Learning from failure
Though she’s now well-established, Emma’s journey as a fashion retail entrepreneur hasn’t been easy. Her greatest lesson? Failure. There’s an Einstein quote that she likes to live by: “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new”. “Thankfully, I’m ordering clothing in small quantities,” she says, “so if I make a mistake I’ve only lost the cost of twenty rather than 2,000 pieces!” That hasn’t happened too often, happily, and she has learnt to trust her instincts.
Einstein aside, Emma draws inspiration from her customers, and from the fact that White Ginger is worn all over the world. “I always get such a thrill from seeing people wearing my designs, and social media makes brand visibility that much easier to attain!”
Future plans A simple “# whiteginger” search on social media shows that Emma has women wearing her clothes on their holidays not just in Asia, but everywhere from Oslo to Brazil. Now she wants to take her plans for world domination that much further by relaunching her website later this year, including international shipping for the available products. “I’m halfway there, I promise!” she laughs. “There’s so much involved, it’s starting to feel like a separate job. I’ve found a great logistics centre here, so Singapore will be the shipping hub,” she says. “It’s such an efficient way to operate as import duties are low. I’m going to be running ten of our bestselling styles on our new site to start off with, and we’ll see how it goes from there!”
Doubtless the site will open up a whole new world of customers to Emma, and she’ll probably be busier than ever. Still, considering her energy levels and zest for business, I can tell she’s up for the next challenge.
Crystal Craze
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