Entrepreneurship – Briofive – Self-Image & Personal Branding Photography https://briofive.com Personal Branding to Get You Noticed, Chosen, & Paid! Mon, 18 Feb 2019 22:42:40 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.2.21 https://briofive.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/cropped-briofive-favicon-32x32.png Entrepreneurship – Briofive – Self-Image & Personal Branding Photography https://briofive.com 32 32 Why Nasty Gal Failed: What to Learn https://briofive.com/why-nasty-gal-failed/ Sat, 26 Jan 2019 09:35:42 +0000 https://briofive.com/?p=1438 Why Nasty Gal Failed The epitome of a cool girl clothing online boutique filed bankruptcy in November 2016. This is why Nasty Gal failed, a brand that had recognition of 2.3 million followers on Instagram with a database of over 550,000 customers. In the year 2015 alone Nasty Gal made $300 million in sales. 66 [...]

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why nasty gal go bankrupt

Why Nasty Gal Failed

The epitome of a cool girl clothing online boutique filed bankruptcy in November 2016. This is why Nasty Gal failed, a brand that had recognition of 2.3 million followers on Instagram with a database of over 550,000 customers.

In the year 2015 alone Nasty Gal made $300 million in sales. 66 percent of Nasty Gal will be acquired by Boohoo by the end of February, for a mere $20 million. Today Nasty Gal is closing all of its retail stores in Los Angeles.

Nasty Gal will remain an online retailer and will float on thanks to Boohoo, but for the moment the company is all over the place.

The entire site and stock currently are 70 percent off, and customers are complaining the purchases they’ve made were charged full price on their credit cards meanwhile no customer service reps are responding to their emails for refunds. How did it get here, and how did a company with a CEO that all girl bosses look up to fail?

How Over Growth Caused the Nasty Gal Bankruptcy

Inc. says overfunding killed Nasty Gal, AKA too many players in a small game means it’s bound to end quickly. Investors and players in Silicon Valley became obsessed with the fast, organically growing online store. Many high-volume investors decided to invest and grow the business as fast as they could, just like a tech start-up.

Inc. states that “Nasty Gal, today, should be a thriving company if they hadn’t been caught up in the venture capital financed hyper growth mode. Steadily, Nast Gal could have grown to over $100 million in profitable revenue with no VC money at all.”

 When small niche fashion companies are forced to grow rapidly, they seem to always die faster. American Apparel and Pacific Sunwear are some examples of clothing brands/stores that fell in 2016.

Why Nasty Gal Failed

When You Lose Fundamentals You lose Customers

As Nasty Gal grew fast and received more funding, former-CEO Sophia Amoruso decided to start an in-house line. Since the brand was primarily focused on working with wholesalers, this would help Nasty Gal’s margins become 70 percent as opposed to the 45 percent it was making from its wholesalers.

In 2015 Nasty Gal had its first 500,000 square foot fulfillment warehouse in Kentucky, which was unusual from a retail company standpoint since most clothing companies use third-party providers for their fulfillment.

Not only was the warehouse a big jump, but the manufacturing also took a wrong turning point. The company had to use factories that produced garments that were not up to its company standards.

The pieces of clothing Nasty Gal were producing did not look as good as they were styled online and many orders were returned. A company founded on selling high name vintage brands such as Chanel needed to keep the quality of the garments they produce high, even if they were priced at an affordable price point.

Why Nasty Gal Failed: Businesses that grow too fastWomen Founders Have Intuition

Sophia Amoruso stepped down from her CEO position in January 2015 because she knew. This happened after writing her memoir, “Girlboss,” and she knew her story was the biggest point of the brand itself. 

“According to one executive, the publication of Amoruso’s memoir was the “nail in the coffin” for Nasty Gal, as it marked the founder’s own pivot away from the company she started.

“She was savvy, and she saw the writing on the wall,” the person said. The term “#Girlboss” became more ubiquitous than Nasty Gal itself, and Amoruso’s book promotion did not correlate to sales, according to another former executive.”

