I grew up and went to school in Yorkshire then moved to London to do a BA Hons in Fashion Journalism and Promotion at the London College of Fashion. From there I went straight to interning at various magazines and went on to work up to Fashion Director level over the next 17 years at various magazines. Studying at the London College of Fashion was a great experience for me as they have some fantastic tutors from the industry so you really get the opportunity to have an in-depth insight into whatever you decide to do. Without doubt though, you can’t beat going out there and getting hands on experience. The time I spent interning is when it all came together for me. I was always interested in fashion from my early teens and would avidly collect every single issue of Vogue. I still have them all – they take up a lot of cupboard space, as I’m sure you can imagine! My first magazine role was in the fashion team at B Magazine (which sadly no longer exists) and I secured it after doing an internship there in the fashion cupboard and generally doing my best to make myself useful to the team.
I come from a very entrepreneurial family so starting my own business was always on my hit list. It just took me a little time to discover what that business would be. I wanted it to be something close to my heart that I would love working on every day. Having spent many years working for magazines, in 2011 it felt the time was right to go it alone and go freelance and as I already had the plan to launch my fitness brand, Every Second Counts, I really needed that extra freedom to make that dream a reality.
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The thing to consider before going freelance is ask yourself whether you’re disciplined enough to stick to a work schedule every day when you don’t have someone else or a team to report to. It’s all too easy to get side tracked especially when you’re working from home – that pile of dirty laundry or dishes just keeps staring back at you. Plus, it’s hard to stay motivated when you don’t have the office environment to drive you. Make sure you have a good black book of contacts before you go freelance, you can be quickly forgotten by PRs once you’re not part of a bigger brand so keep in contact with your list on a regular basis. I was lucky when it came to finding clients because my final years in magazines were spent in the bridal market working for Cosmopolitan Bride and You & Your Wedding. The bridal industry is very niche so I was recognised within it for all of my shoots and style pages so clients just came to me to continue that work on a freelance basis.
Without doubt that was the main difference from working at a big magazine and going at it alone is that I really did miss the team aspect of being part of a magazine on a daily basis. Everyone has the assumption that as a freelancer you swan around having lunches with friends (reality check – they’re all at work!) and work when you feel like it, but the truth is you impose tougher deadlines on yourself; you always end up working way past normal working hours as the definition between office and home life is no longer there. I worked from my kitchen table for a while and although it does have its benefits (like not having to get dressed up to go to work!) there are cons too. Sometimes you just want to ask an opinion on something or hear what’s going on in someone else’s life for once. Working from home, you just don’t have that. Plus, I was in the fridge snacking way too often as a distraction to get away from my workload! I would definitely recommend finding like-minded freelancers to share an office space with like photographers and graphic designers. It gives you that work/life separation back and stops you from going crazy at the kitchen table by yourself.
Having worked for 17 years producing fashion shoots for magazines, as much as I loved my job, I felt it was time to move away from magazines and focus on something digital-based as more and more publishing houses were cutting magazines and staff from their portfoilos. I knew I wanted to hang on to the creative side of my previous job and at the same time was passionate about fitness and healthy living (I also trained as a Pilates instructor when I went freelance). I thought my dream job would be to combine the two and that’s why I took the plunge and launched Every Second Counts in 2014.
The idea to start a fitness brand first came to me in 2011 having spent years producing fashion shoots all around the world. My twice yearly trips to New York as for fashion week led me to buy all my fitness wear in the US and never in the UK, purely because the choice and quality was so much better with much more interesting styles to choose from. It was for this reason that I wanted to launch my own fitness wear brand with a fashion-focus designed. My aim has always been to produce high quality, performance pieces with a luxurious feel. The one comment we always get from new customers is how soft our fabrics are and how good they feel against the skin.
I funded the business on my own private capital that I had built up from savings over the years and luckily with a little help from my family who have been extremely supportive throughout the brand evolution. I think people underestimate the amount of money that is needed to launch a clothing brand. There are a lot of up front costs that you have to foot the bill for and even when the business is established, you still have to be prepared to invest in your collections going forward. Where possible, I would recommend using savings because keeping 100% ownership of your own business is a huge plus point. It may be risky but at the same time it gives you even more drive to make the business work and put in the long hours because it’s your own cash on the line. If that’s not possible then sites like Kick-starter are a fantastic way of raising the funds necessary to get your idea off the ground.
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Coming from a creative background, I had a very clear vision for the brand and how I wanted it to be, for me to achieve that I knew I had to go it alone rather than working with a partner. At launch it was just me running the business with a freelance production agent. Branding and web design was sourced out to a digital agency. Today there are two of us in the Every Second Counts office daily but we continue to have a designer, production agent and PR working with us on a freelance basis when needed. It’s difficult to know when you need to take the leap and start growing the team. On the one hand you’re keen to not overstretch the budget but at the same time you don’t want to spread yourself too thin by taking on too much, as you will only end up doing 10 jobs at a mediocre level – you have to know when to step away and give control over to someone else for certain aspects of the business. I’m a bit of a workaholic so it’s a constant battle for me to realise when I need to let someone else takeover certain jobs hence why our team is so small. Every single day has its highs and its lows – we always joke that we should have a camera set up in the office so other people could see the moments of elation we have when, say for example, one of our garments is featured in the press and then consequently the stresses we have when one of our factories is running late on a delivery time. It’s a constant emotional rollercoaster but all part of the excitement of running your own business.
It’s difficult to compete against big companies like Net-A-Sporter, Lululemon and Sweaty Betty in that they are already very well established brands, already have mass market appeal with vast teams of people working for them. Getting people on your side, especially when you are launching in to territory you have no former presence in can be extremely tough. Doors will be closed in your face but you’ve just got to find a way to either get round those doors or to get them to open.
I think setting up on your own is about obtaining a good balance between following your instincts and reading the numbers. I followed my instinct on a lot of things especially in the beginning, from the name to the creative branding and imagery – I listened to other people’s opinions but in the end went with my gut feeling. That said, don’t just stubbornly stick to those instincts when the figures are telling you otherwise – don’t be too proud to realise when you need to make a change/step away from your instinct to progress the business. Sometimes in life, as well as business, you have to take risks. Sometimes those risks come off, sometimes they don’t. The important part in that whole process is the learning and evolution of yourself, your people and your brand. Risk is in essence pushing the boundaries, with it comes great success but also great failure and I think it is your ability to respond and react to either one of those outcomes that defines you as a business and ultimately as a person. I can sometimes be hesitant in decision-making, but, as my brand states, Every Second Counts, and if we want to be successful we all have to push the boundaries.
We all make mistakes, it’s only human. The most important thing is how you can learn from those mistakes and move on to do things more efficiently next time. I’ve made some marketing decisions in the past that haven’t played out the way I imagined they would but I took the risk and learnt how we should focus our marketing spend the next time around. It’s important to not dwell on decisions you made that didn’t turn out the way you wanted otherwise you’ll never move forward; always remember you have to take risks in business to succeed.