How LavaillerBougara got started
Introduce your Etsy shop and tell us your story. How did you begin and decide on what to sell on Etsy, and how do you create your products?
We are Làvailler and Bougara. Our mission is to provide the public with couture-grade tailoring supplies built on a foundation of experience and expertise. Our focus is on the highest-quality materials that we can find or produce. My background is in tailoring and clothing design. It's a passion that has taken me all over the world. To me, there's not much better than a beautiful piece of silk, the sumptuous drape of a perfectly tailored blouse, or the roll of an excellently tailored lapel. Clothing is a magnificent form of self-expression, utility, or inspiration. We live our lives in it, and it shows the world who we are and what we think is important.
Textiles are an under-recognized form of art. Someone had to design each pattern, how it fits together, what it weighs, and how it drapes. When I first began tailoring, I would repeatedly run into a few key issues. There is a gap between the public and the suppliers. I would look for higher-quality materials and find that they were not easy to purchase as a novice. I wanted to buy top-grade materials, but they didn't seem to be available. There are many companies that sell beautiful fabrics, but they require accounts, minimum orders, and oftentimes a high level of knowledge to even understand what's being sold.
Làvailler & Bougara began almost by accident. What was happening was that I would need to order many more yards than I was looking to use for a project in order to meet the minimum. This left me with 20 or 50 yards that I didn't need. Naturally, this is not a sustainable way to do business. This was a large part of the ever-mounting problem, but the tipping point was when I designed a linen fabric that had a floral pattern on it and the supplier misread the sizing dimensions and produced the pattern with a 10 CM repeat rather than a 100 CM repeat. Suffice it to say, the pattern was much smaller and not at all what I had in mind for the shirts that were being produced. It was a custom print, so I couldn't return it, and it left me with yards and yards of unusable fabric. The fabric wasn't damaged or ugly; it just wasn't what I wanted.
And rather than be buried under a mountain of fabric, I decided that there might be an opportunity. I thought about how hard it was for me to get certain materials and how other people must feel the same way. It seemed like a solution that would benefit everyone involved. The people who need small amounts of high-quality fabrics have access to them, and I can make the minimum orders without having to worry about extra stock. After the fabrics started selling, I began to understand that there were other design and sewing implements that I would have used every day if I had known they existed when I first began. We started to introduce sewing tools like scissors, gauges, waxes, and different premade parts of clothing. This is a substantial part of our decision-making when it comes to sourcing our products. We try to identify if it's something that someone who sews will value. There are plenty of flashy things that look good on paper but don't work well or break after a few uses.
I know from my personal experience that I want something that performs well and can be used for years. That ideology is what we try to apply to our fabrics as well. It's heartbreaking for someone to pour hours of their lives into painstakingly creating a garment, only to have the fabric fade or fall apart after only a few uses. It's a core belief at Làvailler & Bougara that the cornerstone of a business like ours is quality in every way.
Favorite items
What are your favorite items? What makes these so special? Why do you think these items might be selling well?
That is a very good question, and I think it is two-fold in a way. There is one fabric that is undoubtedly my favorite lining. It's a woven jacquard, so it has two colors woven into one fabric, creating this shifting, multi-tonal effect going from a deep mulberry to a midnight blue. Much like the sea at night, it's very hard to describe accurately and even more difficult to photograph. The fabric itself is beautiful, and I liked it from the start, but I think it was being able to photograph it that cemented it as my favorite.
It went unlisted for nearly six months because it was so difficult to accurately depict. We tied every type of light to every lens and several cameras. We ended up taking the photo in near darkness in order to get the balance between the blue and mulberry to look like it does when you can hold it in your hands. I don't know if I would have respected the fabric as much if it hadn't put up such a fight.
There is another fabric that is my favorite that we carry. It's a grey superfine wool and cashmere blend used for suiting. It's slightly textured, drapes beautifully, and has this terrific smooth hand as well as a very subtle deep blue luster that's just barely discernible. I believed it should be what everybody wants in a suit fabric.
