Rhoda Wilson meets Abenaa Pokuaa, founder of the new and growing fashion brand Ohema Ohene
Ohema Ohene is a new British Boutique fashion brand based in London. The name means “Queen and King” in Twi, a Ghanaian dialect; expressing Abenaa’s pride in her Ghanaian heritage and her love for all things royal and fabulous. After successfully completing a degree in “fashion design technology” at the London College of Fashion, Abenaa was pursue a successful career in the fashion industry. Upon returning from the Far East where she worked as a designer for a fashion house she then took a short trip to Ghana. When she returned from that she she was able to finalise the concept of her brand. Ohema Ohene produces beautiful, high quality garments which reflect the multicultural population of London. The rich batik prints are sourced directly from Ghana and consist the authentic traditional motifs which represent Ghana’s culture.
This brand has been running since November 2008 and is truly a green shot born out of the recession. Abenaa saw that there was a gap in the market and decided to take the plunge and start up the Ohema Ohene label. Despite its difficulties, not having a steady source of income or financial backing, she has worked any and every job to help pay for collections, shows, operational costs and mini runs of production. The brand has been run on a shoe string but has still managed to strive forward to success.
The company is still very young and new to the market, but it has made some great achievements. Most recently shortlisted for the 02X Young entrepreneur of the year awards, featured in Pride magazine, The Metro, Black Hair Magazine and various other magazines and news papers.
Don’t miss the Rhoda Wilson Show this Friday 4th December, Sky Channel 184 – BEN TV at 10pm
Ronke Lawal was born in Hackney, East London of Nigerian parentage. Having graduated with honours from Lancaster University with a degree in International Business she started her own business in 2004. At 27 years old, she is a passionate business woman running RSL Management Services, a successful PR & business development company. Apart from business her passions including food, travel, music, literature and most importantly living a life she loves.
Business Loans Can Put Money in Your Pocket For Years to Come
Business finance is frequently a most important issue if you are thinking of starting a new business, expanding an existing business, or maybe purely the continuation of your particular level of commerce. Business loans are occasionally looked at as a destructive course of action by the business holder; however, if used right they could literally become a support of the business and it’s repeated progress along with success.
As a business owner you could engage in a many original thoughts along with strategies even so without the apt business financing, it is possible that even the finest laid plans can, and most likely will, go awry. If any business holder needs to deal with the notion of whether they will have adequate means obtainable to execute every part of the crucial actions appropriately run their business on a daily basis, it will simply initiate dysfunctional in the future.
It is imperative that the business owner have access to enough funds to relax and create the systems and operations necessary for becoming a growing, budding entrepreneur. Quite often, it is the business loan that provides the peace of mind for the entrepreneur that allows one to continue to focus on the necessary components of profitable business activities.
When researching the business loan, the business owner will discover that there are a number of interesting possibilities. Some loans require a great deal of work on the part of the business owner, and quite frankly, his or her time might very well be better spent elsewhere. Nonetheless, business finance is an integral part of the successful business operation and cannot be ignored by the aspiring entrepreneur.
An array of finance for business loans involves the secured business loan or an unsecured business loan. A secured business loan involves the business is able and willing to offer collateral against such loan amount. This collateral could be in the way of property, buildings, and/or machinery. Putting forward collateral certainly assists a borrower to gain favor in the eyes of the loaning organization. Therefore most result in certain advantages in favor of a business holder. The rewards could be in the way of time-span of the duration of your finance, interest rates, penalties along with postponement needs, and a range of extra terms and conditions. Bear in mind, if insist on a greater loan period the repayments will be of lesser amount thus there are some advantages from this.
On the other hand, an unsecured loan does have some advantages for the recipient of the loan. Some of these rewards possibly might involve a smaller amount of paperwork, faster assessments from a finance organization, plus aid for the business owner that is unable to present a guarantee of some sort. Commonly, though, a settlement length for this sort of business loans is quicker furthermore fairly regularly, interest rates might be higher.
