Start Scale Succeed

True testament to starting a lean fashion business is Leigh Unwin, founder of The Style Attic which as the name suggests, did actually start in her attic in 2015 to fit around the needs of her family. This Start Scale Succeed episode is a recording of an Instagram live Nicole did with Leigh. Some of the topics discussed are: Starting a business around the needs of a family. Juggling a side hustle, full time job and family. Running the business through word of mouth and Facebook in the early days. Overcoming obstacles. And engaging customers through being authentic, honest and truly themselves. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Leigh has gone from strength to strength selling womens clothing and did eventually open a bricks and mortar store followed by her own website in 2020. It's now a true family affair with both her mum and sister involved in the business. 
• Leigh found it hard being a new mum working a job which wouldn’t let her do less than one minute of her contracted hours. 
• Covid was actually a benefit to some small businesses and The Style Attic had the best summer in terms of sales. Before the pandemic Leigh was selling online through Facebook but needed a website for May 2020 and when it launched sales were great. 
• There is always a challenge being taken seriously when you run a business from home. Although in the post Covid world, this has become more common. 

BEST MOMENTS

‘We just want to sell clothes to the people like us in situations like ours’ 

‘We just try and be real’ 

‘I want to grow but I don’t want to grow too quickly’

VALUABLE RESOURCES 

www.thebuyerandretailcoach.com

www.instagram.com/thebuyerandretailcoach

https://thestyleattic.co.uk

ABOUT THE HOST

Buying & retail expert Nicole Higgins spent the last 18 years working for companies such as Primark, M&S, Debenhams and Asda, sourcing & developing products from all over the world, building strategies for blue chip businesses, and increasing bottom line sales and profit, adding over £40 million in incremental business to the bottom line. 

Nicole now uses that experience and works as a consultant and coach for entrepreneurs and small to medium sized business owners, helping them start and scale their product businesses as The Buyer And Retail Coach (TM) 

Join the Start Scale Succeed waitlist. How to start & scale a product business. A 12 Week programme:  thebuyerandretailcoach.com/startscalesucceedwaitlist

CONTACT METHOD 

Website http://www.thebuyerandretailcoach.com

IG https://www.instagram.com/thebuyerandretailcoach/

LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/nicolehigginsuk 

Email [email protected] 

Newsletter https://thebuyerandretailcoach.com/newsletter-sign-up/

Book a call with me https://thebuyerandretailcoachltd.as.me/discoverycall

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As a fashion start up one of the challenges that is often faced is finding the right supplier for your business particularly one that can manufacture smaller minimum quantities. Today, Nicole is joined by one of the founders of Resource Fashion, Ziqi who has established Resource Fashion to help combat that problem.

The 4 main stumbling blocks when you are starting your brand are:

• Minimum Order Quantity 
• Quality 
• Timelines
• Communication 

Tatiana and Ziqi have established Resource Fashion, an online platform that helps solve those issues and enables you to work with manufacturers in the Far East with quantities as low as 10 units!! How? Well listen to the podcast to find out, but it's a service that is run like a subscription membership that you can cancel out of at any time. Also if you use the service and quote Nicole100 you will get a $100 dollars of your subscription fee. The team personally chat to you before you come on board to understand your needs so no more trawling through Ali baba, Google, etc to find your suppliers for fashion.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

•  You usually find that you never know the status of your orders from overseas. Resource Fashion offers real time tracking and progress updates to keep customers informed about where their products are on the supply chain. 
• Shipping by air has become more and more expensive, and we can see from the recent troubles with sea shipping, that things can easily go wrong there. 
• Resource Fashion is a subscription based model with over 95% retention rate. 
• Resource Fashion is all run off of a system where the customer can review all fabrics, designs, etc and do everything they need to do in one place. 
• You might not know that when you negotiate a lower price, that could lower the quality of the product you receive from some manufacturers. 

