Founders - any advice you wish you had known from day 1 of starting up your business?
I'm looking to start up my own fashion brand but with little experience so I am trying to build on that foundation.
Replies15
- @Natasha Chetiyawardana thanks Natasha!
- @Alex Bec thanks Alex I’ll give it a read!
- Hi Megan,If just one single thing I would say isIt's all about process.Feel free to check out my work on https://www.instagram.com/annadoralascsik/
- Hi Megan,Here's a little article I wrote about 10 tips I'd give to people starting businesses without funding :)All of the tips I wish I had are in there! Hope it's useful and best of luck.https://medium.com/swlh/ten-business-tips-for-creatives-who-want-to-bootstrap-66d99bcc31ceAlex
- Grow (and know) your peaks and cut off your troughs. You can't excel at everything. So bring onboard partners or a network of advisors for the stuff you don't excel at (from new biz to HR to finance...whatever). Oftentimes designers get together with designers to start a business, and the stuff they don't know holds them back or they end up trudging away at it, making themselves miserable because they spend the time away from the peak stuff they are brilliant at.
- @Alessandro Novelli Thanks for the advice Alessandro!
- @Tori West Hi Tori,Thanks for your insights they are really helpful! It’s great to hear a success story.
- If I could go back, I will get a coach to understand from the beginning how to move and how to deal with clients. I feel one of the most challenging things (in general) is having a constant flow of great projects/clients, this is a skill that needs to be trained and none teaches you in the creative world. Hope it helps! A.
- Hi Megan, hope you're safe during this time? Really exciting you're looking to start up a new business, congrats! I started BRICKS magazine almost 7 years ago and here's a couple of things I wish I knew in the early stages.1. It's ok to make mistakes because they are the best thing to learn from. It'll make sure you'll never make them again. Don't give yourself a hard time, write down what went wrong and why in your journal as a reference.2. I wish I had a mentor in my field, even if it's not in a business sense, even a trustworthy friend that can offer advice.3. It's not going to happen overnight. I almost quit BRICKS after 2 years because I felt it wasn't successfull or would never fund itself. Now, we're about to celebrate our 7th Birthday and are comissioning more people with paid opportunities than ever before. I wouldn't have ever believed that to be feasible in the first few years of starting the company.4. Take advantage of your exsisting network, but don't be scared to reach out to new people. I was so scared to put my name on my work at first, I'd find it so difficult overcoming the anxiety of failure and rejections. Now, I've relaised, it's true when they say "If you don't ask, you don't get."5. Don't knock your day job. It's not a waste of time, it helps keep you afloat so you can still do what you love until your business can grow bigger.Hope this helps :) x
- @Greta Beccarello thank you Greta!
- @Megan Cummings I'd say stick to your vision and your values, that for me was absolutely essential. I am now in a place where I can confidently talk about my project because I know I'm being myself. At the beginning, I found that a lot of people would try tell you what you need to do, or would try take you down. Do the internal work first ;-) and share your idea with the people in your network who value you and your project.
- @Antonio Willis Thank you so much, I’ll keep that advice in mind!What are the signs I’m networking with the wrong people?
- Feel free to email me at hello"descoverartists . com to arrange a call :)
- @Pip Jamieson Hello Pip! I joined this event the other day, it was very insightful, thank you!
- Hi @Megan Cummings - I hosted a webinar recently, chock full of start-up tips I learnt the hard way. You can check out the recording here: https://the-dots.com/projects/webinar-how-to-start-a-business-use-the-dots-to-grow-it-473001 - I hope you find it useful :-) Pip
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