Financial Workout

Seeking relief from the mountain of debt crushing the company, Brown turned to Fifth Street Finance, a middle market hedge fund out of NYC.  Fifth Street was the largest note holder and an agreement was reached that it would purchase Miche and take a monstrous loss of $17.9 million on the outstanding debt.  Big mistake.  Several lawsuits were filed against Fifth Street, subsequent to the Miche workout, alleging shareholder fraud, relating to transactions like the Miche workout, and the SEC opened an investigation. While Fifth Street left control of the company with Miche’s executive team, it continued to hold the purse strings…tightly.  Apparently, Corporate never knew, on a month-to-month basis, whether or not Miche would continue to be funded. 

Marketing Disaster

2015 brought on Kristine Widfeldt and Nicole Langer, Vice President of Marketing and Vice President of Sales respectively. It also saw the firing of key personnel including head designer, Ashley Ulabarri.  Miche’s fall began to snowball with forward facing marketing videos that were anything but fashionable and a Summer catalog that was devoid of color and downright dowdy.  With respect to color, when I questioned the apparent lack of diversity, I was told that, “more than 85% of Miche Representatives and their customers are caucasian” as an explanation.  I was appalled…how can we, as an International company, alienate all those who do not fit within the caucasian label???!!!  Moreover, fashion was eliminated from the Miche brand. The current customer base continued to dwindle as inventory fluctuated and was delayed because of funding (although the dock strike was the excuse given, even after the strike had ended). Dell Brown completely reversed his stance regarding fire selling and program after program was released discounting product drastically and offering product to the field at wholesale.

Losses Continue to Mount Needlessly

In the Fall of 2015, the executive team decided to consolidate the field and placed entire teams under new leaders which caused those leaders to promote and earn large bonuses and commissions.  Many of these transitions violated Miche’s Direct to Corporate Adoption Program’s rules but apparently, that didn’t matter as the executive team needed to be able to demonstrate success. Dell Brown blatantly told leaders at M-Vision 2016 that this move cost the company $100,000.00 at a time when it could ill afford further losses.  To make matters worse, the Executive Team decided to invest in a brand new computer system with a Point of Sale app for representatives. This bold initiative was disclosed at M-Vision 2016, held in January. Mind you, M-Vision was supposed to be a training event for Leaders who paid dearly for airfare and hotel.  The training was sorely lacking.  Sadly, despite the costs incurred for the development of this program, it was never rolled out to the field as the company shut down before release.  

Lackluster Spring Release Sales 

The Spring 2016 collection first debuted at M-Vision 2016 and later released to the public in February 2016, met with lukewarm response.  The Executive team was caught off guard by the lack of sales.  To me, it was obvious – the bulk of the collection was clearly summer product.  Who buys a woven handbag, as well as summer florals and stripes, in wintry February and March??!!  This lack of any fashion knowledge (or common sense) on the part of the marketing department was both insightful and dismaying.

The nail in the coffin was the check that Fifth Street Finance had to write for the cost of the incentive trip in April.  That, together with the lackluster sales of the Spring 2016 release, sealed Miche’s fate the end of March.  

Miche Will Live On – Patents Purchased by Magnolia & Vine

However, there is a light at the end of the tunnel – Magnolia & Vine, a young direct sales company, purchased the Miche handbag patents and are currently developing their own interchangeable handbag.  I was heartened by the news as it would be appalling for this brilliant, unique concept to just disappear.  Nicole Langer joined Magnolia & Vine where she has been able to shine without the dark cloud of lack of funding that was hanging over Miche Corporate.  I signed with Magnolia & Vine and am proud to represent them. It’s a great product with an even better home office.

So that’s the story.  Women who relied upon Miche were suddenly left out in the cold without their businesses.  Some representatives depended on the income of their MICHE businesses and lost everything. It was more than a business…we were a family.  Such a sad day for us all.

Here you can get an idea of the size of the Prima Base Bag:

Compare the Prima to Miche’s other size Base Bags:

So, you can actually get your hands on a Prima Base and Faces for a fabulous price! For Leap Year Weekend Only, you can purchase the prima base bag and several Prima Faces for the ridiculous price of $16!  Miche’s Leap Into Prima Sale is a once every four years kind of sale, so don’t miss out! As you can see, a few faces have already sold out:

SHOP NOW

Note, these items are GONE come Feb 1, 2016!

Suddenly set adrift, I needed to figure out my next move.  I was not interested in learning another area of law and developing a new practice. I was tired of the rising expenses of rent, salaries, and all the other incidentals that add up in a big way. Strangely enough, I turned my eye to Direct Sales. The Direct Sales business is financially lean and extraordinarily efficient.  Not only is the overhead extremely low, but the time and expense of product development, manufacture, storage and shipment  is undertaken by the company. My job was to market the products and create a customer base in addition to introducing others to the opportunity and then training and developing them.  This was perfect – I ran my own successful business for 15 years. I knew what it took to start a business, build up a clientele and reach success. Helping other women build their own businesses was something that would fill that emotional hole left by the closure of the law firm.

With so many direct sale companies out there, how do you choose? I used the head/heart approach.  Whatever company I decided upon had to make fiscal sense (head).  But, I had to love the product so I could be genuine and authentic (heart). For me, the perfect fit was Miche Bags.  The interchangeable handbag was patented, which meant I was not competing with other direct sellers nor retail.  The only way a consumer could get their hands on an interchangeable purse is through an authorized Miche M-Bassador. Fashion is consumable and trends come and go seasonally. Miche Bag customers would buy new Miche Faces or Covers as they are released, creating return business. There are only about 2000 Miche M-Bassadors nationwide and that number is centered in the mid-West and South; the Miche presence in the Northeast was still in its infancy.  Most of all, I fell in love with the concept.  To not have to dump out the contents of my purse to change my look was mind-blowing to me! I felt as if the concept was created just for me.

So its been a little over 3 years since I joined Miche.  I hit a top level of Executive Director in 18 months and my team is still growing and developing.  I am actually having FUN! I have a whole new family of Miche sisters all over the country. I’ve been to places I have never traveled to before.  I have grown as a person through coaching and keynote sessions.  Looking back, I cannot imagine not being a Miche Ambassador.

If you want to find out more about Miche and the Opportunity, I would be more than happy to discuss it with you.

We stayed at the Grand America in Salt Lake City. This hotel was sumptuous and our room’s awesomeness was only exceeded by the incredible view:

Not that we didn’t have time for fun – its always a great time getting together with my Miche sisters from around the country. Dinner at the Roof in Salt Lake City was exquisite. The views and the food were equally superb.

The highlight of Miche M-Vision of course is the ability to preview the new Spring and Summer Miche Bag lines and this time was no exception.  I was beyond thrilled that I got my DXO One before I left for M-Vision so that I was able to transform my iPhone 6 Plus into an incredible DSLR camera.  These photos are unretouched to give you an idea of the quality of photo rendered by the DXO One:

You can view all of the Collections right here.  I, of course, already ordered the line at a substantial discount – Miche M-Bassador perks! I recently established my Miche Preferred Customer Club for those ladies who would rather feed their Miche Bag addiction at a discount. For more information, check out the details here.

Do you enjoy a girls’ weekend? Where have you been? Do share!