BEST MOMENTS

‘Everything that can go wrong, will often go wrong’ 

‘All the brands were telling me it’s incredible that we have this system where they can do it all in one place’

VALUABLE RESOURCES 

www.thebuyerandretailcoach.com

www.instagram.com/thebuyerandretailcoach

www.instagram.com/resourcefashion

www.resourcefashion.co

To receive $100 off your fee with Resource Fashion use the code Nicole100

ABOUT THE GUESTS

Tatiana and Ziqi have established Resource Fashion, an online platform that is run like a subscription membership that you can cancel out of at any time. The team personally chat to you before you come on board to understand your needs so no more trawling through Ali baba, Google, etc to find your suppliers for fashion.

A production supply chain specifically designed for emerging fashion brands.

Small batch: Many clothing manufacturers require large minimum orders. We offer true small batch manufacturing on demand.

High quality: Quality fashion doesn’t just happen on its own. Our team has over 20 years of experience in production.

Short lead time: An easy online supply chain management platform gives you total control in real time, on time.

ABOUT THE HOST

Buying & retail expert Nicole Higgins spent the last 18 years working for companies such as Primark, M&S, Debenhams and Asda, sourcing & developing products from all over the world, building strategies for blue chip businesses, and increasing bottom line sales and profit, adding over £40 million in incremental business to the bottom line. 

Nicole now uses that experience and works as a consultant and coach for entrepreneurs and small to medium sized business owners, helping them start and scale their product businesses as The Buyer And Retail Coach (TM) 

Join the Start Scale Succeed waitlist. How to start & scale a product business. A 12 Week programme:  thebuyerandretailcoach.com/startscalesucceedwaitlist

CONTACT METHOD 

Website http://www.thebuyerandretailcoach.com

IG https://www.instagram.com/thebuyerandretailcoach/

LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/nicolehigginsuk 

Email [email protected] 

Newsletter https://thebuyerandretailcoach.com/newsletter-sign-up/

Book a call with me https://thebuyerandretailcoachltd.as.me/discoverycall

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When I worked in retail we were very fortunate to have access to numerous trend websites that were all targeted at big business from a price and a content point of view. But if you are a small business, where can you get that information and how can you interpret it to ensure it's relevant to your business and customer. The answer is the better trend company. Today I am joined by Natalie and Louise, founders of The Better trend company specifically established to support independents and small design businesses to access trend reports and design strategies. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• During the pandemic, examples of trends are people investing in skin care products, but not make up, and buying comfort wear, but not evening clothes. 
• A small business can start looking at trends by looking at who your target customer is, what are they doing, what are they buying, what are they looking for. You can take it from there and tailor your designs to that. 
• You can use trends as a brief to work towards instead of just being lost in endless possibilities. Set yourself a goal of designing something within those boundaries. 
• Remember that your brand is your opinion, it shows your values and your aesthetics. 

BEST MOMENTS

‘It’s just authentically connecting with people and enjoying life’ 

‘When you’re bombarded with so much, you feel a lot of self doubt’ 

‘When you’re a small business you’re juggling so many plates’ 

VALUABLE RESOURCES 

www.thebuyerandretailcoach.com

www.instagram.com/thebuyerandretailcoach

www.instagram.com/thebettertrendsco

www.thebettertrendscompany.com

ABOUT THE GUEST

“The Better Trends Company is a trend and design agency with a difference. We empower Indies and small businesses with our affordable and accessible trend reports, consultancy and design strategy.

Our mission is to demystify trend forecasting and share design knowledge to support those locked out of trend and design resources, enabling them to make confident and informed business decisions.

Our focus is on responsible and ethical trends and design direction. We promote eco values, community and feminist retail to create better futures for people and planet.”

ABOUT THE HOST

Buying & retail expert Nicole Higgins spent the last 18 years working for companies such as Primark, M&S, Debenhams and Asda, sourcing & developing products from all over the world, building strategies for blue chip businesses, and increasing bottom line sales and profit, adding over £40 million in incremental business to the bottom line. 

