Hi Georgie, can you tell us a little bit about Pretaportobello.com and why you started it rather than getting a ‘9 to 5’ job?
Pretaportobello.com is THE online fashion market promoting and selling clothes, shoes, accessories and jewellery from new, undiscovered design talent with origins at the world famous Portobello, and other fashion markets such as Spitalfields, Camden and Brick Lane. The site enables customers from all over the world to shop at the market, at any time, any day of the week and then have the goodies delivered straight to their door. It also gives a valuable online platform to new designers to give them much needed exposure in the fiercely competitive world of fashion.
I left university in 2007 with a fashion degree and a pitiful bank balance so would often visit Portobello market with my 2 sisters to hunt for bargains. We would always get comments on our Portobello finds – and requests from friends to buy things for them when they couldn’t get to the market themselves. The majority of designers there did not sell online, so the only way to get their products was to physically visit the market. We knew something should be done about this and so pretaportobello.com was born – giving customers online access to original fashion direct from Britain’s markets. {AF template=round_quotes} I suppose the conventional thing to do after graduating would have been to look for a job, but we had this idea and couldn’t shake it. {/AF} So we just thought, let’s go for it and see what happens.
The site looks extremely well put together, did you have to raise money to get it built? How did you get the business off the ground?
Thank you! We didn’t raise any money to get the company off the ground. In fact our version of the first website (this is our second) was REALLY done on a shoestring. In order to keep costs down, we did pretty much all the work ourselves. I did all the design and illustrations and my sisters (who were avid internet shoppers) worked on the site layout, navigation and shopping process. We basically made sure that we designed a site that we’d like to use as customers, and tried to avoid all the things we didn’t like from other websites.
We each put in a small amount of money from savings and this was what we started the business with. I lived with my sisters in their tiny 2 bedroom flat and for the first 9 months from launch, this was where pretaportobello was based! I basically did extensive research on all the elements involved in an etail business – from VAT to post accounts, to packaging to payment systems, and then we just went for it. My sisters continued in their jobs for the first year, working evenings and weekends on the business and then when things really took off, they left to join me at pretaportobello full time. So now it’s a full-on family business!
Is it daunting competing with the likes of ASOS and net-a-porter? How do you get your name out there?
Competition is really fierce online, as the barriers to entry are so low – it’s much easier and cheaper to set up an online shop than it is to set up a physical shop. Obviously there are the huge names like ASOS and NAP, to name but a few, but you can’t not do something just because there is competition. Plus we feel we are different to the other online boutiques out there, so have more of a niche position – we’re not an online boutique, we’re the online market. {AF template=round_quotes} We weren’t just conning ourselves that there was a gap in the market, there genuinely wasn’t anyone out there providing an online link to these fantastic physical fashion hubs, and so we decided to. {/AF}
Of course, being a crowded marketplace it’s often quite hard to get your name out. We have a great PR company that we work very closely with to try to ensure we have exposure and coverage in as many relevant publications as possible, and also we update our Facebook and Twitter regularly to keep our customers up to speed with what’s going on.
Do you have a team around you now? Would you agree that it’s impossible to build a business on your own?
We still have a very small team but it’s growing! I don’t think you can generically say that it’s impossible to build a business on your own because there are too many examples of people that have done just that. But, in my case, it really was a team effort with me and my sisters. {AF template=round_quotes} We all brought different skills to the party and all have our own angles to throw into the mix. {/AF} Plus, it can be such hard work that you need people who have the same goal and the same drive to spur you on when things get tough.
What are your top tips for someone thinking of starting (or have just started) their own online business?
Keep an eye on your cost base. Economic times are still very tough, especially in retail (online or offline). One of the benefits of doing things yourself is that you have a privileged position where you can be aware of everything that is going on in your business. Knowing and staying on top of your figures is critical. {AF template=round_quotes} Accounting may be boring but you need to stay on top of it if you want your company to have longevity. {/AF} Use your small size to your advantage – be flexible and adaptable whilst you still can…often as you get bigger this gets a great deal harder.
{AF template=round_quotes} I think one of the most valuable lessons I’ve learnt (from my father who also runs his own business) is that working hard is not the same as working smart. {/AF} When you start your own business, there is a tendency to work all hours on it – I know we did. We sacrificed a great deal to build things up, and I am sure that pretaportobello is the better for it. BUT, there were occasions where we could have done things better. You need to learn the difference between working all hours and working effectively. Sitting at a desk until 1am doesn’t mean you are necessarily achieving something.
How important is it to see any ‘failure’ as feedback?
{AF template=round_quotes} Although the phrase “learn from your mistakes” is banded around a lot, I still think it’s a very powerful mindset to adopt. {/AF} If you’re like us, you will make lots of mistakes…it’s only natural when you’re in uncharted territory. The trick is not to repeat them, and to ensure that you use them as an opportunity to make things better the next time around.
Thanks Georgie, some fabulous advice there! Please do check out Georgie’s site at Pretoportabello.com!