Just take the help 🥷🏿
Today started off to be a pretty normal day. By all means we would expect it to be uneventful. My sister Susan was shipping some items back home I had to make sure everything was going well so I had to be there to help with hauling most of the heavy stuff. Sometimes I would literally have to get in her way to offer my help. She has trained herself to depend entirely on her abilities so much so that she would not take help until you persist. She does all this without complaining and does not even find the need to.
Rags to bags 💰
I started a clothing brand in the middle of the pandemic and it is going better than I planned. I have had great response from people a lot of people, but I have not yet exploded. If I do explode, I might quickly implode, so I think the brand is doing just fine. At the beginning, I was expecting all my close friends to show up and endorse in their numbers. I had a couple of reactions from the people I counted on to make this work.
The supporters🏟
The first group contains the people who think that it was too expensive. They challenged the idea of me slapping my name on a hoodie and charging £50 for it. They assured me that if I ever came back to my senses, their generous offer of £20 would still be waiting for me. They are such kind and patient people
The bougie 🤑
The second type of people were the ones who said, they didn’t find anything they liked in the collection, so they didn’t care enough to consider responding or acknowledging everything I have done to put together this work of art
The non conspicuous 🔻
The third group actually complained that the brand name was too big and they would consider purchasing a copy if I made it small enough for people not to know that it was my brand name even if they were standing 1m away from them. They told me sticking with the size of my brand name was a deal breaker.
Nothing to see here 👩🏿🦯
Then came the fourth group that actually acted like nothing happened. They just be quiet and rather not say anything about it. My thinking is , maybe if they ignore it long enough it would go away
The best friend type 👯
Saving the best for the last is a little cliche, but excuse me just this one time. The fifth group is actually the people who placed an order when I just had the Digital concept. Other who got mad that I would not make enough so they can share with their loved ones. Some others wanted one of each color for themselves and their partners. Then came the ones who want a copy of every single item I have produced and insist on being the first to know whenever it drops
You would need all members of this group to have some success. You will learn how to target the right audience, expand your collection if you need to,
- Take off your brand name and put that of your friend instead 👈🏿sarcasm.
- Learn a few magic tricks so you can make things vanish 👈🏿more sarcasm.
- Not focus on the undesirable response, or just keep building👈🏿 no🧢
- Take time to appreciate the people who turned up for you👈🏿gospel
I learnt a lot from my sister’s willingness to do what she has to do without asking for help. It better manages her expectations and preserves the value of her services. If you are on an entrepreneurial journey, don’t expect favors. Go pay for what you need, and if you cannot afford it at the time, you should consider something else, coming later, or work harder. Begging is a lot more expensive and exhausting.
Every time we complain about the people who are not supporting our craft, we take off the time we could have been appreciating the people who actually do. It feels disrespectful and ungrateful
Mboni Tales 