Nicole now uses that experience and works as a consultant and coach for entrepreneurs and small to medium sized business owners, helping them start and scale their product businesses as The Buyer And Retail Coach (TM) 

Join the Start Scale Succeed waitlist. How to start & scale a product business. A 12 Week programme:  thebuyerandretailcoach.com/startscalesucceedwaitlist

CONTACT METHOD 

Website http://www.thebuyerandretailcoach.com
IG https://www.instagram.com/thebuyerandretailcoach/
LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/nicolehigginsuk
Email [email protected]
Newsletter https://thebuyerandretailcoach.com/newsletter-sign-up/
Book a call with me https://thebuyerandretailcoachltd.as.me/discoverycall

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Nicole is joined by Annabelle Mazu, the founder of Luxurious lingerie brand Ihuoma. Ihuoma celebrates the beauty of women of colour, with exquisite, sensuous lingerie with the aim to enrich, empower, and be bold about your sensuality and the possibilities that arise from living your true self, unapologetically! Find out the challenges Annabelle faced and what advice she would give an aspiring entrepreneur. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Annabelle found that the lingerie brands that were aimed at women of colour were in the mid and lower price ranges. She saw this gap in the market and decided to start Ihuoma. She felt that black women are typically shown that they’re not deserving of luxury, Annabelle wanted to say the exact opposite with her brand.  
• Annabelle wanted to create unique pieces that are considered works of art. She didn’t want something that seems generic, she wanted the people who wear Ihuoma to feel like goddesses.
• Ihuoma launched during the pandemic, which might have actually been a bonus with people wanting something nice and unique for themselves after having a pretty rubbish time stuck at home. 
• Ihuoma had a huge boost when it was featured on Beyonce’s stylist’s blog. They went from 400 followers to 2400 overnight. 
• The biggest challenge Annabelle faced was self belief, believing that she could do it and believing that someone else would look at the brand and say yes I think this can succeed. 
• Annabelle couldn’t have started up without a Virgin Startup Loan, which she is very thankful for as she found it next to impossible to get a loan from a bank. 

BEST MOMENTS

‘I was working with all these great brands and realised there was something missing’ 

‘This is going to launch when it’s meant to launch’ 

‘You have to deal with imposter syndrome on a day to day basis’ 

VALUABLE RESOURCES 

www.thebuyerandretailcoach.com

www.instagram.com/thebuyerandretailcoach

ihuoma.co/

www.instagram.com/by.ihuoma

ABOUT THE GUEST

IHUOMA is a luxury lingerie brand that celebrates the beauty of the modern Black Woman. The aim is to enrich and empower women of colour to find their divine femininity, be bold about their sensuality and the possibilities that arise from living their true self, unapologetically!

The collections explore themes of self-love, empowerment and sensuality with the ultimate desire to show women how incredible they are in their skin by complimenting and enhancing the inherent beauty of all black women. Created by a black woman, IHUOMA, at its core, is a luxury brand aimed at Black Women, but not exclusive to her.  The collections are for all women, wanting to connect to their spirit, their divine feminine

ABOUT THE HOST

Buying & retail expert Nicole Higgins spent the last 18 years working for companies such as Primark, M&S, Debenhams and Asda, sourcing & developing products from all over the world, building strategies for blue chip businesses, and increasing bottom line sales and profit, adding over £40 million in incremental business to the bottom line. 

Nicole now uses that experience and works as a consultant and coach for entrepreneurs and small to medium sized business owners, helping them start and scale their product businesses as The Buyer And Retail Coach (TM) 

Join the Start Scale Succeed waitlist. How to start & scale a product business. A 12 Week programme:  thebuyerandretailcoach.com/startscalesucceedwaitlist

CONTACT METHOD 

Website http://www.thebuyerandretailcoach.com
IG https://www.instagram.com/thebuyerandretailcoach/
LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/nicolehigginsuk 
Email [email protected] 
Newsletter https://thebuyerandretailcoach.com/newsletter-sign-up/
Book a call with me https://thebuyerandretailcoachltd.as.me/discoverycall

