Startup Diaries
The NextWomen Fashion & Retail Theme.
From my experience as a young female entrepreneur starting my own business, many questions seem to be asked. Most are due to my age:
"Was this a school project that you just continued with?"
"Do you wear your product?"
Or how about this one:
"How old are you?"
The answer to these questions are no, yes, and 20.
The NextWomen Fashion & Retail Theme.
Looking back on how I started my online boutique www.heatherandgrace.com, I never expected it to develop the way it is. Times evolve, fashions and styles change, and your business has to keep up in order to remain interesting and attractive to customers new and old.
8 months ago Heather & Grace was a dream of mine, never fulfilled but always there. When my eldest daughter started school my situation changed and I could no longer work full time as I had been doing for the previous year. However, I’m a woman, with a brain, and I need to work to keep myself busy and motivated. Starting up my own business was the best way for me to be there for my children but also keep my independence and earn my own keep.
Writing’s nothing new to me. Between two degrees in media studies and a series of roles in between, it’s always been what came naturally. A summer internship at the age of sixteen confirmed it was a natural fit, and I set out to become a broadcast journalist.
But times have changed these past eight years. The jobs I’d thought would be a given have largely vanished (Nate Thayer’s polarizing thoughts on the subject are a must read), and of all the skills I’ve gained working at AppBeat, the most helpful has been the reality that if I’m to succeed professionally, my work is limited if I can’t understand how it impacts the bottom line.
The NextWomen Fashion & Retail Theme.
Do you remember in the last start-up diaries I mentioned that setting up a website was another story in itself? Yes/No?
Well I am back to share with you a few more experiences, so if you’re settled in, I will begin.
Where do you start - what’s in a name?
The name of your online fashion boutique, is it going to be your own, or is it going to be a theme, perhaps something that can be an acronym, or initials to be quick and snappy. Is this name memorable, there is a lot to be said for a name that is simple and to the point, your strap-line (what you say about this name) is the opportunity to express more of who you are, and what you do.
The NextWomen Fashion & Retail Theme.
Once upon a time I was an Account Manager in a boutique Sydney ad agency. My role was to glue together a mish mash of client desires, production personalities, studio stalwarts and creative crazies. I loved the challenge and the team surrounding me, but I was ready for a big change.
So I quit my job and bought a one-way ticket to Spain with a ‘6 month’ stopover in South America in September 2010. I never made it to Spain. Instead, 8 months later, I ended up in the highland jungles of Guatemala. It’s a country in Central America that I wouldn’t have found on a map prior to leaving Australia. I endured a good dose of partying throughout South America that ended up in an exhausted heap in Panama shortly after carnivale season in 2011.
Tales from SXSW: An entrepreneur’s first time.
Deciding to venture into the SXSW territory is certainly a decision one must make well in advance. It is as though the domestic world has come to a halt because everyone is headed to Austin during these 9 days. Ticket prices are unheard of (think like $1,400 for a one way price), hotel and airbnb rentals are insane (I am from Texas, so when I saw airbnb rentals for $700 per night, I knew that they made their month’s rent from just SXSW) to top it all, your lifestyle during your stay there is probably the worst ever (think liquids … all liquids!).
Sitting here at Google Campus’ Central
Working and looking around at all the diverse people working on their start ups
you begin to question yourself as an entrepreneur.
In this room there are ex-city workers, bankers, back from retirement people, students, drop outs, hard core coders/developers…this is not even including the nationality diversity.
What gives me the right to be in this room?
What gives me the right to put myself on a level with many of these people who are more qualified and have a tenfold more experience than I do?
Last week, I interviewed Zoë Peden, “chief juggler” of Insane Logic, for an article that was published at The Next Web.
Asked how work at a startup enhances employee opportunity, she managed to capture everything I’ve felt these past six months in half a paragraph. “Even if the job role states, ‘social media intern,’ you will very likely get dragged into a multitude of different areas and learn how to build a business from the ground up at a very fast pace,” Zoë told me.
The NextWomen Fashion & Retail Theme
When I graduated from FIDM with a degree in Merchandise Product Development, I knew eventually I would have my own brand. Little did I know almost 2 years to the day upon graduating, I would be quitting my ‘job’ and working full time on the launch of my own brand. It was a very exciting/daunting day.
Like everything, 30:Fifteen, started out as just an idea in my head and a couple of fashion sketches in my note pad (that I carried around with me everywhere), but when it dawned on me I was never going to progress in my current position as quickly as I wanted to due to the current economic climate, I started to verbalise my ideas to my circle of influence. I got some great feed back, so much so that I began to believe that I could make this a reality.
The collection is divided up into 4 women: Alethia, Sue, Anna and Jane. Each woman has a different focus and style but all four embody the 30 fifteen qualities and confidence.
The NextWomen Fashion & Retail Theme.
As the designer and producer for my couture online boutique www.coralturner.co.uk I didn’t anticipate to what extent I would find myself becoming an ‘online internet marketing guru’ in the making.
I launched my one-of-a-kind online boutique in 2011, and it was mid 2012 that the website started to gain exposure and sales. So, to those fashion entrepreneurs out there and others in a start-up position, when it appears that the only voice you can hear as acknowledgement to your work is your own, and traffic to your website is practically non-existent, don’t despair. As a sole trader unless you have a marketing budget that runs into thousands of pounds and your knowledge of internet marketing puts you at equal standing as those who invented the World Wide Web, you have a huge learning curve ahead of you, and it will take time.
The great thing is - it is not impossible as there are others who have gone before you and are achieving great success; you just have to up your game plan.
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