There is one thing I always tell my clients to do before starting a lingerie brand, the one thing I learnt when starting mine and the one thing I’ve applied to other work areas in my life. What is that one thing?

The one thing is

‘Start as quickly as possible with as little money as possible’

Sounds like easy advice but the amount of people I see who are spending years researching things like elastic where as if you had gotten a sample made up you will have so much more feedback from that sample. Does the brief elastic need to be firmer? Does it need to match or contrast the brief? Etc Having a sample in your hands will get your answers quicker.

Now the advice ‘start as quickly as possible with as little as possible’ is not saying rush your designs through on a shoe string budget, because we all know that always going cheap can cost you more in the long run.

When I started my brand, before it’s launch the factory closed down taking all my patterns, fabrics and samples with it.

With that in mind, I knew I wanted to be able to sew my own lingerie to a high standard and not always be reliable on someone else. I gave myself a year to get it all sorted again, to get my samples made and it to be stocked in a shop. What that did was put a deadline on my brand, at the time I was living in Belfast working part time whilst I got the brand going. My idea was to give myself another year otherwise I was go back to England and get a lingerie design job working for someone else.

I knew that by giving myself a year there was no chance I was able to learn to sew lingerie to a professional standard, design a website and grade all the patterns, do the accounting and all the general day to day running of a business.

So I went with Princes trust and received a £3,500 loan, knowing that if it didn’t work I could go back and get a full time job and pay it off but, knowing that I had done everything to launch this brand because of the time limit I had imposed.

What a time limit does is not allow you to procrastinate, I chose two two styles of bras (one uw and one soft) after previous months of deliberation, with the time scale it seemed a no-brainer I chose these styles over three colour-ways, this worked so well it was what I continued to do every collection.

It also made me ring stockists, had I not had a time limit, I would have convinced myself that 'maybe I not contact anyone until my second collection’, or that ‘certain shops wouldn’t want to stock my collection'.’ The time limit made me ring as I only had a year.

By month eleven I gained a stockist, it was Topshop.

What would have happened if after a year I hadn’t succeeded? I would have pivoted, taken stock where I was, no doubt returned back to England to start a job, however I would have carried on with my brand and given myself another time line.

If a year seems too long go for six months or three months, anything after a year leads to procrastination. Otherwise what might happen is that you will sit on your idea for too long and add doubt into your mind.

If you are on the fence whether you wish to start to a lingerie brand or have been thinking about it for awhile, give yourself the grace to get started. Pick a deadline and you’ll know when that time passes if you want to carry on or if you’ve given it your best shot and no longer harbour the urge to release a lingerie brand.

What I do know from previous clients though if you’ve had the idea it never goes away until you try it out. One client I’m working with has had an idea for seven years and it didn’t go away. They are now in the mentor programme and I’ve been able to take their idea and and get them samples made and they are on their way to production.

So your challenge: Pick a timeline, and do everything you can to hit it.

The one thing you do before starting a lingerie brand

Don't Leavers (lace) alone