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

Hi Luiza, thanks for joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

It all started in 2019 when I decided to try a new exercise modality, CrossFit. The daily intense CrossFit training brought back memories of me as a semiprofessional youth volleyball player in Brazil. During the CrossFit classes, I made great friends who shared a healthy and active lifestyle with me. That is how I met Laura Dias, a beautiful and trustful friend I partnered with and immersed myself in the business world, participating actively in every single step of our business.

We created a Brazilian active/swimwear brand for women called Gett Official. We were doing wonderfully until the end of the pandemic when the life routine returned to normal, and for professional reasons, Laura could no longer stay with me. After this, I tried to proceed with another partner, a lovely person, but unfortunately, we were not able to align our ideas. So, I decided to follow my gut and run my business alone.

It has already been one year and a half since I launched the website and started e-commerce. I am still figuring out if all this work will give me great fruits, but more important than this is that it has been a worthwhile endeavor. I am in love with my brand Gett Official, enjoying the process, learning, and bravely facing all the challenges showing up on my way.

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?

My dream was to have my own business, but I was not sure and confident in what business to invest time and money. As a Latin woman (Brazilian), mom of 2 kids, and a scientist with a veterinarian and physical therapy background, one can imagine how difficult it was for me to dive into the entrepreneur world in a foreign country. Before I opened my own company, my husband and I invested time and money in a fast-food restaurant franchise and real estate. Both experiences were frustrating because the people we partnered with were not truthful. We learned that if you want a business, you must run it yourself.

I always thought that health balance was everything we needed as a solid base to build a great and happy life, and the pandemic validated my thoughts. And not only physical health but also mental health is super important to strengthen this base. As a woman, I believe that feeling beautiful and powerful is essential to succeed in any aspect of our lives. Inspired by that, I created a new Brand of active & swimwear called Gett Official. We offer high-quality fabrics and fashion trends from Brazil to motivate and inspire every woman to be the best version of themselves.

Self-confidence is the key to success. There’s nothing better than dressing in style and constantly feeling comfortable and radiant. Gett Official has stunning and unique outfits, offering exclusive activewear/bikinis since a few samples from each size are produced to sell in our store. Because the outfits and bikinis are all made in Brazil, we can offer our clothes at very affordable and competitive prices. All the girls shall check out our online store (Store | Gett Official / Gett Official (@gett.official) • Instagram photos and videos). They will fall in love with every single product. New releases are constantly dropping on the website store, and flash sales are always announced through email and social media. I highly recommend subscribing to our website to take advantage of these deals.

We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.

Gett Official started as e-commerce. Our outfits and bikinis are sold on the website (Activewear and swimwear apparel | Gett Official). Our Instagram and Facebook pages bring customers directly to our online shop. Now we have a point of sale in a CrossFit gym located in Hallandale Beach called Gator CrossFit, so women can come to check the quality and try our outfits before buying them. Amazon already approved Gett Official to sell its products there. Soon, we will also have our clothes available on this platform.

Pros of selling on our website:

– Low costs compared to maintaining a store and having employees working there daily.
– You have complete control of your own store and can develop a customer list to rely on for future revenue.

Cons to sell on our website:

– We must constantly attract clients and new clients to our website (by email, posts on social media, etc.).

Pros to selling on Amazon:

– Public trust and global reach.
– More people are using Amazon than in any other market.
– It takes very little to set up a seller account.

Cons to sell on Amazon:

– Expensive selling plan per month plus fees.
– Sellers do not have direct communication with customers.
– High competition.

Let’s move on to buying businesses – can you talk to us about your experience with business acquisitions?

Yes, my husband and I invested a significant amount of money in a franchise of a famous Californian hot dog restaurant in Illinois. At that time, we wanted to be investors and not have to work directly on the business. Although we did everything through a renowned facilitator company responsible for linking investors with trusted advisors and established franchisors, our business failed since we signed the agreement. What a colossal mistake! The company went bankrupt in one year, and no one consulted us for advice. Finally, of course, we reached our lawyer, and fortunately, we could get back the money invested.

We gave another chance to invest in someone else’s business but at this time in Real Estate. I had a written agreement with a businessman who promised to present to us potential properties to be purchased and flipped in ninety days. The agreement expired and no property was listed to us. To our enormous surprise, when we requested the money back the person vanished. Our lawyer tried several times to arrange a new deal for the devolution of our money; the guy paid 1/5 of the capital invested and nothing more. We could go to court to fight for the remaining amount he owes us, but the costs are so expensive that it would not be worth it. Later, we learned that the businessman we invested with was a scam and did the same to several others. He still does it.

Since then, we have given up trusting others. Instead, we realized that to have a chance to succeed in the business world, we would have to be able to run it ourselves, watching and controlling it closely.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.gettofficial.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/gett_official/
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/gett.apparel/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvQrC0NrlJJ2RAMpulxzp_g

Image Credits
My personal photo: Emely Peruzzo