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Erin Lichy.
Taylor Hill/FilmMagicThe Real Housewives of New York City‘s Erin Lichy considers her previous handbag business a learning experience.
“I don’t look at it as a failure, but we lost a lot of money,” Lichy, 37, said on the Monday, January 20, episode of Jason Tartick‘s “Trading Secrets” a podcast. “Technically, it failed.”
Lichy shared that she lost “over $100,000” from the venture. (The Bravo star later noted that she put “more” than $100,000 into the business, noting that it was “probably” the initial amount.) “We just kept pouring money in,” Lichy said. .
From Lichy’s point of view, the fashion business is “impossible” unless you have a previous background in the industry or “are backed by someone big.”
“You’re screwed at a minimum in Asia, or if you do anywhere overseas, you’re screwed at a minimum. Then you start doing it in New York, and you get shouldered, like labor costs,” Lichy said. “It’s very difficult. We actually really believed in making things in New York and, like, our studio. We were making them in China before, and I felt very uncomfortable with it for several reasons.”
Lichy recalled visiting factories, which he claimed “are not what they say they are.” He added, “They are not being run properly. Not all of them, but the one I went to.”
Lichy turned to manufacturing in New York but said everything was “slower.” He added, “You have to go and buy materials from Italy that are shipped to New York and then you pay the broker’s fee on top of that. And then that costs a lot of money and then you can’t do it in the markup.”
Lichy called the process a “never-ending battle.” When asked if she was raising capital, Lichy replied, “No, and that’s what I learned never to do again.”
Erin Lichy revealed that she is nowhere near nesting after announcing her fourth pregnancy last month. “I haven’t done anything,” Lichy, 37, admitted exclusively 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 that she “hasn’t prepared (…)
Despite the fact that the business did not take off the way she had hoped, Lichy noted that she has “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,” he said. “I would never know how to build a business the way I’m building it now if that didn’t happen.”
Erin took the lessons she learned from the handbag business and applied them to her venture husband Abe Lichyher Mezcalum co-founder. “This time Abe and I went into it with a partner in sales, advisors, raising capital,” he said.