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sarah Helppi is the founder of fashion resale platform Eskadi, which is the largest preloved  boutique. 3000 designers from Chanel to Rixo, mid market to super luxury fashion. Sarah joins Nicole on Start Scale Succeed this week to discuss Eskadi’s belief that a business leaves the world a better place than they found it and how Eskadi brings beautiful preloved pieces to more people more often. As well as finding out more about Sarah and the business, we are also going to talk about resale as a business opportunity

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Within the next 10 years,  resale is going to be a bigger business than fast fashion at about $64 billion.
• Eskadi is the only search engine dedicated to pre-owned designer fashion. They offer a technology based solution to the challenges shopping in the pre-owned market today, making it quicker, easier to find that pre-loved item. It allows you to search multiple resale sites at once, compare prices easily across platforms, keep track of items in a single wishlist and save time understanding authentication with an authentication score for each platform.
• The younger demographic tend to use resale in the same way other people use fast fashion. They’ll want something to wear once, but don’t want to pay the fast fashion prices. They’re also more likely to recycle their wardrobes more often, selling on resale sites and buying new outfits from them too. 
• Eskadi works without having payment on their site or holding any stock. This avoids the inevitable issue of buyer seller disputes. For example if something is sold through Ebay, it’s Ebay who deals with the dispute. 

BEST MOMENTS

‘Even if it’s 2 years old you won’t see someone walking down the street wearing the same thing’ 

‘Rental is great for occasion wear, but if you want to update your wardrobe or find that piece,  resale is better’ 

‘The more you can focus on the problem you’re solving and the value you have, the more successful you will be’ 

VALUABLE RESOURCES 

www.thebuyerandretailcoach.com

www.instagram.com/thebuyerandretailcoach

www.eskadi.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/shelppi/

https://www.instagram.com/search.eskadi/

https://medium.com/@EskadiSarah

https://www.tiktok.com/@search.eskadi (if that’s your thing!)

ABOUT THE GUEST

“Before launching Eskadi, I worked at eBay for 7 years in marketing and finance. Prior to that I spent 3 wild years in the capital markets throughout the 2008 financial crisis, and have an MBA from the Ivey Business School in London, Ontario, Canada. 

On the eve of #internationalwomensday I put a digital pen to paper about what it looks and feels like to face fundraising and starting a business when you are a solo parent.

We all know that a mere 2% of VC money goes to female founders and now I've seen first hand one reason why: the lifestyle and cash flow of a startup founder is simply not suited to a household on one income, in an expensive city, with small mouths to feed. The stakes are enormous, the risk is huge, the impact of failure unfathomable. 

Statistically, amongst split families, it is women who bear most of the child rearing responsibilities and therefore, the challenges in the fundraising path that disadvantage solo parents are hitting a lot more women than men.”

ABOUT THE HOST

Buying & retail expert Nicole Higgins spent the last 18 years working for companies such as Primark, M&S, Debenhams and Asda, sourcing & developing products from all over the world, building strategies for blue chip businesses, and increasing bottom line sales and profit, adding over £40 million in incremental business to the bottom line. 

Nicole now uses that experience and works as a consultant and coach for entrepreneurs and small to medium sized business owners, helping them start and scale their product businesses as The Buyer And Retail Coach (TM) 

Join the Start Scale Succeed waitlist. How to start & scale a product business. A 12 Week programme:  thebuyerandretailcoach.com/startscalesucceedwaitlist

CONTACT METHOD 

Website http://www.thebuyerandretailcoach.com
IG https://www.instagram.com/thebuyerandretailcoach/
LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/nicolehigginsuk
Email [email protected] 
Newsletter https://thebuyerandretailcoach.com/newsletter-sign-up/
Book a call with me https://thebuyerandretailcoachltd.as.me/discoverycall

