We’ve all heard the old adage that most businesses fail within their first year — but Aneta Pazeski’s niche bridesmaids store was certainly the opposite of that! In fact, within a year of opening her doors, Aneta’s business had already turned over six figures, and has since gone on to win multiple business awards. Naturally, we wanted to find out how she did it!
Aneta’s story is certainly a unique one — after experiencing a life-changing ‘wake-up call’ following the 2004 tsunami in Thailand, she decided to trade in her career in finance to follow her life-long passion for fashion. Shortly after, she founded Bridesmaids Dressing Room.
Here’s how she managed that incredible six-figure sum within less than a year:
I leveraged my past experience in corporate accounting, finance and strategy
Aneta says that above everything else, her career experience helped her to achieve her early success. Aneta used her qualifications (which include a Commerce/Law degree, a CPA and an MBA), as well as her experience in finance and business strategy, to help her set a plan for her business, and then go about achieving it.
For mums wanting to emulate her strategy, she gives the following advice:
‘If you want your business to be financially successful, you need to start with the finances. So map out a clear financial objective, and then reverse engineer the steps required to achieve it.’
But what would this look like? Aneta says mums should consider the following:
‘If you want to make a certain amount of profit, you need to consider fixed and variable costs. For me, this meant a couple of things. For example, what are my variable costs, such as the wholesale costs of different dresses, and the associated shipping costs? What are my fixed costs, such as web hosting, communication costs, etc.? Only after you’ve done all of these calculations can you figure out how much you’ll have to sell to meet your financial objectives. Then, you need to figure out how much you’ll need to spend on marketing or other activities to actually sell that volume of stock.’
I got to know my customers — intimately
Aneta’s success, however, wasn’t simply due to her business experience — she also invested serious time and effort in getting to know her customers. In particular, she says, she focussed on not taking a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach:
‘I knew I’d need an in-depth understanding of my customer’s desires, so I spent lots of time speaking with different girls about their dress preferences, and then offering them honest and personalised styling advice, based on their body shapes. Basically, I helped them to understand what styles would work for them.
It was by taking the time to get to know them — and taking a very personal and heart-centred approach to making them happy — that I was able to make so many sales.’
I maintained balance
Of all the things that Aneta says she did to help her secure her initial six-figure sum, this was not one we expected (but of course, one we hoped for!). Usually, to succeed in business it is assumed that you have to focus on the business to the detriment of everything else, but Aneta says that this wasn’t the case for her.
‘I had a system where I was realistic about “money time” and “mummy time.” And honestly, it was through maintaining positive practices in relation to health, wealth, mindset and relationships that I was able to succeed. Spending all of your time on your business, and not making time for yourself or your children, well, that’s a recipe for failure for me — not a recipe for success.’
So what is Aneta’s advice for mums that want to follow in her footsteps? She simply says:
‘Be brave…take your business dreams and make them real (and profitable!)’
Time to get to it, mamas!
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Originally published at https://www.mumsandco.com.au.
