Grandmother finds business idea in her purse
Chicago, IL – Frustrated that she couldn’t find her lipstick, keys and other essentials in a stylish new handbag given to her as a gift by her son, Anita Crook came up with a solution. In 2005 she designed the Pouchee – a pocketbook organizer that Crook expects will fetch her close to $2 million in revenues this year.
“I couldn’t find any way to organize it and I thought, well, you know, maybe I could design something,” said Crook, 63, who began the company out of her home in Greenville, South Carolina with $10,000 from her savings and the conviction she was filling a need. “I don’t look at myself so much as an entrepreneur as I do a problem solver.”
Pouchee now offers some 25 different portable organizers under the same name, including those made of faux leather, cotton and custom fabrics. Women can’t seem to get enough of the product, which is available in two sizes and has spots for cell phones, credit cards, makeup and keys, as well as metal loops at the top that make it easy to transport from purse to diaper bag or gym tote.
“If women feel like they’ve got control over at least one area in their life, if they can get their handbags organized, I think it really makes them feel good,” said Crook, who said Pouchee helps meet the need for order in a hectic world.
Crook, who studied art in college, turned to a friend’s daughter to sew the initial sample for the organizers based on a prototype she designed; before long, she had made contact with a factory representative in New Hampshire who had connections in Asia.