Prior to applying intended for a business loan of some type, an entrepreneur has to be equipped and structured. This requires getting together every one of commerce finance paperwork such as tax returns, balance statements, profit and loss statements, and a few additional things that possibly will be called for by the lending organization. The more ready you can be, the better your impression to the loaning organization. Loaning agencies enjoy thinking the businesses they loan funds to are sensible and reasonable. An ability to submit the lending agency with the items that they need in a timely fashion along with a prepared manner will most definitely help enhance the view to a loaning agency.
So, the borrower should remember that business loans are meant to earn you cash, instead of cost the business cash. This means that all the money you lend has used wisely with the purpose that each bit is spent to enlarge your income exponentially. Thus, a decent record-keeping method as well as frequent assessments of the business outflow along with takings is critical in ensuring that the loan is being used appropriately within several areas business.
At old motto that states it takes money to make money is really isn’t so far-fetched and also really does apply to business loans also. As well as, a thinking process of spending someone funds to generate your personal money will too be very beneficial to the business owner.
Lending agencies are usually eager to produce business loans to businesses. That can demonstrate themselves to be responsible along with being a good gamble. That can be completed through being armed with an attractive business proposal in position along with ordered, efficient business finance credentials available for examination of your lending agency(s). In the case your business is prepared to provide the lending organization with all the necessary paperwork, furthermore if you have thought out the effect that such additional money can have on the previous earnings, subsequently you’re more than likely; your business will be a great contender for a business loan.
Thus, business loans can really put funds in your pocket – a lot extra if it is used in a manner which stimulates the drive in the business in addition to raising returns. Therefore, every business holder that desires to progressively envisage progress along with progression within their particular company must not dawdle in moving forward in gaining business finance.
Author: Richard Sam Johnson
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Guest blogger
A Closer Look at Juicy Couture
photo credit: Tammy Manet
When fashion conscious avid shoppers Pam and Gela wanted to offer the world what they loved to wear, the result was a style line called Juicy Couture. Both girls were right when they acted on their fashion suspicion: that other women would love to wear what they liked.
Their aim was to come up with a product line that offered comfort and style, and never compromised either. As trend-setter since its inception, it has even offered jeans and shirts as fashionable clothes for pregnant women.
As time went on, and with business doing well, the focus of Juicy Couture narrowed down on women’s clothing. Later on, the focus went to offering women a line of sports clothing that still blended comport and posh. Read more
How to Start A Boutique – Running A Boutique Advice
photo credit: Art Comments
Running a boutique successfully is all about getting customers and keeping them loyal to your boutique. The following tips will help you do just that.
• Sell quality products: The products you sell should be cost effective. People should feel that the clothes you sell are worth their money.
• Sell at fair price: The price of your products should have an edge over your competitors.
• Offer Excellent Customer Service: This is very important than it appears. Customers prefer friendly shops. Select and train your staff in their business so that they increase customer satisfaction.
An effective marketing campaign is absolutely essential for successful running of a boutique. Plan your advertising to suit the requirements of the target market that your boutique caters to. Marketing means incurred expenses. Make sure they are cost effective.
Professional account maintenance would help you see the financial aspects concerning boutique running more clearly. You can know the ways money go. Read more
How to Open a Boutique? What You Need to Know to Own a Clothing Store
photo credit: DiscoverDuPage
How to open a boutique is the same as asking how to start a business. Basically they are the same thing with the exception that a business is not necessarily a boutique or a shop. It could basically be anything. However, it will deal with service based industry though.
So, what exactly is a boutique? It is the French word for shop. So, this is basically a shop. But, what type of shop is this? Well, this will depend upon you as the owner. There are many different types of shops that will need to be considered. However, when the specific word boutique is considered, this generally refers to distinct and specific items. These are usually considered to be woman based items such as clothing or jewelry. But, they are not limited to these things, so keep this in mind also. It could be anything from homemade crafts to specialty toys too. Therefore, the choice is entirely up to you, after all, you are the potential owner.