 

Sophia began to step away from the business she created and used her personal brand as the breadwinner in her career. Her celebrity was bigger than the company she founded. But it wasn’t Sophia who made Nasty Gal plummet; it was everyone else.

She is one of my idols because Sophia Amoruso was a 22-year-old who ended up starting a multi-million dollar company and now has one of the biggest influential personal brands in the world. Learning from what Nasty Gal did wrong and right will help all girl bosses start their own businesses and companies. 

Our Take On The Nasty Gal Bankruptcy

A big reason for the Nasty Gal Bankruptcy is that in the business of hard goods and apparel, extremely fast growth may be very tempting, but it has an incredibly small margin of error.

The margin of error is so small, you pretty much need to rely on getting very lucky. Especially in fashion, goods are very seasonal. Let us take an example where you are selling clothes to Target.

If Target orders, one million units of jackets for the winter, a reasonable growth rate assumes that you must get your manufacturers to start producing around late summer time, so the order will be ready by winter.

Is it impossible for you to start production in October or November to get ready for December? No, but this would only occur for businesses who have scaled to having this capability or for an enterprise who is growing very fast.

 

If you are producing in October or November to fulfill a purchase order of one million units, you must have a very large facility to manufacture your goods. The problem is, if you have a facility capable of producing this much, you will often need to maintain purchase orders of the same size.

If you produce one million units in a month, to cover a purchase order, but the following month you only have a purchase order of five hundred thousand, then you will be stuck paying for twice the machinery and workers than needed. You can try to fire half of the assembly line, but that means in the future, you must retrain them to meet the proper rate of production.

 

This effect is even worse for boutique & online stores as you do not really get purchase orders. If you sell ten thousand units in one month, there is nothing that will dictate that you will sell another ten thousand units in the second month.

In retail stores, you will at least assume that the store that is buying from your brand will purchase roughly the same amount in the next year.

For these boutique & online stores, you just need to hope that your store can sell an equal to or greater than the amount in every subsequent business period. Otherwise, you will have overproduced and you will now be holding onto inventory.

Analysis 

For apparel businesses, this may not be a huge issue given the main type of apparel you are selling is t-shirts. T-shirts, for the most part, can easily be sold throughout the year (though in some regions a bit less during winter).

In contrast, this can be incredibly detrimental for businesses selling in the fashion industry because fashion is constantly changing. When a manufacturer makes a product and sells it to the brand for $10, the brand will then sell their product to a retailer, like Nordstrom, for $20.

Nordstrom will then proceed to sell this item for somewhere between $40 and $50. If it is Nordstrom’s own brand, they are buying from the manufacturer at $10 and still retailing it for $40 to $50.

If Nordstrom has an overstock on summer dresses that was selling for $50, they will send all their extra inventory to Nordstrom Rack, where everything can be sold at $30.

These stores are known for having really good deals because of this, and many people will go out of their way to window shop for these discounted goods. With how difficult running an apparel business is, it wasn’t surprising why Nasty Gal going out of business happened so quickly. 

 

If you are ready to produce an image that shows your best self and conveys your authentic brand.

Book a Call with Los Angeles Professional Brand Photographer Sandy Grigsby.

 

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Five Inspirational Women Entrepreneurs | Personal Brand Photographer https://briofive.com/five-inspirational-women-entrepreneurs/ Tue, 20 Nov 2018 23:07:51 +0000 https://briofive.com/?p=1444 Being a women entrepreneur is not easy. Here are five inspirational women entrepreneurs that are rising in 2017  that are sure to inspire you.  It takes hard work, courage, and dedication to take an idea and grow it into a concrete business, let alone one that becomes successful. While there is much to learn from women who rise [...]

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Los Angeles Empowerment Photography

Being a women entrepreneur is not easy. Here are five inspirational women entrepreneurs that are rising in 2017  that are sure to inspire you. 

It takes hard work, courage, and dedication to take an idea and grow it into a concrete business, let alone one that becomes successful. While there is much to learn from women who rise and fall, it is always amazing when you see a woman crushing it.  

Seeing other women succeed at their goals and lead businesses that are blowing their competition out of the water can become a source of inspiration for others.

