Category: Tips and Tools

If you’re somebody who loves fashion, then you’re not alone. Millions of people have dedicated their lives to achieving sartorial splendor, creating incredible items of clothing that look fab.

However, only a few women turn their passion for all things clothing-related into something that makes money. It can be done, as proven by numerous examples, but it’s tough. Not only do you have to create a functioning business, but also create a brand – something that’s easier said than done.

In this article, we’re going to take a look at how you can practically turn your love of clothing into a viable business.

Treat Your Business Like A Hobby When You Start Up

Starting up can be a lot of fun says https://medium.com/, but it all depends on your approach. In the early days, you’re probably not going to be able to make enough money to give up the day job. Sorry.

That’s why it’s a good idea to treat it as a hobby: something you do for fun to see how people respond. Doing it as a hobby has several important benefits. For starters, it takes the pressure off. Nobody wants to have to work on a business idea with no other source of income not knowing whether it’s going to work or not.

Second, treating it as a hobby helps you to develop your passion for what you, something that will drive you forward and help sustain your effort. When you’re passionate about your products, customers will take note and spread the word. It’s about being authentic, not just trying to grab money.

Use Professional Shoots For Online Photos

The next step if to get the word out about your products. Your best bet is the internet. Starting a website is practically free, and you can post pictures of your clothing (or whatever it is that you sell) online.

Although many companies use real models to showcase their clothing, you don’t have to pay out a fortune. Instead, you can use mannequins, as shown at https://my-mannequins.co.uk/female-3 to achieve the same effect. A mannequin gives you the structure you need to showcase your clothing, allowing you to take better pictures and post them on your site.

Start Writing About What You Love About Fashion

Today’s savvy buyers want to know as much as possible about the clothing companies that they buy from. An exciting story or set of blog articles can be a great way to entice customers and build rapport. It’s likely that your audience has the same interests as you, so reaching out to them through the written word is an excellent idea. The more you can engage with people on a personal level, the more interested they will become in buying your products.

Tell Buyers About Why You’re Different

Given that there are thousands of fashion companies out there, it can be challenging to come up with something original. But the good news is that you don’t have to: all you need to do is communicate what makes you different from 90 percent of the other people in your industry.

Image: nastya_gepp

No matter what type of business you run, there will always be an expense.

Phone bills, utility costs, staff wages, office supply costs… and many many more.

This can be frustrating for a small business owner trying to make a profit, as at times, expenditure can threaten to overshadow any income. This can be alleviated by marketing, of course, as the more people know about the business, the higher the chance of sales. But because of the expensive nature of running a business, the budget for marketing may be little to nil. It’s a dilemma. So, what is a small business owner to do?

For starters, it’s important to make savings across the board, using as many cost-cutting strategies as possible to make room for a marketing budget. Secondly, it’s worth using as many low-budget marketing ideas as possible. For you, these might include the following.

1. Attend networking events. If there are any events happening near you, attend them. These might include trade shows, business workshops, and conferences. There may be a registration fee for some, but considering the number of people attending (and the potential to build your client or customer list), it’s worth paying the price if you can afford it. However, there might also be free events, so do your research and add them to your calendar.
   
2. Carry your brand with you. Have a look at the items at Dynamic Gift and then purchase as much as you can with your brand name. You can then carry your brand with you, through the clothes you wear, and with items such as pens and other stationery that you can hand out to others, or sneakily leave lying around for others to find. There is an expense for some of these items but not a huge one, and some items you need only buy once. This is your way to get your brand out into the world, whether you talk about it to others or not. 
3. List your business for free. You don’t have to pay for the classified ads in newspaper and trade mags because there are places online where you can list your business for nothing. These include Yelp, Google My Business, Angie’s List, and City Search. Check this link for more. 
4. Build your email list. Many businesses implement email marketing campaigns, but there is usually a price to pay when choosing to use an email management service. Not so with Mailchimp, as if you have less than 2,000 subscribers on your contact list, you can use their services for free. Follow the previous link and find out more for yourself. 
5. Implement free marketing tools. You don’t need to pay over the odds on marketing apps and software as many can be downloaded for free. And even those tools that do have a fee attached, there are usually free versions available for you to try before you buy. There are some useful examples on this Infographic, so have a look and use as many as are applicable to your needs. Then consider paying a little more for any that might prove particularly useful to you in the long-term.

Final word

You can easily curb the expense of marketing using our ideas, so no matter how healthy (or unhealthy) your budget is, you can spread the word about your business cheaply. Let us know what you think, and if you have any further low-budget or free marketing ideas, please share them with us.

 

Building your own small business is no mean feat. When it comes to making a success of yourself and being able to forge your own unique career, there are so many different elements to bring together and different methods you can use to build your empire.

One of the parts of a new business which you might not think about right away is known as compliance. This is the legal stuff and the regulations which are needed to ensure you are conducting your business in a safe and legal way. Today we are going to take a look at a few of the things you need to bring to your company this year for compliance.

Code of conduct

From the moment you hire your first employee, you will need to have a code of conduct in place for them to follow in the workplace. A code of conduct is a way of making sure that your employees behave in a professional manner around the office and that they are reliable and trusted. It is important when making a code of conduct that you outline what employees can and cannot do, so that if someone ever breaks the rules you can point them to this and show them what they have done wrong.