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As a product business are you using Tik Tok? if the answer is no then you should be listening to this episode to understand why and what works. And if the answer is yes, then listen to find out how Tik Tok advertising compares to Facebook and Instagram advertising. This week Nicole is joined by Anna Frapwell, founder of Digital marketing agency Neon. Anna has over 20 years industry experience working at one of the World's biggest ad agencies and in house for some well known household names. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Initially, Anna found that on Tik Tok they were getting a lot of traffic compared to other digital marketing but fewer conversions. Now, Tik Tok has improved on their end, there is still a lot of traffic and higher conversion rates than before. 
• You may think that Tik Tok is only used by younger people but their user breakdown is that 21% are between 30-39. 20% between 40 and 49. And 11% 50+. 
• On Tik Tok, the tricky part is making your ad not look like an ad. It has to look like it’s part of that native feed and you need to keep on top of the latest trends. Ensuring you have the right hashtags will put your product in front of your audience. 
• Identify who the influencers are for your marketplace and watch what they do. 
• Follow #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt
• Tik Tok users are 44% more likely to buy a product they see on the platform. 
• Product demos, step by step guides, and unboxing videos all do well on Tik Tok. 
• You need to have 4 or 5 ads running at a time on Tik Tok and they will only be effective for around 14 days. This can create quite a creative fatigue. 
• If you can get your organic content down to 7 seconds that works great. For ads keep them to 21 seconds. 
• Repurposing Facebook and YouTube content won’t work, but you can post Tik Tok content on other platforms. 

BEST MOMENTS

‘The key is to find the right creator for your business’ 

‘If your content is rubbish, you’re not going to be found’

‘Unboxing videos are huge on Tik Tok’

‘It’s pacey, quick, there’s a lot of movement involved’

VALUABLE RESOURCES 

www.thebuyerandretailcoach.com

www.instagram.com/thebuyerandretailcoach

Anna on LinkedIn

Neondigitalclicks.co.uk

Instagram.com/NeonDigitalClicks

ABOUT THE GUEST

Anna Frapwell is the founder of Digital marketing agency Neon. Anna has over 20 years industry experience working at one of the World's biggest ad agencies and in house for some well known household names.

ABOUT THE HOST

Buying & retail expert Nicole Higgins spent the last 18 years working for companies such as Primark, M&S, Debenhams and Asda, sourcing & developing products from all over the world, building strategies for blue chip businesses, and increasing bottom line sales and profit, adding over £40 million in incremental business to the bottom line. 

Nicole now uses that experience and works as a consultant and coach for entrepreneurs and small to medium sized business owners, helping them start and scale their product businesses as The Buyer And Retail Coach (TM) 

Join the Start Scale Succeed waitlist. How to start & scale a product business. A 12 Week programme:  thebuyerandretailcoach.com/startscalesucceedwaitlist

CONTACT METHOD 

Website http://www.thebuyerandretailcoach.com
IG https://www.instagram.com/thebuyerandretailcoach/
LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/nicolehigginsuk
Email [email protected] 
Newsletter https://thebuyerandretailcoach.com/newsletter-sign-up/
Book a call with me https://thebuyerandretailcoachltd.as.me/discoverycall

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Do you want to know how to break through your revenue ceiling? In today's episode of Start Scale Succeed, Nicole is joined by Lesley Thomas, the Money Mastery Business Coach. Lesley helps ambitious results driven women rewrite their money stories and reconnect with their business purpose to drive their success. Some of the areas discussed are understanding your own money story and how you can change that, how self limiting beliefs are holding you back from achieving the full potential for you and your business, and how to recognise where you may be limiting yourself.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• By the time we’re 7, we already have our limiting beliefs around money. These are mimicked from the beliefs of our parents or the people we grew up around. As children we take that money story through with us into adulthood, whereas we leave other stories like the tooth fairy behind. We continue to allow that story to limit us.
• We need to link our own self value and self worth to how we interact with money. We wouldn’t let someone walk all over us in our personal lives, so why should we let people do that in business? It’s not just our relationship with money, it's our relationships with ourselves.
• The limiting belief is not the problem, the problem is the limiting decision that the limiting belief leads you to make.
• If people can see that you’re investing in your business then they are more likely to listen to what you have to say.
• There are 8 Money Archetypes. If you're typically an over spender, but don’t mind taking risks, you may have Romantic, Celebrity or Maverick to blame. If you save well, but avoid debt/investing/taking any kind of risk, you might be an Accumulator. If you would prefer to stick your head in the sand and not think about money at all, you might be a Connector or an Alchemist. If you’re a collector of achievements and find it hard to switch off, you could be a Ruler. And if you love spending money on others at the detriment of yourself, then you could have Nurturer in your top three.⠀

