Today we’d like to introduce you to Samantha Waterloo.
Samantha, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Right out of college, I started at Nordstrom which is where I worked for the six years leading up to Moda Mentore. At the time, you had to start on the sales floor and work your way up. Because of this, I learned a ton -not only about clothing, the designers behind the brands and fit but also about how a woman moves in something when she really loves it versus when she’s feeling uncomfortable regardless of how she actually looks.
From there I grew with the company and went into management and eventually oversaw the Designer division at the downtown store. I learned a lot about the business side of things and my entrepreneurial spirit was really cultivated in this role.
As wonderful as my experience was at Nordstrom, personally I wanted to stay in Chicago and have more control over my schedule which isn’t easy at a big corporation (especially retail). I had an idea about a closet app (this was back in 2011 when there weren’t a million of them already) that would enable someone to see a virtual inventory of their closet and allow them to enlist the help of an expert to style what they already owned instead of having to buy new clothes.
I began exploring development options for the idea and ended up with a very rough version of the idea in my head. It continued to interest me and I eventually left Nordstrom and began what is now Moda Mentore.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The beginning was really hard. I left a job where I was making six figures for an idea and no guarantee of success. I really believed in what I was trying to accomplish though and felt passionate about it. I had to move back in with my parents and borrow some money from them in order to pay my bills that first year.
The business started very slowly. I hadn’t even figured out how I was going to deliver an exceptional experience let alone make money doing it. But, with the help of many “business” meetings in the living room with my parents, siblings, and boyfriend (now husband) I started to build the framework of my business.
I feel lucky that people were so eager to utilize my services and recommend me to their friends. I have spent $0 on marketing in the past four years and it’s because I have such incredible clients who do that hard work for me.
But that doesn’t mean that it’s been easy. At every stage of growing this business, there have been different struggles. What’s been the most difficult is not having a team to collaborate with. Working for a big company, this is something that I took for granted. Having experts across different disciplines to be able to call on for help or even to just get another perspective is so important.
As a solo entrepreneur, it can get lonely and as a perfectionist, I’ve had to learn to accept it’s impossible for me to do everything as quickly and wide-scoped as I envision it. I try my best to keep it simple and focus on my client’s experience.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Moda Mentore – what should we know?
Before Moda Mentore, I oversaw the Designer division at the Flagship store of a major retailer. In that role, I developed the sales teams across the men’s and women’s apparel, shoe, and handbag departments. It was a job that I loved not only because of the beautiful collections that I got to work with each day but because I was continuously encouraged to think about ways to enhance the customer’s experience.
Despite much of our success, there was one nagging question that I knew could never be solved by a retailer objectively – how can a client look her best without having to constantly go out and buy something new? It’s a question that retailers don’t ask because, in the end, their objective is to sell you something.
Never do you go into a store and have a salesperson tell you that you don’t need a thing. For the most part, we’ve accepted that this is the way it is – when a slightly momentous occasion approaches, we go out in search of another “perfect outfit.” As someone who spent far too many dollars on way too many clothes, this question continued to ignite a curiosity and so I began to search for an answer.
I created Moda Mentore with this in mind – it guides the process of the experience. My clients have come to appreciate that the perfect outfit is often already right there in their closet. There will always be a need to shop – fashion continuously evolves and because of that, so too do our wardrobes. But Moda Mentore’s focus is to help clients build their wardrobe purposefully, easily, and without having to hit the reset button at the end of each season.
Over the past four years, the business continues to evolve but the constant focus behind the brand continues to be on helping clients streamline. We are programmed to consume here in America and people end up acquiring so much stuff they don’t need or care about. I found that people were unknowingly weighed down by this clutter. Because of this realization, my business has expanded outside of the closet and now includes the entire home. Currently, half of my business comes from home organization projects and half comes from styling and shopping.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
I think being genuine has been instrumental in my growing success. I am working with clients at their most vulnerable – I am in their closets or homes and going through all their possessions to help determine what should stay and what should go.
In the case of my styling clients, they are usually undressed and we are looking at how clothes fit on their body. It’s very personal stuff and at times, people can be quite timid, self-conscious or even defensive when we begin. I have to gain their trust in a short period of time and help them to see that I’m really there to help them achieve the goals they set for themselves.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.modamentore.com
- Email: sam@modamentore.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/modamentore
- Facebook: facebook.com/modamentore
Image Credit:
Becca Waterloo
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