Now, on with the specific details on creating a business. Lets start with looking in the mirror. Read more
Best Paying Careers For Women – In Fashion
Having spent the last 9 years in seemingly the most glamorous and desirable industry to women, fashion I am often asked about the careers and opportunities for women in fashion and more often what are the best paying careers for women in fashion today?
The beauty about the fashion industry is that it caters for the creative and the business savvy as well as encompassing the back end blood sweat and tears in producing apparel for the Australian and global markets.
Let’s look at the best paying careers for women in fashion…
For the business savvy roles for example Brand Manager, Product Manager or Retail Buyer you need a qualification in business, commence, economics or marketing. Candidate perception is often misunderstood with these roles and in the past 4 years they have become the glamour roles of the industry. The misconception largely surrounds the intense business acumen required to be a success. You need to be numbers savvy, have strong skills in product forecasting, budgets, calculation of EBIT (earnings before interest and tax) and have strong analytical skills and margin and profit focus. All too often candidates see for 15% fascination with the product side of these roles and fail to see that 85% of the job is spent behind an excel spreadsheet.
Salaries in Australia for Brand Manager, Product Manager and Retail buyer vary greatly and are very dependent on the size of the company. With this said, some of the larger brands are the poorer payers. Brand Manager, Product Manager and Retail Buyers earn above national average to executive salaries at the top end. Longevity plays a big role in securing top dollar so proving yourself is essential. Your success will be measured on year in and year out results and growth so 18 months here and there is not going to get you into the best paying careers for women in fashion. You need to have some creative edge in these roles, so a sense of style and fashion is essential as much of the creative team is likely to report to you. These roles will see you provide product direction, range planning and product lifecycle analysis as a response to market forces and trends as well as the financial management aspects..
The creative roles in fashion are probably the most deceptive. Design is hard work and again longevity is going to go along way to allowing you to achieve your financial salary goals. My best advice when negotiating a role in design is to negotiate your increases when you commence. One of the biggest problems in increasing salaries once you start working is the lack of a remuneration plan at commencement.
To be a fashion designer you will need to have studied fashion design at any one of the various International Design schools. Getting accolades will also help. Make sure your design projects reflect commercial fashion and if they don’t leave them out of your portfolio. It is very off putting to an employer of a fashion designer to see arty unwearable fashion in the recruitment process.
As a fashion designer you will not only be responsible for the design of the ranges within the product budgets and brand values but you will be responsible for the outcome, market acceptance or rejection! It is very rare for a design graduate to score a top job as a fashion designer but occasionally it does happen. Your career path is however more likely to commence behind the scenes as a designers assistant. You will sketch, source fabrics, trims and accessories, cut samples, prepare range books and coordinate the design timeline with the pattern makers and sample machinists. Not too much creative here but at least you will be close to the action.
Prove yourself and you will be introduced to designing your own portion of a range with a bit of luck (and blood sweat and tears). As a designer assistant (graduate) in fashion expect to earn average national salaries. You will be competing with a big group of graduates all chasing the dream so embrace anything on offer and be realistic about the brand opportunities offered to you. It is no time to be a brand snob when you have just graduated from design school. If you decide to be brand specific be prepared to wait tables as it may be required for a while until the right break comes you way.
As a Range Designer of a visible and market identified brand expect to earn anywhere from average to executive salaries at the end. When so much hinges on the talents of a designer you would expect higher paying salaries, however, simple supply and demand principles unfortunately come into play. The best news is that when longevity kicks in (if you haven’t started your own label) the role of Design Director comes with a hefty pay packet. As Design Director of a fashion brand expect to earn serious executive dollars. Achieve this in fashion design and you have made it!