BEST MOMENTS

‘We are limited, not by our abilities, but by our vision.’

‘People are going to walk all over us if we don’t put boundaries in place’

‘If you’re not shouting from the rooftops about your product, then you’re clearly not bought into it yourself’

‘There is no limit to the amount of money we can make in our business, it’s our mental revenue ceiling that limits us’

VALUABLE RESOURCES

www.thebuyerandretailcoach.com

www.instagram.com/thebuyerandretailcoach

www.lesleyathomas.com

Lesley A Thomas - The Money Mastery Business Coach on Facebook

Let’s Talk Money and More

ABOUT THE GUEST

Lesley Thomas is The Money Mastery Business Coach, known for her game-changing approach, Lesley has the extraordinary ability to help ambitious, results driven-women rewrite their money stories, reconnect with their business purpose and drive phenomenal success.

Whether you’re a start-up or a more established entrepreneur, you will be familiar with the frustration of under-charging and over-delivering. Most of the time, it stems from self-limiting beliefs that create mental and emotional barriers that hold you back from achieving your full potential. By releasing those beliefs, transforming negative self-talk  and creating a new money story, you can start charging – and earning – what you are actually worth.

An accredited Money Breakthrough Business Coach and Sacred Money Archetype practitioner, Lesley specialises in finding your niche, capturing your unique spirit and uncovering deeply rooted limiting beliefs. She helps female entrepreneurs focus on scaling their business by teaching them the tools needed to break through their revenue ceiling.

ABOUT THE HOST

Buying & retail expert Nicole Higgins spent the last 18 years working for companies such as Primark, M&S, Debenhams and Asda, sourcing & developing products from all over the world, building strategies for blue chip businesses, and increasing bottom line sales and profit, adding over £40 million in incremental business to the bottom line.

Nicole now uses that experience and works as a consultant and coach for entrepreneurs and small to medium sized business owners, helping them start and scale their product businesses as The Buyer And Retail Coach (TM)

Join the Start Scale Succeed waitlist. How to start & scale a product business. A 12 Week programme: thebuyerandretailcoach.com/startscalesucceedwaitlist

CONTACT METHOD

Website http://www.thebuyerandretailcoach.com

IG https://www.instagram.com/thebuyerandretailcoach/

LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/nicolehigginsuk

Email [email protected]

Newsletter https://thebuyerandretailcoach.com/newsletter-sign-up/

Book a call with me https://thebuyerandretailcoachltd.as.me/discoverycall

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

So much of what you see on instagram is not the real story. Today's episode is a special Q&A with brand founder Emmy Pugh from Sunday & Soul. Emmy and I have chatted before on the anniversary of her first year in business. However now she is  2 years in and really exposes the nuts and bolts. Emmy also  opened this up to questions on her Instagram so this is what people really want to know, but don’t know who or where to ask. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• If you have an idea for a business and plan on earning over £40,000 per year then you should register as a Limited Company. In a Limited Company, you as an individual are not liable, whereas as a  Sole Trader you are. 
• In the social media and content driven times we’re in now, you need to find something new, which is hard, having a new idea or product is a rare thing. It’s more important to find a new way to talk about it or a new way to show it. 
• Emmy’s biggest mistake was not speaking up soon enough about the quality of products from her supplier. When she eventually decided to find someone else to work with she was initially afraid to ask for recommendations. She found her new supplier was more expensive, but she saved time not having to deal with the issues the previous one had caused. 
• During the pandemic the cost of shipping your items to you has gone up by a large amount. That price increase has to be factored into your price points. 
• Whatever you want to sell and however much money you’re spending on that, add 50% to that for your marketing. 
• Out of 18.6k followers on Instagram, on a bad day only about 400 people would see Emmy’s story. You unfortunately need to spend money to be seen. 
• Emmy found that she had a good reach marketing on TikTok, but the conversion rate was so low. The audience just wasn’t the same as the audience for her brand. 
• New businesses might not make a profit for the first three years. 

