Own business is a dream of many people. The decree, it would seem, is the most inappropriate period in order to start your own business. However, one young girl succeeded. A 23-year-old mother was fond of sewing when her child was very small, and now her company's annual turnover is more than £ 1.5 million. Let's find out how it happened.
Progress
Laura Newman founded the Forever Sewing clothing brand in January 2017 after the birth of her son.
She opened a business in her dining room in Yorkshire, where she spent evenings designing and stitching children's outfits. She was inspired by the lack of suitable clothes in the assortment of many stores.
She now has a loyal fan base on social media, including Stacy Solomon, Rochelle Humes, Abby Clancy, Mrs. Hinch and Jessica Hayes.
In April this year, the brand’s two-year anniversary took place, at which Laura Newman and her husband Adam celebrated the fact that their turnover reached the mark of one and a half million pounds.
How did it all start?
During pregnancy, Laura Newman tried to buy clothes for the boy, but the assortment presented in stores constantly disappointed her. During a vacation at Disneyland Paris, she was visited by the idea of sewing.
At the start, her partner Adam lent a woman a thousand pounds, which made it possible to take individual sewing lessons, as well as buy the first sewing machine.
Laura Newman tells, then he spent a lot of time to study theory and master the practice. In addition to individual lessons, she drew information from additional sources. The girl could stay up late at night reading textbooks and watching videos.
Every evening, when her son Nate went to bed, she sewed costumes and overalls to order until the very morning.
Unexpectedly high demand
After the first week of launch, Laura Newman’s business brought in about two thousand pounds. By the end of the first month, the turnover reached one thousand pounds daily. This continued until April 2017, until Laura Newman realized that she was exhausting herself with a high pace of work.
The girl said that the demand was more than she expected. In April, the couple closed their site for several weeks to restart a new one. It was at this point that Laura realized that she needed to hire more employees to take into account the volume of incoming sales.
The young mother said that she worked almost constantly and rested only a couple of hours at night.
However, customer interest has not subsided.
Expansion
Laura Newman and Adam decided to hire 18 workers - carvers, embroiderers, machinists and packers, as well as managers to monitor the production and dispatch of orders.
There was such a high demand for clothes that customers lined up to make an order. This was due to the fact that Laura Newman limited the time for receiving orders. As soon as the amount of orders reached ten thousand pounds, the acceptance of applications was closed. A few months later, the marginal amount of orders was halved. Adam at this point left his job to help with the care of the child, as well as the delivery of orders.
Laura Newman reports that she also received tremendous support from her parents, with which she was very lucky.
All parents who became their customers willingly shared store contacts on social networks, which made the brand more popular. Now Laura Newman reports that she has many plans for 2019.
When asked what advice she could give to budding businessmen, Laura Newman replied that you first need to make sure the idea is unique. The business must be original. This allowed the young girl to occupy her own niche, so the rest can learn from her experience.