Jen Groover is living proof that anyone with a great idea can make it big.
She is the inventor of the Butler Bag and an ambitious entrepreneur with more ideas than hours in the day. Groover sat down with me over a Cesar salad lunch that ended up taking three hours as she explained her small plans to save the world.
If Success is defined by those who make a difference, then it won’t be long before we are one nation under a Groover, getting down just for the funk of it.
I will now offer a sincere apology to George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic.
The days of the proverbial “bag lady” are over. The Butler Bag (so-named because it’s a “personal butler”) is a purse with separate compartments for all the detritus of the daily grind. Never again will women have to dump out the overflowing contents of their handbags just to find their lip liner.
SIX STEPS TO SUCCESS:
1) The Big Idea: Plato noted that necessity is the mother of invention, but it’s a safe bet he never had to dig a pacifier out of an overstuffed purse for a crying baby while holding up the line at the Plaka farmer’s market. For Jen Groover, motherhood provided the impetus for creating a product to make life easier. “Handbags filled up like a bucket are counterproductive,” says Groover. “In the inefficiency, I saw opportunity.” She began researching, and to her surprise found that a similar item didn’t exist.
Her Mr. Wizard moment came from another everyday device, a dishwasher tray. Groover removed it, stuck it in a bag to separate the cell phone from the diapers from the lipsticks from the car keys, etc. And thus, the Butler Bag came into being. Groover, 34, is an attractive young mother/entrepreneur-on-the-go, so she knew who her target audience was. It isn’t the Lindsay Lohan crowd. “Handbags are a woman’s third arm and need to be both fashionable and functional,” she says. “Nothing bothers me more than bags that are so trendy you can’t wear them three months later.”
2) The Plan: Groover always had confidence in the bag, but she had never taken the concrete steps of bringing a product to market. “There were so many unknowns,” she recalls. “I had to learn every stage of product development.” One aspect that she was familiar with, however, was intellectual property law. In 2004, Groover had been sentenced to seven months of bed rest throughout a tough pregnancy, during which time she had five months of morning sickness, her arches collapsed, her skin broke out in a severe rash, and she discovered that she was allergic to a drug for preterm labor. Her fraternal twin daughters – Madison and Morgan – were born at 28 weeks. It was a difficult experience, but it at least gave her time to study up on trademarks, patents and strategic branding. Bed rest gave her the intellectual background when it came time to build a better diaper carrier.
After tinkering with the design for a few weeks, Groover hired an attorney and filed for a provisional patent, which basically acts as a placeholder and allows for work to be done on the product. She also filed for a trademark, and all told she spent about $5,000. She considers intellectual property fees an investment. “A trademark bolsters the brand, creates value in the company and gives you credibility as a businessperson, not just somebody with a product,” she says.
3) The Money: Groover was already successful in the fitness and wellness industries prior to the invention of the Butler Bag, so she personally invested in its development. All of the professional feedback she’d received was positive, but it was still an expensive leap of faith. “I had never taken such a large financial risk,” she says. Groover raised another $100,000 from private investors, which gave her some trepidation because it was from married friends. The couple that invested devised a profit-sharing formula, and Groover added that she would pay them a straight return-on-investment if it were greater than the formula. “The best approach is to be as open and straight-forward as possible,” she says.
Previously, Groover explored the venture capital route, but it was a dead end. The investor asked for 80% of the company since he was taking most of the risk. Groover decided that having control of Butler Bag was more important than money. She also gained an appreciation for the discipline that comes from bootstrapping. “Offering a simple return-on-investment, say 15%, alleviates a lot of the stress of bringing outsiders into a small company,” she says. So far, the keep-it-in-the-family strategy has worked: The original investors just re-upped for another round of financing.
4) The Prototype: Groover put half of her resources into developing the Butler Bag, but the ample funds didn’t always make the process run smoothly. One of her rules is “always get a referral,” but it faltered in the case of the San Francisco-based manufacturer recommended to her by an industry friend. The company made its own products as well, so the Butler Bag was not a priority. She had trouble getting them on the phone, and when she did, they kept demanding changes that made her uncomfortable. “I was doubting myself, but intuitively it didn’t feel right to me,” she says.