Five Inspirational Women Entrepreneurs

  1. Lisa Wang and Yin Lin, She Worx

Inspired by their experiences as CEOs of their companies;  when these two women met investors they were always in disbelief that they, were not males and were in top roles of their companies. 

Because of the misogynistic comments they received, Lisa Wang and Yin Lin created SheWorkx. They aspire to create a level playing field for women entering the business world.

They realized that complaining was not going to help solve anything and instead thought of how to improve the situation for themselves and other women.

Together through SheWorx,  they created a place where women entrepreneurs could come together and learn tips from mentors while discussing how they can grow their businesses. SheWorks is all about having women work together instead of against each other.

Five Inspirational Women Entrepreneurs

  1. Shradha Agarwal, Outcome Health

There are constantly new medical advances that come out year after year. When a person is diagnosed with an illness or condition, the person and their family want to know what is the best way to treat it.

Shradha Agarwal co-started Context Media, now called Outcome Health,  in order to help people with chronic illness manage their health.  The technology they use helps doctors, patients, and brands make the best choices with the best outcome health decisions for each person.

Agarwal has won a series of awards praising her hard work, such as the Champion of Change by the White House, was recognized as Best Female Founder at the United Nations and won a Moxie Award as Tech Woman of the Year in Chicago, where she is based out of.

 

  1. Alaina Percival, Women Who Code

Alaina Percival started as a volunteer at Women Who Code, an organization which strives to inspire women to succeed in technological careers.

After grad school she wanted to enter the startup world but lacked experience beyond branding and marketing, so she learned how to code.

While volunteering and eventually leveling up to more prestigious leadership roles, eventually landing the role of CEO, she worked at startups that were succeeding, which made her believe that she was really making it in the tech industry. Her success encouraged her to strive to encourage more women to become tech leaders.

 

  1. Stella Mateo, SheTaxi

The transportation world has been revolutionized by the likes of Uber and Lyft, which provide transportation on demand to its consumer. Stella Mateo, who immigrated to the United States from the Dominican Republic without knowing English.

While working as a seamstress for her family’s business, she worked her way to be an accounting head in a real estate business. When her husband started The New York Federation of Taxi Drivers, she realized that while women made up the majority of passengers, their needs were not being met.

Mateo also noticed that very little women were driving taxis, and SheTaxi, is “for women, by women” was born. She is all about women empowerment and knows that owning a business that can provide women with flexibility and self-sufficiency, is what most women crave when they enter the workforce.

  1. Natasha Case, CoolHaus

Natasha Case worked in architecture in Walt Disney Disney Imagineering before starting CoolHaus from scratch. CoolHaus is architecturally-inspired gourmet ice cream, sandwiches, and desserts sold through their trucks and two LA shops but could be also seen in stores throughout the USA.

Together with Freya Estreller her partner, they started CoolHaus in a postal truck at Coachella music festival and just have been growing ever since.

Forbes’s 30 under 30 Food and Beverage,  Zagat 30 Under 30, Linked in 10 under 35 for Food & Leisure, as well as being featured in many national publications and radio like Cosmo, Dwell and NPR, and TV shows including Food Network’s Chopped, Barefoot Contessa, Unique Sweets, Good Morning America, King of Cones, Andy Cohen Live are some of the places that all praise CoolHaus.  One of her tips to all entrepreneurs is to go for it and to not be afraid to take risks. 

 

We hope these Five Inspirational Women Entrepreneurs inspired you if you have questions or comments please let us know!

If you are ready to produce an image that shows your best self and conveys your authentic brand.

Book a Call with Los Angeles Professional Brand Photographer Sandy Grigsby.

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Headshots vs. Professional and Branding Portraits https://briofive.com/headshots-vs-professional-and-branding-portrait/ Thu, 23 Aug 2018 19:43:41 +0000 https://briofive.com/?p=2104   Photographs can be broken down into a series of categories. Within these categories are headshots and portraits. These two are often used interchangeably and the difference between them is quite subtle. For example, A headshot could be a portrait, but a portrait is not necessarily a headshot. For this reason, people are thoroughly confused about [...]

