An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Trust the process and hire a team that shares your vision. When you’re all working together to achieve the same goal, you grow, face challenges, and succeed as a team, and it makes the journey so much better.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Karen Bell.
A creative entrepreneur from an early age, Karen used her fashion sense and determination to create fun, fashionable socks and tights and founded K.Bell in 1979 in Southern California. Since then, K.Bell Socks has a global reputation for great designs and quality products, currently selling to major retailers and specialty stores throughout the country as well as worldwide as part of the legacy sock manufacturer, Renfro Brands.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I moved to California in my twenties and had this wonderful job working at an accounting firm. I eventually moved from accounting to venture capital, but I’ve always been interested in fashion and was very crafty.
I always made my own clothes in high school. I was constantly crafting accessories and rhinestone T-shirts. Eventually, I started embellishing socks with rhinestones and buttons, and was dyeing them in my washing machine different bright colors, because the socks those days were so plain! At that point, I started giving them to my friends as gifts and my friends kept telling me that I should be selling them. I had that thought somewhere in the back of my mind, until one day it all happened.
I walked into Right Bank Shoe Company — a chic and very trendy store at that time — owned by shoe designer, Donald Pliner. Donald saw my ankle socks that I decorated with rhinestones to spell out “RBSC” or Right Bank Shoe Company. He loved them so much that he put in an order for them with me right then and there. When I came to deliver the first batch, he even put in a re-order that same day!
It was in that moment I realized that I could sell these socks and make a profit out of it. So in 1979, I officially gave my hobby a name — K.Bell — and started manufacturing socks. I grew K.Bell into a multi-million dollar business with an international customer base and a strong retail presence. Today, I remain involved in the business, which is now part of legacy sock manufacturing company, Renfro Brands.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
In the ’70s when I founded K.Bell, manufacturing was 100% based in the United States. It was all domestic in those days and everything was made in the United States. It wasn’t until the ’80s that imports started to come in heavily. It was such a change that it was causing some fashion companies to go out of business because they couldn’t compete with the prices. Brands had to start importing. Fashion started coming from overseas and it was all less expensive than the products produced domestically.
I’ll never forget when a gal came in to see me one day and she had on my socks, or at least, I thought they were my socks. She asked me what I thought of them, and I said, “What do I think of them? I love them, I made them.” In response she said, “No, I made them, you just designed them.” It turned out my designs were being manufactured in her factory in Taiwan for half of what I was paying my domestic manufacturer.
What’s interesting is that in that moment I had yet to see how both domestic and international manufacturing would help grow my business. I started to be able to really scale my business after this by fulfilling very large orders both in the states and abroad, which allowed me to sell to bigger retailers from then on.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I have always been a big fan of Nicole Miller. When I was starting K.Bell, she was my favorite designer because of a Nicole Miller scarf I had with a fruit cart print all over it. The print was so cute, and I thought it would look great on a sock. In no time, I manufactured a sock with the fruit cart design on it and showed it to a few people. Everyone loved it, so we had to put it in our line.
At the time, I didn’t know copyright regulations so naturally, I got a call one day from a gentleman who identified himself as Bud Konheim, CEO of Nicole Miller! It turned out that he was looking at my sock with their fruit cart stamp on it and wanted to inform me that I knocked off their print. With great excitement and zero hesitation I responded — “I love that print, and yes, I put it on a sock!” Not only had Bud never had anyone admit to him that they knocked off Nicole Miller prints, but nobody had ever been as excited about it either.
After we got to chatting about copyright, Bud admitted that he loved my interpretation of their print, and that’s how I landed my first licensing deal! A grand mistake turned into a friendship and a business deal at the same time. The next day, I flew to New York to meet with Nicole and Bud. To this day, Nicole and I are great friends, and it turned out to be a partnership that launched Nicole Miller into the sock business.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
Early on in my business, I was working all day, every day. For seven days a week, I was doing all my own sales. I used to fly to New York and meet with my customers, and then I would fly home to California that same day. Things were getting a little chaotic and inefficient until I met a woman named Tori Galbreath, who I hired to run my New York showroom. This one hire completely changed my business. Suddenly, I had someone else who knew my product as well as me and was also selling it. I had independent reps before Tori but she was my first salaried salesperson and she worked exclusively for K.Bell. She called every major retailer in the country and got us into numerous stores. She was also just a lovely person. Tori retired seven or eight years ago, but she was a game-changer for K.Bell because all of a sudden, we were selling all over the country and she helped me organize my manufacturing processes and customer relationships. I’m thankful to her still for being my right-hand woman and taking K.Bell to the next level.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?