Groover ended the relationship after nine months, and out of frustration with the process, she seriously considered giving up. But she regrouped, got another referral, and found a sourcing agent in Atlanta. And this time, she covered her assets. “Get everything in writing, including benchmarks and who is accountable if they aren’t met,” she says, “and follow up every call with an e-mail so everyone is on the same page.” Groover says a lawyer who can envision the worst-case scenarios and troubleshoot them ahead of time will be a money-saving godsend. Thus the hiccups that came along—such as the 500 bags that didn’t meet her approval and were sent back for leather and zipper improvements—weren’t as arduous to fix. Finally, in June 2006, 5,500 Butler Bags went on sale at the company Web site, just as the marketing plan was taking hold.
5) The Buzz: A QVC representative gave Groover a piece of advice early on that defined how she got the Butler Bag word out: “It will do much better if it’s a bigger brand.” It was a pivotal moment in company history. Groover knew that putting the buzz before the bag meant media exposure, and the more the better. She gave a presentation at a “National Publicity Summit” in New York City (“speed dating with the press,” she calls it), which started the ball rolling and eventually led to mentions in O: The Oprah Magazine and Us Weekly. Butler Bag made a big splash, but Groover says that her personal story is as important as the bag itself. “People want to be inspired,” she says, “I get hundreds of e-mails a week from women who have a dream and want advice on how to achieve it. It’s empowering.”
Storytelling is also free; renting a booth and traveling to a trade show isn’t. Groover avoided them altogether. “There are a lot of ways to get a product out there and I knew the buyers would seek us out once we got the press,” she says. Trade show costs might run to $5,000, which is better spent fashioning an online community. Groover preaches the virtues of building brand awareness through viral marketing, which has no downside. It’s inexpensive and the word-of-mouse spreads much faster than a big champagne-soaked launch party. “Social shopping networks and blogging are unique, new driving forces,” she says. “We are creating relationships based on the entrepreneurial life of the person behind the bag.” (Web sites like ChickAdvisor, Wists, and ThisNext are good examples.)
Garnering publicity was the key to marketing the Butler Bag, meaning Groover had to add freebies into her budget. “We figured out what it cost to give away 500 bags,” she says, “it’s essential.” So far, it’s all gone according to plan. Ultimately, the QVC prophecy may become self-fulfilling. Groover has had discussions with buyers about creating an exclusive bag line for the omnipresent shopping channel.
6) The Customers: Once the message boards were buzzing and the Butler Bag posed for the paparazzi with Jamie Foxx and Colin Farrell at the Miami Vice movie premiere, the typical instinct would be to go big and strike while the handbag is hot. Groover, however, stuck to her three-pronged “crawl, walk, run” strategy that gave her time to cement a solid foundation for growth. First available in June 2006, the Butler Bag was initially sold solely online to coincide with its “discovery” by the media. In September, the bag went on sale at small boutiques around the country. Some of the owners simply bought product from the Web site. “Boutiques understand that a small company is going to make some mistakes, so we work through the kinks in our operations,” Groover says. “Rules are much stricter at department stores.”
Plans are underway to bring Butler Bags to a major department store this fall, and the $1 million company will double in employees and projected revenues. In addition, a Butler Brag photo album that stores money and credit cards debuted in February, and a high-end “Bouture” line of bags comes out in March. Groover is happy with the company’s accomplishments up to this point, and sees a bright future for Butler Bag and its loyal community. “In my mind, I have no boundaries,” she says, adding with a laugh, “but I don’t cook; that’s just not enjoyable.”
The Bag is Just the Beginning
The Butler Bag may be making a splash, but it’s just a drop in the ocean for Jen Groover, a serial entrepreneur who’s rapidly becoming a one-woman brand.Jen Groover thinks too many people are held down because they’ve never been taught to open up. “We aren’t teaching the skills to work and think independently,” she says. “We should be celebrating creativity, diversity, individuality and innovation.”
