This simple famous quote by Benjamin Franklin is one of my favourite quotes of all time as it really does ring true! And this has been so evident to me since running the Training Academy. By now we’ve probably (and proudly) trained over 400 women (and a few men) and we see it time and time again, you can be the best, most creative, stylish, fashion forward, passionate stylist out there but if you haven’t got the right business skills you simply will not succeed in the Personal Styling industry because essentially what you are doing is running your own business! All the glamour, shopping, trends won’t mean a thing if you don’t have the clients or are panicking at the end of each month on how you are going to pay your bills.
So how will you get your clients? Who is your target audience? How will you Market your business? What’s your earning potential? All these questions and so many more is what we cover during our business planning session, where I personally sit with you and work out your point of difference vs. all the other stylists we have under Style ME umbrella and all the competition out there. I not only offer my expert advice on how to break into the industry, but see what opportunities you may have missed and often offer some realism in your expectations, for example so many of our stylists will initially say to me, “I want to style men, women of all ages and lifestyles” but if you’re a 20 something fashionista will you really be comfortable styling a 55 year old man? Call it tough love but it really works; spending the time to actually sit and plan you’re future is what actually creates it, trust me I know!
You’d think from my corporate background working in Commercial Planning I’d have been an expert in planning my business back in 2010 when I first had the idea to set up Style ME but all the corporate training didn’t help me at all! Of course I knew I needed a business plan but I just couldn’t get started, which is why I hired a “Business Angel’ to help motivate me and boy did she motivate me, she took over my diary and said every day for the next two weeks, I was to go straight home after work and work on my business plan which I commit to and every day I would send her my work, and every day she would cross most things out and scrutinize my plans!! At the time I was not impressed, especially as I had to part with £1000 for her daily abuse!… but in hindsight she really was my angel as everything we put on my final business plan, dated 21st July 2010 came true and I honestly believe, writing and analyzing it in so much detail it what made me commit to making my success happen.
So any one who attends our Intensive Training course or becomes a Style ME Member gets ‘me’ as their Business Angel to help get them started in this very competitive but rewarding industry. I may not dictate their social calendar but I am tough and I definitely don’t charge £1000 for my company!