The world we live in has greatly changed, and more women are taking on roles that were primarily held by men — I mean, we have a female Vice President now! It’s really a great time for women to take charge. I believe what continues to fuel any barriers to entry for women into founding companies is — confidence, resources, and passion. I don’t think it’s really gender specific anymore, but “it’s just the climate of the era” like Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg used to quote from Paul Freund. The barriers are shifting away from women being tied to the household, children, etc., and now, the opportunities for women in the workplace and in entrepreneurship are growing. We just need to fuel and support their passions and re-build their confidence. I always tell my kids to do something that they love, and the money will follow. I really found something I truly loved, before I started to make real profit from it. And I think that if everybody could do that, I think they could all be founders, because what it takes is just really, authentically loving it.
Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?
To start, I think as individuals we need to learn how to delegate and shift away from thinking that we need to hand-hold every single process. Surrounding myself with a trusting team changed my life and the direction of my business. Support must be there universally from everybody. I mean, we’re seeing this in so many walks of life, in so many different causes. And as soon as we start to invest in committed partnerships, in supporting each other, then female-run businesses and their entry will become a norm. I think females are having their moment with the number of strong female voices in our landscape today. I think, now more than ever before, it’s a very good time for women in business.
This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?
Community is everything, so it’s essential that we continue to grow this group of women founders together. There are quite a few female founders within the fashion industry, so being surrounded by other women with similar experiences to mine has been extremely important to my career journey. It’s critical that we have a support system to fall back on in times of need, so I encourage more women to pursue their dreams — especially if that means becoming a founder.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?
The first myth I’d like to dispel is the idea that some founders grow their business to sell. Most of us grow our businesses to serve. I think that’s an important differentiation to make because I truly grew to serve — I wanted to make socks that were fun, fashionable, and they felt good to wear. I originally started my business to pay my credit card bill and earn some extra money, so the thought of building my business just to sell socks never entered my mind — I was doing something I loved. I remember the year my husband and I were doing our taxes, and our accountant asked if I had considered quitting my job and doing K.Bell full-time as I was making more money making socks than I was at my full-time job. And that’s how I quit my job to pursue my business full time!
The second myth about founders is that we’re all lone wolves. That is one hundred percent not true. I depended on an enormous and growing team every single day and could not have gotten where I am today without them. I had an amazing team that shared our mission, helped build the mission, and moved us forward as a company.
Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?
I was an entrepreneur from a very young age, and I always had a business every summer. One year I sold freshly picked blueberries another year it was macrame belts, and any type of widget — I would sell. I think people who are cut out to be founders are entrepreneurs at heart.
I also think that becoming a founder is not for the weak of the heart; I always say, “no higher highs, or lower lows.” At one point, I had to take out a second mortgage on our house so I could afford to buy materials wholesale to fill a huge order. It’s clear that these scary times are not for everyone, but I always knew I would succeed. You need to have that tenacity, confidence, and passion to make it through those moments that try and test you.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)
“If you do what you love, the money will follow.” At the beginning, the cash flow was really challenging. My business grew extremely quickly. One year I took out a $50,000 line of credit and in the same year, I had to raise it to $100,000. The great thing was that it worked out in the end, even though it was never easy.
Sweating the small stuff is important! A lot of people say the opposite, but I think the details are what make up the big picture. The little details can make all the difference. I remember when my father offered to reorganize my shipping warehouse, and his first change was to shift the product order to feature the most popular selling styles in the front. This tiny change, and attention to detail, accelerated shipping significantly and allowed us to pack orders more efficiently.
Surround yourself with a strong team and delegate. At first, I was working seven days a week before I hired my middle managers, which changed everything. I wish someone had told me this sooner, because once I brought on people to run sales, operations, merchandising, and more, it made such a huge difference.
Trust the process and hire a team that shares your vision. When you’re all working together to achieve the same goal, you grow, face challenges, and succeed as a team, and it makes the journey so much better.
I wish someone told me to enjoy the journey! It goes by so fast.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
My husband and I support a lot of children organizations, specifically looking at addressing juvenile justice and food insecurity. I’ve sat on a few boards across various organizations tackling these issues, and I hope to use my platform and success to help people in need to make concrete changes.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I would inspire a movement to address food insecurity. This is a worry of mine because I believe we, as a country, have the resources and power to make strides towards solving this issue that affects millions of people around the world. There are a lot of new organizations finding creative ways to tackle this, for example, urban gardens and inner-city programming, and they need more support and attention.
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
Barbara Streisand! I’ve idolized her since the sixth grade when I used my own money to buy her album, “My Name Is Barbara.” I love her music, acting, the way she presents herself — I think she’s so great and would love to pick her brain.
Thank you for these fantastic insights!
Female Founders: Karen Bell On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.