在知名美甲品牌Essie背后，真的有一個名叫艾茜的女人。艾茜?溫卡登的美甲生意是從一瓶波爾多開始的。需要指出的是，我們討論的是美甲，而不是紅酒。

她創(chuàng)立的Essie（現(xiàn)為歐萊雅集團(tuán)擁有）無疑是美甲界最知名的品牌之一，也是數(shù)百萬喜愛美甲的女性最青睞的品牌之一。僅僅在美國，就有超過2.5萬家美甲沙龍?zhí)峁┧漠a(chǎn)品。Essie的產(chǎn)品線共有250多種顏色，我們剛剛提到的深紅色的“波爾多紅”，就是溫卡登最早的產(chǎn)品之一。

今年66歲的艾茜?溫卡登是土生土長的紐約人。她在皇后區(qū)的霍利斯山長大，自幼就喜愛時尚，畢業(yè)于位于曼哈頓的時尚技術(shù)學(xué)院。大學(xué)畢業(yè)后，她在時尚領(lǐng)域先后從事了幾份工作，曾在亨利班德爾公司禮品部擔(dān)任過助理采購員，但她一直想成立自己的公司。1981年，溫卡登用拿出她的全部積蓄，用1萬美元創(chuàng)立了Essie品牌。

不到一年，Essie的美甲油就出現(xiàn)在全美各地的1萬多家美甲店之中，并且開始盈利。等到2010年歐萊雅集團(tuán)以一個未披露的價格將其收購時，Essie的產(chǎn)品已經(jīng)出口到107個國家。

現(xiàn)在，溫卡登與她的丈夫邁克斯?索爾蒂諾共同生活在紐約市。索爾蒂諾今年59歲，在將Essie賣給歐萊雅之前，曾擔(dān)任Essie的CEO。最近溫卡登接受了《財富》采訪，談到是什么啟發(fā)她創(chuàng)立了Essie，它又是如何在極短的時間內(nèi)做大的，以及拉斯維加斯為什么是創(chuàng)辦美甲品牌的好地方。以下采訪記錄有刪節(jié)。

《財富》：是什么讓你產(chǎn)生了創(chuàng)辦一個美甲品牌的想法？

艾茜?溫卡登：我一直想有一家屬于自己的公司，因?yàn)槲襾碜砸粋€盛產(chǎn)企業(yè)家的家族。不過當(dāng)時我并不確定要創(chuàng)辦一家什么樣的公司，但我很喜歡做美甲。在我小時候，如果我哪一周表現(xiàn)得很好，我媽媽就會在周六帶我去美甲店做美甲。我記得當(dāng)時可供選擇的甲油顏色很單調(diào)，于是我產(chǎn)生了創(chuàng)辦一個高質(zhì)量的美甲品牌的想法——它們不會掉色，而且顏色能夠維持一周到十天。

《財富》：Essie為什么很快就獲得了成功？

艾茜?溫卡登：這要?dú)w功于一次到拉斯維加斯的旅行。我用工作時攢下的一萬美金，在新澤西州的一個實(shí)驗(yàn)室里研制了12種顏色，其中就包括波爾多紅，它目前仍在Essie的產(chǎn)品線里，而且依然非常受歡迎。

當(dāng)時我必須要找到把產(chǎn)品打入市場的法子，我覺得拉斯維加斯是個好地方，因?yàn)樵谫€場里工作的女性們要經(jīng)常展示她們的雙手。然后我用塑料袋包了很多樣品，飛到了拉斯維加斯。當(dāng)時的拉斯維加斯大約有100家美甲店，我挨家拜訪，贈送樣品，告訴店主如果他們喜歡這些顏色，就給我打電話。

不到一個月，每家店主都給我打電話，要求訂貨。才過了短短幾周，我就收到了來自全國各地的美甲店的訂貨電話。那些在拉斯維加斯期間做了美甲的女性，會向店主要求把那些顏色帶回家，所以店主們就會給我打電話訂貨。不到一年，全國有一萬多家美甲店都在用我的產(chǎn)品。第二年，我的產(chǎn)品已經(jīng)走向國際了。

