shoprsd.com Blog

Ever went to a really boring Christmas party at work that you couldn’t wait to just get your gift and go home?  (Or like the ones I went to, where I picked out the $10 flannel socks and was just relieved I didn’t get the singing reindeer!)  I have another option you may just count down to get to! I did a trunk show for a local bank full of women and the bank’s Christmas gift to them was to have them design a bag from me.  I had 29 women in all design their own, or select what I had displayed.  We had a ball!  The women shopped weeks in advance for their purse, picking which style they liked best and which fabric.  The company even let them pick out their own matching cosmetic bag to go with!  For this bank, they had two parties. One where they had me come and display my things so they could order and then one more where they received their finished bag and celebrated their year.  It was so much fun, I loved seeing what each one picked out and sewing the details they had shopped for.  I loved packaging up all 29 orders with their cosmetics and purses in white and pink gift bags. What a treat to be part of something like that.  So if you want a unique idea for your Christmas party, here’s a great one! I would love to help celebrate your year and give something you really look forward to

How do you grow a company you started yourself? You hire people who love your things and can sell purses right off their shoulders!  I have decided that in order to continue to build the company and spread myself out, I going to need some help!  I am hiring sales rep from all over.  I need to spread the purses further out then just my area, and I need some help with some fun loving girls who simply love my purses.  There are some great benefits and an agressive payment plan to make some money on the side.  I need gals who really know my things, love them and want to help me realize my dreams and overall vision for Rebekah Scott Designs.  The position involves doing trunk shows in peoples homes with a “trunk”  where they can buy straight out or design their own, just like the ones I conduct weekly.  I started the business with “trunk shows” and LOVE doing them, and really want to pursue that with others as well.  I love the feel of personal shopping and going over to your girlfriends to catch up and shop.  I will have a video posted soon to the website, www.shoprsd.com, of a trunk show and how much fun we have at them.  You can earn “Bekah bucks” at shows and really just have a good laugh and of course time to design your own bag.  If you are interested in being a part of something big, having fun and making some money on the side, please contact me and we can visit in more detail.

Yes that’s right, $10 referrals, isn’t that great!  We call it the “Take 10″ discount and it really adds up. I have lots of customers who just turn in their gift certificates for $10 for all the cards they hand out and voila! they get a new purse.  We put up to 4 business cards in each purse so that when people compliment your purse, you can hand them the card, and refer them to the website. If they order you get $10 off!  Simply write your name on the back of the card and I will send you the gift certificate from their order.  If you need more cards, let us know and we will send out some more! We always ask when any order is placed if there is a referral, so no worries that you won’t get credit!  I love sending the gift certificates out because it means they loved their purse so much they recommended someone else get one too, plus it means they got complimented that day, and who doesn’t love compliments!  I have built the business on word of mouth and this is the cornerstone of that kind of advertising.  Have fun handing out cards and reaping all the benefits!

People often ask me about how I got started and I start explaining how we were poor newlyweds and I needed Christmas gifts for the women on our list, and so I thought well I do have a sewing machine and I have some fabric so I will make some purses because I love purses.  So I made a few and I started getting calls on my answering machine ordering the bags, so I thought well I will fill a couple of them, and eventually it got totally out of control. I was sewing till like 2-3 in the morning and I left my radio job early so I could go home and sew the orders.   

            My husband was realizing that I loved it and really wanted to pursue it full time.  He and I became debt free with the Dave Ramsey program and as soon as it happened, Nick said “you can pick!”  So here I am living my dream. 

            I consider it a rags to riches story, because I never got a loan to start, so I really only used what I had and could afford at the time.  And in the beginning there were some lean -lean months. I even cut my curtains to use as fabric because I couldn’t afford to buy new fabric!  (They sold!)  So yes, we have started with nothing but owe no-one.  I just felt I should share this part of my journey because we all start somewhere.

Well it has happened, I have been signing autographs.  It’s not exactly my first,–I did sign a mug from one of my third grade teachers when I went back home recently.  I made this cross-stitched mug for her when I was in her third grade class.  So anyway, my mailman asked that I sign the magazine for him and give him a copy, so yah, you could say I felt a little excited.  (Okay, I felt elated!) And of course my Grandmas and parents are big fans as well.  I have been given lots of “congrats” and “way to go’s” on facebook which is fun to see also.  Feel free to add me as a friend on face book, I give 10% off to my facebook friends.  Just use coupon code “facebook” when ordering. 

As I write this I am on a roadtrip with my sister, Sarah to Fort Pierre for the Zonta Art show.  She is gracious enough to let me use her laptop to record my thoughts. We have been laughing and catching up. She and I thought of this little slogan to describe my week so far (please insert jock jam of choice and slight megaphone voice here)  “ From the tumbleweed country of Philip SD to the cover of a MN magazine, REBEKAH SCOTT.  (yes I realized a little over the top but we are so thrilled with the publicity!)It’s just crazy to see my dreams starting to really expand and see my vision and mission roll out before my very eyes. 

            The women featured in the article of the magazine are women in my life who have really made a difference to me. My sister, mom, cousin, best friend in highschool, passion group members and the photographer is also a good friend. These gals have cheered me on and really helped me plan ahead and help realize my dreams. 

We had a great weekend in Shakopee MN for the Spring Festival.  My twin sister Sarah and I traveled together, which is fun in itself, but we had ball selling the bags and being in our booth.   (We started a few more chapters of our book together, “My Souls’ Side Kick” on the trip up, but couldn’t barely catch a breath we were laughing so hard.)  As for the show, I discovered that apparently my sister has the most attractive neck in the tri-state area because she literally sold two of my scarves right off her neck!  I have these square frayed scarves that are super flexible and really cute for all seasons, and we wore them in all kinds of ways around our neck.  We loved experimenting with how many ways we could wear them and how many different outfits we could pair them with.  We will have pictures posted soon on the website www.shoprsd.com to view them. 

As for customers, we had return customers that are always fun to see and hear how they loved their winter purse and if they needed to order a new spring one.  We also had a large number of Mommy’s looking to order baby bags they designed themselves.  Which is always fun to do also.    We had lots of new customers who didn’t buy one in the November show, but couldn’t pass us up this time in the spring.  We also sold the new “Olive Dress” to hip mothers who couldn’t live without the polka dotted hippo!  We just didn’t have enough sizes there, so we will be sure and fix that the next run.   It was fun to tell all the traffic that we had 6 new styles of purses!  I usually only introduce about 2 new styles every January or so, but this January, I got bit by the “design bug”and we will all benefited with six new styles ;) 

It was awesome to visit with other vendors to be encouraged and get ideas on new things to offer and new ways of getting the word out there.  For me, the best advertising still is word of mouth, but I am dabbling in all kinds of advertising as well.  Some of which I asked for and some that contacted me.   (Magazine cover, Radio Ads, TV commercial, Blog)…all which help spread the word fast.  I have seen this dream of mine expand, enrich and enlighten areas of my life I never knew possible, but always believed was attainable.  This I know for sure, I LOVE what I do, and when you love what you do, happiness abounds.  God is good.