 Good morning to you. Welcome back to why in the morning and if it's Tuesday, it's entrepreneurship Tuesday at Y254 Channel. Is where you can find us across all our social. At Michela Shira is where you can find me across all my social media. In this particular session we dive into an interview that looks at what it takes to launch a successful fashion business. In the studio I'm joined with Vivian Ta. I hope I said this. Vivian Ta. She's a fashion designer. Hi Vivian, good morning. Did I get that right first? Yes, yes, yes, you did. Oh it's Ta. Is it like Ta Light? Yes, yes, absolutely. Oh I got that right. How you doing? You look gorgeous. Thank you. I'm doing great. It's a chilly morning, but we're bringing the sunshine. For people who are always on screen, this is not like their first time seeing you. So you wear a couple of hats. I do, I do. So apart from me being a fashion designer. I am a politician. There you have it. Continue. I'm also a governance analyst and I also do a bit of communication. Vivian is so powerful about leadership. Why is that? Because you were also in the president. Miss president. Yes. When I applied to be on it, I actually didn't think I would be considered because my background was not like I had zero political background. So I just had maybe my communication and my fashion experience. So I didn't think I would be considered because I thought I'm not your typical kind of person who gets into leadership. But surprise, surprise, I got onto the show. I was representing Nairobi County and I think that is how I got ashad into the political leadership space because through Miss president I was able to go through governance training, public speaking and several other trainings that just prepare you for the leadership space. You mentioned something interesting. You said that you were surprised that you actually got in. What is your background? You said your background is not in a political space. My background is I've studied fashion, but then I'm also a marketing and communication specialist. So that's my background, professionally. That's what I do. So I thought when I applied for Miss president, I thought they would be considering people who have maybe served in public service or have some sort of political experience. So talking about fashion, that's the reason why you're here. Yes. The reason why you're here darling. So tell us where did this love of fashion start, the passion of it? So the interesting thing is the business, it's a pony mass. We share a name. You know just like your big fashion houses, the witches of this world. It's the same concept more or less. It's about living a legacy. So anyway, my fashion journey started when I was very young. I just didn't realize it. When I was growing up, my mother who was not a fashion designer, she was an accountant by profession, used to make our clothes. So we had a sewing machine at home and growing up, I always interacted like with patterns, fabric and you know just the things that people used to make garments. And so that was like the beginning of my interaction with fashion. My mother unfortunately passed on. She had cancer and she passed on and it was a really really difficult time. So during that time I was trying to find a way to handle my grief while still you know just keeping the memory of my mama alive. And I just remembered that she enjoyed fashion and it's something also that I had liked even though I had not pursued it. So that's when I decided to go back to enroll in a fashion course and then I started and then I went to our house, took our old like staff machine and everything and I just started initially when I started it wasn't supposed to be like a business, it was just like a hobby. Something you love. Yeah but then it just like grew. Yeah I made a couple of clothes for myself just you know for fun and my colleagues where I was working at that time were like wow we like your clothes, make for us. In the beginning I thought they were just joking but you know they really insisted and I started making for them and then you know they just send one to other people and more people would come. Eventually I had to get like people to help me out and that's just how it started. Five years down the road. Yeah speaking about five years, right? Let's look at a couple of achievements. In 2019 you got to actually represent Kenya in the celebration of silk. I did, it was an amazing experience. I was selected, the celebration of silk is a national event in Thailand, it's supported by the queen and silk is a national like fabric in Thailand. They make a lot of silk, they are known for silk. So they had designers from like over 50 countries and I was selected for Kenya. So I joined designers from all over the world. South Africa, France, the U.K., the U.S. It was an amazing experience and we got to create garments specifically using silk to showcase for the queen. All right. For you when it started off as you said earlier on it was not in a perspective of you getting into business but it's something you should love. We're passionate about it. At what particular point were you like I can make a business out of this? I think at the point when now the orders were becoming a lot and it wasn't something that I could just take lightly anymore. That's when it struck me that you know what this thing has potential I can actually monetize it and create it into a real business. So I just used my background of management and marketing and I built the brand and I built the business. What were a couple of things that you paid attention to during the early stages of your business when it comes to just branding and putting your name out there for potential clients? I think from the very basic is of course coming up with a concept of what do you want the business to be to be known for, to be called because that defines how you will develop like a logo, a business name, register the business and then of course just put structures in place in terms of the human resources you need the skill sets you need the financial management it's a whole thing that you have to handle. Was there a business plan? I did not have a written down business plan I came to do that much later. I got the opportunity to attend some business trainings and so I learnt the importance. I mean I knew about the business plan but you know how when something just starts and you had not really planned for it so you just kind of run with it but later on I realised it's important to have a business plan so that you have a clear vision of where you're going so now I have a business plan which I keep refining with