《財富》：作為企業(yè)家，你在創(chuàng)業(yè)的過程中犯過什么錯誤？

艾茜?溫卡登：我犯了很多錯誤，但我認(rèn)為最大的一個錯誤是，一開始我沒有把自己的名字印在瓶子上。實(shí)際上，我們直到1999年才正式把Essie的Logo刻在了瓶子上。品牌對任何一家企業(yè)都非常重要，因?yàn)槿藗冑I的就是品牌。

剛開始創(chuàng)業(yè)的時候，我也從來沒有打過廣告，因?yàn)槲艺J(rèn)為口碑才是最好的營銷。這一點(diǎn)直到社交媒體已經(jīng)非常普遍的今天也是非常正確的。不過我們的主要市場是美甲店和分銷商，而不是消費(fèi)者。我們直到1988年才開始在出版物上打廣告，然后我們對目標(biāo)市場的接觸面也變寬了很多。

《財富》：除了從錯誤中學(xué)習(xí)，在企業(yè)的成長過程中，你學(xué)到的最有價值的一課是什么？

艾茜?溫卡登：永遠(yuǎn)聘請比你更聰明的人，以及那些擅長你所不擅長的領(lǐng)域的人。對我來說，這個領(lǐng)域就是人力資源。我沒有人力資源經(jīng)驗(yàn)，所以我聘請了一位人力資源經(jīng)理。

《財富》：歐萊雅收購Essie的前因后果是怎樣的？

艾茜?溫卡登：歐萊雅在2005年第一次聯(lián)系我，商討收購事宜，當(dāng)時我拒絕了。然后經(jīng)濟(jì)危機(jī)爆發(fā)了。我們的發(fā)展勢頭非常好，但我們需要建立一家新工廠，因?yàn)槲覀冊鲩L得太快了。我對那筆投資感到很緊張，所以當(dāng)歐萊雅再次提出收購邀約時，我同意了。這筆交易發(fā)生于2010年6月25日。

《財富》：在這次交易后，你還保留著創(chuàng)意的控制權(quán)嗎？

艾茜?溫卡登：在收購前，我負(fù)責(zé)顏色開發(fā)和命名。收購?fù)瓿珊?，盡管我還是公司的創(chuàng)意總監(jiān)，但我本人也變成了團(tuán)隊的一部分，它也不再是我的孩子了。最后的決策也不是由我來拍板。

《財富》：你現(xiàn)在還在參與品牌的建設(shè)嗎？

艾茜?溫卡登：這么說吧，如果他們需要我的話，我隨時都在。

《財富》：今年年初的時候，《紐約時報》寫了一系列關(guān)于美甲店老板剝削美甲師的文章。你對此怎樣看？

艾茜?溫卡登：不管你信不信，我其實(shí)并不熟悉美甲店文化。我曾經(jīng)與美甲店老板和經(jīng)銷商們通過電話打過交道，但我并不知道他們的日常工作情況是什么樣的。所以當(dāng)我讀到這些文章時，我感到很震驚，覺得很可怕。

《財富》：你對那些具有抱負(fù)的女性企業(yè)家有什么建議？

艾茜?溫卡登：跟隨你的直覺和激情，要知道成功不等于冒險。在我剛開始創(chuàng)業(yè)的時候，我?guī)缀趺恐?天、每天24小時不眠不休的工作，因?yàn)閺娜蚋鞯卮騺淼匿N售電話幾乎都要由我本人來接。由于時差問題，我基本上睡不了覺。所以，我的建議是你需要100%的投入。你不能利用業(yè)余時間去創(chuàng)業(yè)。

《財富》：你現(xiàn)在沒有全職工作了，是否會感到無聊？

艾茜?溫卡登：對我來說，這個詞壓根不存在。邁克斯和我經(jīng)常去劇場，我們經(jīng)常自己做飯，而且我們很享受生活。（財富中文網(wǎng)）

譯者：樸成奎

審校：任文科

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Yes, there is a real “Essie” behind the popular nail polish brand. Essie Weingarten explains how her frustration with “boring” colors sparked an international beauty business.

Yes, there is a real “Essie” behind the popular nail polish brand.Essie Weingarten began her business with a bottle of Bordeaux. We’re talking about the nail polish here, not the wine.

