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

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

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

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

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

Fiona Minett is an award-winning expert and coach who helps female entrepreneurs do their own PR and make it accessible, affordable and effective for every business no matter what size you are. Fiona joins Nicole on Start Scale Succeed this week to discuss what types of PR generate the best results. Why you should also be talking to the press about your story, not just the story behind your products. What you need in your PR tool kit. What to do if you have hit a wall and your PR has plateaued. timelines for PR and publications. How to choose the pieces the press are going to love. How to approach a PR strategy, and when to decide if you will use an agency or do it yourself.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Sometimes the most powerful PR coverage a product business can have is one where you’re sharing more about yourself or your business, rather than a product itself. A profile of a founder or business owner is often the most impactful for your sales.
• The “so what” test helps you peel back the layers and get to the core of what matters. Keep asking yourself “so what” so that you can get deeper answers you can use in your PR and marketing.
• At the bare minimum you need in your ‘PR Toolkit’ before you’re looking for coverage are a functioning website, content, and imagery. Nobody will want to feature you if your website doesn't work, or if your imagery isn’t to a professional standard.
• Look to see if you can involve any of your products in lists that journalists will be compiling throughout the year. Also make sure you have the quantities to back that up.
• Long lead magazines will work 6 months ahead of publication. Short lead magazines work 2 to 12 weeks in advance.
• Keep and eye on the Lightbulb Facebook group (linked below) and #journorequest on Twitter for journalists looking for someone to help with a story. See if your story, business, or product would be right for their request and if you can get yourself in an article you have free PR.

BEST MOMENTS

‘Don’t neglect telling the story of you, your product, and your business’

‘If you want to be in the pages of those magazines, you’ll need to be doing it 6 months early’

‘There’s nothing a PR agency can do that you can’t do yourself, it’s about time’

‘Start small, you do not have to take over the world on day one’

VALUABLE RESOURCES

www.bossyourpr.com

www.thebuyerandretailcoach.com

www.instagram.com/thebuyerandretailcoach

https://www.bossyourpr.com/the-pr-warm-up

https://www.facebook.com/groups/lightbulbhangout/

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

Today I am joined by Laura Briggs, founder of ladies petite clothing brand The Shortlist. This is my second time chatting with Laura as we spoke before the brand was launched and you can catch that in episode 7 of the Start Scale Succeed. Now we are about 8 months on and today Laura and I are going to be discussing the highs and the lows, the real behind the scenes of when a brand launches and the following months. Not just the glossy highlights that people share on Instagram. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Things will go wrong. The important thing is to keep calm and keep your customers informed. Don’t let adversity knock your confidence. 
• Launching multiple large collections every year is very full on and time intensive. But having a more limited release of new products you can learn what your best sellers are and gives you the opportunity to test and repeat. 
• Some of your mistakes will be seen publicly and some won’t. It matters how you ride that wave and deal with the issues with a positive mindset. 
• Not everybody is ready to buy when a new collection goes live. Laura has learned that people shop in different ways and there is a balance between keeping things in stock and creating hype on social media. 
• Laura had a short spell of spending £35 per day on Instagram advertising leading to around 400 new followers. She is hoping this converts to sales when the new collection drops. 
• You have to make the people on your email list feel like they’re getting some value from it, not just what’s on your instagram. 

BEST MOMENTS

‘Making mistakes is the best thing I’ve ever done’ 

‘I see the brand as separate to myself’ 

‘If they’re on your email list they want to be part of your world’

VALUABLE RESOURCES 

www.thebuyerandretailcoach.com
www.instagram.com/thebuyerandretailcoach
www.shoptheshortlist.com
www.instagram.com/theshortlist