BEST MOMENTS

‘Unless you are so passionate and really want it, you’re not going to get through those tough days’ 

‘You have to pay for eyes on your business’ 

‘Your followers aren’t necessarily your customers’ 

‘The only thing that has been driving me is alignment with my brand, not numbers’ 

VALUABLE RESOURCES 

www.thebuyerandretailcoach.com
www.instagram.com/thebuyerandretailcoach
www.sundayandsoul.com
www.instagram.com/sundayandsoul

ABOUT THE GUEST

Emmy Pugh is the founder of Sunday and Soul, a casual wear brand inspired by sunny places, with comfort, joy, and confidence at its heart.

ABOUT THE HOST

Buying & retail expert Nicole Higgins spent the last 18 years working for companies such as Primark, M&S, Debenhams and Asda, sourcing & developing products from all over the world, building strategies for blue chip businesses, and increasing bottom line sales and profit, adding over £40 million in incremental business to the bottom line. 

Nicole now uses that experience and works as a consultant and coach for entrepreneurs and small to medium sized business owners, helping them start and scale their product businesses as The Buyer And Retail Coach (TM) 

Join the Start Scale Succeed waitlist. How to start & scale a product business. A 12 Week programme:  thebuyerandretailcoach.com/startscalesucceedwaitlist

CONTACT METHOD 

Website http://www.thebuyerandretailcoach.com
IG https://www.instagram.com/thebuyerandretailcoach/
LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/nicolehigginsuk 
Email [email protected] 
Newsletter https://thebuyerandretailcoach.com/newsletter-sign-up/
Book a call with me https://thebuyerandretailcoachltd.as.me/discoverycall

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lil & Izzy is an award winning brand with sustainability and design as it’s key focus points. Katie Brandon Byrne wanted to create products that stood the test of time and didn't cost the earth. She was inspired by her daughter's sensitive skin conditions to set up her own children's wear brand. In today's episode of Start Scale Succeed Katie joins Nicole to talk about considering both the parent and the child while designing, the challenges when you are starting out and how they are different to the challenges she now faces two years on, when to ask for support, prioritising when spinning all the plates becomes overwhelming, visibility on instagram, and influencer marketing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The biggest challenge Katie had when starting her business was that she had no idea of the specific costs related to her field. She had experience with physical stores but hadn’t had to learn about the e-commerce side. She went with the cheapest options and that cost her in the long run. 
• Other challenges Katie faced are that it’s expensive to create a product and you need to have some capital there to cover all these little and big costs you might not have expected. 
• Time is a valuable thing when you’re starting out. Can you free up your time by outsourcing to someone else? If something takes you a long time to do and it would be more cost efficient to hire a freelancer with the skills you should always consider it. 
• Remember to switch off from time to time. Working from home on your own business is something that can creep into your family life and you end up taking calls and doing emails when you should be relaxing. Set yourself a start and end time for the day. 
• Making products that last and can be handed down between siblings is something that is so important to Katie and her brand. 
• Katie has found that people only see brands through social media and influencers. It’s about working with the right influencer and try and test to find those right ones. 

