This story is part of our 1,000 stories campaign. What’s your story?
Name: Lorena Vazquez
Business: Loly in the Sky, a boutique brand for handcrafted footwear
Industry: Clothing & Accessories
Location: Dallas, Texas, U.S. and Mexico City, Mexico
Reason for starting: Loly in the Sky was founded in 2010 and it grew out of the vision to offer a line of very unique, comfortable, and quality driven shoes. Loly in the Sky aims to make women feel special while wearing adorable shoes crafted with love in Mexico. As the creative inspiration behind the brand, I aim to give a quirky twist to classy designs. My goal is to create art with exceptional designs, encouraging my clients’ individual expressions and dreams. Prior to starting Loly in the Sky, I studied Fashion Design at Istituto Marangoni in Milan and later on moved to Barcelona, where I earned a Master’s degree in Accessory Design, specializing in footwear alongside Catalan craft shoemakers.
Related: Read about another designer entrepreneur here.
How do you define success? For me success is being able to wake up every morning knowing that I have a second home to get to that needs all my love and attention. It’s knowing that hundreds of people around the world have come to know Loly in the Sky as a brand that treats their products with so much love. It’s knowing that I have a great team to work with that maintains my dream, and that this dream is in constant development. We are never at a standstill. It is looking back and being able to recognize that where I started is a long way back from what I have come to achieve. It is being thankful that I was trusted by others to transmit my love for accessories.
Biggest Success: After two years of careful planning and designing, after hours and hours of working to find our suppliers we have come to create a full blown business. We are currently employing a team of 10 full time friends that struggle everyday to make Loly a world known brand. Just in July 2014 we closed our most successful month in sales since our opening!
Related: Still Writing that Business Plan? Here’s How to Finish
What is your top challenge and how have you addressed it? Probably realizing that a team of two cannot handle the immense workload that comes with a successful business. It has been about depositing my faith in my team and delegating activities that are of utmost importance. I’ve had to have patience and understand that we are constantly learning how to run start-ups; I have joined associations and received mentorship in several areas. We have been able to plan so well that we were able to get external capital to push our business broader limits.
Who is your most important role model? Definitely my family. Being the third of 4 children (my youngest brother Eduardo is my partner), I have seen how my father and 3 brothers have each forged their own path career and family wise. There have been good times and hard times, but we all have perseverance. My father, as well as my two older brothers, have their own successful consulting businesses based in Austin, TX but with worldwide clients.
[box_light]Website www.lolyinthesky.com
Twitter @lolyinthesky
Facebook www.facebook.com/Lolyinthesky
Tumblr tumblr.lolyinthesky[/box_light]
Tell us your story!
Read about another designer and entrepreneur here
Edited by The Story Exchange