Expat Women: Business Ideas: Interviews With Entrepreneurs
Beaded Lily
Lily Mordà
In 2001, Americans Lily Mordà and her husband Timothy James took a two-month trip to Lucca in Tuscany, Italy. They instantly fell in love with the Italian lifestyle and especially the region of Tuscany, so they decided to stay.
Since then, expats Lily and Tim have built a thriving bead business in the Oltrarno – in the heart of Italy’s artisan district in Florence. Their handmade beads are bought by the likes of Chanel, Ferragamo and Escada. Students travel from all over the world to learn in their studio. And their finished jewelry pieces are purchased by bead aficionados and jewelry lovers (almost) everywhere.
Expat Women's Interview with Lily
Expat Women: Lily, what inspired you and Tim to stay in Italy?
Lily: Two reasons: First, we loved Italy. Second, we were seeking a change. We were frustrated with what we saw as the precarious and often contentious political and social situations in the U.S. and we felt that our home country no longer reflected our values and desired lifestyle.
So Italy became our new home, and given that I came from an Italian family background and spent much of my childhood around Italian immigrant communities, I quickly felt very much "at home" in Florence. Tim and I found it fairly easy to adapt to the daily rhythms of Italian life.
Because of my Italian heritage, I was legally entitled to obtain Italian citizenship, which I did with the help of my father. Shortly thereafter, we sold or gave away most of our other belongings and embarked on our new adventure. It was not long after that we started thinking about the type of business we wanted to create in Italy.
Expat Women:
Please tell us more about Beaded Lily.
Lily:
Beaded Lily is a collaboration between my husband, myself and our many students and customers from around the world. The business is broken up into two areas. The first area consists of the products that we create and sell. Tim creates beautiful beads by hand, using Murano glass and employing traditional Venetian bead-making techniques. I then turn these beads into one-of-a-kind pieces of jewelry. We also sell other unique Italian products that lend themselves to jewelry making. One of our biggest selling products is the Italian tubular wire mesh ribbon, which is a unique ribbon made of woven strands of metallic micro-fiber, which is enameled and comes in a myriad of fabulous colors.
The second aspect of our business revolves around the classes we offer in our studio. We both teach our respective crafts to students who travel to work with us from all over the world. We offer a wide variety of classes in both glass bead making and jewelry design. This part of the business has proved to be a great joy for both of us.
Expat Women: What challenges have you encountered in setting up and running your business, and how have you overcome them?
Lily:
Our biggest challenge has been staying afloat in an often tumultuous, and always changing, economic climate. Understanding and adapting to a set of ever-changing business rules, currency fluctuations and tax requirements has often been frustrating, especially when it comes to trying to decipher all of these requirements in a second language.
Our second biggest challenge has been cultivating a strong local clientele. While we enjoy a solid web presence that attracts many tourists and potential students to our business, we have found that our local base has been more difficult to build than it was when we were still operating in the United States. This has probably been our biggest disappointment to date.
Expat Women: You had previous experience running a bead business. What about Tim?
Lily:
Yes, I designed jewelry and ran a bead shop in Seattle for over ten years. Tim ran a cafe for several years in Seattle, as well. Tim learned how to make beads at my suggestion, soon after we arrived in Italy. Besides taking a one week course in Umbria, he is primarily self-taught. But since then, in addition to creating handmade beads for our store, websites and jewelry lines, Tim has designed and produced glass beads for a number of design houses, including Chanel, Ferragamo and Escada. He also supplies to a myriad of smaller designers in Europe, North America and as far away as Australia and Japan. Along with his teaching, these other activities keep him quite busy!
Expat Women:
Lily, can you share some tips for women interested in starting a business abroad?
Lily:
1.
Identify what products or services you feel are lacking in the country or city you have moved to. In other words, create something unique: do not be tempted to start a business that the locals already have in abundance. For instance, if you move to Paris do not open a French bakery. An American style bakery in Paris, however, might do really well because it is more unique.
2.
Stick with what you are good at. Bringing years of experience and skill to your new business will serve you better in a foreign environment than starting completely from scratch. So, if you are a great writer, for example, figure out how you can use that skill in your new business, rather than starting a bakery if you have never baked before.
3.
Figure out who your customers are. Are you targeting the local market, the tourist market, the expat market, or a combination? Gear your business to the demographic that you are specifically trying to reach.
4.
If you are an English speaker, try and find a good accountant who speaks English. This is essential. Trying to navigate through the labyrinth of local rules, regulations and tax codes abroad in a foreign language can be one of the hardest things you will face when opening a business abroad. Make sure you find a person who really understands what you are trying to accomplish with your business and who will act as a real advocate for you. A good accountant and attorney (if needed) who you can understand and trust, could save you time and money, plus allow the initial preparations for starting your business a chance to go much smoother.
5.
Establish your presence on the web as soon as you can. If necessary, create a website in both the native language of the country you are in, and in your own language. Having your own website is one of the most important tools you will have for creating a successful business.
6.
Apply all the same basic rules and principles to opening a business abroad that you would when opening a business in your native country. Sound business practices should help you, wherever you implement them.
7.
Do not expect your business to show a profit instantly. The learning curve for starting a business abroad can be a long one. Make sure you are not under-capitalized and do not be disappointed if things do not go exactly according to plan for the first couple of years.
8.
Have a sense of humor. Especially during those early visits to your accountant!
Expat Women: Finally, what are your plans for the future? Will we soon see Beaded Lily outlets outside of Oltrarno?
Lily: We currently have a business opportunity which we are exploring in Brighton, England. If this opportunity pans out, it is quite possible that we will move the whole business there, including the teaching, sometime in 2012. While Brighton enjoys the company of around eight million visitors a year, it also has a very artistic local community, which we believe would be a good fit for our business. We are also fluent (most of the time, anyway), in the local language!
Our goal, wherever we are, is to continue to create a business within a unique, creative environment with a solid local base, that also continues to attract visitors and students from around the globe. Stay tuned on our website for further developments in the coming months!
Expat Women:
Lily, thank you very much for your valuable insights and tips. Congratulations on Beaded Lily and we wish you every ongoing success in Italy, and beyond!