Her Essie brand, now owned by L’Oreal, is undoubtedly one of the most recognizable names in nail polish and a mainstay for millions of women who get regular manicures. In the U.S. alone, more than 25,000 salons carry a selection of the 250 or so colors that make up the line—including the deep red Bordeaux, one of Weingarten’s initial creations.

A born and bred New Yorker, the 66-year-old grew up in Hollis Hills, Queens with a love for fashion and graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan. A handful of jobs in the field followed, including working as an assistant buyer in the gifts department at Henri Bendel, but she always wanted her own company. In 1981, Weingarten gathered her life savings of $10,000 and launched Essie.

Within a year, the bottles were in more than 10,000 salons around the country and generating profits; by the time L’Oreal bought Essie in 2010 for an undisclosed sum, the polish company had a presence in more than a 107 countries.

Today, Weingarten lives in New York City with her husband Max Sortino, 59, who was the CEO of the eponymous line before the sale. She talked to Fortune about what inspired her to create Essie, how it got so big, so quickly, and why Las Vegas is the perfect place to launch a nail polish line. The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Fortune: What gave you the idea to start a nail polish business?

Essie Weingarten: I always knew I wanted to have my own company because I come from a family of entrepreneurs. I wasn’t sure what it would be, but I loved getting my nails done. When I was little, my mom used to take me to the salon on Saturdays for a manicure if I was good that week, and I remember that the color choices of the polishes were usually boring. So, I got this idea to create fashionable and high-quality shades—they wouldn’t chip and would last a week to ten days.

How did the line take off so quickly?

A trip to Las Vegas did it. I used the $10,000 I had saved away from working and got 12 colors of polish made at a lab in New Jersey, including Bordeaux which is still part of the line and still popular.

I had to figure out a way to market what I’d created and thought Las Vegas would be perfect because the women working there in the casinos showed their hands a lot. I flew out there and made little kits of all the colors using plastic bags. There were probably about a 100 salons in Vegas back then, and I went to each one and gave them out and told the owners that if they liked the shades, they should call me.

Within a week, every single one called with orders and within a few weeks, I was getting calls from salons around the country. Women who were visiting Las Vegas and got manicures while they were there requested the colors at their salons back home so those owners then called me with orders. Within a year, I was in 10,000 salons, and the next year, I got picked up internationally.

As an entrepreneur, what mistakes did you make along the way?

I made plenty, but I think the biggest one was in the beginning when I didn’t put my name on the bottles. In fact, they had no label until 1999 when we finally got the bottles made with Essie etched on the glass. Branding is key to any business because people want to buy a brand.

I also never advertised when I started because I thought word of mouth was the way to grow. That is true especially today when social media is so prevalent, but our primary market was salons and distributors, not direct consumers, and when we did start advertising in trade publications in 1988, our reach to our target market became that much wider.

Besides learning from your mistakes, what’s the most valuable lesson you learned as your business grew?

Always hire people who are smarter than you and have an expertise in something which is your weakness. For me, it was HR. I had no HR experience at all so I hired an HR manager.

How did the sale with L’Oreal transpire?

The company first approached me in 2005 about buying me, and I said no. Then the recession happened. We were doing amazing business but needed a new facility because we were growing so fast. I was really nervous to make the investment so when L’Oreal came to me again, I agreed. The sale happened on June 25th, 2010.

Did you retain creative control after the sale?

Up until we sold, I was doing the color development and the naming, but after, even though I was still the creative director, I became part of a team, and it wasn’t my baby anymore. The final decision was no longer mine.

Are you still involved with the brand today?

Let’s just say that I’m here if they need me.

Earlier this year, the New York Times wrote a series of articles on the widespread exploitation of manicurists by salon owners. What are your thoughts on the issue?

Believe it or not, I was never privy to salon culture. I used to deal with salon owners and distributors usually by phone and didn’t know what was going on day-to-day so when I read the articles, I was shocked. I find it horrifying.

What advice do you have for aspiring women entrepreneurs?

Follow your gut and passion, and know that being successful is not a crapshoot. When I started, I worked 24/7 because I was handling all the sales calls around the world myself, and given the different time zones, I was always awake. So, I’d also that you need a 100% commitment. You can’t do it part-time.

Are you bored now not working full-time?

For me, that word doesn’t exist. Max and I go to the theater a lot, we cook a lot, and we enjoy life.