We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ekaterina Sanchez a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Ekaterina, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you scale up? What were the strategies, tactics, meaningful moments, twists/turns, obstacles, mistakes along the way? The world needs to hear more realistic, actionable stories about this critical part of the business building journey. Tell us your scaling up story – bring us along so we can understand what it was like making the decisions you had, implementing the strategies/tactics etc.

Starting our business has been a significant challenge. In the early stages, we faced a tough uphill battle, especially when our investor unexpectedly withdrew their funding, leaving us in a difficult position. To keep our dream alive, we reached out to family and friends for support and relied on our credit cards. We opened our doors on a shoestring budget, navigating through the first three years, which were particularly tough.

During this time, we made personal sacrifices, including moving in with a friend to save on rent while raising our three-year-old child. Just as we were finding our footing, COVID-19 struck. We took this opportunity to build our website and began sending merchandise to clients in curated boxes for them to select from and keep.

After being closed for 2.5 months, we reopened, and to our surprise, sales began to increase. This prompted us to expand our size range and replenish our inventory, leading to a significant boost in sales—we doubled our revenue. Three years later, we undertook a major remodel of our store, further enhancing the shopping experience and attracting more customers.

Today, we have created a destination that people look forward to visiting, turning our challenges into triumphs and establishing a thriving business.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

We curate a selection of exclusive lingerie brands from Paris each year, featuring styles that are often hard to find in the U.S. marketplace, especially since they are not available in department stores. Our unique merchandise sets us apart, complemented by the exceptional customer service and experience we provide to every client.

Every customer interaction and sale is designed to be a memorable experience, emphasizing proper lingerie sizing and styling tailored to individual needs. We strive to build lasting relationships with each client, nurturing those connections over the years. This commitment to personalized service is at the heart of what we do, making each visit special and fostering customer loyalty.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Building our business has come with many obstacles, but we have always held onto our belief in our vision and continued to work hard, no matter the challenges. Our dedication is driven by our unwavering belief in our dream. Even today, we hustle every day, facing new challenges head-on.

There is nothing more rewarding than watching our “baby” grow and evolve into a successful venture. Each step forward reinforces our passion and commitment, reminding us why we started this journey in the first place.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

We prioritize personal connections with our clients by reaching out to them directly to follow up and introduce new styles and arrivals. This approach keeps them excited about what we have to offer.

By providing personalized service, we curate styles specifically for each client, making their shopping experience easier and more enjoyable. We also host events in our boutique to show our appreciation, creating opportunities to celebrate and have fun together. During these events, we showcase new merchandise on models, allowing our clients to see how the pieces look in action. This combination of personalized service and engaging experiences fosters loyalty and strengthens our community.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://dentellefinelingerie.com
• Instagram: dentelle_lingerie
• Yelp: Dentelle Fine Lingerie
• Other: Dentelle Fine Lingerie Google

Image Credits

Manny Espinoza Photography