As I shared in an earlier blog post, I started Luv Luxe with just $3,000 to my name. Back then, luxury retail prices were significantly lower than they are today, but even so, I couldn’t afford to invest in many high-end designer pieces.
My accounting department was about as official as it gets for a startup of one: a little orange leather binder where I’d carefully track every sale and every dollar of profit. Whenever I made money, I’d split it up. Part of it went right back into inventory, and the rest was how I paid myself. (I still have the book, in moments of doubt or frustration in the business I like to pull it out and refer back to it as a reminder!)
Slowly but surely, I started gaining momentum. Sales increased, my inventory grew, and for the first time, I began saving enough money to consider buying more significant luxury pieces.
Then an opportunity came along that felt huge.
A Chanel Boy Bag. Not just any Chanel Boy Bag, but a gorgeous ombré-colored piece and I had the opportunity to buy it for $2,500. Today, that might not sound quite as shocking, but at the time, spending $2,500 on a single bag felt absolutely insane to me. It was nearly my entire starting business budget wrapped up in one transaction. I remember sweating through the entire deal. And then I did it. I bought the bag.
The second the transaction was complete, I got into my car and proceeded to have a full-blown panic attack. Buyers remorse and wished upon anything I could go back in time and never buy this bag! What had I just done? How was I going to sell this bag? At the time, we weren’t really in the ultra-luxury market. Most of our inventory was at much lower price points. If I made a mistake on this purchase, it could have been detrimental to the growth of the business.
Sitting in that car, completely terrified, I had a realization. If I wasn’t willing to take calculated risks and be bold in what I was trying to build, I’d never get where I wanted to go. Growth requires discomfort. The bag didn’t sell overnight. It took some time. But when it finally sold, something shifted in my mindset. It wasn’t just about the profit. It was proof that we could play in a bigger arena than I had originally imagined. That Chanel Boy Bag gave me confidence. It taught me that sometimes the opportunities that scare you the most are the ones that push your business forward.
From that point on, I started becoming more strategic and more courageous with our inventory purchases. I wasn’t reckless, but I was willing to bet on myself and the business a little more. Even till this day I’d consider my business mindset to be a cautious one and think a little more conservatively. I grew up with very humble beginning and I think that childhood taught me a lot of grit and how to be scrappy, thankful for those priceless lessons. Looking back now, it’s almost funny to think about how terrified I was over a $2,500 purchase. Today, the volume of inventory we buy on a daily basis would have been incomprehensible to me.
Every stage of this journey has mattered. Every risk, every lesson, every win, and every mistake has helped shape Luv Luxe into what it is today.
And for that, I’m grateful for every single step along the way.
Thanks for being here!
Xx
Syd