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

Today on Start Scale Succeed I am chatting with business strategist & consultant Dominique Mullally and we are going to be chatting about setting goals, how you can make sure you achieve them and what to do when it goes a bit wrong.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• You want to make sure your business is a stable, sustainable profitable business. This is from an energy level and a financial level. Stable foundations will avoid feast and famine cycles. 
• Understand the motivation behind your goals. You shouldn't just pick an arbitrary number and aim towards that. You need to set a realistic goal based on your values  with an emotional attachment between the goal and you. This attachment helps you push through when times are tough. 
• Start with setting an income goal for yourself. Then work out the break even costs of the business. Next add your tax obligations and make sure you understand them. Then finally look at what a good annual bonus at the end of the year would look like. That’s how you get the number you should be aiming for. Break this down into 90 day sprints to achieve the yearly goal. 
• Habits that help people achieve their goals are accountability, understanding your weekly KPIs. People think too big so you need to break it down into smaller goals, then those milestones can be broken down into action steps and items. 
• As business owners you need to outsource those things that aren’t revenue generating as soon as you can. These are things like admin and packaging, leaving your time free to work on those things that will make you money. 
• Try time tracking your last working week. What are you spending your time doing and how much time did you spend doing each item. You’ll be surprised about the amount of time you spend on things that don’t help the bottom line. 

BEST MOMENTS

‘Create stability and predictability’ 

‘Always be focused on the revenue generating tasks’ 

‘Don’t invest where you are, invest where you want to be’ 

VALUABLE RESOURCES 

www.thebuyerandretailcoach.com
www.instagram.com/thebuyerandretailcoach
www.dominiquemullally.com
Instagram: @dominiquemullally
Facebook: @dominiquemullally1
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominique-mullally-24058a91/?originalSubdomain=uk
Toggl
Asana

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

Fashion Designer and Creative Consultant Lottie Woods joins Nicole on this week’s Start Scale Succeed to discuss what to ask a designer when deciding which designer to work with. What a designer will need from you.  Find out about the most common mistakes people make when starting out. How to be sustainable in your design process and thinking about sustainability throughout the whole process and at the end of a garment's life. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• When you’re thinking of starting a clothing brand, you should have your brand vision ready before speaking to a designer. If you can bring inspiration images, some sketches, and an idea on the size of lines and shapes, you will have a headstart on the design process. 
• Keep in mind that different designers have different specialities, for example someone who already has experience designing swimwear will be a better fit if that’s your brand. 
• Always bring any ideas back to the original vision. A good designer will keep working with you to do that to keep it on brand. 
• One of the biggest mistakes you can make is working without a tech pack. It is an initial investment but if you cut corners early on then it can lead to problems later on in the design process. 
• Another mistake people make is not to plan in advance as much as possible. People can rush into things to hit a certain season, rather than waiting a year and really putting the time into the design and planning phase. 
• Sustainability should be built into the design of the clothing. A good quality product will be kept for longer and is more likely to be handed down or donated to charity shops. 

BEST MOMENTS

‘It’s important to know that you can get along with your designer’ 

‘You’d be amazed how the most simple sketch can be helpful’

‘The most sustainable product is a well designed quality product’ 

VALUABLE RESOURCES 

www.thebuyerandretailcoach.com
www.instagram.com/thebuyerandretailcoach
www.lottiewoodsdesign.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

From Dragon’s Den to her own start up. Jewellery designer Jane Aspel from ‘Emma By Jane’ joins Nicole on Start Scale Succeed to talk about sourcing and funding, and starting a business. Some of the topics covered are investment, exporting, the creative process, and so much more. Find out about small testing the market and then going for it.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Jane forgot about accounting for customs fees when she made her first jewellery order so was left having to change her pricing plans. 
• Don’t be afraid to ask for advice from people who have been there and done it. Jane’s Grandad had experience in business and was able to lend his ear and help out for free when Jane was just starting out.
• Because it’s just Jane involved in the approval process, she can adapt to trends and get products developed quickly. 
• The factory Jane uses closed for three months last year, but luckily they had just received a large order to tide them over until it was back up and running. Make sure you don’t put all your eggs in one basket supplier wise. 
• Awards can do great things but if you don’t have people voting with their wallet then it doesn't mean much. Getting the recognition and the word of mouth from winning awards will help sales. 
• You don’t get anywhere without messing up a few times, in business and in life. The trick is to see it as a lesson rather than a mistake. 

BEST MOMENTS

‘It’s so important that you trust your gut from the beginning’ 

‘When you own your own business all these problems become your own’

‘Customs are a massive hit and nobody wants to pay that’

VALUABLE RESOURCES 

www.thebuyerandretailcoach.com
www.instagram.com/thebuyerandretailcoach
www.emmabyjane.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