time. It's like a live document so I have the initial one that I did and I just keep developing it and improving on it as we go along. What were the top major platforms for you when it comes to just marketing your products? I think one of the very fast ones was working with Kambua I think I addressed her for about a year for her show on Citizen TV I can't remember what the show is called but she had a show on Sundays so I used to be the designer that dresses her and then I also worked with the National Olympics Committee they had this big sports event that they were doing for athletes I think sports person of the year Sawia so I was the lead designer and I was dressing the athletes and most of the organisers so that was a huge platform because I got to meet a lot of people make a lot of contacts and grow. Still on that sport of marketing someone is watching us and it's really struggling when it comes to marketing products or services what are the top three hackers when it comes to that? I think social media maybe even before you get to social media you have to define your product and your brand because that is what differentiates you if you don't have a product name or brand it's difficult to differentiate you from every other player in the market so you need to if it's a product you're selling you need to brand it so that it's different from every other similar product like that in the market so after you brand it you need to know who is your target market who are you targeting to buy the product and then now get on to social media to market it but still targeting you intend to buy the product and say those are my top three make sure you brand your product so that it's differentiated identify who your target market is because if you don't you'll end up like all over the place and you end up selling maybe to the wrong market you see not every market is for you so you need to identify which market is for your product identify them and then target them with the communication you're doing and social media has made it so much easier now when you speak about now pricing your outfit just breaking it down how much it costs and every day choosing a pricing point with the competition in mind how do you go about that pricing is dependent not just on competition it's dependent also on production you see you can't price lower than your production cost so it depends on how much you use to produce whatever you're doing so these things all form the basis of how you'll price your product what are your production costs what are the prevailing market rates and then who are you targeting because if you're targeting someone who buys a garment for say 20,000 if you give them a garment for 2,000 they'll think there's something wrong with it you see but if you're targeting if your target market is someone who can buy a garment for 2,000 if you give them a 10,000 they won't buy it because they're just not your target market that's why it's very important to identify who is my product for who am I targeting because once you know who your target market is even the pricing you can set it correctly and how do you deal with competition you learn from competition you use competition to gauge maybe if you need to change something but competition is healthy you need it because it's like a challenge it keeps you on toes and it keeps you going so I think without competition I don't think it'll be like business I think you'll fail you need competition so that you're always analyzing you're always checking yourself how are we but if you have nothing for comparison then there's really no challenge what's the most expensive outfit that you've ever made maybe a custom made like evening gown I won't say the price but a custom made I was waiting on that a custom made gown that I made for one of the local celebrities for an award ceremony and how as a diesel and how do you come up with the realistic sales and distribution goals because I feel like if you're starting off you'll be really excited and enthusiastic of course you need to be because business is challenging not just fashion itself any business is challenging so you need that excitement and passion to push you so that when things seem like they are not going the way you want you still have something to keep you going the realistic aspect of it what do you mean when it comes to when you're starting off a new journey you always have expectations you do as I said you're really excited and now there's a space because you've experienced it and you've been into the game for five years so I'm so sure you have realistic sales that you should have now you remember that plan we spoke about that's what keeps you in check because the plan when you're doing a business plan anyone who's done a business plan will understand this you have sales focus you have focus for sales how much you expect to make in a day, in a week, in a month so those help you become realistic and you see these things you can adjust them over time after you've done business for a month you can realize maybe I set my maybe too high and you can now readjust them so that's why a business plan is important because it helps you know in this next month I expect to make this much and to make this much these are the things I need to do so that I am making this much continue you're done so when it comes to just custom making do you import all of your fabrics not all most of it we buy locally just for very specific maybe dresses and only like maybe when I travel because you see fabric is not something you can easily buy online you need to touch you need to feel and know that it's the correct thing so most of the things we just buy locally what a couple of even before we get into challenges there's something I want to ask and I missed this out on our first conversation allow me to take you back when it comes to capital in your story you mentioned that it was your friends who actually were pushing you to make this for us and do this for us and they really saw that you actually talented in it was that the first part where you got your first capital so actually what helps me is remember I told you I took some of my mom's things like the sewing machine that she had just to use so that got me started some of the things like in fashion if you don't have a sewing machine it's hard but you see for me I was lucky because I had like something to start with so that got me started and I was working at the time I was employed at the time so it was easy to set aside money for the business and did you get to a pointer by you included an investor no actually I never really did and I haven't