Folksy

Sunday 4 December 2011

Why did you decide to start a business???

Why did you decide to start a business???

This question was recently posed to me, and it forced me to stop and think. Sometimes I get so lost in day to day life that I forget the purpose behind why I am doing something, I think we can all be a little guilty of this, we can get so absorbed with the goal or destination we often forget to enjoy the journey and the process. Answering this question helped me refocus in a more positive direction.

So why did I decide to start my own business? This was my answer “Taking the plunge into starting my own business was highly motivated by self growth, after loosing my father and struggling with low self confidence from suffering with severe dyslexia I really wanted to prove to myself it doesn't matter who you are or what difficulties you have, every person is capable of achieving their dreams. After moving back to Cornwall on obtaining my degree in Theatrical Costume and Make-up, I really struggled to find work related to my passions, so I decided I would create my own job and start my own business, I didn't know how I would do this but I am a great believer in doing what you love and the means to do it will follow. With help and support of The Prince's Trust I was given a grant of £200 and I have steadily grown my business from there”.

If you yourself ever find yourself getting a little lost or complacent with where you are, perhaps asking yourself why may help you refocus your attention. Ask yourself why you started your business? Why did you choose the particular industry? (eg. Wedding, jewellery, fashion etc…) what do you love about working in your specific industry? Why did you choose to start in your particular location?

I would love to hear other people’s reasons and motivations, you never know by answering a few simple question you may draw new inspiration and a fresh perspective.  

Saturday 12 November 2011

Pinterest a New Way to Gather Inspiration


I love to find free ways to promote my young business; I spend quite a bit of time researching and investigating ways to do this. I am not yet at a stage where I can invest lots of money into advertising myself, so I look for as many free ways to become viral online and get myself known. During my daily search I stumbled upon Pinterest and now, I am addicted. I originally signed up to pinterest as I thought it would be another good way to get some exposure to my business, but what I found was it’s a fantastic way for me to collect inspiration in an eco-friendly way.

As a designer I love to create mood boards of inspiration to help my creativity flow, this can actually be quite expensive in ink and paper etc. But with pinterest I can collect images and make my own virtual boards, it’s fantastic. I can then blog and share my inspiration, it’s great and I love it. I’ve only made a few boards so far and I can’t wait to keep creating!!

For any designers and Artists out there who haven’t discovered Pinterest I highly recommend it, but be warned once you start pinning it’s hard to stop.  

http://pinterest.com/jessicouture/ 

Wednesday 14 September 2011

Blogging, here I go!! Stop making excuses!!!

I have had a bit of a metal block to blogging because of my dyslexia. I know blogging is talked about as a great medium to help with business promotion, but I keep putting it off thinking "I have nothing interesting to say, or can't do it because I struggle with my dyslexia". I realised these were excuses, similar to the excuses I made before, on why not to start my own business, I managed to overcome those excuses so I have decided to overcome my blogging excuses too... so here I go

You will always find a reason not to do something, excuses are the biggest reason why so many talented people do not succeed in doing what they really want to do. Excuses even stop people achieving the littlest of goals in life which cause so much misery.

Excuses like: I haven't got the money, The economy is bad, She/he won't let me do that, people might laugh at me, I might loose my money, I'm too busy with other things, it's the wrong time of year.

There are far too many to list, but you get the point ...

Before I started my business I had my own excuses of, I will wait until I have enough money, I'm not quite ready, I'm afraid what people might think of me, others may not be happy that's what I've decided to do.

Amongst my misery and depression, one day I had an enlightening thought " The only reason not to start my business is me and my excuses"  I took a real look at myself and my miserable life and bulldozed my excuses.

I realised I would probably never have enough money to start my business so I decided I would let the money find me instead, when you really want to do something, I found that money just follows. I started my business with absolutely nothing, not a bean.

I realised I would never feel ready but that wasn't going to change until I made a start, I don't think you can ever feel ready, you're not born knowing how to do anything, you learn to do things by doing them and making  mistakes is apart of learning. When toddlers learn to walk they fall over a lot, but they don't fall down and say "I guess I'm not meant to be a walker" They get back up and keep trying until the master it.

I'm afraid of what people might think of me? well I was never going to find out what people would think of me and my work if I always kept it hidden. What was the worst thing that was going to happen? Really?

Other's may not be happy with me starting a business? well unfortunately this is true, I have been heavily criticised and put down by a few people who claim they care about me, but the reason why they say "I can't" and "I shouldn't" and frown upon me is that my actions of starting my own business challenges their excuses in their lives and why they aren't doing what they really want to do, some people find it much easier to criticise others than to change themselves. I realised that's their problem not mine, and it really didn't matter what I did I would never make those people happy anyway, so I might as well get on with what I want to do and let those empty judgements fall on deaf ears.

I am sure there will some people who totally disagree with what I just said, but for me, dropping my excuses has allowed me to be happy and free.

What's holding you back??  
 

Thursday 23 June 2011

Hints and Tips

Hints & Tips on Wearing Your Fascinator:

If you have a fascinator which has a comb you may want to follow some of these helpful guidelines which will ensure your fascinator sits firmly upon your head.

Using a comb back comb the section of hair that you wish to attach your fascinator too, back combing provides a thicker foundation of the hair which will help keep the comb in place.

Hair spray will hold the comb in place, if you spray the comb be careful not to spray the fascinator itself, use your hand as a guard.When placing the comb into the hair, push the comb in a slightly opposite direction first, then slide into place, this will trap more hairs between the comb bristles ensuring a firmer grip.

Finally you can place a few curbi-grips between the base of your fascinator and your hair, the best hair slides to use are matt not gloss, matt hair grips are much less slippery.

If you have a fascinator on a hair band or a pill box with elastic fastening, it should stay firmly upon your head without any extra support, However if you are concerned you can always use some hairspray or hair slides. 

Care Instructions

In order to keep your fascinator in the best condition for as long as possible please follow these simple instructions.

Keep your fascinator stored in the box provided; this will prevent it collecting dust and becoming damaged.

Store your fascinator at room temperature and keep out of direct sun light, this will prevent the colours from fading and the piece becoming brittle.  

Please do not allow your item to get wet or be placed anywhere around steam as the embellishments used are often delicate and it may cause damage to your item.