When I started my fashion business, I had experience as a producer, writer and stylist. I was working as a producer and writer for different kinds of productions such as commercials, music videos, corporate videos, TV shows and others. At the same time, I was dressing and styling talent on set such as models, actors, hosts and guests.

Despite the amazing learning experience and knowledge I was acquiring, there were many ups and downs due to the economy of the time. The companies I worked for experienced a lot of instability. Clients started not paying on time. Companies went bankrupt and disappeared. Layoffs became a common occurrence. Work doubled and wages went down.

From what I could see, it was going to be very hard for businesses to stay afloat. Something inside of me whispered… “Keep working hard and start freelancing on your free time.” This was the first time I thought I needed to create stability for myself.

As time went by, I continued learning and working really hard. I worked with amazing bosses and clients, but they were ALL struggling financially (The big companies as well as the small ones). At times it would take months to get paid. Sometimes I wondered if I would ever get paid.

I knew I had to have a job. I knew I couldn’t do it on my own. It wasn’t time yet. I was so young. I had so much to learn. I decided to keep a 9-5 job in the TV industry (which always exceeds 8 hours a day as you may know) and started freelancing to generate more income to balance out when I didn’t get paid on time.

After years of this (6-7 years), I couldn’t take it anymore. When I didn’t get paid on time (or ever) everything suffered. It was not sustainable. I had an amazing resume. I had worked with incredible people and companies. Nevertheless, I had to make a paycheck last who knows how long! It wasn’t working.

For the first time I felt like I had to take matters into my own hands. I really wanted to take control of my life, my projects and my salary. I felt like I had enough experience. I thought this time it could work and then, something inside of me said “Come up with 3 styling packages for women and get out there.” That’s when it started to get really hard.

It has been a learning curve, to say the least; Lots of ups and downs, highs and lows, and it doesn’t stop. I keep learning every day. I thought that at some point I would reach “it.” Then I realized “it” doesn’t exist. That there are stages in life and business. That if you are focused, you can build things and that these things go through stages as well.

I learned that every day we grow and learn. That when you reach something, you still have to keep growing and learning. And most importantly, you have to enjoy the journey. Yes, it’s true what they say. You have to enjoy every day, the path, the work, because the bottom line is you are always on a journey.

When I started working on my own, I decided to focus solely on styling. I knew I always would do production and writing on the side because it’s a big part of me. Nevertheless, I had to focus on 1 thing to make it grow. I decided to go with what lit me up the most… fashion.

I soon started to discover the world of networking, all the technology aspects of running your own business like building a website, doing social media, etc, and business itself, how to get clients, retain them, attract more and all that good stuff.

After being an A+ student all my life I found myself learning everything from scratch. I realized I didn’t know ANYTHING about this stuff. Nothing, zilch, nada… After going through high school, extracurricular activities, student clubs, my school newspaper, modeling, college, university, jobs…I didn’t know where to start, so I started at the beginning.

So what was the beginning like? Where did I start? Where can anyone start? Well, I would say the beginning is where YOU decide to start. This can be different for everyone and that’s okay. Yes, that’s the answer (simple right?).

I remember being so worried at the time. How do I start? How am I supposed to know where to start? What is the best first step? And then other questions starting popping up… What if what I do doesn’t work? What if what I decide to do, learn or create, doesn’t work and it’s a waste of time? What if I should have started with a different project?

It was a little crazy and if you happen to be in that place right now, let me tell you something: BREATHE and DON’T WORRY. EVERYONE goes through it and there is no way you can know what’s wrong or right until you try it. You do something, see how it works and learn from it. That’s it! That’s the secret! Then you move forward to the next thing. You do that, see how it works, learn from it and do the next thing. That’s all there is to it.

At some point, some things will work (and some won’t). Don’t be afraid of something not working or making the wrong decision. What you have to worry about is making sure you learn the lesson EVERY TIME you do something, so you don’t make the same mistake again and it takes longer 😉

I have to tell you it was hard. Everything from learning how to network to making sales… hard and overwhelming. I tried to learn as much as I could, but I soon realized people didn’t speak my language. Creativity wasn’t a big part of the process. Sometimes this stuff was boring to me. Learning how to build a business with other entrepreneurs such as life coaches, financial advisers, marketing strategists and others, was nice for meeting new people, but not for building a fashion business. 

I wasn’t building a network in MY industry (fashion). I felt very alone, like no one could understand me. At the time, I was also looking for a map. A formula that would tell me what steps to take to get this thing going. I was like “Tell me what to do, so I can do it right now” (been there too?).

So I started reaching out to fashion groups, to get more support in my area of expertise. I also kept nurturing my relationships from my TV days where I did a lot of styling. As I met more fashion entrepreneurs, I started to notice that no one really offered business support in fashion. I couldn’t find anyone who could answer my questions about social media, how to network, or any of those kinds of things in my industry. People talked about this in other industries, but many of those things didn’t apply to fashion. And the groups that were focused on fashion talked more about the craft itself, exchanging cards and working on collaboration projects together (no business advice!).

That’s when I finally decided to open our Facebook group, a fashion group where I and anyone else who was in this same position could ask questions. It could be a styling question (something about how to look your best in business, photo sessions, video shots, etc), but ALSO about running a fashion business.

The group started attracting people interested in fashion, but mostly fashion entrepreneurs. At that moment I realized I wasn’t alone. Other people in the fashion industry where craving a community where they could ask questions too. They started asking me how to put together a website, run a campaign, use MailChimp, create Ads and so much more for their fashion businesses. I felt at home. 

The group evolved into what nowadays we call the Fashion Entrepreneur Club Hangout where it has become my mission to share tools, tips and advice, not only about looking our best, but also about running a successful fashion business. A place where someone can ask questions about running our fashion businesses.

Since then I’ve been creating classes, tools, videos, and more to help fellow fashion entrepreneurs or fashionpreneurs – like I like to call them 😉 – grow their businesses and I’ve packaged all this content in a platform and created a Membership!

Inside the Membership fashion business owners have access to many resources and get support while building an awesome fashion business! Something I wish I had when I started…and because I know expenses can get high when running a business,  I have kept the monthly fee very manageable.

If you would like to learn more about the Fashion Entrepreneur Club Membership, I invite you to visit this page: FEC Membership.

Know that I’m here to help. If you have any questions at all, please let me know at info@gitanastyling.com or comment below!

PS: Please share this link https://bit.ly/2TQGzK4 with friends and colleagues who may like to learn more about Membership or simply tweet this article to spread the word! Thanks 🙂

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