We Love CAbi

CAbi, a leading social selling apparel retailer, is working with Opportunity International to launch a microenterprise called W.E. Are CAbi (Women Entrepreneurs are CAbi). Opportunity International, a non-profit providing resources to people in developing countries, helps women escape poverty and start their own small businesses.

Why do we love CAbi? They are the first ever one-for-one microlending program that provides microloans to fund women’s small businesses in the name of every new CAbi consultant. The partnership is projected to create about 8,200 jobs and impact the lives of at least 35,000 people in developing countries by 2020.

They encourage the modern female entrepreneur to start her own successful small business through company support and a direct, from-home sales model. With more than 3,500 consultants today, many women find their work with CAbi so fulfilling, personally, professionally and financially, that they have turned their consultancies into full-time careers. CAbi’s vision enables women to strike a work-life balance to enjoy the benefits of being a career woman along with the flexibility to attend to other responsibilities.

Little PINK Book had the opportunity to speak with CAbi’s Founder/President/Chief Culture Officer, Kimberly Inskeep, and CEO, Lynne Coté, about their latest partnership and their visions for the future.

LPB: Where did you find inspiration for CAbi, as a social selling apparel company? How does the model work?

KI: The genesis was simply a desire to stay in business. The Carol Anderson brand was feeling tired in the traditional department store setting and Carol desired to reinvent herself. Carol’s husband had always been the idea man, and was looking for a new avenue of distribution and wondered if direct sales could work for them. I understood their need of an alternative channel, but what became the call to action for me was the pervasive need among women for more liberating career opportunities. I knew far too many women who had made significant sacrifices in pursing opportunity while juggling other important roles. While I knew of other entrepreneurial social selling businesses in the marketplace, I wanted to create one that gave an educated, career minded woman, real opportunity. Carol and I started speaking with friends about blending the retail fashion and social selling worlds to develop something unlike anything else we had seen. Ten women joined us, who shared our “unrelenting intentionality” to bring women into a more liberating place in their day-to-day lives.

When a woman starts her CAbi business, she purchases an inventory collection she uses throughout the season to present style and ideas to groups of women who gather together in a friend’s home. She earns commissions from her sales and can earn additional commission as friends join the business, which can increase as they both succeed.

LPB: What has been the most rewarding experience you’ve had in your company since CAbi’s inception? 

KI: CAbi has been a phenomenally rewarding adventure, and our pièce de résistance has been when our big goals to positively impact the lives of women began to stir a ripple of goodness that would extend far beyond what was happening to women entrepreneurs in this country. This year, we established our W.E. are CAbi Program, which is our one-for-one microlending program in partnership with Opportunity International. For every Consultant that joins CAbi, we will fund a small business loan in her name for a woman in the developing world. Each loan created ultimately turns into five loans over time, further deepening the impact our Consultants can make on the lives of women around the globe.

LPB: How did CAbi’s relationship with Opportunity International begin? Based on today, where will your initiative take CAbi?

LC: Our partnership began in 2008 and has extended with the Make of Change program, which allows customers to round their order amount to the nearest dollar and donate the change. This program funds a small business loan for a woman in the developing world who is working hard to provide for her family. Our recent addition of the W.E. Are CAbi Program allows us to reach many more women and their families. But even more, we now make it very personal for our Consultants, as when they build their business, they are directly enabling their sister entrepreneur in an under-resourced part of the world to do the same.

LPB: What has been the internal reception of W.E. Are CAbi?

LC: We announced the campaign to our Consultant community and it was a special moment for all of us. We’ve been dreaming of being a company whose efforts extend far beyond ourselves through the gift of an entrepreneurial opportunity. Our W.E. are CAbi Program is our dream come true. We are not a business seeking to be successful solely for success’ sake. We are a business also seeking to do well … in order to do good. The response from our Consultant’s has been overwhelmingly positive. As Consultant’s are telling other women, and we are finding many women are eager to join our movement.

LPB: What does your microlending program say about your company’s commitment to female empowerment?

KI: We believe our living legacy will be the lives transformed through entrepreneurial experiences—both in our country and countries far away. In both cases, CAbi provides opportunity for women to change their world and live into their fullest potential. As women entrepreneurs helping women entrepreneurs, we can pay forward the gifts of freedom, dignity, and liberation that come through owning one’s own business. 

LPB: What are your upcoming sales and marketing goals, and how does your Opportunity International program contribute to those goals?

LC: Our goal is to have steady growth through finding more like-minded women who have a desire to positively impacting the lives of the women around them. Our W.E. are CAbi program has this exact mission. Each new small business loan will come directly from the success marked by each new business started at CAbi, and thus, we will have a sustainable system through which we can do tremendous good—for years and years to come. 

LPB: Where do you hope to see W.E. Are CAbi one year from today? 

LC: By the end of 2015, our goal through W.E. are CAbi is to create and support at least 1,000 jobs in the developing world, thereby providing 4,500 adults and children with a better life because each loan also impacts the recipients family and enables them to employ others.

However, beyond simply 2015, our long term goal through W.E. are CAbi and the Make Change Program is to have created and supported over 21,000 jobs, thereby providing over 90,000 adults and children with a better life. By 2020, our total giving should exceed $4 million.

LPB: What makes CAbi stand out from others in your genre?

LC: Our shopping experience isn’t like anything out there at our price point. Get together with your girlfriends, wine in hand, and learn styling tips and ideas, insider tips and tricks, and mix and match outfits to help you make the very most of your closet, and you’ve got a valuable evening!

The CAbi opportunity is very distinctive in the social selling world … we are very leadership driven and provide a generous earning opportunity, while supporting each woman’s development and growth with training, marketing tools, and Home Office support so she can be successful regardless of previous experience.

LPB: What draws new consultants to CAbi?

LC: We have a gorgeous product and the CAbi opportunity offers the satisfaction of building an entrepreneurial business for yourself, but not by yourself; we allow women to make a financial contribution without taking financial risk. And our women love CAbi because it also meets a much deeper desire—the fulfillment that comes from “affecting lives through relationships,” which is our creed.

KI: Since our inception, we chose to be a community marked by collaboration rather than competition, transformation rather than transaction, and serving rather than selling. What we continue to hear from women is how refreshing it is to be part of a community of career women who support each other. We have a culture that thousands of women are so proud to be a part of.

By Katy Heath