Lady in Links is 1 Year Old Today!

Yay!!!!! Feeling very chuffed to have made it this far :) Got a little worried when a Business Link adviser informed me that only 11% of new start-up businesses make it through their first year! When I first started up I was thinking “well how hard can it be?” But I can understand this poor survival rate a bit better now. Cash flow is the biggest killer - once that life line runs dry you've had it. There came a point when I had to stop haemorrhaging money into the business, however passionate I was about it. I'm not out of the woods yet though, not by any means, and it has been a bit of a rollercoaster ride.

After I got over the initial excitement of my first few customers dribbling in, my first real high was when I got my first overseas customer, from Moscow. He ordered a pair of my pearl cufflinks for his wife for Christmas, and then came back a month later for another pair for her birthday, with matching earrings too - my favourite customer so far!! Since then Lady in links has reached as far as New York to Australia, and I still get a buzz from each order!

Another perk of the year was when Women Do Business hooked me up with a business mentor. Sally soon ironed out my confidence issues and got me phoning magazines, newspapers and nominating me for awards - which really paid off. She taught me the phrase “what have I got to lose?” So I swallowed my nerves and got out there.

It has been a year of learning from my mistakes as well as from other people - one mistake was paying for advertising – in my case it was so not worth it. Sally then taught me that you can get it for free if you try hard enough. I also learnt to make the most of the people around me. I had my boyfriend out selling my cufflinks to his financial adviser, a friend helping out with PR, and another setting me up with business advisers and networks. Oh, and I found networking is key - surround yourself with other people who are inspiring and entrepreneurial - I swear it’s contagious.

A further lesson was to surround myself with positive people, and I learnt this the hard way. Not long after Lady in Links was up and running I met someone at a seminar who took great pleasure in telling me that my business would fail, that is was a terrible idea and that I should quit while I was ahead. Ahead? I had just spent most of my house deposit savings on my new business venture, how was I ahead?! It shook me up and made me really doubt myself and my business. For a while I really believed them too – that I had been in a little dream bubble and she had finally popped it, and all I had created was a huge debt. But that was another lesson - I had to be able to bounce back. There's always going to be someone to sow that seed of doubt or put you down because they've had a bad day. So I bounced back – and it was the best feeling in the world when I walked past that same person at an awards ceremony in May to collect a business award - I gave them a nice big grin!

I think my most valuable lesson I have learnt this year is that you can't do it all alone. You need people around you to throw ideas around with, support you, advise you, and take you to the pub after a long day. These people are invaluable. I am so grateful to those who have helped, supported and advised me, and especially those who take me to the pub afterwards!! Couldn't have done it without you, Thank You!! :)

www.ladies-cufflinks.com

Photo Shoot for Lady in Links in Exeter

A few weeks ago I gathered some good friends and headed to Exeter city centre for a few pictures for my new website.
Showing off my cufflink collections in fitted shirts and smart work dresses, we enjoyed a few cocktails whilst we were papped, and got quite a few appreciative looks! Tom certainly got into the cameraman role, and I think he enjoyed ordering us around a little too much!
Coal in Princesshay were very welcoming with their comfortable and friendly atmosphere and delicious cocktails - many thanks to them.
Thank you for a great evening ladies and for all your support, the images should be live on my website soon :)

The Cufflink Lady's Birthday!!

It’s the Cufflink Lady’s Birthday!!
I am 26 today, and it is an absolutely gorgeous morning in Devon so I must have been good this year :-)

I am feeling very generous today (must be something to do with the sun and that fry-up I was lovingly cooked this morning) and am giving away a 20% discount to all my lovely customers for all orders over my Birthday weekend! You can get this discount by entering BIRTHDAY into the voucher code when placing your order :) Go To: www.ladyinlinks.com before Monday to redeem!

So, I am heading to Newbury horse races this weekend in my new shirt from The Shirt Company (www.theshirtcompany.com) and with my Lucky Charm horse shoe ladies cufflinks, and hopefully I will actually get lucky on the horses!

