Expat Women: Business Ideas: Interviews with Entrepreneurs
CAMENAE Group
Jill Walker and Brittany Callard
Friends for over 22 years and sometimes mistaken as sisters, Brittany Callard and Jill Walker (both USA and UK passport holders) have been living parallel lives across Europe and South East Asia for the last two decades.
Brittany and Jill's paths initially crossed in London, where they built and sold a joint advertising business. Then when they each relocated to South East Asia as accompanying partners (Jill to Thailand in 2004, then Vietnam in 2007; and Brittany to Singapore in 2005), the pair decided to embark on a new project together: CAMENAE, which is a luxury brand of Italian made leather handbags and accessories. With their collective design training and international business experience, Jill and Brittany have now built CAMENAE into a successful luxury brand which is now enjoying its third year of collections and which has already earned numerous press and celebrity endorsements.
Expat Women's Interview with Jill and Brittany
Expat Women: Brittany and Jill, please tell us about how your partnership evolved.
Jill and Brittany: We have been friends for over two decades. Working with each other must be in our Karma! Neither of us would have it any other way. We are lucky to enjoy such a successful partnership, backed by supportive husbands and children. In London we owned an advertising company on Bond Street. When we sold that business we knew we wanted to work together again doing something completely different from advertising.
Expat Women: What led you to start a luxury handbag and accessory brand?
Jill and Brittany: The majority of our professional careers have been spent together, and we had a couple of business ideas after selling the advertising business. However CAMENAE, our Italian luxury bag and accessory brand, prevailed. Jill gave me six months after I moved to Singapore to settle, and then we took our first trips to research factories and tanneries.
Ultimately we are both very creative and entrepreneurial minded. Our love for design (which Jill studied in Paris), and our mutual adoration for Italy - where we had been traveling since 1990, aligned perfectly with our desire to create a highly personalized and beautiful line of luxury bags and accessories.
Expat Women: Share with us more about the philosophy behind the CAMENAE brand.
Jill and Brittany: The name itself is taken from Roman mythology. The CAMENAE are goddesses who served as prophets between the spiritual and material world. We used this as inspiration to create authentically designed, beautiful and functional pieces. CAMENAE is also hand-made by the best: the Italians. Using first-cut leather tailored in a Tuscan tannery; and custom Italian crafted bag frames, belt buckles, zipper pulls and studs; all pieces would be limited in number, offering greater exclusivity for our clientele. We wanted rare, artisan pieces with mystery and allure to turn heads of men and women alike.
Jill Walker and Brittany Callard
Expat Women:
What were some key challenges you faced when starting this business and how did you overcome them?
Jill and Brittany: As with any new business, there are always countless challenges. We still face them on a weekly basis!
Primarily, we were faced with the geographical and logistical challenges of setting up an international luxury brand in a country that was not our own. CAMENAE is truly a global company and we constantly need to manage our factory and public relations in Europe, our warehouse in the United States and our IT/design support in Asia and Australia.
Fortunately, we have both lived outside of our home country for over twenty years so we have a good grasp of the international market and have learned to troubleshoot on every level, which helps!
Expat Women:
What are your top five tips for women who are considering starting a business abroad?
Jill and Brittany:
1.
Research your market extensively. Understand all perspectives and dimensions of your business, particularly in a foreign country and for international brands.
2.
Business Plans are largely guesswork, so try to create one that is realistic and true to your market and location. Make a worst-case scenario plan and be prepared to expect the unexpected. Test your commitment and consider your capital investment. Most likely you will need double the amount of willpower and capital than you first anticipate.
3.
Make friends in your industry and find mentors and muses for inspiration. Respect those in your industry. Learn from them. Ask yourself how you will bring greater worth to your industry.
4.
Re-construct, re-fresh and re-evaluate. Your business is an entity in and of itself. It will grow, change and develop. Keep an open mind.
5.
Do not lose your perspective. Be humble and genuine. If you start your company out of passion, make sure you retain that passion. Keep your focus and make decisions that are true to your brand and to yourself.
Expat Women:
Do you consider yourselves serial entrepreneurs with many new business ideas in the air at any one time, or is your focus right now solely on CAMENAE?
Jill and Brittany:
Yes, we are serial entrepreneurs, but for now our focus is solely on CAMENAE. Our entrepreneurial spirit is infused into everything we do in order to grow and diversify the brand.
However, in terms of other things we are doing, at present, we are collaborating with Fashion For Freedom (ethical manufacturing in Vietnam) to produce two fabric pieces, which will launch later this month, which is exciting.
Expat Women:
Brittany and Jill, we congratulate you on your success in creating an authentic luxury brand with such a devoted following. We wish you all the very best!
