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The ten years that Pauline Lewis spent as an international market researcher taught her how to navigate the complex waters of corporate America.

But that decade also taught her something else: how she would do things differently.

Lewis, 36, has put that hard-earned knowledge to work. Three years ago, she walked away from her job to create her own company and transform her life and career path.

Her company, oovoo design, creates and crafts hand-embroidered handbags. But the silk and leather mixed-media purses do more than meet the company's bottom line and decorate the arms of the women that carry them. The development and sale of the purses support two women's cooperatives in Vietnam.

"I wanted a way to incorporate some of things that are important to me personally into my work environment," Lewis said. "And I didn't immediately find a company that was doing that."

So Lewis did what any natural entrepreneur would—she started her own business to fill the gap.

It's not a business that will scale rapidly like a Silicon Valley tech start-up. But Lewis believes Oovoo is right where she wants it to be—in the midst of  a growing market of upmarket, handmade, artisanal products made for consumers who care about where, and how, their purchases are made.

"I think this market is going to continue to grow and there is a appreciation for artisanal  work that I see now that I don't think I saw when I started three years ago," she said. "There's a larger picture here, and it's growing."

Her idea for an import business was sparked in 2003 on a weekend trip to a wholesale market in Bangkok, Thailand, while on business travel. With the seed of starting her own company already planted, Lewis saw the potential for an import business.

Lewis had a head start with her marketing experience via her work with the marketing research company, Research International, and her knowledge of Asia from working in Singapore and Hong Kong. But she needed a few entrepreneurial fundamentals.

Returning to the U.S., Lewis enrolled in classes at a local women's business center in Virginia to learn the basics of starting her own company. At only ten hours, the classes were an essential, but not an overwhelming time commitment, she said.

Armed with the basics, Lewis flew to Vietnam, where the market was advantageous for small companies, to look for potential products. Her marketing background gave her a large boost forward on this scouting trip— in Vietnam, she looked at the available products through an eye that translated what she thought would sell on U.S. soil.

"It helped me understand market demand and what people here in the United States would like to buy," she said. "99 percent of what I saw in Vietnam were things that I didn't think Americans would immediately embrace."

But, there was that one percent. Partnered with the beginning idea of the brand-defining oval design of the company, the embroidery skill of the craftswomen in Vietnam and her market savvy, Lewis then sealed her success by creating a lasting relationship with two women's cooperatives in North and South Vietnam.

Her stroke of luck was finding a partner who was willing to work with her to create the first samples of what was to be a hand-crafted, mixed media product.

"Creating the samples is one of the hardest parts of starting the business, if you're in a product market," she said. "Because most of the time it is very hard to find a manufacturer or designer, someone who is willing to work with you to fine tune the sample until it is exactly what you envision it to be."

The oovoo employees work together in a women's cooperative that is based in a local home. One cooperative is located in the north, the other in the south of the country. The women earn a living wage that is 15 percent above market average, Lewis said. Once a year, the employees and their families are treated to an all expenses paid long weekend vacation outside of the city where they work.

Of equal importance to ensuring oovoo design's employees earned a living wage was Lewis's desire to create an environment that put all of the women on an equal footing.

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