This one does not sell, however. Since it has been listed, it has not sold one yard. The thing that was the hardest to comprehend is that it's one of the most popular fabrics that I have tailored with. Many people want suits made from the material but aren’t interested in buying them by the yard.
There's a bland joke in the professional fashion world that states "It's a white and blue industry". This refers to shirts but is also true with suits, with navy or gray being the number one choice most of the time. I think that someone who is sewing at home and making a suit with fabric on Etsy is most likely looking to make something a little more interesting. Whereas, when someone is looking to get a suit tailored, they are looking for more "standard colors". The customer who is commissioning a high-end suit with minimal work on their part is likely not the same person who is looking to buy fabric for a project on Etsy.
The reason I feel it's important to bring this up is that, like the response to the question, it's not as simple as one would hope. There are many ways to interpret why this fabric, which is one of my personal favorites, doesn’t sell very well.
I believe that this raises some very important questions that should be asked when deciding which products to sell. Such as:
"Is it easy to communicate online?"
"Is this something that needs to be physically held to be fully appreciated?"
"Is this something that I might like personally but have learned won't sell well?"
"Is the customer base that shops on Etsy the customer base that will buy this product?"
We still carry it at Làvailler & Bougara, only because it is stocked for tailoring. But if it didn't sell there, we most likely wouldn't carry it at all. It's a perfect example of ideology getting you to the gate but practicality winning the race. If Etsy was the only way to sell that fabric and we didn’t meet face-to-face with customers, we probably wouldn't carry it, despite my admiration for it.
Getting sales on Etsy
How long did it take for you to earn your first sale and how do you currently attract customers to your Etsy shop?
It took us less than two weeks to earn our first sale, a relatively shorter time between putting up the shop and making our first sale than is often typical. Many will say that sales are luck-based, and to an extent this is true, but I'm of the opinion that our initial sales were not so much luck as they were preparation. I've had experience in the past working with small businesses that were not by any means failures, but certainly weren't whopping successes. Based on my past experiences, I wanted to try to be very thorough with this one.
The time between my decision to start the business and our first sale taking place was nearly a year. There were months of preparation—a lot of trial and error as well as studying—that took place before the store went live. It took us a long time to identify who we were selling to. It's great to sell to everyone, but it's a lot easier if you know who's already looking.
The way we attract customers is much more nuanced than any advertising agency would like to hear. We don't run advertisements outside of Etsy's promotions; we don't print flyers, and we don't even have business cards. How we advertise is through our photos and our descriptions. We use our images and our words to paint a picture that's so immersive and elegant that it's nearly tactile. You can't help but be enthralled.
The descriptions are a big part of what we consider advertising, but the other big part of our public presence is our brand. We have worked very hard to create a solid brand identity. We want the name to stand for something. Làvailler & Bougara means that the supplies that you are getting from us are put to the test; they are used in the industry by people who stake their livelihoods on the tools they use.
There is no better way to advertise than through your products themselves. If you cultivate a culture of excellence, people will be proud to use your products and will leave reviews that advertise in a way that no billboard can. We had one customer compare the shears we sell to a Cadillac. What could be better advertising than being compared to "the world standard"?
Managing LavaillerBougara
How do you manage your shop? Are you running solo or do you have any team members? What tools or services do you use to run your shop and how do you handle fulfillment?
The shop is managed by myself and my partner. It certainly helps to divide the workload. Running a shop is so multifaceted that there is not very much room for pride. You need to admit where you fall short or that a problem may never be fixed on your own. Part of managing anything is taking an honest look at your strengths and weaknesses.
My partner is very meticulous, good with numbers, and a much stronger speller than I am (they checked and formatted the majority of this interview, in fact). Whereas I am more familiar with the technical aspects of the products, what they are used for, and how to portray them in a way that a customer might understand.
We use a number of apps and programs in our daily business. I am a firm believer that, if there is a way to automate something that takes up time, it should be done. We live in an age where we can make our lives easier and more efficient at the click of a button.
