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Business & Tech

Libertyville's LexiWynn Reaches Coast to Coast

With strong relationships, creativity and fun, a Libertyville couple turned a handmade bag into a nationwide brand.

After years of sewing and designing, Alexa Holzwarth and her husband Seth are taking their business LexiWynn to a national level in direct sales.

“My whole goal in starting a business was to just help out with our family income,” Alexa said. “And I didn’t want to work for somebody because I wanted it to be flexible.”

Five years ago, with two small sons, Alexa, a former mortgage underwriter, was looking to return to the work force when their kids were in full-time school.

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“My parents did the whole custom sewing thing with curtains,” Alexa explains of her parents’ Virginia-based company. “So I thought I’d do that and do some little projects here and there, but it wasn’t really fun for me.”

Sales through Parties

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When she designed her own purse out of some of her parents’ fabric scraps, friends and acquaintances took notice. After enough inquiries and requests for custom bags, a friend offered to have a party for her where guests could pick and choose fabrics and design their own bag.

“That was the first moment when I thought this could go somewhere,” Alexa said. “When we said, ‘Let’s have a party and see how this goes.’”

The parties were successful. Guests were excited about their involvement in the design process and the ability to purchase a one-of-a-kind bag, and more LexiWynn parties were booked.

At the time, Seth says he was working for a non-profit organization where he met a woman from San Jose.

“She said to us, ‘You have to do this out in California.’ So she did a big party for us and 40 purses were sold,” Seth said. “And I think that really started it.”

Family Business

According to Seth, the next few years, while he was in graduate school, Alexa expanded her party goals while still manufacturing the handbags out of their basement. He says he had quit the nonprofit organization and was working for a pharmaceutical company, when after three rounds of layoffs, he was left without a job.

“In 2010, I was looking at what I wanted to do,” Seth said. “By April, I just said, ‘I’m done looking for another sales job.’ And I spent the next two months writing a business plan for LexiWynn.”

Alexa admits that she was nervous to have their entire family income reliant on the business, but remembers his desire to join as another turning point.

“Seth said if we want to make it, we have to go national,” Alexa remembers. “So we figured to just give it a try or we’d always regret it.”

Building Relationships

During the rest of 2010, they brought on two investors, moved into a work space on Second Street in Libertyville, and hired three employees to sew and work with the fabrics. They then brought in design consultants, or sales reps, for the parties. These non-employees are paid straight commission for the sales generated at parties.

“And so now we have nine design consultants,” Seth said. “They’re in California, Washington, Texas, Kansas and Chicago, and we’re adding Atlanta and Denver.”

Seth says the company isn't planning to go wholesale or get into boutiques.

“With the custom aspect of this, the best way we can guarantee the experience is to have our own trained sales force. There’s more value, less people taking a piece of the pie,” he said.

They do not downline, and each design consultant receives a kit with fabrics, bags, bins, and racks, at no charge.

“We really struggled with the question of whether or not to charge the design consultants for the kits,” Alexa admits. “But it didn’t feel right to us. We thought, if we invest in them, they’ll invest in us.”

“We’re working hard to protect relationships,” Seth said. “Our five-year plan is to have 100 hand-picked design consultants who know us and have a real relationship with us.”

Expanding Production

He also says with their plan for sales force expansion, manufacturing space will need to grow, too.

“Realistically I think we’re going to be in select metropolitan areas, maybe 20 to 30 cities across the country and really cluster the sales consultants in those areas,” he said. “The work room will grow. If we have 100 design consultants with us, we would have a workroom of 25 to 30 people.”

According to Seth, they currently manufacture 50 to 60 bags per week, and he believes their work space could handle turning out 200 to 250 per week.

“Last year our goal was to get Alexa out of the sales role, so we brought on the design consultants to do the parties,” Seth said. “This year it’s for her to set the design elements for LexiWynn and have a workroom that would function.”

Alexa tries to design new bag styles with each season. LexiWynn currently offers 22 different styles of bags that range from $25-$125. She designs all elements of the bags and hand-picks the fabrics, giving customers endless combinations of fabric to design a truly unique bag.

Seth and Alexa agree that one of their strengths is their ability to work well together. Seth admits he has the vision, while Alexa is realistic and detail oriented.

“It’s not easy,” Seth said. “Not everyone’s going to do this, it’s incredibly complicated. Vision is easy for me. Now it’s about execution. But we love it. It’s scary and fun all at the same time.”

Seth and Alexa both say they love Libertyville and will work hard to keep their company here. More information about LexiWynn can be found at www.lexiwynn.com.

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