INTERVIEW WITH A BAG DESIGNER / BUSINESS OWNER

In this interview we are with Saverio Barbarito.

He just started a business and planning to expand it and wants his products to be used worldwide.

Website: Allamma.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/allammabags/

Instagram: https: //www.instagram.com/allamma.bags/

 

Question 1- Why did you decide to  have your own business (as opposed to getting a job somewhere ).

I have been working since 15 and had many jobs.  I have high       work-ethics.  The last job I had was working at a restaurant as a manager.  At some point, I was given more responsibility closing the restaurant, my duties included counting money, depositing it, making sure the kitchen is in good shape, make sure everything is stocked etc.


After that my first experience in having more responsibility was in Real Estate. It showed me the potential of no ceiling. At a $12 hour job you are responsible but income is limited.

So even though I was doing Real Estate for about a year, the competition in the industry is ridiculously high. 

And how I had the idea of starting my own yoga bag business is,
one day I made a bag for my mom's yoga mat.  (My grandmother thought me how to sew when I was little). She loved it.
I loved it, and instantly knew I could turn it into a business and I also knew that this was the product that other people would want to have.
I didn't do anything about it for a while, about 2 years in fact, but eventually made some bags to test how many I could make in a day.

I also showed the bags to my friends and to the rest of my family  and they all loved it. So I said I'm gonna go ahead and start a business with this.

Question 2- Did you have any worries at first?  And how did you overcome them?

I still worry. Even though initially you think people will love your product, you still wonder if people will actually love the products as much as you do and how they will react to it. Everyday you learn something and it is a roller coaster.
 

 

Question 3- What were the first five actions you took to get started?



1- Testing the product to see if people like it, how long it takes to make bags and if I can do it.


2-Making the bags was a lot of work. So my uncle suggested that I find a contractor to get them sewn. So finding a local contractor was the second step. He can make the bags way faster than I do.


3-Obtaining the material. Had to get everything in big quantities but also had to make sure that quality is still there.


4- Legal stuff. Deciding the company, setting it up with the  government, image and trademark etc.


5-Find out where to sell. Took pictures for the web site, built the web site, joined the local Business Community.


 

Question 4- Did you come across with challenges and doubt yourself (what am I doing?)

I read a lot of books about entrepreneurs, starting businesses, marketing and a lot of shark tank (tv show)!
 

I learned from all that, you need to be invested in it 100%. One foot in, one foot out doesn't work.

If I need to do it, I need to do it full force. Challenges are there everyday. No quitting. 

 

Question 5- Did you invest a lot of money?

A lot more than I thought. I invested money from my real estate work and still investing. Material, trademark, starting corporation, web site design, branding, marketing, trade shows and festivals. I paid for some of the festivals and trade shows ahead of time, you need to book the space in advance.

 Question 6- How do you see the future of your business?

I knew the future when I made the 1st bag. I saw the picture.


I have two types of bags. I want my Yoga Bags  in Yoga Studios throughout the nation and worldwide.

I want to design more appealing back-packs (leisure bags) to be a daily product for people worldwide. 

I want them to be sold at boutiques and festivals. When people see  or hear the Allamma bags, I want them to think fun and quality bags.

Question 7- Do you have any advice for people who want to start a business?

Everyone has ideas. Ideas are the easy part. The backbone is the effort, hustle. It can only go as far as you take it. You don't doubt yourself. There are highs and lows. But there is nothing more fulfilling seeing your baby succeed. Your product is your baby. Also one thing I learned from the books that I can forward to readers is this. Steps to creating a business are Crawl, Walk, Run and Fly. There are no shortcuts. 

Thank you Saverio for your inspirational story.
 

 







 

AN EXPERIENCE

 I wanted to share a part of my life (past).  To draw conclusion out of it to motivate you.

Math was the subject I was good at, then not so good at, in secondary and high school. Because I joined a group of girls in my class. We were interested in telling jokes and thinking about boys, pretty classic situation with teens.

For that reason, I ended up not studying at a university.

That's why I ended up going to England to learn the English language (so I can sing in a rock band in Turkey).

I felt bad for not knowing the high school math and not going to college. As it is a stamp I needed to have on record.

As you know, that is how people assert their worth in societies, by acquiring a diploma of some sort : )

For several years, I did try to learn math from books on my own...didn't work out. I actually took courses to prepare me for science related questions (for university exams).I didn't learn math there either. The teacher was assuming that we already knew the subject , so information was brief. It was mostly geared towards practicing.

So later on, when I immigrated to the US, it was awesome that I could just attend a community college.

Of course I did. I was interested in biology for the most part, later math and physics.

I worked and took some classes. Started Elementary Algebra Part I., Later on took Part 2. I finished both classes with A. I think all my test scores were A (except once it was B).


Then I took the Intermediate Algebra Part I and another semester Part 2.

Again all my test scores were A. In fact, when we first started the class
(Int Algebra part2) , the teacher announced to the class that if our average from the test scores were A, then we don't need to take the final .I didn't pay attention to that. I had to get A's though : )

So I was the one person who left the classroom on the day of the final, upon the teacher's prompt. He said "what are you doing here?",  "You don't need to take the final."

Gist of all this, if you fail at something, that's not the end of it necessarily. Unless you decide that it is the end. You can try again and again. Giving up is not a virtue, but persisting is.

 If you are studying something , make sure you understand what the words are in your texts (for more info visit http://www.appliedscholastics.org)

It's really ironic that what I couldn't understand in my own language (Turkish) and failed, I excelled (for that level) in another language. Understanding words is one thing, but giving attention is another (something that I lacked in secondary school). So pay attention.

  Finally, don't get diploma to assert your worth in the society. This is a trend that hinders societies, instead of furthering it....it gets people not produce , even if they have the capacity to actually produce or learn the subject from the people who know the craft (whatever craft that is). Try to get to the point with education, enough to get your started on a line of production. BE brilliant as you already are!