Emergency procedure

Although it is a rare event and it is unlikely to ever happen in the workplace, fires are dangerous. It is important that from day one you have marked our a fire exit to escape the building, and that you have the ability to exit safely and count the heads of people in your office safely. Be sure to also place the procedure and a fire extinguisher in an easily accessible place.

KYC

When it comes to compliance for a business, it is not only others that you aim to protect. If you deal with clients every day and if you are in the financial sector, a KYC Check can be essential. Know Your Customer is a Check which will be done on any new client who is either from a high risk country or form an unknown source. It will ensure that their financial history, criminal history and everything else is safe and sound. It will allow you as a business to deal with a client safe in the knowledge that they won’t do something stupid or not be able to pay you back.

Privacy policy

Every man and his dog has a website these days, and when we have a website it is important for us to have a privacy policy. A privacy policy will outline how your company will use client data, what you can and can’t do, and how long you will keep their data on record. It is something which is essential to have on board because it will allow you to refer back to this if someone ever makes a complaint against you. It will act as a handy protective shield for you and your business.  allow you to refer back to this if someone ever makes a complaint against you. It will act as a handy protective shield for you and your business.

Image: TeroVesalainen

It’s a positive choice to make, to strike out on your own, but did you know that self-employment doesn’t always mean just you are working by yourself? Unless you know all the is to know about the process of self-employment, it’s best to wait before you make the leap into the relative unknown.

Going it alone in your career doesn’t always mean “alone.” For example, contractors may work under the banner of self-employment, but in fact, have a company that employs them as a freelancer. This company, though they won’t pay sickness or holiday pay, would instead run a Construction Industry Scheme to protect their contractors and their taxes. It sounds more complicated than it is, but it’s a perfect example of why you should weigh up the pros and cons of self-employment before you get started.

The Pros

• Choosing when you work is a massive bonus of self-employment. You may be contracted to work certain hours, but if you decide to take time off it isn’t seen as a huge deal because you are only paid for the time that you work anyway. Freelancing allows you better flexibility than working for someone else.
• Not only can you choose when you work, but you can also choose where. If you’re not enjoying working on a specific site, or you don’t want to be cooped up into an office, you don’t have to. As long as you can complete your tasks, you can work where you want.
• There’s the chance that with self-employment you can make more money than you would in a full-time job. You’re only paid for your work completed, and as you don’t get holiday or sickness benefits, your wages can often be more.

The Cons

• One of the most significant downsides to working for yourself is the lack of guarantee of work – or money. You’re not promised a job, which means that you don’t always know where your next income is coming from. Working as and when people need you can make it harder to manage your finances, too.
• Freelancing requires you to be self-motivated, which means that it’s very easy to make less money if you’re feeling particularly lazy one day. It’s much harder to feel secure about your income and your job if you’re worried about the money you’re making.
• There are far fewer employment rights, and you have to organise your own pension plan when you’re self-employed. Some businesses that hire contractors will point you in the right direction of a pension plan that you can use, while others won’t concern themselves with helping you.
• Self-employment, if you’re working at home and alone, can be an isolating experience for those who need the social aspect of the workplace. The fundamental lack of human contact is often hard for people to manage.

Improving your career is essential, and deciding to leap into self-employment isn’t one that everyone makes. Do your research before you do it and you will find it much easier to decide what to do.

Image: Pixabay

You’ve got a home business, and you’re incredibly proud of being able to convert that spare room into a proper office, which you then turned into a bustling center of supply and demand. You’ve got a home office to cheer about, and you’ve got a business running out of it that you never thought you’d manage to juggle alongside your family. You’re a working mum, after all, and now you’ve got to keep an eye on both pots to stop them bubbling over.

But your family are always going to take precedence, of course. And that sometimes leaves your business unchecked for a while – and really, anything could happen during these busy moments. Your website server could go down without your knowledge, losing you all kinds of profit, or an impatient customer could log off of the support chat and just leave you a scathing review!

Which is why it’s important to know about the things out there that can help keep an eye on your company for you. It’s homegrown and homemade, and now you’re looking to invest in its security. So here’s some options for you.

Photo by Djurdjica Boskovic on Unsplash

An Advertising Program

And not just any advertising program, but one you’ve specifically signed up for to give you a good ranking on search engines, and to give you a good presence on blogging websites or Youtube channels. After all, affiliate marketing is often a good way to open yourself up to the masses, and you do so via content that’s going to be on the internet forever. Home businesses often have to rely on passive income, so you should learn how to make good use of this!

If you get your links out there on a site that has a few thousand followers, and plenty of unique visitors per month, then your business is going to get at least 20% of these people heading on over to your website. And that’s where they turn into potential customers. If a website even gets 10,000 viewers per month, that’s still 2000 people who click through to you! Imagine if even 10 to 20 of those people buy something from your site, and with little to no extra effort on your part.

A Bit of Insurance Never Hurt

Insurance is a very good way to make sure you’ve got your eye on the prize, and that you’re never going to lose out on any of your business assets either tanking in value, or being otherwise misappropriated. Say you use your car for business means, and you get rear ended whilst out meeting a client by someone in the traffic behind you – do you have the right insurance to cover that? If you’re looking up Farmers auto insurance, you might just be on your way to redefining your standard policy into commercial insurance terms.

Your home business deserves to have another set of eyes on it, even if only to consistently pad out your income. Make sure you’re keeping these ideas in mind.