Leap of Faith: How We Started POPPY + SAGE

When embarking on our entrepreneurial journey, we received many questions from family, friends, co-workers, and "new friends" or people we would simply meet along our travels.

The questions came (and still come!) in different forms, like:   

Which all ultimately distill down into:

How did you decide to start POPPY + SAGE? 

It’s not a short answer - but many roads leading us in this direction encouraged us to pursue starting POPPY + SAGE!    

We knew we wanted to start a business together that would have a positive social impact.     

Both of our parents are entrepreneurs and have been small business owners our entire lives. We were inspired early-on to be able to create a business of our own one day, and we’ve had amazing role models to learn from. 

Having a positive social impact in our business was our main priority.  We’ve been fortunate to travel to many destinations all over the world, and in the beauty of so many destinations is also the shadow of economic distress - especially in smaller communities away from tourist hotspots.  We knew there had to be a way to connect these communities and their traditional skills with the global economy - somehow, someway.  

A secondary priority to our main mission of creating a positive social impact, we wanted to build a business that propelled us to travel to new countries and explore underserved communities.  We love new adventures and traveling has always been a major part of both of our lives - both together as a couple, and prior to meeting each other.  

While exploring a local Balinese market, we found round rattan bags, which Carley immediately fell in love with (now, our best-selling Camilla Bag!), and a few minutes stopping to check out handmade accessories turned into an hour-long conversation about the bag weaving process, learning about the artisans who create them, and discovering more local crafts to take home with us.  When we excitedly sent pictures home to family and friends, they fell in love with the products, and we thought - we might be onto an idea! The next day, we bought an extra suitcase, went back to the artisans, and filled the suitcase with various “test” products to bring home for our new business venture.   

At the time we were living in Venice, Los Angeles, and reserved a booth at a weekend market for our first weekend home from Bali (think upscale flea market meets LA farmers market).  When we arrived home Friday evening, we were exhausted from a long week working our corporate jobs, but giddy with excitement for the market and the unknown of “Will anyone come to our booth?!”, “Will we even sell one item?!”, “Will we look like total amateurs?!”.  Over a bottle of wine that night, we packed up our products, (very) basic signage, a few homemade flower arrangements to “decorate” our table (yes - amateurs!), our just-delivered “Square” device (plug in for iPhone to take card payments - would there even be any payments?!), and decided we were as ready as we could be!  

Our first market table in LA (with the homemade floral arrangement!) 

On Saturday morning, we set up our booth and within a few hours sold out of ALL of the rattan/straw bags that we brought back!  Market attendees were just as in love with the handwoven bags as we were. We sold a few other items from our "test" product mix, but the rattan bags were the clear winner, and we even had people asking us to email them when we had more.  We loved the market experience of speaking with customers and getting live feedback from people passing by. Taking in the on-the-ground feedback, we decided our next step was to completely customize the products for our first official order.  We wanted to design the bags to be uniquely our own (not something that anyone could just purchase in Bali). This meant using higher-quality leather straps and closures, hand-selected fabric patterns, and customizing the length of the straps to be more akin to Western body standards (basically - longer straps for taller women to wear comfortably).  We optimized every element of the products to be premium-quality, and also decided we wanted to include a complimentary linen dust bag with each purchase. This is a premium touchpoint that would help protect and store the bags when not in use.   

Our LA market setup showing the first run of bags with custom fabrics and our own quality enhancements.  We still utilize some of these fabric prints (Poppy Red Stripe, Palm Leaf, and Black Stripe)!

We both worked in digital marketing and knew the power of e-commerce, and decided that if we wanted to grow our business, we needed to begin selling our handbags online.  Robert launched our website and Carley launched the social media channels so we could begin creating an online presence.   

By November 2017, we realized that if we wanted to pursue POPPY + SAGE as a “real” business, we needed to devote real time to growing it.  If we could only devote nights and weekends to it, growth would be just as limited as the time we put into it. Besides time, we also learned that location was a huge factor, especially important when fostering our relationships with the artisan communities.  To maximize efficiencies and communication, we needed to be in Bali, working hand-in-hand with the artisans, fabric-creators, linen-bag producers, and be living alongside the amazing community who created our products.  

We finally gathered the courage to quit our jobs (and shake off any notions of complacency), tell our friends and family, and it became real!  The following months were full of logistics, moving/road-tripping (from LA back to the East Coast where our families live), preparing to move (to Bali), keeping up with orders and customers from our website, holiday festivities, and goodbyes.  

In February 2018, we packed up four suitcases and were ready to go.  Once we landed in Bali, we had never been more nervous and excited at the same time!  While we were thrilled to be back in Bali - a place we loved so much, and willfully decided to move our lives as we knew them - we were simultaneously wondering “Have we made the right decision?”, “Will we will be able to grow this business?”, “Will we be able to support ourselves?” - questions we couldn’t answer definitively, but knew we had risked it all to make this move - and we were going to work harder than we ever had to pursue fulfilling our dream. 

Transportation in Bali - always by scooter!

Reflecting on all of this now - a little over a year and half after landing in Bali full-time - we can attest that entrepreneurship is definitely a roller coaster!  We’ve had highs and lows - fantastic wins and frustrating lessons. The good has certainly outweighed the bad - and we are so grateful to be able to work together and make a positive social impact here on this magical island, Bali.  We have had LOTS of learning moments - but we ultimately knew that if we didn’t go for it - we would always wonder what could have been. “No risk, no reward,” as they say!  

If you’re considering starting your own business, quitting your job to travel, or “taking the road less traveled” in any sense - we’re here to encourage you to do it!  It seems scary and risky at first (and it is!), but we can guarantee that whatever happens you won’t regret taking the Leap of Faith. 

Cheers,

Robert & Carley