Home-Grown and Nationally Known
(4 votes, average: 5 out of 5)April 15, 2009 by Sarah Blaskovich
Merle Jablin O’Brien
A Colorado mom learns tricks of the trade as a small-business owner.
Every morning when Merle Jablin O’Brien wakes up in her Aspen home, she looks in the mirror and decides the day’s fate. “Today, I’m going to have a great trade show,” she has said in the past, as designer of a new eco-line of bags that are sold in retail stores and at conventions. “I wanted to sell 20 orders that day. And you know what? I actually got 20 orders!” O’Brien laughs. “Should have asked for 30.”
As owner of OlovesM (pronounced O loves M), O’Brien designs bags of all sizes made out of recycled yoga mats that would have landed in the landfill. She’s proud of her 3-year-old brand, which is largely the result of her own sweat equity and home-grown, thoughtful ideas.The bags, priced under $100, have been spotted by mainstream media outlets and were distributed as “swag” at the Sundance Film Festival and various charity benefits.
Her home office is filled with the colorful purses, and the stash bleeds into the living room and the kitchen. Her kids, ages 6 and 10, help cut the hemp yarn to attach tags to the bags, which she ships from her home in recycled boxes. Her invoices are printed on the back of paper her kids have scribbled on. “It’s about keeping items out of the landfills as best I can,” she says. Previously, she was an elementary-school teacher and organizer of environmental education programs that showed children how to make holiday gifts from scraps at home.
The eco-bags are an ironic product, however, since O’Brien admits she doesn’t sew well—she conceived the idea by duct-taping the first prototype. Her kids watched, confused, as she wove the handles from plastic bags. “I look at the first ones now, and I think, They’re not good at all,” she says, laughing. “I had to see if people actually liked these, besides my friends and family.”
Today, the bags are sold in 33 states and Washington, D.C., and O’Brien is proud to say that people other than her mother are wearing the bags, too. More than 100,000 people visit her site monthly, and some post stories of where they found OlovesM bags or how they use them. “I realized, if you have a good product, it really speaks,” she says.
But it was at the very beginning of her startup when the comments mattered most, because they reaffirmed for her that she was building a viable business that would make an environmental difference. More than a year ago, she remembers seeing a woman walking on a Colorado trail near her home, wearing one of her bags. O’Brien went trotting down the trail, running after her. “Can I take a picture of you?” she remembers asking the stranger. “I do kind of run after people when I’m excited!” Not long after, her kids spotted a woman at a sporting goods store wearing an OlovesM bag. Her youngest son proudly said his “mommy” was the designer. “That was really exciting, because my kids were involved. They thought only I was wearing them, until that moment.”
The bags are also a rare commodity for O’Brien, who calls herself a thrift shopper and a backpack wearer. “I have to be honest, I never carried a bag,” she says, also admitting that she’s not the purse type—often leaving the house without makeup on. “My mother is always after me. But I don’t wear any of that stuff. A backpack was the only bag I ever had. So the styles have really grown out of necessity. My kids needed a lunch bag, for instance, so I designed one.”
In the first few years of her business, O’Brien has created a full-time career for herself, her husband, and a few others who sew and cut the bags. She employs people who can’t leave their home or are faced with a language barrier, for instance. And through it all, she says she’s learned a ton about how to run a practical, eco-friendly business. Here are some of the most memorable, insightful tips she learned:
- If you have an idea, run with it.
- It’s OK to be cheap.
- Know what you’re good at and what you’re not.
- Don’t quit.
- If you’re a mom, try “mommy guerilla marketing.” If you’re a dad, it just might work anyway.
- Moms can do everything. But it’s OK if you’re a mom who can’t do every thing.
- Come up with a great name, and stick to it.
- Know when to let go.
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Merle Jablin O’Brien, owner of OlovesM, has a great story to tell. I liked reading this article. Her bags are sold in 33 states and she gets 100,000 or more hits to her website monthly, which is incredible. I think what she is quoted as saying in the article is correct, when she says it’s all about the product. I wish her continued success.