Sherrill Mosee is the Founder and CEO of MinkeeBlue, a fashion accessories company that she started 6 years ago to help alleviate the burden that working women and mothers have carrying so many bags. With two engineering degrees under her belt, she created a patented organizational bag that is fashionable for busy women whose roles changed throughout the day. She was selected as a Designer-in-Residence for the Philadelphia Fashion Incubator where she was able to develop and bring my brand to life. She has also been chosen as Black Girl Ventures’ Pitch Competition Winner, QVC’s Next Big Thing Finalist, Katie Couric’s Mothers of Invention Finalist, and WBENCPitch Runner-Up.
Today, MinkeeBlue designs are sold nationwide including at the Four Seasons Orlando, Ritz Carlton Amelia Island and Carnival Cruises, and have been featured on the Today Show, the Katie Couric Show and QVC. Sherrill also designed custom bags for WBENC’s 20th Anniversary, Diamond Resorts’ International Celebrity Golf Tournament, and General Motors and Odyssey Media’s Beauty in Motion Retreat.
After encountering many other women entrepreneurs struggling with similar challenges that she faced when starting my business, she decided to launch her own consulting company, StartUp by Faith. She coaches and trains new and aspiring entrepreneurs on how to bring product ideas to market as well as interview fellow women business owners on their business journeys in her YouTube series.
She passionate about sharing her story and lessons learned with up and coming entrepreneurs and have been proud to speak on these topics for the African-American Chamber of Commerce, SCORE, University of Louisville, The National Society of Black Engineers at Drexel University, Catalyst University, Traffic Sales & Profit, Girls Inc., and many others.
She is a problem solver. She loves tinkering, creating and just figuring stuff out. In 1998, she founded a nonprofit organization to help low-income single moms in college pay for childcare. Sherrill’s mother was a single mother, who was denied the opportunity to continue her education because of a lack of support and finances. She created the first childcare scholarship program in Pennsylvania, designed to help young moms succeed. Through partnerships with childcare providers, colleges, and universities, she awarded over $3 million dollars to more than 500 student-parents until they Graduated.
While working with the moms, she notices them struggling with their diaper bags and bookbag. She realized she was struggling too. She often carried two or three bags while taking the train to work with my purse, laptop, lunch bag, and a change of shoes in a plastic grocery bag. It was cumbersome struggling with all those bags maneuvering from place to place. She wanted to organize and separate the items she needed for the day in one bag. When she couldn’t find a suitable bag on the market, she decided to create one.
She had no background in fashion design, merchandising, or manufacturing, so it was a daunting task. For nearly two years, she took various classes and workshops offered by the Small Business Administration, and Small Business Development Centers at local universities in order to make my business a reality. Additionally, she was accepted into the Philadelphia Fashion Incubator at Macy’s and launched my business in 2014.
She ran a successful Kickstarter campaign and did a family and friends round starting off with about $74K. But she didn’t know, what she didn’t know, she spent way too much, in the beginning, trying to figure things out. Additionally, 30% of her first production run was defective and I have to liquidate a lot of bags. She almost gave up…. but decided to slow down, step back, and network with people who knew more than she did.
Her advice for others is to know your target market. Why would she/he want your product over everything else on the market? Make sure you understand his/her pain points and speak to those issues in your marketing.
There’s no straight path to success. Accept the fact that there are going to be challenges and failures along the way. Your success comes when you learn from those mistakes and you’re flexible to make changes to get through tough times. Never compare yourself to others’ success. Run your own race. Be patient. Be consistent. Be persistent… and keep moving. Nothing beats a failure, but a try.
If you would like to get in touch with Sherrill Mosee or her company, you can do it through her – Linkedin Page