A few of the programs we get the most use out of are:
Quickbooks is used for maintaining all of our business expenses and accounts, especially when tax season rolls around.
Google apps such as Gmail, Sheets, and Docs are all used for daily communication, writing up business plans, and creating pay sheets for employees.
Dropbox is good for sharing photos without compromising a lot of the quality, though going straight from camera SD to the computer is still the best way to upload our photos.
Photoshop is a must-have for editing product photos. Many of our pictures simply don’t reflect what the naked eye sees, so editing aspects ranging from color to the smallest detail is important to give accurate depictions of products.
Filmora is great for making high-quality videos without requiring a lot of advanced knowledge in video production and editing.
Not necessarily a program, but an honorable mention:
Rollo Label Printer: A lifesaver after a lot of fighting with our traditional printer to use labels, a thermal ink label printer was definitely worth the investment as our order volume increased.
The beautiful thing about having a business right now is that there are tools like Google that offer many things for free or very little money.
Initially, we were shipping from our home. That wasn't the most ideal scenario, as many small business owners know, not only from the perspective of space but also from the perspective of work-life separation. Life becomes cluttered very quickly.
That led us to look for somewhere where we could work that wasn't our home. We live in the Upstate New York area, one of the top 10 most expensive cities to live in the USA. After NYC, it's actually the most expensive area in the state. The reason I bring this up is that we, like many small business owners, are on a budget, and it can be quite a downer to constantly give your hard-earned money away in rent and utilities.
We looked around for many different options, ranging from renting studio spaces to outsourcing product packaging to big-name companies, but couldn't find anything that quite fit the bill. Meanwhile, our house was slowly bursting at the seams with all the products we kept introducing. Writing off your home office expenses sounds good in theory, but it can be detrimental to productivity in the long run if not properly and realistically managed.
Eventually, we mentioned to a friend that we were looking for a place to set up shop. They had just inherited their father’s house, which had several large storage buildings on the property. Long story short, we made an agreement with them to not only renovate and rent one of the buildings but also allow them to work in it as the fulfillment manager. We set up a system where they are paid based on each order they send out, and their commute has been reduced to less than a hundred feet at their convenience rather than multiple hours of driving at set times.
The reason I think this is so important to express is that the deal benefits both of us and does not cost nearly as much as the most obvious solution. This is one of the aspects of creative thinking that is often not mentioned when starting a business: the most common or easiest solution is not always the most feasible one. As I said, rent and taxes are extremely high in this area, and especially for this friend, who has health issues that make having a full-time job difficult, it eases the burden of trying to fit into the traditional 9-5 work environment.
The future of LavaillerBougara
What goals do you have for your shop in the future?
The future is one of the most important parts of being a business owner. I like to look at the goals I have for the year and break them down into month-long and sometimes weekly schedules. I find that makes them more digestible and allows the opportunity to overrun or adjust the schedule if need be. In the next year, we are looking forward to expanding our inventory and adding new types of products.
One we are very excited about is a custom fabric that we created as the original became difficult to source due to material shortages during the pandemic. Many of our customers have been inquiring about this fabric for months, as it was a beautiful lining and a best-selling product when it was listed. It will not be an exact replica but will draw inspiration from the original and add some personal touches to the design, which we believe fans of the fabric will appreciate.
We are constantly updating the photos and videos, as well as working on updating our videos to be featured with every listing in a more consistent style.
We only opened the new shipping facility about a year ago. It came with an entirely new set of challenges. We are looking into ways to be more efficient and have better communication within our team so that, as it grows, we are prepared to meet demands and foster a positive work environment. There are new challenges that come along with managing our inventory that weren't a problem when we were a much smaller team. There are many good problems to have, as it means the business is expanding.
Increasing our social media presence and online advertising are the next steps planned for the growth of the business, though they are things that our team currently does not have strong skills in. We are planning to do a lot of studying and utilization of online courses on both, as well as consulting when it is available. As I said earlier, automation is key, and ego should not get in the way of recognizing that contracting work can provide more efficient and thorough results than attempting to teach yourself everything might.
