DONALDA, Alta. – Barb Nelson is a practical woman. So when she went looking for something to set up as her own business she wanted to sell what people needed.
Dried flower arrangements or decorative knick-knacks for walls didn’t suit what Nelson had in mind, but people need bags.
“Deep down I knew I had to make something that was needed, not wanted,” said Nelson, from her store on the main street of this central Alberta town. “Everybody needs some sort of bags.”
Nelson bought her first industrial sewing machine with her pension money when she retired from the local bank. She wasn’t willing to drive 30 kilometres to the next town to work for minimum wage.
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She had tried her hand at making western dusters, eskimo parkas and reupholstering furniture but realized it was hard, finicky work for little money.
Using leftover upholstery material she jazzed up a garment bag with the colorful material and her bags were a hit, especially with the rodeo crowd who like color co-ordinated outfits.
She now makes matching feed bags, saddle bags, boot bags, roping bags, garment bags, bridle bags and make-up bags for the rodeo set.
“Rodeo people and specialty business people have money and color co-ordinating is a big thing,” said Nelson, who travels to rodeos each weekend with her husband Larry.
Each night when Larry comes home from his job in the oil business he sits down at the cutting table, picks up his scissors and begins cutting materials for the bags. He also puts together the handles and zippers. It’s left to Barb and her three part-time employees to sew them up.
As an addition to the sewing business, Barb acquired the Alberta Treasury Branch agency, which is run out of the store.
The agency acts like a bank machine for the 200 local customers who were without a bank when the national bank closed last year. She cashes cheques, takes deposits and sells RRSPs.
Nelson also makes bags for the oil and gas industry, tool bags for mechanics, sports bags for young people and wind socks for the airline and oil industry. Her bags are used by snowboarders, diamond drillers in Mexico and bullriders in New Zealand.
“Oilfield and rodeo is the big market and I can’t see that changing in the near future.”
Nelson must now decide whether to keep selling bags from the store or expand and offer the bags in more sports and western stores across Western Canada. Her husband will be able to retire in five years, which will influence their decision.
While the business covers costs, there is not a lot of profit, she said.
“We don’t have a lot of investment, but we do have to decide if we want to get bigger or stay the same.”
