Back to the studio this week! After Easter Monday I was back in the studio with Lisa and we were getting prepared to go to an appointment with a NEW client. This was very important to make a good impression and get a new contact that the company could start selling to. We headed up to West Hampsted to visit the company called U dare.
Lisa first wanted to have a chat with the buyers and just explain a little what the company was about. This was the first time I had heard Lisa explain herself and Coco Bloom and WOW. What a saleswoman. She sold the company and their values so well! She explained why they should go with her and not others, that she doesn’t use trend forcasts or catwalks because she aims to be beyond the trends, that they create every print in two colourways so that they remain seasonless and that at their heart they stick with the traditional and unique hand technique to make them more special than others.
U dare responded really well to this and the meeting went great! This was so valuable for me to see and to understand how to sell yourself as a company and remain true to yourself as a designer despite the pull from all other ‘norms’ within the industry.
I always get such a buzz off of sales meetings and it really gets me inspired to go down this route and be in this business. It’s almost like the final piece of the puzzle.
Not only this, but myself and Lisa had some very very valuable conversations on the journey back to the studio. We both get on so well and are very similar people. I’ve found it very very easy to talk to her and to go to her for advice. I asked her a lot about how she got where she is, and how she would advise me to achieve the goals I want to achieve. She was very real in her answers and told me how it was without sugar coating things which I really appreciated. I’d prefer to keep our conversations private but the main thing she said to me was that you need passion to survive this industry.
The rest of the week we spent some time uploading the pulls from the U Dare meeting onto a pinboard. Some hadn’t been scanned etc or put onto a garment so this took up a considerable amount of time, but luckily it is exactly the same as it was at Story designs so I found it nice and easy.