Female entrepreneur, Rosie Davies, founded The London Fashion Agency in January 2013 without any loans or investment.
She insisted that the company grew organically to ensure she could offer her clients the most affordable fashion PR and marketing possible.
Three years later, LFA has worked with over 70 brands and gained coverage in over 200 publications.
She shares with us her top 5 tips on keeping costs low.
1. Share space with other start-ups and creative entrepreneurs
Not only is this cutting down the cost on rent, you’re also always around people who know what you’re going through, who you can bounce ideas off of and share triumphs and failures. Closing yourself off into your own space may seem like a great way to get more work done and focus solely on your startup but isolation can often lead to an unhealthy work environment which can cause more harm to your start-up.
2. Utilise young talent
Employing interns or graduates can seem like a risky move for start-ups as it’s hard to give work to students or someone who isn’t as experienced. But if you thoroughly research and interview quality candidates you’ll be sure to find some great help. Obviously, if you’re employing an intern on expenses or minimum pay, it’s important that they are also getting something out of the arrangement. Ensure that you are enhancing their real-world experience and work to fill their portfolio.
3. Focus on your services and nothing else
When you’re starting out it’s easy to over extend yourself to clients, offering to go above and beyond what you originally signed on to do; eventually this will affect your finances. Focus on the services you’re actually getting paid to do and do them well. You may feel pressured to offer large-scale services or products some of your more established competitors are offering but it’s much more valuable to do a few things better than anyone else than to offer as much as your competitors but in a mediocre capacity.
4. Make as much as you can digital
We live in a digital age, so don’t spend your precious money on printing unnecessary flyers, post cards or personalized stationery. It just isn’t worth it. You can create most files and even marketing materials with Microsoft Word or InDesign and by converting those files to PDFs you have free instant shareable, downloadable resources.
5. Market on social media
Don’t have an advertising budget? No problem. Most of your customers are on free social media sites ripe with opportunities to advertise your products and services. This takes a bit of creativity to avoid spamming your audience but executed properly, social media can be your main source of sales and web traffic.