BEST MOMENTS

‘You can always make changes along the way, you don’t need to do a big re-brand’ 

‘If you aren’t good at something, outsource it’

‘I started this to be flexible for my family and kids’ 

‘Comfort is still always going to be at the forefront’

‘Influencer gifting is all very much testing’

VALUABLE RESOURCES 

www.thebuyerandretailcoach.com
www.instagram.com/thebuyerandretailcoach
www.lilandizzy.com

ABOUT THE HOST

Buying & retail expert Nicole Higgins spent the last 18 years working for companies such as Primark, M&S, Debenhams and Asda, sourcing & developing products from all over the world, building strategies for blue chip businesses, and increasing bottom line sales and profit, adding over £40 million in incremental business to the bottom line. 

Nicole now uses that experience and works as a consultant and coach for entrepreneurs and small to medium sized business owners, helping them start and scale their product businesses as The Buyer And Retail Coach (TM) 

Join the Start Scale Succeed waitlist. How to start & scale a product business. A 12 Week programme:  thebuyerandretailcoach.com/startscalesucceedwaitlist

CONTACT METHOD 

Website http://www.thebuyerandretailcoach.com
IG https://www.instagram.com/thebuyerandretailcoach/
LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/nicolehigginsuk 
Email [email protected] 
Newsletter https://thebuyerandretailcoach.com/newsletter-sign-up/
Book a call with me https://thebuyerandretailcoachltd.as.me/discoverycall

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According to influencer marketing hub, for every $1 that a brand spends on influencers, they get a return of nearly $6. But how do you find the right influencer for you who aligns with your brand, your customers, and your values? This week’s Start Scale Succeed is from an Instagram live where Nicole was joined by someone who knows about both sides of the coin, Stephanie O'Quigley. Find out how to build lasting relationships, gifting versus paid, and the do’s and don’ts of influencer marketing. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• How the influencer aligns with your brand values and customer base is the most important thing to consider when deciding on who to work with. Just because someone has more followers, doesn’t mean they are better for your brand. 
• The best way to find influencers for your brand is to do the research and put the time in. Search who your customers follow, who has done marketing before for someone you know, search through the relevant hashtags. You can also hire someone to find the right person for you. 
• The biggest ‘do’ is to make your outreach personalised. Tell your prospective influencer what about them makes you think they are a good fit. Nobody wants a generic sell that you have no connection with. A bad example of this is when Stephanie was approached by an alcohol brand, despite her being sober and that being easy to find out from her socials. 
• Don’t give it all away in the initial outreach and make it as open as possible. Ask for their thoughts before you start saying what you need from them. 
• An influencer can lose trust with their audience if they push too many brands that aren’t right for them. Remember that being the right fit is a two way street. 
• Be open in the initial contact if you want to gift them something or whether you are looking into paid work. 
• Make sure you agree what the usage of any content is, for example are you able to post images on your brands pages. 

BEST MOMENTS

‘You have to take away the number factor’

‘Be open to take on board all the feedback they have’ 

‘I want to be in the position where I can turn down ten grand for a sponsorship!’

‘Getting people excited before your launch is a good strategy’ 

VALUABLE RESOURCES 

www.stephanieoq.com
instagram.com/stephanieoquigley
www.thebuyerandretailcoach.com
www.instagram.com/thebuyerandretailcoach

ABOUT THE HOST

Buying & retail expert Nicole Higgins spent the last 18 years working for companies such as Primark, M&S, Debenhams and Asda, sourcing & developing products from all over the world, building strategies for blue chip businesses, and increasing bottom line sales and profit, adding over £40 million in incremental business to the bottom line. 

Nicole now uses that experience and works as a consultant and coach for entrepreneurs and small to medium sized business owners, helping them start and scale their product businesses as The Buyer And Retail Coach (TM) 

Join the Start Scale Succeed waitlist. How to start & scale a product business. A 12 Week programme:  thebuyerandretailcoach.com/startscalesucceedwaitlist

CONTACT METHOD 

Website http://www.thebuyerandretailcoach.com
IG https://www.instagram.com/thebuyerandretailcoach/
LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/nicolehigginsuk
Email [email protected] 
Newsletter https://thebuyerandretailcoach.com/newsletter-sign-up/
Book a call with me https://thebuyerandretailcoachltd.as.me/discoverycall

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.