For the average citizen, this might be a simple cocktail party complaint, but Groover is no ordinary 9-to-5er. She is a combination inventor, entrepreneur, and philosopher, with big ideas and bigger ambitions. Groover preaches be-what-you-dream empowerment, but she has more in common with one of the Founding Fathers than a garden-variety motivational speaker.He may not be up on Mt. Rushmore, but Groover’s historical hero provides a blueprint for living as a Renaissance woman by ignoring society’s self-imposed expectations. “I love Benjamin Franklin,” she says, “what can I say? I’m a Philly girl.”
Groover began her entrepreneurial endeavors with a partner in 1996 with “The Grooveshop,” a Wilmington, Del., fitness center that had 15 trainers and annual revenues of $1 million at its peak. She was an athlete in college, and love of sports drove her to compete in the 1999-2000 U.S. National Aerobic Championship and the 2000 Galaxy Fitness Competition. Eventually, the eight-hour training days and boot camp lifestyle ran its course, and she was stuck wondering what was next. “It bothered me that I was known as just a trainer,” she says. “I was a businesswoman and a psychologist, but there was no road map for executing all of my ideas.”
Groover was having success as a motivational speaker and working in the wellness industry, but her abiding belief in the power of ideas ran deeper than simply being a corporate presenter-for-hire. “I was looking to be taken seriously,” she says. Validation came in 2003 when she founded Jen Groover Productions, a consultancy that helped women grow and expand their upstart companies. She charged $100-150 an hour and gave away a lot of free advice, but bringing proprietary concepts and products to the marketplace for some 40-50 companies helped Groover find her groove.
Shortly thereafter, she began a relationship with QVC that’s become a cornerstone of her current enterprises. Besides hawking Butler Bags, she started Jenuine Concepts, which navigates the steps to getting on-air. Groover (and partner Jen Pierce) streamline the lengthy process by being the face to the QVC buyer. Soular Therapy is a San Antonio, Texas-based luxury candle, bath, and beauty company with two shimmer products, Glitz and Gliterati. When Groover facilitated QVC face time for sales manager Nathan Reedy, Soular Therapy sold out 7,000 units in two appearances during the 2006 holiday season. “Groover’s passion for products is contagious. I had no hesitation in allowing her to go bat for us,” says Reedy.
All of her enterprises are consolidated under Jen Groover Productions, including the speaking, sharing, and teaching gigs she calls her favorite. She has a regular class at the Learning Annex in New York City, has presented “Re-Igniting Creativity” to Time Inc., and frequently gives pro-bono talks to student groups like Girls Take Charge, which teaches adolescents to become leaders. Her goal for every presentation is to offer practical, actionable advice, because she finds simply getting an audience fired up and selling them motivational products irresponsible. “Being around Jen makes you feel like anyone can do anything,” says Frank Ritchie, co-owner of USA Margins, a cell phone accessories company Groover introduced to QVC.
Groover’s inspiration was her mother, Mary Ann, a determined woman who was an early model for Seventeen and hosted a current affairs talk show in Philadelphia, For You and About You. Groover spent a lot of time hanging around the television studio and even tapped into her mini-Cooper—Anderson that is—as an on-the-street “kid commentator.” Mary Ann was involved in Republican politics and did a lot of speaking, campaigning and fund-raising on behalf of various candidates at a time when women were usually in the background. “Mom bucked authority and showed me that people don’t like to be challenged in their thought processes, but that’s the way life 
changes and gets better,” Groover says.
Her childhood television experiences have come full circle in the last few years as she’s created, produced, and hosted a number of programs, including the talk show A Mom’s Life, and two game shows, Twisted Fish and You’ve Been Sentenced, a wordplay game. A new show that discovers entrepreneurs has the greenlight at the Discovery Channel, and she is developing a women-centric business program.
If it sounds like Groover never slows down, it’s because she never slows down. She credits her laid-back husband, Joe, for getting her to relax in her suburban Philadelphia home and take needed vacations to Mexico. She puts in 60 hours a week, but having a home office allows her ample time with the twins, including weekday evenings and weekends when they’re awake. Don’t try to tell Groover that a woman can’t have it all. “I fear regret more than failure,” she says. “I want to start a movement. Let’s call it, Why not me?”
And like her innovative idol adorning the $100 bill, Groover’s restless curiosity and eclectic interests are ensuring that she is healthy, wealthy, and wise.
(Photos by Kate Swan)
(Success, May/June 2007)
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