A Women-Owned Business Built On Friendship And Mutual Love For Travel

Very best good friends Melanie (Mel) Bolin and Lina Dickinson reside only minutes aside, on opposite sides of the Kansas-Missouri point out line. About 20 several years back, the two women fulfilled and turned rapid pals when their younger young children attended the exact same preschool.

Yrs later on, as their nests started to vacant, Mel and Lina uncovered that they shared not only the identical entrepreneurial spirit but also a wanderlust for travel.

All those passions laid the basis for the beginning of their women-owned business, MERSEA, which curates a line of ethically-sourced vacation apparel, equipment and home decor.

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Forbes.com spoke to Mel and Lina:

Briefly, how did your organization get started off?

We invested years raising our small children collectively, and when they acquired older, we were being itching to do a little something new. We both of those experienced experienced careers ahead of young ones, and we equally had a desire of creating our personal enterprise. We actually started out the company out of our houses.

We by no means saw developing MERSEA as a hobby. Somewhat, from the start off, it was an intentional, grassroots exertion. We have been pretty scrappy and had some pals serving to us out alongside the way.

Our very first solution was a candle in a bag. We identified a lady who made feed bags for horses about an hour absent on the outskirts of St. Joseph, Missouri, and convinced her to make our bags! We commenced in our kitchens—washing labels off of glass and packaging them in these little canvas luggage.

Considering that then, we grew to be named as the Quickest Rising Organization in Kansas in 2018 and we are inching toward the $20M mark this yr.

At first, we had established out to make the ultimate hostess presents. The title MERSEA is a double entendre, given that “merci”—the way that it is pronounced—is also a way of expressing thank you in French. But, “mer” and “sea” are also symbolic of the place we each longed to be—near the ocean.

Has getting a females-owned company been an asset?

Has the official certification of getting a women-owned small business helped us? To be truthful, not definitely.

But, operating with girls has been an absolute asset. Our enterprise is composed of just about all females. This was not automatically purposeful, but it progressed organically. As we grew and required additional support, we turned to our friends and their communities.

There are so numerous girls that are in the very same placement we had been in when we commenced MERSEA—those that selected to just take time off to increase their young children and had been ready to re-enter the workforce.

We know how tricky it is to action out and try out to get back in. The system tends to make you come to feel irrelevant. These girls are so good and hardworking. We are grateful to have this “mom workforce” due to the fact they are THE Drive.

What kinds of solutions did you get started with and how did you develop your line?

We began MERSEA with a tiny line of candles. We observed yet another community lady that would make us a dozen candles at a time. Being capable to get such a restricted amount was practically unheard of.

Eventually, she rented us a table in her warehouse so that we could package deal and ship out of her facility. We slowly and gradually took above a lot more house, right up until we moved into our personal facility and started pouring our personal candles. This superb lady now works with us and prospects all of our candle generation!

Our 1st products outdoors of candles was our Typical Journey Wrap, which continues to be a single of our most effective sellers right now. Buyers were being gravitating in the direction of relieve and operation, so we expanded on that with a “travel” sweater: The Catalina. Although it was invented for journey, folks fell in appreciate with it and ended up wearing it all the time, and in several hues.

We knew we were on to one thing, and began building extra one particular-dimensions, simple-treatment sweaters. At some point, our line grew into other choices, such as ponchos, kaftans, deal with-ups, attire, and pajamas. In the Spring of 2023, we’ll be launching our very first prepared-to-use assortment that expands into a entire-sizing selection.

Due to the fact the commencing, we have had a hand in just about every move of the process—packing, delivery, design, output, profits, and far more. Since of this, we actually fully grasp every single facet of the business. We’ve been equipped to improve steadily and organically, and have constantly been profitable devoid of at any time needing funding from private equity or enterprise funds.

In excess of the final nine yrs, our expansion in wholesale and retail has been astounding. But, our largest expansion has occur from our DTC on-line business. We made a acutely aware effort and hard work to focus on it, moved our web page onto Shopify in 2017, and began electronic promotion initiatives in 2018. Considering that then, it has developed substantially, accounting for around 50% of our profits.