gotten to that point yet maybe we will at some point but not yet and what particular point do you think that you'll be need of an investor maybe like at a growth stage after you are now you have structures established and the business is at a point where now you want to scale then you need investors a couple of financial lessons that you have learnt along the way pay yourself pay yourself fast as an entrepreneur you didn't use to pay yourself in the beginning I didn't the lines were blood but yes as an entrepreneur pay yourself a salary when you are planning like pay roll at the end of the month you are also an employee in the company first oh first register the business make sure your kare and everything is sorted is good because those things can come and bite you in the later so make sure you are properly registered it's good if you can register it as a limited company all the better if you can't just do the business name but advice a limited company is better now you have the company bank account and the company is an entity on its own but yes one of the lessons I learnt is pay yourself because sometimes you get so caught up in and you know when a business is new you are everything you are the admin you are the salesperson you are the IT person so sometimes you forget that you also need to pay yourself so there is a record and you can grow it over time so that's one what's the other lesson if you are not good in accounting you need to get an accountant even if it's just on a part time basis so that they are able to keep track of your business expenses and revenue sales and records please keep records please keep records because records will tell you how you are doing the health of the business in the beginning for me it was crazy because the lines would get blood I'd spend some of my money on the business and routine declare and sometimes we take the business money and spend it on personal staff but those are things I learnt over time so keep a clear distinction between your personal expenses so different bank accounts can work so have your own personal and have a different one for the business so that whatever is being used for the business is different from your own personal cash couple of challenges that you faced challenges staff like team it's not very easy especially when the business is starting to get skilled people to work with you because at that time the guys are really good maybe you can't afford them and now the guys you can afford maybe are not really good so they're not giving you the output you want so that's a bit tricky so that was a challenge so you have to get a balance you can decide what worked for me is you can decide to take someone who's maybe not at the skill level you want but you can work with them and train them so that they get to the place where you want one of the other challenges is of course success to credit not capital but credit in the business you need cash flow so you need constantly you need money to pay salaries to pay rent to pay bills and all that to buy raw material and all that so banks it's not very easy I'm lucky my bank was supportive but not everybody it's not always the case and it's still a challenge I experienced of course I sat down with my bank and we had a discussion and it took a lot of time it was something that just happened overnight took a lot of convincing and telling them about the business and all that before they actually agreed to come on board and just lend me some latitude in terms of credit so that's another challenge I know a lot of businesses face I think those are the top two as you wind up what would you say that what it takes to just launch a successful fashion brand it takes grit you need to be resilient okay you need passion but passion is not enough so you need passion you need to be resilient and you need skill so if you're not skilled in a certain area please acquire it you're never too old to learn so if you need to learn I wasn't really good in finance so it's not my background but I had to learn because it's something the business needs you can't afford a full time accountant but you need to know at least before your part time guy comes you need to know what's happening so if you're not good at it learn so be open to learning be resilient you will face challenges but it's not the end of the world you need to work meet up with other entrepreneurs because when you talk to other entrepreneurs like in your same field you realize oh I'm not the only one facing these challenges and it kind of gives you I don't know how to recall this like sort of a family you're not on your own you're not on your own so don't do business by yourself you remember you asked me about competition so what happens is you find out that there are many but yes they may be viewed as competition when it comes to sales but when it comes to the same industry we are facing the same challenges you are now comrades because you're sort of going through the same thing so when you interact sometimes you exchange nodes you understand oh this is sometimes even if it's a challenge you've not experienced before you can turn to one of them or do this to avoid this that's why I said competition is not bad you need each other I like what you said you mentioned something that you're never too old to learn and so there's a meme going around that are you fearing that you're at the age of probably 28 taking up a new course because 4 years down the road you'll be 30 what? 32 I think you'll still be 32 4 years down the road so better just take that course you learn every day I think that's the essence of life you can never stop learning I just think about it this way when a child is born they're not born walking but eventually they'll walk then they'll run and they continue it's a continuous process until someone leaves the earth we've come to the end of our conversation we've come to a more interactive conversation on different topics considering that you wear so many different hats think of a much Vivian Ta for creating time to be with us how can people find your clothes on social media handles at Vivian Ta Vivian is V-I-V-I-E T-W-A that's the handle for the fashion business my handle is separate that is Vivian Ta fashion designer make sure you follow up with her if you have different questions make sure you reach out to her at Y2F4 channel is where you can find us across all our social media handles at Michelle Lashira you can find me across all my social media handles will be right back with so much more right here on why in the morning and if it's Tuesday and how we do it it's entrepreneurship Tuesday