CONSCIOUS presentation + feedback
Last week’s presentation was pretty stressful, but I hope I didn’t let it on too much. It was really great to have some feedback from professionals in the industry who shared their thoughts and ideas. One of the key take-away was definitely to talk slower, which I admit is one of my biggest flaws, since I naturally speak very fast, and especially when I have a time limit and too much to say. I appreciated Martin’s advice, to ‘say less, and let them ask questions afterward’, which is something I definitely want to stick to in the future.
One of the other suggestions was to really up my proposed budget, from £15,000 to probably twice as much, but I still need to make further calculations. If I hire a younger team and have most of my marketing done through social media, and therefore very cheaply, I believe I can keep the cost lower.
Another point was to prolong my development timeline, at least a little bit. Originally I was thinking 6 months would be adequate but I will probably need closer to 9 months. I definitely agree that charity shops creating their own posting on the website would mean less time spent on the mapping, which would inevitably lower the budget cost as well.
Regarding boot strapping, I was really happy to see both sides of the argument play out, with some member of the panel saying to really nail down not only he idea but also get a solid plan and partners before investing my own money into it. Others talked about the positive effect a creator investing their own money into a brand has in general, as it makes the brand more trustworthy, to which I definitely agree with.
I talked about my plan for social media promotion already in my presentation, but due to time contains I could not explain all my intentions behind this. It was suggested that I go really ‘out there’ with my social media marketing, which I think is a way forward. In order to stand out I need to have a cohesive concept of the brand, which is linked to everything from brand colours, logo, message and aesthetic. I was already thinking about having social media embassadors to endorse my brand, for example Leena Norms, Withwendy or Bestdressed. More on this in my proposal.
Lastly, I think I need to establish what exactly is thrifting very early on in my proposal/presentation for the future as I know the concept can be both new and confusing to some. I would like to talk to Jamie Graves about my funding options, as I know that maybe crowdfunding and sponsorship are not idea for my sort of project.
Going forward, I want to funding, budget and social media strategy. Fingers crossed! Again, I would like to thank all panellist for listening to my pitch and hopefully I can make the changes suggested and create something quite unique and accessible from my idea.
