8 Lessons I Learnt From My Clothing Business
In 2017, I started a clothing business from my bedroom when my maternity pay from my old teaching job was about to end. My goal with it was to earn an income that rivaled my teaching salary, but one that would allow me to stay at home with my then 9-month-old daughter.
Ultimately, the business lasted 2 years before I crashed and burnt out, decided I no longer enjoyed doing it and my ticket out was discovering my food blog, Fatima Cooks, could make WAY more money with WAY less effort. It was a no-brainer to quit when I did. I talk about my journey here.
My business experience was INVALUABLE for me though - I learnt so many skills and concepts in a real-world, real-life setting that have continued to guide me till today, even though I no longer sell physical products.
Here are 8 lessons I learnt from my small clothing business which still help me to this day, in a very different sector of the online world!
1. Social proof is POWERFUL
Social proof is evidence that your product, services or work is satisfying customers and fulfilling its purpose. It can be in the form of customer reviews, customer photos, testimonials - any kind of proof from your customer showing they're happy.
It's something I shied away from during my trade. It felt icky sharing customer photos and reviews without first asking their permission, and I felt awkward asking for their permission because it made me feel inauthentic, like I wanted to profit off what they had personally shared with me. Most customers were absolutely fine with me sharing their reviews and pictures, but it was just my own mindset that was holding me back, so I pretty much omitted it from my marketing strategy.
It's only in recent times I've really discovered how valuable social proof is and the lengths to which business owners will go to get it (even PAYING customers to share feedback!). And there I was, getting social proof on a near-daily basis and not sharing it 😅
There are ways to share social proof without giving off icky vibes to your customers including: asking permission before sharing, keeping feedback anonymous if they request so and not spamming your social media with constant feedback. Social proof is worth pursuing, posting and holding on to!
2. Word of mouth is also a POTENT form of advertising
I didn't spend a £ on advertising, influencer marketing or shout out for shout outs on social media (do people still do those? Lol) but a large number of my customers were people who told me they'd been recommended to shop with me by a friend or family member.
People need to establish trust before they spend their money on a product. And being told by their sister/best friend/fave fashion blogger that they purchased something from your business and LOVED it is a huge trust-builder!
I love transferring this tip to my current blogs - ensuring your content is top-notch, helpful and brings true value will increase the likelihood that you'll be recommended to others by your readers.
3. You don't need a lot of social media followers to build a thriving business
Let me draw your attention to this influencer who made it to the news for all the wrong reasons.
Having ALL those followers did NOTHING for her.
It's not about having a vanity number on your social media pages. It's about connecting with your audience, marketing in a smart way and having a product that they LOVE and are satisfied with once they make a purchase. You can do that and hit your revenue goals whether you have 100, 1k or 100k followers.
Of course, if you're doing all the right things and attracting the RIGHT audience and your following increases, that's only a good thing and WILL increase your sales - but just the number on it's own won't do magic. It's the connection you build with them.
If you're dealing with money, do NOT skimp on your website host
In fact, don't skimp on your website host, PERIOD. I made this mistake and it cost me so much time, effort and probably a lot of sales too from customers who were put off my website.
Here's a short list of problems I was riddled with, thanks entirely to a very popular but shoddy and ill-reputed website host, Bluehost:
- No security certificate despite it being included in my plan. Most hosting providers have this for free as standard, but Bluehost did nothing to install it for me and I was unable to do it myself. When customers would open my website, some would be met with a message saying 'this website is insecure'. I know that would be a red flag for me as a customer!
- Frequent, unexplained bouts of my website crashing and down-time
- SLOWWWW load time, which continued even after I upgraded to a more expensive plan that should have solved this problem 😫
- Problems with the payment gateway. A nightmare
After listing those problems I'm surprised my business even got sales because those would all be red flags for me as a customer 🙃
All of those problems could have been avoided if I had simply switched to a different host - but I was none the wiser and thought switching would mean I'd have to rebuild my website again (not true), it would be too expensive (not true, and even if it was, some things are worth the investment) and that if I just upgraded again and again to a better plan, my problems would be fixed (again, not true).
I really recommend Lyrical Host for building your self-hosted WordPress website. I currently sell digital products on my blogs and I have never experienced any problems such as the ones I experienced with Bluehost. You can use the code 'fnasim' for 10% off your plan (aff link).
WooCommerce on WordPress is a GREAT platform for selling
I sold briefly on Shopify and another e-commerce platform (I've forgotten the name, doh) before making the switch to a self-hosted WordPress blog which I had plenty of experience working on from my food blog.
Selling on WooCommerce was so easy to learn, quick to set up and WooCommerce itself takes no transaction fees, unlike Shopify. There are also no limits on how many products you can list and you even have the capability to sell digital products. And one of the best things is it's FREE as long as you have a self-hosted WordPress blog!
Ultimately, I've turned to WooCommerce again for my current digital products with ease and comfort thanks to my experience with it from my clothing business era.
Selling products is a huge responsibility
As a seller, you have a huge duty towards your customer in ensuring they have a good experience before, during and after the sale.
It's your responsibility to rectify any problems, deal with any concerns and have a solid return policy that you uphold. It's unlike providing free content on a blog - if someone doesn't like your post, you're not under any obligation to rectify anything.
It's a huge responsibility, and it can become draining personally ensuring your customers have a great experience, which brings me to my next point...
Ultimately, I learned I don't want to sell physical products
Drawing in on that last point - the e-commerce life just wasn't for me. When I shut it down eventually when I realised just how much potential my food blog had (I talk about it here), I had not a shadow of regret and I have none to this day.
The inventory management, the postage and packaging duties, the solo management of the website, dealing with customers, having to take my own product photos... it was A LOT. And aside from the very jolly and friendly customers I loved speaking to, I didn't enjoy any aspect of it.
This does however bring me to my next lesson...
In order to get to the next level of your business, you need to know when to begin outsourcing (scaling)
I think this is where I ultimately went wrong. When my business starting drawing in a decent amount of money and I was beginning to have to trade in more hours of my time to run it, I should have begun outsourcing some of my tasks.
I should have bought back time I was spending doing menial tasks such as dealing with the stock that had taken over our 2nd bedroom, posting parcels and taking product photos and spent the time I was saving on tasks that were really moving the needle, like driving more customers to my website. Or, to be honest, if I had spent some of that time actually resting and recovering from the burnout I was suffering from that would have ultimately benefited the business too - it may still have existed today 😅
The reason I didn't scale when I should have was quite frankly, I was scared of investing money to pay for a 'service' I knew I could do myself. It was scarcity mindset in the raw. I didn't want to 'waste' by money paying for something I was currently doing, without thinking about the long-term goal which for all business owners is to grow the business and make more sales. One person can only do so much without crashing and burning.
My now redundant clothing business was quite a while ago, but I still look back at it as a time when I learned so many valuable lessons about the online and e-commerce world, particularly about marketing and online selling. So many of those lessons now guide me as a blogger - I may not sell physical products anymore but those lessons were nonetheless transferable in so many different ways.
I hope you enjoyed reading this post. Do you currently own a business selling products, or do you aspire to? If you've run one in the past, what's one lesson you learnt from it? I'd love to hear in the comments!
With love, Fatima x