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Headshots vs. Professional and Branding Portraits

 

Photographs can be broken down into a series of categories. Within these categories are headshots and portraits. These two are often used interchangeably and the difference between them is quite subtle. For example, A headshot could be a portrait, but a portrait is not necessarily a headshot. For this reason, people are thoroughly confused about the difference between headshots and portraits. In this article, it’s stated that headshots are the new handshake of today’s world, but do headshots really elevate what you’re trying to convey personally and for your business? Let us set the record straight on headshots vs. professional and branding portraits so it can help you decide what type of photo session would fit best for you.

What’s the difference?

 

A Headshot is literally a “shot of one’s head”, sternum up with the focus being on the face and a simple solid color backdrop. Since it’s a concise portrayal of your face, you may be wanting to use these for your business cards or profile pictures in your CV or on your social media account where you can market your brand.  Its sole purpose is to show your face so your audience will know who they will be doing business with.

A portrait, on the other hand, requires great attention to detail and includes more of the subject’s personality. It allows a photographer to dig deep and get to know your brand and the kind of audience that you want to work with. While headshots require less time and preparation, the options for your professional and branding portraits are limitless. You can have close-ups or facial shots, upper body shots, or environmental portraits.

 

It’s important to understand the difference between headshots vs. professional and branding portraits in order to represent your brand appropriately. Your headshots clearly show who you are, but your professional and branding portraits show what you do that elevates your character. Check out my post on how to not let your brand look unprofessional.

Authenticity is important and a portrait should depict your brand in a natural environment. As an entrepreneur, you are clearly working hard at defining your brand, looking for more visibility and engagement, and probably investing a lot in marketing. Let’s work together and make it even better with compelling portraits that elevate and expand your brand to clients.

If you want to book a photo shoot experience with Sandy and our team at Brio Five, book a call with Sandy. We create a day all about you, so you can feel pampered and absolutely beautiful.

 

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How To Create Positive Habits and Stick to Them https://briofive.com/create-positive-habits-stick/ Mon, 09 Oct 2017 23:46:11 +0000 https://briofive.com/?p=1635 Habits control us. They control our routines, and ultimately, affect our lifestyles and moods. But science is here to tell us that there are very simple mind tricks and behaviors we can change that WILL alter our habits so we can learn how to create positive habits and stick to them. The Trigger According to [...]

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Habits control us. They control our routines, and ultimately, affect our lifestyles and moods. But science is here to tell us that there are very simple mind tricks and behaviors we can change that WILL alter our habits so we can learn how to create positive habits and stick to them.

The Trigger

According to New York Times business writer Charles Duhigg in his book, The Power of Habit, every habit begins with a psychological pattern he refers to as a “habit loop,” which is a three-part process. If you want to learn how to create positive habits, first you must know, there’s a trigger that tells your brain to go into automatic mode, where a learned/repeated behavior ensues.

The Routine

Next, there’s the routine, which is the behavior itself, and finally, there’s a reward, which is usually something that your brain appreciates. This helps your brain register the “habit loop” in the future.

I know what I need to change. We all do. So how do we apply this knowledge? Let’s use me as an example:

I stopped the habit of looking at things negatively, and instead, took every experience as an opportunity to learn something by employing this 3-step formula.

1) The Trigger – a challenging situation.

2) The Routine – every time I was faced with a challenging situation, I began to think negatively and mentally descend into darkness.

3) The Reward – I kept a notebook and immediately wrote down lessons from each challenging experience. Instead of inducing an ongoing stream of negative thoughts, I felt powerful and strong as I wrote and re-read the lessons I had learned. Now, I was better equipped for the future. I taught myself how to create a positive habit and stick to it.

This knowledge about how to create positive habits can be applied to anything. Drinking, smoking, eating, exercising, sleeping, etc. In any arena, you can train yourself to create a positive new habit.

Easy.

Backed by science.

Do it!

If you want to book a photo shoot experience with Sandy and our team at Brio Five, book a call with Sandy. We create a day all about you, so you can feel pampered and absolutely beautiful.

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