Entrepreneur gets hand up from dragons

Quemeez, a baby moccasin-making company, is bursting at the seams with success.

It’s been almost a year since entrepreneur Sunshine Tenasco-Brazeau hit the ground running after leaving CBC’s television program Dragons’ Den with a $20,000 loan from Dragons Arlene Dickinson and Brett Wilson.
She pitched her business to the Dragons last fall (the show aired earlier this year), requesting the money in exchange for a 30 per cent stake in her company.

She wanted to buy an industrial sewing machine, upgrade her packaging from zip lock bags to something more professional for the cute baby moccasins, as well as update her Web site.

“What makes Quemeez special is that they’re a cross between a traditional moccasin and a contemporary slipper,” said Tenasco-Brazeau. “The same traditional material is used for a moccasin, but with a slipper design which includes an elastic so the slipper doesn’t fall off.”
Quemeez was born almost by accident. Tenasco-Brazeau made a pair of moccasins for her baby girl four years ago, and ended up losing one because traditional-style moccasins easily slip off an infant’s foot. So, the frustrated and ingenious mom simply found a way, through a slipper design, to ensure the footwear stayed snuggly on her baby’s feet. That grew into a passion, and she began to re-create them to sell.

Before approaching the Dragons’ Den, Tenasco-Brazeau said she made just under 100 pairs of baby moccasins a year. Now she does triple that number every month, thanks to extra hands.

Tenasco-Brazeau is employing local First Nation women who get to work right from their own homes. She’s selling her product in sophisticated packaging and has created a snazzy and effective Web site, complete with credit card and PayPal options.

“We have bi-weekly workshops at our community hall, and if people want to learn to come and bead, they can do so. Right now we have five to six regular women and a few others who come in sporadically.”

The workshops are designed so there’s no pressure on the women to perform. They only do as much work as they can handle.

“It’s kind of like cottage industry work. I give them their work; they go home. They have children, and so they’re able to see their children and get them off the bus... they’re in the comfort of their own home. We meet back in two weeks. They hand in their work. I pay them and give them more material.”

A few of the women are featured on the Quemeez Web site. There’s Rita Thomas, who is referred to as the ‘ace in the hole’ because of her very quick beading style. There’s Gracie Wawatie-Chabot, a busy mother of four. And Anna Cote is the newest to Quemeez, and she is the Director of Sales and Production.

More than 300 pairs of moccasins are hand-made each month now. But Sunshine wouldn’t say how much money the women make, because they are paid per pair.
“Some women make a lot of money daily… it just depends on how much they want to work.”
The moccasins go for $40 on her Web site www.quemeez.ca plus shipping and handling. The moccasins are also sold in 10 stores throughout Ontario and Quebec and sell for $45. Quemeez will soon be introduced to more stores. Maybe one near you.
“We just got into a store in B.C. and one in New Brunswick and we’re working on others out west.”
That’s a tremendous amount of work for about seven pairs of hands.

The moccasins are currently cut out by hand and Tenasco-Brazeau says she would like to purchase a cutting machine to make the work quicker to accommodate more orders.

Dickinson and Wilson wanted to check out how their investment was doing, so the Dragons’ Den film crew visited the business in Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg, Que. on Sept. 20. The filmed session will air close to Christmas or just after the New Year.

The two Dragons believed in Tenasco-Brazeau’s vision to employ local Aboriginal women. On the show, Dickinson told the entrepreneur, “I think it’s something admirable you’re trying to do, something for First Nations women, and I think the design is great.”

“They felt that this business was all me because I wasn’t just buying a product,” said Tenasco-Brazeau. “I actually made all the moccasins myself. They told me my heart and soul was in everything and they couldn’t see themselves taking a part of the business. That’s why they opted to give me a loan.”

Tenasco-Brazeau said repayment of the $20,000 loan is fairly lenient, and she was told to pay it back when she was making a good profit. She also said the door remains open at the Dragons’ Den.

“I can always go back if need be and maybe that’s something to consider in the future.”

The cost of production is quite high because the product is hand-made, but that’s not stopping Tenasco-Brazeau because she hopes to see her business grow steadily.
“In a couple of years down the road, I’m looking at adding a workshop and to have a manufacturing site at Kitigan Zibi, and maybe the cost of production will go down if we have the appropriate material and it can be done in one location.”