Part 13, how I affect my business. Okay, so now we’re in this recent year and I’m like, okay, I get it. I’m gonna be better than I was for. And it’s not that I ever think I’m bad. Like I just tell you yesterday and today and yesterday pricing, today is pricing.
You need to be better than you was. Yes. Day in order to continue to be better and better and better. And life is about expansion. You should have what you want, you should have everything you desire. And I’m always going after. That’s just who I am. That’s what I’m about now.
So I’m like, okay, I got this in place, I got that in place. Most of the girls I went through style, so I kind of know what they’re, what their, what the forecasting of style. So I kind of know what the looks gonna be more of the African inspired dresses. And I don’t know if that’s a rude thing to say because that’s like when you on Pinterest and stuff, they kind of say it like that. But what I mean when I say African inspired is just the corset, the fitted top dresses, you know, beat it gowns.
And now, and I know we call the African inspired because the laces are, you know, African inspired as well. And I just think it’s just paint homage because I mean, maybe he knows dresses up baby, maybe looking good. They give us really a lot of momentum and excitement and inspiration for design. So I wasn’t trying to say it to be rude, I just wanted to give that as a disclaimer. Anyway, the courses style addresses, I knew it, that would be like a big deal.
And I had got the pricing and everything ready for it. And you know how I want do it. Okay, everything set up for my suitings. You know, I sourced different suppliers, the fabrics I got, the fabric stores that I work with here in Chicago, you know, they aren’t being. I’m one of the most spending designers in Chicago to all of these fabric stores.
Like literally that’s how many clients I have. And we got people I had to do big business and work with nice amount of people that, not just as many as me in a prime season, but that’s okay. Anyway, so I got them on high alert. They already know. They ask me, what do you think?
Is anything you gonna need? What are they asking you for? You know, all these things and they enjoying promises. And yeah, I still do weddings. I don’t not stop. I don’t stop my business because we are prom. We gotta do all this because I’m a designer. I’m not just no prom design, I design.
So yes, I do wedding, yes, a birthday, yes, a baby shower, you know, those things. And I haven’t done a lot of those more recently just because I do spend a lot of time with prime. Then I had expanded more on my weddings and I really didn’t like weddings. Okay. So now when this prime season and like I said, I started in June, last June, in September, October, get more people.
I was getting my wind clients, they all set up. I think I’ve had three weddings this prime season so far, like in the season and right after the seat. And I when I mean by three wears like three actual people who oh, with that I had to make the address or finished their dress during prime season. And then I had like 6 more people who had to get fitting during prime season. So like not an easy task, but we get it done, right? So work with the team, you know, now we get into like January, February.
Now, you know, during those time, that’s when people think it’s time to come from. So you have people who gonna say like, oh, what? Cuz I wanna be early. I’m cuz I don’t wanna be loud. I do stuff last minute and now and that always make me cringe.
I’ll be feeling like hate to hear people today cuz it’s like you’re not early. See, you’re early if you go to someone’s grandmother. You’re early if you go to someone’s aunt. You’re early if you go to your cousin and you’re free and somebody who just make dresses for two or three people, that may be okay.
You’re not early when you go to somebody who makes dresses for the mess, for the public, for hundreds of people at a time. You’re not really. So I smile and I don’t really say too much because, of course we have a cutoff time. And. In the past we used to go according to like tax schedule.
Cuz people, you know how bad, you know how they do, you know how we do sometimes. And I stop doing that though, because it’s like, okay, you’re gonna pay for your child’s stuff if you want to. We’re not gonna wait around for a certain time or season. Like, no, because I can’t base my time and things to be done by that time. So I stopped accepting clients.
I think January 21st. There was a few outliers. I’m not saying it wasn’t any outliers, but I would, I didn’t really take any like late people. So we kind of rectify our situation. We’re all having too many people or you know, you had lay people and then they won’t take stuff early.
So I didn’t have people who really just wanna, they stop early. You’re not like that. Everybody was typically okay with timing, typically okay with rescheduled. You have some people who don’t like to be rescheduled.
And okay, so now that brings me to this year. Wait, let’s let’s before we even go there. So you have some people don’t like to be rescheduled, but that wasn’t really a big deal. But yeah, preparation of the team, you know, people be working with. Okay.
So now I had to like create some different shipping accounts, FedEx, DHL, different things so that when I’m shipping or receiving, it’s easier and I’m getting my stuff quicker and I’m sending out quicker and the clients don’t get their stuff, you know, before they even, right. So I’ll set up. It is going beautifully. I’m talking about, oh, the courses I like. Well, good.
You know, I’m excited. It is like, yes, thank you. And there we go into March, April is, I’ll hear problems. I realize I got too much on my plate. I got too much. That’s why, that’s how I effed up my business. It’s too much Mina. I’m managing everyone.
I’m managing this shop. And when I say managing is Masha, you know, so paying the bills, making sure everything is done, making sure, you know, like all this stuff right, get tissue, get paper towel, you know, do we need this? Get it clean, garbage taken out. Managing the shop. I’m not saying I’m doing all these things.
I’m saying I’m managing whoever is doing these things that needs to be done. So, and then managing a schedule, and then I’m managing a business phone and the reschedules or whatever. Then I’m managing the consultation, I’m managing the feelings, and I’m managing the pickups, and I’m managing the designs, the creation, the most important part.
So I got too much stuff going on, too much on my plate. So what happens? We got errors first. We get changes. Let’s go with changes. First. We got people, this scene I’m talking about change a whole fabrics like, and it’s also me too.
Cuz I could look at something like, I don’t like that, you know? And I, I is just don’t sit well and I gotta change it. Like I am that person. So there are times where I set myself back cuz I didn’t like something. Okay.
Then there are times where clients was set me back because if I make a suggestion like, oh yeah, or I’ve seen this picture, I’m talking about changing entire dress fabrics or like I said, changing the linings inside the fabrics there now. So if you gotta start over and again, that’s increasing the labor, increasing the time and the land. So now when a person has a light on a plate, what that means, you open a room for error. So now we have a situation like I have a guy who get in the suit, he started out suit like a embroidery Paisley of white lapels, charlopairs, round green velvet pants, strip down the side. And I think they wanted some type of picture in an inside for the mind come in full opinion.
I forgot his mom had a text me. And that’s the thing they didn’t do it during the consultation. I told them don’t don’t start change. Can’t change stuff through text. Don’t give me confused like that. She changed some two tags and yeah, what she changed the entire color. He came and tried on green and now he won’t bargaining.
So you tell me you want a whole new soup. Then we have. I’m continue par 14 cuz this about the run out. But yeah, just stay tuned.