Let’s look at the engine room; Production Management, Operations and Supply Chain. These roles are the most critical to a fashion operation. Apparel may not be a perishable commodity but if it is late into store it may as well be. With the changes in supply chain and imports the production of apparel in the last 10 years has changed the nature of these roles significantly. In fashion production, operations and supply chain you can expect to frequently travel to operations particularly in the east and work in some quite deceptive conditions. Let me qualify this by saying that your negotiation skills need to be razor sharp and your ability to identify the right sources is essential.
In terms of qualifications you need a fashion production qualification, business or logistics supply chain management qualification or similar. Garment construction knowledge is essential. You will work hands on and be required to make the call on garment construction issues so it is imperative that you know the lingo. At the low end Production Managers in fashion earn just above national salaries with Operations and Supply Chain Managers earning exceptional executive dollars.
Whilst I have purposely focused on the highest paying roles for women within the fashion industry the obvious roles of General Manager, CEO and Company Director form the highest paying roles in the sector. It is difficult to focus on these roles when the opportunities are quite few are far between. Some outstanding women have achieved these roles in fashion with Sue Morphet of Pacific Brands crashing through the glass ceiling some years ago and moving up the scale with full force. Sue is of particular inspiration having conquered such an exceptional role within an established and traditional brand. There are other women like Sue earning exceptional salaries within the fashion sector, but the roles are few and far between. Salaries at this top end can reach beyond half a million dollars including bonuses and share options.
Natasha Zurnamer is a co Director of Rat Race Recruitment Online, the global hub of fashion jobs featuring 150 fashion job categories and new fashion jobs listed daily. To search or advertise jobs in fashion visit www.ragtradejobs.com
Publicity And Press Releases – What Every Small Business Owner Needs To Know
I was recently lucky enough to be part of a brainstorming session conducted by a professional and very successful Public Relations Expert. I want to share some of the information that came out of that session – tips used by the experts themselves to get their clients’ media releases read, and published.
Spread the News
Make your press release say something. No one wants to read boring articles, so make sure your media release is actually newsworthy. Simply stating that your business is open, won’t cut it. (Unless of course the place that publishes it have no readership and nothing else to report on!) Have an event such as a grand opening. Many companies have a grand opening or a special day where they use a gimmick of some sort and invite the media to come along. Some places invite radio stations to broadcast from their place of business for a certain amount of time.
You can also sponsor a sporting event, partner with a charity or tie your media release into a particular event at the time. For example, as I write this, interest rates are about to be cut for the first time in 7 years. If you can use this to your advantage in your business, then send out a media release. Chances are, it will be picked up pretty quickly! If you have a fashion business for example, run a media release close to the Melbourne Cup talking about this year’s fashion.
Send it on up
Most media releases are sent by email these days. Be sure however, not to send your media release as an attachment. Many a reporter has been stung by a virus this way and no will not open anything with an attachment. Ensure your press release goes to the appropriate journalist as a full email.
Contact me please!
Believe it or not, many people forget to put their contact details on a press release! Ensure you have full contact details either at the top of the release or at the bottom. This includes any addresses and full contact numbers – not just a mobile phone number.
Try to keep your press release to one page and ensure that no blatant advertising is included. Follow up with each journalist that received your media release until you receive an answer from them.
Using publicity as part of your marketing strategy and your marketing mix can bring in plenty of free business – so ensure you get the basics right the first time!
Running Diva Promotions for nearly 2 years now, Emma helps women in business to learn the necessary marketing skills so they can promote their business themselves. A great way to start learning is to download my free report on list building – http://www.divapromotions.com.au
How To Be Really Successful In Your Home Business
The traditional method of growing most work from home business and network marketing is by spending hours on the phone calling prospects, convincing and converting them into customers. Out of these leads that you generate, you can recruit representatives to further increase your profits from your home business.
Keeping customers satisfied, gaining their trust and building a strong relationship with them are just some of the things to remember with your home business and network marketing. This is all part of Customer Relationship Management (CRM).
