Delays, sponsorship and Birdsnest items ready to buy
By
Teresa Wojcik
Published on
August 20, 2024
Hi there!
This week I have been researching and preparing for pitches. I have one at the end of the Griffin Accelerator on 27th November, and another at the Canberra Innovation Showcase on 6th December. I learnt a lot about marketing thanks to Colin Anstie of RD Consulting and have been dealing with delays. I have also been offered a stall at the Innovation Showcase and have some printing sponsorship from Instant Colour Press for the event!
Unfortunately, the website release has been pushed to November 20th. I was hoping it would be ready this week, but as is the way with start-ups, there have been quite a few pivots over the last few months;
• Originally, I was planning to have 5 affiliates signed up by the time we launched the MVP. This was before I learnt that most businesses don't let you sign up without vetting you (only Amazon does!). So, I had to prove that I had a service that worked, without having anything to show it with - catch 22,
• The developers needed to have the information so that they could build the backend API to integrate the items, but this was impossible without having any agreements,
• This is when I decided to create a proof-of-concept website using Amazon items, to show other affiliates that the process worked. This was a very time-consuming job. It took me at least 2 months - especially considering I had no API; no automatic processes and I am NOT a website developer,
• It worked! We got two affiliates almost immediately - Birdsnest and Petal + Pup! But now it was a bit close to do all the work. We started working on the MVP in May, and it was now already September. Code has to be written. Backend has to be completed. Text has to be added. Testing has to be done…
I am disappointed that we won't be able to launch the website this week, but at the end of the day, I am working with real people who have other day jobs and are working on something that has changed a bit since we first started talking about it. I am so grateful that they are as dedicated as I am to making this website a high-quality platform.
Due to the three-week delay, I have done a small pivot and decided to add some more items to the original website, which I wasn’t going to do.
My goal is to sell 30 items by the end of November. I was hoping I would have the complete Birdsnest and Petal + Pup catalogues available for most of November to help me achieve this. Not happening! But rather than have 3 dead weeks, I asked around my female friends and colleagues if they could give me a handful of items each they would genuinely be interested in buying. This was very enthusiastically received, and I have started uploading some items. I am very optimistic about this action boosting sales!
The scale of your patterns/prints should be relative to you. If you are tall, plus size, or have wide-set features, you should wear larger patterns or prints and jewellery. If you are petite or have small features (e.g., small eyes, thin lips), you should wear smaller patterns and accessories. It creates a very organic overall effect. The viewer sees your clothing as an extension of yourself, rather than a separate feature, or distraction. Try some different scaled prints/patterns next time you are out shopping and experiment!
If you can think of anyone who would be interested in joining me on this journey, please invite them to subscribe to the newsletter here.
Talk soon!