What differentiates MERSEA from other journey put on corporations?

We are genuinely “battle-analyzed.”

We’re on the highway so considerably – among assembly with worldwide sellers, likely to trade demonstrates, and visiting stores throughout the country – we’ve lugged our goods all throughout the globe.

As we undertaking into all set-to-wear clothing, we are nonetheless maintaining the traveler in intellect. We use top-quality materials and do the job with associates that can execute substantial-high quality craftsmanship. Our apparel are well manufactured and will stand the examination of time. We want our items to be without end-favorites that will be in someone’s closet for many years to appear.

How did the pandemic impact your organization?

Of training course, all journey stopped for us and most of our buyers. But, it gave us time to hone in on what our DTC organization was able of. We built some clear pivots—masks, hand sanitizer and additional soap—but we understood that journey would sooner or later bounce back, and it has.

How do you source your solutions?

That’s 1 of the finest pieces of the company, and it is really private to us. We journey the globe to destinations like Turkey, India, Italy, Morocco, and China, partnering with the ideal artisans and compact factories that let us to get to know the house owners and employees.

We have a excellent spouse in Ecuador, and even despatched our personal young children down to reside and perform there one summer months! We like the strategy of partnering with relatives-owned companies and little capability producers for minimal collections.

Any future ideas for the business?

We’re launching our first prepared-to-wear assortment in Spring of 2023. And we’ll be debuting the selection at Kansas Town Style Week, a nod to our regional roots and a thank you to the prospects that have been with us considering that the starting.

We are committed to continuing to provide our shoppers more of what they want, so we will use the suggestions from this collection to inform and establish long run collections.

Inside of the environment of scent, we’ll be launching new, refreshing packaging for our line, as very well as partnering with Pura to present two of our bestselling scents in their diffuser. We’re so excited to have our customers working experience our scents by Pura.

Sometime in the potential, we would enjoy to open our individual retail outlet. We relish the thought of connecting right with our consumers and having quick responses from them.

How would every of you explain your travel type?

Lina: I adore my layers. I generally start off with jeans, and type upwards from there. I can do a white t-shirt and throw on any MERSEA sweater for an straightforward, snug seem. When I journey, I like to bring pieces that can be worn various means and numerous periods so that I can pack considerably less.

Mel: For me, it is classic. I’m normally packing my favored denim and white oxford shirts. I come to feel that if you get started with beautifully designed basic principles, you can layer and just cannot go completely wrong. My beloved locations would likely be Morocco and Italy. The artisans there are past extraordinary.

You a short while ago did a photo shoot for MERSEA in Italy. The place did you go?

We were being in Sorrento, in southwestern Italy. It was astounding! There is one thing about Italy that is so special—the mild, textures, and patina of the outdated structures. Each and every corner is the perfect location to get a photo.

What places are on your bucket checklist? Why?

We both of those seriously want to go to Portugal – we have in no way been and there are amazingly tiny, artisan factories there. Plus, Portugal is stunning, so who would not want to go?

As journey warriors, what are some of the biggest journey faults you’ve ever designed?

We have had our fair share of travel mishaps, for confident.

We have experienced plenty of misplaced bag tales. We have had ample canceled flights to final us a life span (a person that built our covid tests expire). And we have been seated by or in-among enough colourful men and women to give us content for a ebook series.

But, a single of the funniest factors that occurred to us was when traveling to Thailand. We had been in Bangkok conference some new companies and wished to go to the famed Sky Bar, which is a rooftop bar and has one of the most extraordinary views of Bangkok.

We didn’t know that they required closed-toed footwear and we only packed sandals. Fortunately, there was a good girl outdoors the bar entrance providing utilized footwear just for this occasion. We bought our utilized footwear, experienced an awesome time, but when I took off my sneakers, my feet had been another coloration. Need to have I say extra? This is what you get when you don’t carry the right sneakers when you journey.

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Observe: This discussion has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.