A Brand New Bag

We caught up with Deborah Nail, owner of Pursesnickety!, at the end of December to see how her Entrepreneur and Interland technology makeover was helping her business navigate the busy holiday season. With a complete website makeover from Interland, new smartphones from Sprint and new laptops from IBM, Nail's business life is a lot different from the way it was a year ago.

With the wholesale side of her purse manufacturing being a strong focus, Nail usually has her busiest season in January, February and March, when wholesale trade shows occupy her time. Since the launch of the sophisticated www.pursesnickety.com retail website, she has seen a boost on that side of the business, translating into more brisk December sales. "We've had a lot of business that we weren't expecting," says Nail, 41. "We've increased our revenue because of the website."

A couple of months into using Interland's MyEzClicks search-engine word program, Nail has been pleased with the results. "We have seen a ton of traffic due to that program," she says. Previously, they had tried a do-it-yourself service from Overture, but found that the amount of time it required was more than they had to give. Nail says that once they got over having to pay more for the full-service MyEzClicks program, they found the investment worthwhile and have recommended the program to other entrepreneurs.

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On the hardware front, you may remember Nail's initial trepidation when she first received her Treo 600 smartphones from Sprint. Learning how to use the features, from the Palm OS to e-mail capabilities, seemed daunting at the time. Now Nail has a different view. "We would be lost without them," she says. With an extensive travel schedule, the e-mail capabilities have been particularly invaluable.

Nail has big plans for 2005, and is considering opening a brick-and-mortar retail store in Atlanta. In the meantime, you'll be able to see the results of their January website update online by the time you read this article. Changes include adding several new product lines such as matching feather pins, seasonal designs and convertible cocktail purses featuring removable handles that double as necklaces. We'll find out how smoothly the update went when we check in with Pursesnickety! next month.