Networking works!
With everything being so busy up to Christmas I thought business would be a bit slower in the New Year. I was planning on a quieter period to catch up with my other work but actually things have stayed really busy. I think that has a lot to do with networking - everybody who comes knows somebody else who has been before.
Since my last blog I’ve been to quite a few shows. At the beginning of February I went to the Gift Fair at the NEC; I was actually there with my other company but still managed to steal some time to go and look around and ended up buying some new jewellery. I saw Lawrence Llewellyn Bowen and went to listen to a talk by a company that does trend mapping. They had some interesting things to say about what colours were going to be in next season.
In the second week of February, I went to Pure, a fashion exhibition in Olympia and found that the trend mapping company were actually quite accurate in their estimations. I could already see the colours they were talking about coming through. Even though this kind of thing doesn’t translate exactly to what I am doing, I like to keep in touch with what’s happening and I got to pick up a few extra contacts.
Last Friday, I did another show at Driffield Rugby Club. It was a very girlie occasion with people doing nails, giving massages, selling jewellery and all that kind of thing. I went with a friend and we both got dressed up in our ball gowns with gloves - the works! It certainly got us noticed although the fact that we weren’t in our fleeces, jeans and wellies did phase a few people. I’ve noticed at these events that funnily enough you get more interest and new business from your peers running stalls than from the public. I suppose it’s because these people put themselves out there more and naturally have more events to go to. In fact, the people who were doing the beauty treatments on one of the stalls approached me and as a result, I’ve potentially hired out 9 dresses. The beauty college they go to is up for an award and it’s set to be a posh red carpet event.
This Friday I’ve agreed to do a Virgin Vie party. It’s a kind of pay off really - I know somebody from Virgin Vie who hired a dress for a conference. She spread the word around about me and lots of other people from Virgin Vie came and so I guess it is a favour in return for a favour.
After Easter I’m hoping to promote Styled By with a mini fashion show. I’ll probably look to hold it at the local cricket club and get lots of other business involved, for example, I know someone who makes these fabulous hats and then someone else who does hair and make up. The idea is to get a group of women from all ages and sizes to appear on the catwalk in their jeans and trainers and then send them back stage to get glammed up in all their party gear. It’ll be fun to do some advertising as it is something I’ve never really done before. I’ve recently got 32 new dresses in. They are proper ball gowns so it would be great to be able to use those.
Thinking of advertising and promotions, people are beginning to send in photos of events they’ve been to wearing dresses they’ve hired from me. I’m hoping to get them onto the gallery page of my website which should get a few more people interested!
