Free give away - we are seven years old
Seven years whoop whoop !
Sometime in April, ‘Van Jonsson Design’ turned seven, I sometime as I don’t know the exact date, I just know that my son was around three months, i was freelancing, and studying for my Masters in International Fashion Management (so you know time then is a bit blurry) when I went for a lingerie design job that was a four hour round commute and when I asked if they did flexi-time, they said they didn’t and you were required to be at your desk in the working hours and maybe longer. It was that day I questioned what I wanted, for myself and for my family, and I realised the decision to go back to being self employed was made.
And what an amazing seven years they have been, the best part without a doubt has been helping new designers launch their brands, because let’s face it the manufacturing side can be the hardest thing ( to get through. Which as the children get older is something I wish to do more of.
So whether you’re starting out or are a few years in to designing, or trying to launch your brand my best advice is…
KEEP GOING
I’ve often spoke to people who state that they’ve had an idea for a few years, if you dream about something, it’s always going to haunt you, try it. You will either get it out of your system or you will love it and it that case remember it’s not the speed in which you move but the direction. It won’t be easy, but better to see how you go rather than think what if? There were times it got hard for me, it was around the time my daughter (baby no.2) was born and things got hard, I had been going only two years and that was working whilst my son was at home. With two kids, it felt like I couldn’t take on much freelance work and it felt like the biggest juggling act ever, I knew no-one else who was self employed and looking after kids, so at times it felt lonely and one year I would have made more money if I had been claiming benefits and been unemployed. At the worst I tidied my desk and didn’t sit there for five days, I gave myself the option to stop, but I knew I loved doing what I was doing, and it seemed a bit crazy to take another job I didn’t love as much, to then put the kids in childcare and be left with no money that way. So my decision was as long as I was heading in the right direction I would try not think about the speed I was going, and when I look back now, writing a blog every week (or nearly there) soon mounts up five years later to present day.
HAVE A PLAN
I don’t mean a business plan (but those are pretty handy too if that’s your thing), have somewhere you’re aiming for, how much you want to sell (then break it down to how it can happen), people you want to work with, the designs you want to produce etc… I usually have on my list (well quite a few) something I can work out and break into steps to achieve and then something in which I have no idea at the current time how I’m going to execute it.
LOVE IT
When I realised I couldn’t move as maybe as quickly as I wanted, I knew I had to find something not work related to really love about my day, so I didn’t inner talk myself into thinking I could do better, and it makes you realise that success doesn’t come just from trying to make work work. Mine is so simple it could be sitting down for two awesome coffees in a row, whist sketching or looking at Pinterest for inspiration (I don’t class that as work) - I know totally rad ! Or it could be just spending the whole day at the park with the tribe. It’s just something that can be totally obtainable to do everyday and something you decide on, not something productive.
DO JUST ONE THING
If you’ve been in meetings with me planning your next step of lingerie, or discussing your critical timeline, you know I love to say concentrate on producing one thing epically well rather than lots badly, that’s not to say, don’t have ideas in the pipeline. But just with one or two things that can be done, and once they are done move onto the next thing. I started out with two sets of lingerie in my collection when I began, I wrote one book and released just that one until I wrote the next one. Think of it like this it’s easier to move one wheel along the ground, then attach another one to it and keep moving and so forth, rather than try move four wheels at once, as one is bound to go array then you have to spend time sorting that rather than sorting out the direction in which you are going.
THE FREEBIE
Anyway what you came here for - the free give away - on Instagram (vanjonssondesign) there is a post about this blog, I don’t post at the weekend so it will the most recent one. All you have to do on the Instagram post (will close it Sunday night 9pm GMT - gal gotta sleep you know) is to guess how many times the word Lingerie is mentioned in the book “How to be a lingerie designer” I’ve give you a clue it’s a three digit number, closest three will win a copy.
If you would like to have a read lingerie books or work out specs or costings over the bank holiday weekend I am doing a 20% discount off all ebooks and everything found under design packs (so automated cost sheets, spec sheets etc) with the code BESTBIRTHDAYEVER it will end Monday night 11.59pm GMT
Happy reading x