Imogen Madan graduated from the University of Birmingham in 2020 with a degree in Geography and is currently undertaking a Masters in Entrepreneurship at University College London.
Despite the pandemic in 2020, the business gained a lot of traction in its first full
year and through self-branding and promotion the business has increased its Instagram followers from 8K at the start of the year to 26K by February 2021.Imogen received an Ideas Fund award from the University of Birmingham to help develop the product portfolio early on and her passion for entrepreneurship continued after graduation accepting an offer to study a part time Masters at UCL while running her own business.
Imogen: Starting my own business has been an exciting,
but challenging, start to my 20’s. Life as an entrepreneur can be unpredictable
at times as you never know what’s around the corner, but it had also offered me
a lot of freedom in return.
As an entrepreneur (particularly if you are a
sole founder), managing your time and organising your daily tasks can be
overwhelming and at times, very stressful.
At the beginning of each week I
like to write down the tasks I need to complete, prioritise then (usually by
due date or importance) and cross them off as I complete them. Crossing off
tasks can be really satisfying, especially when you feel stressed!
If
there’s one piece of advice I could give to anyone starting a business; step
back if you feel too overwhelmed. I’ve learnt over time that stepping back for a
few hours really helps me realign my focus and I end up being far more
productive afterwards.
My second piece of advice is more specific to
fashion start-ups and would be to think about your channels of sales as you
grow. I started my business on Depop.
Don’t get me wrong, Depop is a great starting
place for fashion brands and offers direct access to a huge pool of customers –
but sometimes there are more preferable options. For me, selling a £200 dress
on Depop incurred a £20 fee itself (not including merchant fees and postage
costs) which diluted my gross margins substantially.
Moving onto my own website
helped me protect my margins in the long term. More recently, I’ve been
running several pop-up shops within Bristol and London, as well as having
permanent stock in Jacobs (Bristol). Pop-up shops are an excellent marketing
strategy to get in front of both existing and new customers – particularly if
you do them in desirable areas where you know your target customer will be. If
you decide to do a pop up, make it an experience – people LOVE
experiences.
At a pop up on Oxford Street, I hired a DJ, a drinks sponsor
(shout out to Double Dutch), nail technician, tooth gem artist and videographer
which spiked the curiosity of people walking past the shop and drew them in to
browse. That day, thousands of people came into the shop, I acquired over 1000
new followers and sales went through the roof. Experiences don’t have to be
extravagant though – you just need to give people a reason to come into your
shop rather than the one next door.
To shop at IM Designs: www.imdesigns.co.uk
To follow: @im__designs
To contact: queriesimdesigns@gmail.com
By Bob Lee
