Profile of a blonde and her bag | Kailyn Jensen

Kaylin Jensen began “A Blonde and Her Bag” from a single birthday present she made for a good friend and developed it right into a product whose merchandise are available in shops throughout the nation and shipped everywhere in the world.

However what you are most happy with is the truth that it’s Her work is in handmade jewelry It really works solely by girls.

“It brings me a lot pleasure,” says Jensen, whose workers features a director, director of selling and promotion, and two substitute jewelers. There’s this very well-known quote by Madeleine Albright: “There’s a particular place in hell for ladies who do not assist different girls.” It all the time resonated with me rather a lot. There are sufficient companies and jobs accessible for each lady, and we needs to be creating one another up.”

The places of work of A Blonde and Her Bag, positioned in Sausalito, California, have a particular female contact, and the tradition is all about lady energy. They’ve champagne on Fridays. They do a pink wig Wed. The corporate’s showroom is bathed in pink.

The previous US Secretary of State can be happy with that.

“I simply adore all the ladies who work for me. We have now a lot enjoyable collectively, and all the time rejoice each little occasion in an enormous manner,” says Jensen. “It is all in regards to the firm you retain and the ladies you retain round you — that is a part of rising.”

powerful occasions …

The expansion of A Blonde and Her Bag has been gradual, regular, and plain — one thing Jensen, 37, might by no means have imagined again in 2008 when she was in business actual property.

That was the yr, after all, when the housing market crashed, leaving Jensen unemployed. Deserted, she struggled to search out her correct place and make ends meet. 5 years later, a good friend of hers was having her birthday, and Jensen could not discover an inexpensive present—”I went to the shops, and the little necklace was three-four hundred {dollars}”—so, largely out of desperation, she determined to make one herself. After spending hours watching YouTube movies, she had one thing like a necklace — however she was lower than certain her good friend would like it.

“To my shock, I truly liked it,” says Jensen. “And he or she needed extra not only for herself, but in addition for her family and friends.”

A Blonde and Her Bag was born.

subsequent stage

Jensen credit her boyfriend on the time, Philip Evangelatos, with encouraging her to show her interest right into a enterprise. Evangelatus led her to this WEV Girls Financial Ventures, a enterprise community that gives a spread of assets for ladies entrepreneurs in Santa Barbara and Ventura County.

By means of WEV, Jensen enrolled in a 14-week crash course, and got here away with a complete motion plan.

Her largest piece of recommendation to different aspiring businesswomen? “Write a marketing strategy that means that you can contemplate, plan and take into consideration each side of the enterprise earlier than you set a dime into the concept,” says Jensen. “So, WEV set me up for fulfillment from the beginning.”

With a plan in hand, Jensen took to the streets—actually—promoting her wares at craft gala’s and the like. She debuted A Blonde and Her Bag the Santa Barbara Arts and Crafts Fair on April 7, 2013 – and it was a convincing success.

On that first Sunday, I gained $5,000. I even received a Joomla account,” Jensen recollects. “And I used to be like, Oh my God, perhaps there’s one thing right here and perhaps we will take this to the subsequent stage.”

Extra wholesale accounts adopted, largely with small shops, and shortly Jensen was doing road exhibits up and down the California coast.

Along with her enterprise starting to take off, Jensen requested somebody who had traveled the same path for steering. I discovered it from Claire Briglio, and it’s Interior and jewelry designer. The 2 met by Briglio’s position as a counselor with an area mentorship program known as Small Business Development Center.

“Claire has been instrumental within the development of my enterprise from 2013 to 2017,” says Jensen. “You have got thus far helped me thrive in wholesaling above anybody else.”

Jensen met her future husband, Eric, in 2016, and he urged her to search for greater accounts, so she jumped into the large wholesale circuit. Quickly, she reached agreements with retailers like 1-800-Flowers.com and Belk to purchase and wholesale her merchandise.

Now, it is official: Jensen has taken A Blonde and Her Bag to the subsequent stage.

Common inspiration

The Blonde and Her Bag makes handmade rings, bracelets, earrings, anklets, and necklaces, lots of that are embellished with beads, Swarovski crystals, and semi-precious stones. The items could be worn, as the web site states, “to lunch with the women or a night out for a special day.”

The inspiration for a lot of of Jensen’s designs comes from one in all two predominant sources: her travels and her mom, Cyndie Fox.

Relating to the previous, she says she has visited at the least 64 nations, and it’s troublesome to gauge the affect of lots of them on her and her design aesthetic.

“Going to completely different shops in all these completely different nations, there are such a lot of completely different supplies and methods of pondering,” Jensen explains. “And for those who’re a leisure traveler, you are in a unique mind-set. You are relaxed, and then you definitely come again and never solely do you’re feeling refreshed, however you may have all this inspiration for brand new colours and new issues.”

Of all of the locations she visited, Jensen singles out 5 specifically that influenced her work essentially the most: Cannes, France (“I really like the model there”); Berlin (“So complicated and so easy”); Vietnam (“A lot of beads and crystals”); Rio de Janeiro (“I really like the best way metals mix with semi-precious stones”); and Spain (“Delicate and flavourful jewellery…you possibly can put on all day and night time”).

The mom is aware of what’s finest

Then there’s Cindy, whom Jensen considers her best inventive affect. She was a stay-at-home mother, and one of many issues Jensen appreciates most about her is how she handed her love on to her daughter.

“We had been all the time making issues. If we had a birthday, it was all about DIY,” Jensen recollects. “I cannot have the power to DIY and have the mind to invent new issues [without her]. “

Seen in a selected manner, it’s an instance of a lady serving to one other lady—on this case, a mom mentoring her daughter. That is one thing very close to and expensive to Kaylin Jensen’s coronary heart, and it is a huge motive why A Blonde and Her Bag is such a booming enterprise.

As a result of, on the opposite facet of Thatcher’s quote, there’s a particular place in heaven for ladies who help different girls.