I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Best wishes, TCL xx

Putting Life Into Perspective

I have had an insightful last few weeks really. Whilst working hard to get my new business off the ground and stressing daily about money, websites, marketing and all the rest, recent happenings have really made me think about my life.
For instance, there's me worrying about what new designs to create and getting frantic about the state of my books for the accountants, whilst tragic events are taking place all over the world that really put my own worries into insignificance.
It made me reflect on my own problems. We English really do love to moan. But what do we really know of suffering? What do we really have to moan about? My 'daily turmoil' as I like to call it after a bad day, is so completely inconsequential when compared to the real problems some people have to face - the wars, the poverty, the earthquakes, the droughts, floods and the tsunami's.
It made me realise just how lucky I am - not only to live in England with our peaceful, privileged, protected and well educated society, but to have the opportunities that many people all over the world will never have. Furthermore I am so so lucky to be able to create and launch my own business, especially as a woman too.
This made me think - I need to make the most of the opportunities I have before me. Make the most of every day, and be grateful for every last thing I have. I lost my father in a tragic accident a few years ago, and although this turned my world upside down at the time, I was still lucky to have 20 years of blissful family life, and use my memory of him today to spur me on in life and business.
Now rather than moaning about my problems, I feel grateful that I have the opportunity to do something about them, and it completely turns it around. Put your life into perspective - if you can do something about it, stop moaning.

My New Business Mentor

You will probably get fed up of me harping on about Women Do Business, but seriously, they have provided yet more help for me. This time, I have been assigned a Business Mentor. How cool is that! She is my new best friend :) Or maybe a new God.

I was actually praying that this particular woman would be my mentor as she is unbelievably inspirational, and she's a very cool mum and successful businesswoman all in one. Plus she is married to a very well known entrepreneur which makes it even more cool! But this woman was the reason I set up my business in the first place. I remember going to an event and hearing her give a talk about entrepreneurial women, and the story behind her own business, and she was so inspirational I left the event knowing I would start my own business too.

So anyway, I get to meet this lady once a month for 6 months and brainstorm ideas and create actions that I can take to improve my own business. Frankly all I want to do is hear all about her business as it's awesome...check out www.theoldbagcompany.com.

It's really really nice to have someone to throw ideas at, and who will be honest and say 'I think ur completely wasting your time' (luckily that didn't come up), and to help me find my own way. On the other hand, I feel like I really need to succeed just to please her! Either way, it's all helping. I won't want to give up my business mentor in 6 months time though.
Website: www.ladyinlinks.com

It's all about who you know...

Met an amazing lady through Women Do Business a few months ago who came to my rescue last Friday.
Over a cup of coffee she helped me sort out a marketing plan for www.ladyinlinks.com and gave me a much needed kick up the bum. She is a business woman herself, and runs a successful Marketing company in Devon called Hennessy Marketing. Was so nice to get a bit of advice from a knowledgeable friend, and to have someone really believe in my business. She actually did a world of good to my confidence more than anything I think!
So that kept me busy most of the weekend....not easy stuff though. It was direction I was really lacking, and generally where on earth to start. A few nudges to get me going down the right path has at least got me off my butt, and I just hope that eventually it will pay off.
Had some really nice testimonials come through over the weekend which was lush :) And so these are going to go straight up on my website for all to see! (actually that’s a lie, they will go up when I can afford to pay the website designer to put them up for me.) That’s another course for the list, websites. So much still to learn. Anyone have a website friend for me?!

Its been a while....

Now that Lady in Links is up and running, I thought the hard work would be over. How silly of me. The notion that you can just pop an online store onto the worldwide web and bingo, sales start rolling in, is a distant dream. I sat patiently waiting for my first customer (my mum and best friend don’t count), for 3 weeks. And that was a really long three weeks. But I’ll tell you what, that feeling when you see your first order pop into your mail box is absolutely worth the wait. After hours, days and weeks of tentatively clicking the send/receive button on the email, one tiny little line pings into my empty list saying ‘Order received’. Hoorah! After leaping with joy and running round the office a few times, I ended up spending the money on cakes in celebration.
But even after that long wait, I still thought ‘Ah, now they will start flooding in someone’s spotted me’. It was another 2 weeks until the next order, and another round of cakes to celebrate. Fear seeped into me at the realisation that 2 orders a month weren’t going to pay the bills, especially if I keep buying these cakes. But then we hit October and I was saved from turmoil by poor souls trying to find something different to give their wives/sisters/daughters for their Christmas gift. One day in December I actually received 2 orders in one day. I cannot tell you how over the moon I was! I even had emails from happy customers to say how delighted they were with my products....big smiley face on The Cufflink Lady!
So success is not as easy to come by as I naively expected, but the wait I endured made the orders I received so much sweeter.
Needless to say, now that Christmas is over, I have my work cut out to get Lady in Links ‘out there’. Short of standing atop a very tall building and shouting for all I’m worth about it, I am rubbish at this marketing malarkey. So, off I go to some marketing courses, good old Women Do Business I say.