cover story
is, at one point we had 3 stores. For
us to double the sales of 3 stores we
would have to do so much work;
sign 3 leases, hire staff for 3 stores
and then you’re only limited to the
foot traffic of that area anyway.
Where as doubling online sales is
not easy but we could’ve done it
with a lot less risk and a lot less
time. Online is scalable and more
stable. It’s less risky because if
something doesn’t work you can
just pull it back. It’s hard to shut
down a non-profitable business or
sales channel but its even harder
to shut something down that
is profitable. We thought of the
opportunity costs of not doing that
which was restricting our online
sales. At the time it was our General
Manager and myself and we were
the only people working on the
business.
The first business was
a failure but I think its
almost more about the
mistakes and making
mistakes early on.
Within a few months, online took
over the store sales anyway.
Q11. When you first quit your job,
you and a business partner started
Fatboye, not many people know about
this venture. What happened?
Fatboye was my first business and
I think that was the best crash
course in starting a business. With
hindsight it was a really good way
to have spent my time and money
and I’ve learnt so many things
from it. I learnt that no matter
how much hard word you put in,
if the business model isn’t right it
won’t work.
Q12. Business failures, everyone has
them; what have yours been? How
did you recover from them and move
forward? What’s the importance of
learning from your mistakes?
The first business was a failure but
I think its almost its more about
the mistakes and making mistakes
early on. If you make them early
on you’re investing less and you’re
saving yourself from that heartache
when you get bigger. One year with
Showpo we only broke even and
that’s when I thought the business
was going really well so that showed
me how important it is to be across
your numbers. Also to not be so
Women’s Network Magazine
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