RHONY’s Erin Lichy recalls losing over $100K in handbag business

The Real Housewives of New York City‘with Erin Lichy she considers her previous handbag business a learning experience.

“I don’t look at it as a failure, but we lost a lot of money,” Lichy, 37, said on Monday. Jason Tartick‘with “Trade Secret” podcast. “Technically, it kind of failed.

Lichy said she lost “more than $100,000” from the venture. (The Bravo star later noted that she put “more than” $100,000 into the business, noting that it was “probably” the seed amount.) “We just kept pouring money in,” Lichy said.

From Lichy’s point of view, the fashion business is “impossible” unless you have a previous background in the industry or “isn’t backed by someone big”.

“You’re going to hit lows in Asia, or if you’re doing anywhere overseas, you’re going to hit lows. Then you start making it in New York and you run into shit like labor costs,” Lichy argued. “It is very difficult. We actually really believed in doing things in New York and in our studio. We were making them in China before, and for many reasons I felt very uncomfortable with that.”

Lichy recalled visiting factories that she claimed were “not what they say”. She added: “They are not working properly. Not all of them, but the one I went to.”

Lichy focused on production in New York, but said everything is “slower.” She added: “You have to buy materials from Italy that are shipped to New York and then you pay a brokerage fee. And that costs a lot of money, and then you can’t make up for it in a markup.”

Lichy called the process a “never-ending battle.” Asked if she raised capital, Lichy said: “No, and that’s exactly what I’ve learned never to do again.”

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Despite the business not taking off as she had hoped, Lichy noted that she has “no regrets” in her life.

“I ended up selling the name, but on the other hand it was the best experience of my life,” she said. “I would never have known how to build a business the way I’m building it now if that hadn’t happened.”

Erin took the lessons she learned from the handbag business and applied them to her business husband Abe Lichyher co-founder of Mezcalum. “This time, Abe and I went into it with a partner in sales, advisors and capital raising,” she said.