You have a few options – you can either purchase or generate your own leads – but once you have enough leads, then you have to know what to do with it. There is such a thing as a ‘bad lead’ where you will get prospects’ objections and rejections.
However, there is a disadvantage in getting the services of a lead generation company since some of them might sell re-used leads – which you will not get to discover until it is way too late. So, please conduct your due diligence first.
Also, in your home business, it is important to learn how you can get your prospects to always say yes, instead of hearing a bunch of no’s from prospects. In addition, you need to make sure that your advertising money is worth it. Thus, you should measure and evaluate the Return on Investments (ROI) on the various advertising methods that you are using.
With Internet marketing, you have to be innovative and find ways to develop a well-thought out promotional campaign. Try to incorporate automation, for example, use of autoresponders in your business sales funnel & your leads generation methods. However, you cannot predict the results. You may have an extremely profitable and successful promotional campaign one time and then completely fail the next time. The important thing is for you to evaluate what went right and what went wrong. Do a post-mortem on your advertising methods. Reinvest in those methods that worked well.
With the popularity of blogging, you can use this in expanding your business and generating leads. For example, if you are an entrepreneur who has a small fashion business, you can have a blog where users interested in fashion clothes can post their comments.
Being a home-based business entrepreneur, you need to market and promote your business. You can easily do this and generate a lot of lead by having the visitors on your blog post comments and address their questions and feedbacks to you, personally. This would not just add on to your lead but also give you a feedback of what most of your prospective customers want or need.
To further automate your home business, you may want to consider the use of autoresponders, which allows you to send out pre-written messages to your prospects on a preset interval time. Imagine “freeing’ yourself from the ardeous tasks of manually tracking and writing emails to all your prospects in different times!
In a nutshell, in order to be successful in your home business &/or network marketing, you need to evaluate and find a business platform which gives you the highest level of automation available, to achieve your online success.
David is an expert internet marketer and writes on various topics of work from home business & home-based business. To get your tips & secrets for work from home business, visit : http://www.workfromhomessecret.com
When I Couldn’t Find Tall Trousers To Fit Me, I Set Up My Own Fashion Business
There’s been one question that’s lived with me for years. Why aren’t there more trousers for tall, slim men available? Finding trousers I’ve both liked and actually fit me has been a struggle since my teens.
The answer, of course is that tall men are a small market – and tall and thin is even smaller than the well-known association between ‘big’ and ‘tall’. Mainstream high street retailers just aren’t interested in us. Their overheads are high, and they believe there just isn’t enough volume in the market for them.
Where you do find clothes that fit in retail outlets, how many times have you been faced with substantially higher prices than equivalent garments for more averagely proportioned shoppers?
Things are even tougher in the UK and Europe than the US because some global fashion brands manufacture trousers for tall thin men, but don’t make them available on this side of the Atlantic.
A while back, I saw all these difficulties as an opportunity.
Setting up shop online
As the Internet has evolved and more and more people are happy to shop for clothing online, I no longer had to take on the same problems faced by the volume retailers. The higher costs associated with developing and manufacturing ranges for a relatively small marketplace can be offset against the lower costs of operating online.
Setting up my new brand, Alto Clothing, online is the only way I can offer my clothes to people. I’m selling direct, so the extra costs involved in short production runs can be offset against the savings made by eliminating the high street shop. The lower costs associated with the Internet make my business viable.
The opportunity offered by the Internet for Alto Clothing is the same as for many specialist businesses, in all kinds of markets – it lowers costs and increases the potential market size.
Sourcing tall man’s clothing
I have a great looking Web site designed by a central London agency, supported by some very effective Search Engine Optimization. By and large, I’m getting to grips with the online part of my business. But, even though Alto Clothing sells 100% online, the challenges are offline.
Finding suppliers equipped to make the sizes I need, and who have a long-term vision strong enough to set up production runs small enough for a start-up in a niche market, has been, shall we say, interesting.
