pajamas that are not with stretch in them, they could be a little stiff or they could be, you know, hard to when you sleep in and you move and it just not as it doesn't move with you. But the Modal fabric was incredibly soft and it just had a movement to it.

23:06So it was really just kind of an aha moment. And it took off right away. And we started selling a lot of it. And initially, actually, people were a little bit like, hmm, I don't know that that It looks a little strange. I'm used to the classic, you know, Savile Row pajamas. But slowly but surely, we started selling out of it. And yes, during the pandemic, I mean, we had this product on the market for so many years before it became very popular during the pandemic. The pandemic, what happened was that we just honed in on this Hero product and put all our money into it, all the marketing. We started just really focusing on it.

23:46That's a big bet. It was a big bet, but we knew that it was working. So I think it just, it was a matter of transitioning the business model because before we were more like a wholesale business and we were collection focused. So yes, the pajamas were within an array of all these products versus moving into a more D2C strategy where it was like, this is it and we're going to put everything behind it. That's so interesting. So are you saying that it was the product that kind of pushed you over the edge to focus more on D2C versus wholesale? I think it was a combination, but yes, we started doing some ads and we saw just incredible returns and we just saw that it was working.

24:28Like these ads were just working. And so it just got us to think, okay, there's something here. And then of course, when the pandemic hit and everybody's on their phone and we're doing all these ads and we're putting it everywhere, putting it on our landing page, we're putting it, like we're shooting it in every color because that was the other thing was before we were collection based we would only shoot it in one color and then do swatches of all the other colors and we started shooting it in every single color we also started adding different shapes we started adding a short sleeve a crop we used to have just one style of short set that was you know for more for like younger customers we started adding a relaxed fit we basically just exploded this one pajama and made it in every single variation and every single color.

25:16And that's really what put us over the edge. Also, we started getting celebrity endorsements. Even like recently, Sophia Ritchie just wore it. She had a monogrammed version and she wore it for her wedding. So people want, you know, whatever she's wearing right now. So it's just, and we also in a lot of TV shows. I mean, the summer I was, I was watching like the three shows that my daughters were watching, we were in all three shows. It was amazing. And I don't watch that much TV, but I was like, oh my goodness. It's being featured everywhere. That's the dream, right? That's the dream, but it took us a while.

25:52I want to be honest, but also because of the technology evolved and consumers just changed also how they were buying. It all came together magically, thankfully. It just was magic and it happened and we're just killing it. No, but it's also, I mean, I think you're being modest. It's also a lot of hard work and seeing the opportunities that are available and being able to seize upon them. You have a great product. You think people want it, but you got to get it in front of their eyes where they're looking. What was your strategy for doing that? What was your strategy for pushing these things, especially on social?

26:25In 2020, sort of when all stores closed, right? All of our wholesale partners shut down, our own stores closed, everyone stopped paying, you know, everyone canceled orders. It was just kind of like the train wreck that we never really saw coming. We had one channel left alive, right? And that channel is e-commerce. So we needed to figure out how we were going to sort of focus all resources on the channel. We had something we had never done before. And, you know, we had sort of daily meetups with the team. And we just all went through the site, the marketing, the, you know, all of the channel strategies.

27:11I mean, it was a tough time where we couldn't even shoot new product, right? Because two people couldn't be in the room at the same time. So we couldn't have photo shoots. We couldn't, you know, and we got so scrappy and so creative that we were just really able to like put product out there that looked like it was, you know, either new or freshly shot or, you know, whatever it may be. And luckily, because everyone did cancel their orders, we actually had product, which a lot of other people didn't because everyone had already also been suffering with supply chain delays. So we had product and we really just started aggressively going after Facebook strategy at the time and a Google strategy and creating content in as much as we could, you know, with the assets that we had, keeping our website feeling fresh, really improving upon our email programs, you know, any own channels we spent a lot of time and attention on and still a lot of PR.