Tips for growing my Vintage Business

From next week, I will have all the free time on my hands as I graduate from university. I've already been looking around for some jobs to keep me occupied in the meantime while I gather capital for Mish Mash Vintage, but nothing is jumping out at me and my passion and focus still lies with my business.

I still had a book voucher, friends from work bought me as a birthday gift so decided to look around my uni book shop and this jumped out at me (I know you shouldn't pick a book based on it's cover and all, but I was in love with this one). I had a flick through and bought it and started reading on my journey home. Straight away I started feeling inspired again and wanted to get everything moving with Mish Mash. I've still only just begun reading but I can't wait until I have more time next week and get a chance to read more, it's not only for entrepreneurs, but for any woman who wants to reach the top of their chosen profession.

I'm a big fan of self-help books and have enjoyed tales from Richard Branson and Duncan Bannatyne. For me there is no better motivation then seeing someone exactly the same as you making a success. 

Next, me and my partner made a joint purchase of the Rosetta Stone software. He had said for the past two years he wanted to learn Mandarin (Chinese) and after much thought I thought of how beneficial as well as exciting it would be. My partner wants to run his own printed clothing company and much of his trade would be with China, so any knowledge of the language would be great. Rosetta Stone doesn't promise to make you fluent but it does give you a fantastic foundation. Do your research first as it can be pricey!

Today I booked in for two, free business seminars taking place in May. The first I'll be attending in early May is run by Barclays Bank and offers the opportunity to gain tools and support to help start a new business, learning how to write a business plan, source finance and market your business. There's also the opportunity to network with other business owners, which I feel is invaluable. 

The second will be at the Excel centre in London, with hundreds of exhibitors providing information on how they can aid the growth of your business. There's also talks from successful entrepreneurs, and seminars and workshops for one-to-one help. 

And those are some of the steps I've taken recently to learn and progress further. I'm hoping this will all help give me a more rounded view of the business and fashion industries in general as I am still learning lots.

Do you attend any business classes or networking groups locally? Have they benefited your business?

Vintage Titanic: 100 years on

100 years ago on the 15th April 1912 RMS Titanic fatally struck  an iceberg and sunk in the North Atlantic Ocean on it's maiden voyage. The Titanic was the largest passenger liner in the world at the time and set off on it's trip from Southampton, England to New York, America with 2,223 crew and passengers on 10th April. Many were visiting the grand country of the United States for a holiday and others dreamed of starting a new life, but their trip aboard the Titanic would change all of their lives for good.

The Titanic was said to be an engineering marvel and infamously 'unsinkable' however as we all know after hitting an iceberg and 5 of it's compartments becoming breached this statement wouldn't be lived down.

Front Page of The Times 1912

Largely thanks to the 1998 movie release Titanic the ship has been highly romanticised and will be brought alive once again in 3D marking 100 years since she sank. RMS Titanic still lies at the bottom of the Atlantic ocean and was left untouched until being rediscovered once again in 1985 with many expeditions to uncover artefacts.

A look typical of 1912 from a Women's catalog of the time

The ship was highly luxurious even to today's standards and passengers would be allowed access to certain parts depending on their class ticket as well as having access to better facilities. A number of millionaires and connections to royalty were aboard the Titanic. The first classes were treated overwhelmingly better than the third classes which unfortunately may be the reason for the huge discrepancies in deaths between the classes. 

Grand Staircase in first class

Titanic Interior

A bedroom on the Titanic

How some of the higher classes may have looked

It's nice to look back at a beautiful ship both mechanically and decoratively despite it's ill fated ending and see how we should never be content with our own greatness and should always be cautious of nature.

We'll be remembering all of those who lost their lives this week and a great ship.

Follow these for live tweets on the night the ship sunk from 11.30pm 14th April:

@TitanicRealTime

@HistoryChannel

@HistoryNeedsYou

Mish Mash Spring Updates

Sorry for neglecting my blogs, it's the final month of uni and it's full steam ahead to get finished! This is the first time in a year I haven't updated the vintage event listing but not to worry it will be back in May letting you know of all the great vintage activities going on over summer around the country.

One of the first things I will be doing when I complete university in 3 weeks is turning my spare bedroom into a home photography studio. I have the lighting and a dslr camera already as well as loads of spare paint so I may as well use it rather than hiring a studio each time we get new stock in, it's so much easier to have it in one place and I can shoot whenever I want. I plan on completing the room in a week and freeing my stock from storage to commence the huge shoot, and this will mean I will have my website up and running again with a full catalog of vintage items.

I may be attending a few vintage fairs over summer but am still undecided as I have yet to have time to look around at all the events properly to book anywhere. But I will most probably make an appearance at Judy's Affordable Fair in Spitalfields which take place weekly on Saturday and we'll keep you informed if we decide on any others!

I have also recently been thinking of where Mish Mash Vintage can expand into and as mentioned before I have already decided that initially I would love to introduce Menswear, retro and a preloved line onto the Mish Mash website, but branching away from clothing my eye has recently caught an article in which retro decorating is being used to help dementia patients. This service would require a team of two to meet the patient and their family for a one-to-one meeting discussing ways in which a persons memory may be triggered or living made easier for longer, using items and decorating the surroundings to recreate a memorable setting. Of course this won't be ideal for everyone but if it does help some I feel it is great and an alternative to medicine, so I look forward to exploring this idea further over the next few weeks.

We were also pleased to reach 1,300 followers on Twitter this week and were retweeted by Cosmopolitan Magazine for supporting their campaign to bridge the wage gap between genders. We called for more female entrepreneurs and women in the boardrooom. You can sign and support their petition here

Hope you have all had a lovely Easter weekend