Some Mistakes I Made While Starting My Fashion Business Some Years Back

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In this post I will be sharing with you some of the mistakes I made while starting my fashion business after I resigned from the Bank. It was not an easy decision to quit the bank work to start my own business when I don't really understand or know what the future holds. However, the thoughts of owning a business was exciting as much as it was scary. There are some lessons I learnt along the line that I wish I had known earlier which may have guided me in making better decisions.

One of the biggest mistakes I made was that I had little or no knowledge about the things I should spend my savings on. I had saved some substantial amount while I was working which will be used to start the business especially for shop rent, one industrial sewing machine and one weaving machine. The rest of the funds was supposed to be used to stock up the shop. So, I liased with a lady who is into fashion designing and she agreed to follow me to the market to purchase the things I will be needing.

We both went to the market together and at that time I believed it was a good deal until months later when I discovered I don't necessarily need the things we bought. We bought so many zips, needles, threads of different colours, elastic of different sizes (black and white), tailoring tapes, linings of different colours and so on. All of these things were bought in large quantities to the extent that I still have some of them in my shop till date. With the experience I have in the business over the years, if I were to advise my younger self, I would have invested that capital into the purchase of fabrics of different types especially trendy ones that get sold without stress.

Another biggest lesson I learnt is to never undervalue myself because my time and craft are highly valuable. At the early stage I was afraid people would not patronise me if my prices were 'too high', so I underpriced myself. But along the line nobody needed to tell me that I must improve my pricing when I realised that after working for so many hours I don't even get the cost used in purchasing materials. I had to be very professional in my business by understanding my target customers and making their desired designs for them and of course they will pay for the worth of their outfit. So, knowing who and who you're designing for makes you even more creative and deliver outfits that suit their personality, style and budget.

Still related to the previous point I highlighted above, as a new business owner who is looking for customers to patronise my business I had no clear policies that guides the day-to-day activities and my creativity. So, this meant that there were no boundaries. I had to accept unrealistic deadlines and last minute adjustments to pre-agreed styles. These actions may look trivial but they can disrupt your plans and make you lose many hours that would have been used to create better results.

Well, every mistake was a learning process. They all taught me valuable lessons that have shaped my life as a fashion designer.

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