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This Business Really Suits Her:
Melmira Swimsuits finds the right fit…
Amie Heenan began operating a specialty swimwear shop a little over a year ago. Owning and running her own business, she says, is her passion.
After seven years working part-time fitting bras in her mother's Yonge Street lingerie store - Melmira Bra Boutique - custom retail seemed to be in Amie Heenan's blood. "I was raised in the business," says Heenan, 26. "My grandmother has a store out west, my cousin has one in Edmonton. I was raised feeling that being fitted for your undergarments is really important."
Heenan poses in front of Melmira Swimsuits. (Photo courtesy of Josh Power.)
That's why a year ago, when her mom decided to sell the bra shop's sister store, Melmira Swimsuits, Heenan, 25 at the time, asked to be the buyer. "She told me she was going to close the bathing suit store because it hadn't really turned over a profit in seven years," Heenan explains. "I just had this overwhelming feeling, like, 'Oh my God, don't close the store!' I wanted to see if I could give it a try."
Her mother agreed and, a little more than one year later, Melmira Swimsuits - a specialty swim shop carrying bathing suits from size four to 26, A-cup to H-cup - has experienced an incredible 74 per cent growth. Heenan attributes it to her love for the business, and to the fact she has a personal stake in seeing the store succeed. "For the first seven years, my mom hired a manager to run the store, but with a manager working it's just not the same. They don't have the same passion or interest in the business. They have different motives than the owner may have and, at the end of the day, they're really only working nine-to-five."
Heenan's love for and vested interest in the store often means a typical workday lasts much longer for her than your typical nine-to-five. Her day usually begins an hour before the shop opens. Mornings entail dealing with manufacturers, buyers and sales reps, calling back customers and working on special orders. Then, when the store opens, it's basically all about management the whole day. "I'm dealing with phone calls all day and questions from my staff, as well as customer issues," she says. "I also want to be on the floor, because I think it's very important the owner represents - it's what I believe in and I'm passionate about it, so if I'm not on the floor, things aren't going to run the way I envision them."
Heenan also looks at new swimwear lines once a day, on average, usually in the morning. "I never look at lines when the store's open," she says, "because my head isn't in the right place." When asked where her head is during store hours, Heenan laughs: "I'm basically running around with my head chopped off!" She jokes that the most difficult part of her job is "not being able to sleep at night - actually, no, I would say it's the multitasking. You're multitasking all day long and all night long, trying to separate work from life and life from work, because you take your work home with you."
Despite the hectic - and sometimes sleepless - nature of being responsible for a store-full of employees and customers - not to mention the accounting, the payroll and sales projections - Heenan's got her head screwed on right. With no business degree or formal training (beyond helping her mom), Heenan says learning the ropes of running a business has been mainly trial-and-error: "It's all new information for me, and it's way more than I ever anticipated. I've read a whole bunch of books, 'Starting Your Own Business for Idiots,' and that kind of thing, but it's mostly been troubleshooting and learning from the mistakes I've made. When it comes to actually doing it, it's a lot harder than all the application and theory you could ever learn."
Heenan's academic background in science and psychology, however, comes in handy in the fitting room, as does a natural ability to be empathetic and to easily adapt to different personality types. "All different kinds of women come into the store," she says, "You have to be able to conform to their needs, their personalities and their insecurities. Coming from a family of four girls and being around hormones and emotions my whole life, I know what buttons to push." The fact the business of custom-fitting women for bras and bathing suits has been in her family for generations can't hurt, either. "It comes really naturally to me," she explains.
While empathy and understanding are a big part of her daily work, Heenan attributes much of her success to her basic love for the business. "Bathing suits are one of the most difficult things a woman has to shop for," Heenan explains. "But, I love working with women. There's something inherently rewarding about making a woman feel good about her body. Having a woman come in who's a size 18 or 20 and having five or six options available to her…" Heenan pauses mid-sentence, and her passion for what she's talking about becomes more apparent than ever. "It's so difficult for these women; I just really enjoy what I do."
According to Heenan, the risks of entrepreneurship may be high, but the rewards outweigh them. "It's just so good, because you know you're behind a lot of the decisions and the ups and downs," she says. "That's the big picture. The most rewarding thing for me personally, though, is a satisfied customer. Many of our customers come to the store because they've had mastectomies as a result of breast cancer, and we fit them in beautiful, fun, sexy outfits. I find that part of my job so special."
Heenan displays some of her lines. (Photo courtesy of Josh Power.)
In truth, most aspects of Heenan's job are special. Since the store has been under her ownership and management, Melmira Swimsuits has experienced an overwhelming amount of publicity. "We'd always done a lot of advertising, but it's extremely expensive so you have to make sure you're advertising in the right places, at the right times," she explains. "This year we decided, instead, to hire a public relations company, and we got a phenomenal response. We were on television a couple times and we were in the Toronto Star twice, as well as The Globe and Mail, the North Toronto Post, The Town Crier and Fashion Magazine. There's no store out there quite like it, so people really took to it."
Heenan works hard to ensure her business remains competitive. She says the things that set her swim store apart from others are threefold. The first part is a combination of exceptional service and professionalism. "We have one-on-one service for customers in the fitting room," explains Heenan. All the fitters she employs have been trained for five months before they start working the fitting rooms. The second thing that makes Melmira unique is selection. "We carry size four through 26," says Heenan. "We fit all women of all sizes on all occasions. Not just bikini models and not just high-end, fashion-forward women.
"Thirdly," she continues, "the women who work here come from all different backgrounds. We're all ages, we're all sizes; we're real women and we fit real women. I think that's what makes us less intimidating than most swimsuit stores. Our staff runs from girls aged 25 to women who are 65. It's not young teenagers with a part-time job. We really care. We're professionals."
It's true - if there's one thing Heenan exudes above all else, it's professionalism. When it comes to being an entrepreneur, it's what she believes in: "Work ethic is first and foremost," she says. "It's not brain science, it just takes a lot of time and vested energy. Not everyone can do it, because not everyone has the determination. I don't think it takes too much intellect, just common sense, hard work and putting your time in."
When I ask her what advice she would give young women thinking of starting and running their own businesses one day, Heenan pauses. After a few moments she says, carefully and thoughtfully, "Make sure you believe in what you do. Make sure you're not just doing it because you think there's a market for it. You really have to believe in it, because it becomes everything you do, everything you believe in. If you're not passionate about it, it's not going to stand the test of time."
Passion. That seems the main ingredient, above all else, in Heenan's success - more important than an academic background, more important than years of training or formal work experience. A real love for making women look and feel good about themselves helped her take a drowning business and turn it into a success beyond her wildest dreams. "Every minute of it has just been wonderful. Every single day is so dynamic," she says, of the store, and of the highs and lows of the past year. "I love it." ¤ Noa
Amie Heenan owns and runs Melmira Swimsuits, located at 3212 Yonge Street, Toronto. For more information and store hours, please phone (416) 485-0576.