“200? Don’t you mean 20,000?” became a depressing familiar response as I contacted prospective suppliers. I’ve had to balance the choice between using more expensive European-based suppliers, who are happier to provide smaller quantities with lower-priced far-eastern suppliers who demand larger orders.
And then there are my ethical principles to factor in. I’ve been checking, as much as is possible, that Alto is not choosing suppliers who employ child labour, use questionable Health & Safety standards and other dubious practices.
Luckily, I’ve been able to use my experience both as a consumer and in a previous men’s fashion business to find suppliers who can provide the specialised sizes my customers need.
Lessons for start-ups
Securing the kind of edgy or younger clothes for the vision I have for the Alto Clothing brand continues to be the biggest challenge as Alto grows in its critical first couple of years.
My advice for start-ups, now I’ve been through more than one? Look at all aspects of your business. Try to foresee as many pitfalls as you can, but accept that you can never anticipate them all. The real challenges are quite often in the most surprising places. You just have to tackle them with persistence and enthusiasm; there’s almost certainly a solution there somewhere!
Author: Justin Edison
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Import duty tariff
Wholesale Clothing: Discounts For Your Business
Ever thought of starting your own fashion business?
If you answered yes, try to buy wholesale clothing before starting your business. Buying Wholesale clothing branded or not branded, can give you great discounts and resell them with high profit margins. Buying wholesale clothing can give you many benefits as a businessman.
Businessmen who buy wholesale clothing and resell them at a bargain price can accumulate huge profits from their customers. This is because they can get their products at a very cheap price. They can get their products with discounts for as high as 70%.
With today’s economy, many people opt for cheap clothing to save money for other important purposes. You can take advantage of the poor economy by selling cheap clothing. You can put up a one dollar store where all items of clothing can be sold for a dollar. This store can really give you high profits if you do it right.
This strategy is only the first. You can also sell your wholesale clothing products on the internet. You can register at an auction website where you can display your products and wait for people to bid. Just imagine, starting your clothing bid for one dollar can go as high as ten dollars. Remember, this is just for one item.
Try selling on a flea market. This is where most people buy cheap clothes. Sell your products at a cheap price. Many people like it cheap and fashionable. Besides, who wouldn’t want to get great quality and fashionable clothing at a cheap price?
To be successful in the clothing business, you should first search for wholesale clothing dealers that offer great discounts for their products. If you found one, you should first take a look at their products to ensure the quality. Also, make sure that the clothes designs are what people are looking for. A great way to do this is to base your search on what you see in the streets. Determine what clothes designs people likely wear. It is also a great way to look for designs that famous personalities wear. Remember that actors or actresses are trendsetters; many people would really want to copy how their favorite actor or actresses dresses.
Remember, people are choosy on what they wear, and some people cannot afford to buy expensive branded clothes, so their next option is to buy cheap clothes that resemble what the branded clothes looks like. The designs of what you sell can determine your business’s success.
It is up to you to determine what type of clothing you should buy from wholesalers. You can either buy men’s clothing, women’s clothing, kid’s clothing or all of it for you to resell them at a much cheaper price.
However, there are many other businessmen in this business. Chances are, you have many competitors in this business that have the same idea as you. The best way to compete with them is to sell cheaper clothes. Find a wholesaler that sells clothes cheaper but has great quality and has designs that people want to buy.
Another strategy to compete with other clothing businesses is to have a promo of “buy one, get one free”. With wholesale clothing, this is possible. You can afford to give away one clothing for every purchase because of the cheap price of acquiring your products. Be sure that you have the numbers right before making this offer.
Make sure that you do not run out of products, it is important that the wholesaler is near your area where you sell your products.
Buying wholesale clothes is a great way to start your very own business.
Tony Brings is the editor of 101 Wholesale Suppliers. All you need to know when starting a wholesale business.
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