VENTURES

A step in the right direction
Consultant builds business to build a better life
DORIS HAJEWSKI, Staff Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Published: November 19, 2007

When Jennifer Lovitt Riggs stepped off the fast track as a Washington, D.C., consultant, she was aiming to start a new career in comfortable shoes. Five years later, she’s selling her own Nota Bene brand of footwear, and making a comfortable life for her family as well in Whitefish Bay. Riggs, 36, now has two preschool children and an upstart company: Nota Bene shoes, a business that she has taken with her through multiple moves.

Thanks to the Internet and offshore sourcing, Riggs is able to oversee her company from an alcove office near the kitchen of her Whitefish Bay home. The shoes are made mostly in Spain and distributed from an Orlando, Fla., warehouse that is run by her stepfather.

"It’s not as big a leap as you would think," said Riggs of her decision to start a shoe company.

In a bygone era, such a choice would have required her to obtain a factory and hire workers. Instead, Riggs was able to translate her skills and experience as a Booz Allen consultant to the defense industry into creating a women’s shoe business — an industry where she had no experience.

"I spent years thinking about ‘What does someone need? What is the problem?’ " Riggs said of her consulting experience.

In her case, it was a pair of stylish, good quality shoes that wouldn’t result in a blister when she walked across the Pentagon parking lot. These thoughts came to her around the same time her that her husband, Todd, had a job opportunity with a venture capital firm in Minneapolis.

"I didn’t want him to refuse," Riggs recalled. And the rigors of her consulting work would have been a tough combination with motherhood.

‘Crazy savers’ The couple moved in 2002, and Riggs jumped into her shoe industry research with both feet. Money for the effort came from the couple’s savings, and from investments in the new company by family and friends.

"We were crazy savers," Riggs said of the couple’s time in Washington. "We lived on one income, in a tiny apartment."

Riggs spent a lot of time and money on research, and on revisions to the lasts — the form around which a shoe is built — to ensure adequate room for toes and a good fit for heels. Design consulting came from Peter Chiara, of New York, and Caroline DeBaere in San Francisco, both experienced in working on high-end brands.

She also had advice from two former chief executive officers of shoe companies: Erv Shames of Stride Rite and Lynn Miller of Candies. The former CEOs helped Riggs find manufacturers who might be willing to produce the small batch of shoes that she needed, and develop a business plan that would help persuade them to do it.

Riggs gave birth to the couple’s first child the following year, and the first samples of Nota Bene shoes arrived at about the same time. The samples were worn by testers, who gave feedback on comfort after a full day of wearing. After some fine-tuning, the first Nota Bene shoes were shipped from Spain in 2004.

Meanwhile, there were illnesses in their families in Orlando, so Jennifer and Todd moved back to their hometown and lived there for a brief time before coming to Whitefish Bay in 2005.

Now, Todd is vice president for corporate development at Sellars Wipers and Sorbents, an industrial wipes manufacturer in which his venture capital firm has a stake.

Jennifer juggles her work schedule with the needs of her children.

"The feminist movement was not just about being able to make choices — but also being able to create choices," Jennifer said. "So for me, it seemed like ‘Why not nurse my baby while I’m on the phone negotiating a supply agreement, or conducting a design review online, or helping a customer? Why not get up early to work with Spain or East Coast, go back to sleep with my baby, play with my baby in the "business morning" and then work with the West Coast in the afternoon? Also, I quickly realized that just not having a commute gave me 10 bonus hours every week!"

Riggs declined to disclose her sales. Nota Bene shoes are sold now in 15 stores, with orders going to five more soon.

Nota Bene’s 16 styles range from mules to heels, in suedes and leathers, bright colors as well as browns and blacks. Sizing is on the European system, equating to a U.S. range of 6 to 12, in medium widths. Riggs plans to offer wide widths soon, but not narrows. American women’s feet have become wider, she said, with about as many people now wearing wide as medium, about 40% each. The remaining 20% of the population wears narrows, she said.

Timing is tough While learning the shoe industry was a challenge, it wasn’t the most difficult part of starting the business, Riggs said.

Timing is actually the toughest thing for a company that has just two year-round employees. Other tasks are handled by people Riggs pays on a contract or freelance basis, as needed.

"When to hire salespeople, before or after you make the shoes?" Riggs said.

While Riggs downplays the difficulty of starting her company, the owner of Umi, a local children’s shoe manufacturer, says it’s a tough task.

"To see a footwear business at their small scale is extremely unusual and unlikely," said Mark Kohlenberg, president of Port Washington-based Umi and former head of U.S. distribution for Elefanten, a now-defunct children’s brand. Kohlenberg estimates that Riggs needs several million dollars to develop and market the brand to a wider distribution network.

"You need scale to survive," he said.

Riggs has no desire to distribute her shoes through department stores, preferring to stick with small specialty stores where the staff can explain the comfort features of Nota Bene. But she is hoping to bring a partner into the company next year who would invest money and talent into the effort to increase sales.

Husband Todd serves gratis as chief financial officer, and Jennifer pays herself a salary that isn’t at the level she made at Booz Allen.

It’s all about tradeoffs. Had she stayed in a corporate job, she wouldn’t have been able to say things like this description of her distribution strategy:

"Now that my second child is potty-trained, reaching out to more stores is a priority." Nota Bene Business: Making and selling shoes for women that combine comfort and beauty

Founded: 2002 in Minneapolis, moved to Orlando, now headquartered in Whitefish Bay
Owner: Founder Jennifer Lovitt Riggs
Sales: Not disclosed

Product: Nota Bene shoes, priced at $200-$275. Available locally at Goody Two Shooz in Mequon and at www.notabeneshoes.com

Copyright 2007.