We recently connected with Sharron Giambenini and have shared our conversation below.

Sharron, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?

Short answer: Yes. But, it took a while to get here. Before I started my shop in 2019, I was just bouncing from one job to another trying to figure out exactly how I wanted my life to look like. My husband is Italian and his sister works in the fashion industry, so we luckily were always being sent these stunning pieces from iconic brands like Versace, Roberto Cavalli, and Genny. We would get not only clothes and shoes but accessories too – I started adding stuff to my Poshmark that I didn’t want and to my surprise sold incredibly fast, I was excited that I was making money with something that I loved – Fashion. Similar to, entrepreneurs before me I had no clue what I have got myself into. One thing to resell an item on a marketplace but it’s completely another thing to build a website, product photography, editing, marketing, being consistent. The tail end of the pandemic was the toughest for me; I was working full-time and trying to figure out next steps for The Guilty Woman, I wasn’t being as consistent with content for my website which brought my viewers down, my business Instagram account was just removed, of course every time I went on Instagram someone was hitting some milestone, on top of that I felt like I didn’t have any help. During my entire entrepreneurial journey I’ve worked a job either full-time or part, and even when I found a great company to work for I always felt like something was “missing” like I could do more and SHOULD be doing more. I would always ask myself, “what do I have to show for?” and given our society and how toxic hustle culture can be, we always relate success to some dollar amount or grand gesture. The things that I have to show for are harder to see. I taught myself marketing, social media management, E-commerce management, content creation, and image management. I’ve finally realized how valuable these skills are because we are in a digital age and people with these skillset are only going to become more in demand as time goes on. I’m happy that I didn’t give up because I wouldn’t be where I am today if I did.

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?

I’m the owner of The Guilty Woman, an E-commerce. I’ve always had a real eye for design, taste, and all aesthetics, it’s like my talent. It could be because I’m a Taurus, who knows, but I always was drawn to beauty, arts, and of course fashion. I wouldn’t say I’m a tastemaker but more I just know what looks good together, I know how to pull a look together and make it look effortless. Never was a designer(patterns were the death of me)just more of a stylist.

We offer luxury accessories for everyone both new and pre-loved. I envisioned The Guilty Woman to be a place for like-minded people to read, be entertained, and find unique pieces. It’s part-lifestyle brand-part- passion project- part- retailer.

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

Yes, I sell on my website and I use Shopify. I also use other platforms like Ebay, Poshmark, and Mercari. I always recommend to people to cross-post their products on other platforms because that gives you a better opportunity to move product. I chose Shopify because it’s by far the easiest interface for E-commerce, the learning curb isn’t as long as another platform like WooCommerce. I love Ebay because they’ve been in the game since the 90’s so they are a heavy hitter at this point, did you know 135 million users use Ebay? Imagine being able to show your products to even half of that. What is a huge con for me and most business owners is the fees, and they all take between 10-20% in fees and Ebay using PayPal payments which is I believe 2.9%. It’s a lot and can be discouraging in the beginning, but if you’re not moving product it’s always better to take a little profit than just to sit on items.

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

I always keep an open communication with past clients either via email or through text, it’s important to remind them their is a person behind this brand and the relationship doesn’t end after they checkout. I foster loyalty through informative newsletters my subscribers would be interested in.

Contact Info:

• Website: theguiltywoman.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/sharrongiambe
• Facebook: facebook.com/theguiltywoman
• Other: https://www.pinterest.com/theguiltywoman/

Image Credits
Alessio Giambenini