What may feel like growing pains right now will hopefully be looked back on as the beginning of a new chapter in the story of Làvailler and Bougara.
Advice for new sellers
What’s your advice for a new seller starting an Etsy shop?
It's very difficult to give one piece of advice to someone who is just starting out. I recently had a friend who was looking to begin selling on Etsy, and they asked me what my one piece of advice was. I told them I would need to think about it. After some time, it occurred to me that this was exactly the advice that I would give to someone just starting out:
I would tell them to think and to do it slowly and thoroughly. Everyone has advice, and it's often free to consume. But without thought, it's valueless. Each piece of advice contradicts the last, so it's up to you to decide what's important. I have noticed that the people who say you have to make a decision right away almost never have your best interest at heart. If you create a habit of thinking about things and not letting people force you to make a quick decision, it will change the way you see your business. Then, when problems arise that need immediate action, you will have created the habit of thinking before acting, and it will be automatic.
There is one other piece of advice that is often overlooked. It’s somewhat harsh, but no less important because of that. We think a business has to be for profit, but it doesn't. It can also give you a place to create and display your art.
I believe that's a fine way to run a shop, but it is not the same type of business as one that is for profit. Much like a day job and a passion project, you wouldn’t look at them the same way. When a business is for profit, you make decisions based on the market. They are cold, calculated, and impersonal. Whereas in a business for artistic pursuits, you create and hope the market likes it. You are less likely to change what you like to suit the customer, and a lot of the decisions are based on emotions.
I think it's important to identify what your objective is. Doing so reduces a lot of ambiguity and, therefore, a lot of stress. They can, of course, be one and the same. It does happen that one person's art can become very popular and create a steady income. It’s fantastic when that happens, but it's not the rule.
I have spoken to many of my close friends who sell on Etsy, and they have asked me why some of their items don’t sell.
It’s sometimes very difficult to look clinically at something you have created, but some of the products they would like to perform better have a few points that might be worth noting. These items tend to have long production periods, large price tags, and a highly saturated market. Sometimes they are making similar items to what other shops are selling for several times less. Viewed through an artistic lens, every time this sells, it covers the cost of them practicing their craft. But from the standpoint of hard commerce, it might be better to drop or reduce the number of products like this, despite it being a personal favorite.
It’s important to state that I don’t favor one type of perspective over another. Both businesses that supply artists and the artists themselves are integral parts of the Etsy community. Etsy allows the artist to create something unique that’s never meant to be mass produced, and it allows suppliers to furnish artists with all they could ever need. I am lucky enough to be able to sell tailoring materials in one place and practice the craft that I’m very passionate about in another, but I do not think of them in the same way. One offers consistent returns, and one fulfills me in a way that simple commerce cannot.
This is, of course, my opinion, but shifting the way I thought about my business and my craft undoubtedly changed my life. The final word of advice I can give is that the only true failure is to give up.
I often think of the enduring JFK quote:
"We do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard."
Gravity is one of the most powerful forces in the world, and it was made to hold us down, but we were able to overcome that. It’s what America was built on: the relentless need to achieve the objective we set for ourselves and the freedom to pursue it.
Don't look at setbacks as a problem to be dealt with, but as a puzzle to be solved. Every time you overcome a problem, you become a stronger person. It's not about avoiding them; it's about making them a non-issue through thoughtful dedication. You are your business's strongest asset and its biggest liability. Be honest with yourself; you are the easiest person to fool.
As an entrepreneur, you are more capable than you ever thought possible. I said before that there is not much room for pride, but that is not entirely true. You should be proud of how hard it is because it shows how capable you are as a person.
Some sellers really get inspired by hearing numbers. Feel free to share these if you like.
Question: How much is your monthly revenue?
Answer: At the moment, we make sure to meet the overhead, and all the profit above that is put into expanding the business and creating a better experience for the customer.
Question: What is your average profit margin?
Answer: 1.5%
LavaillerBougara
Luxury fabrics & textiles. Tailoring & sewing supplies.
