When I started out 7 years ago, selling vintage handbags on ebay, I had no idea where I would be today. My whole aim was to sell loads, make some money and not have to go back to the corporate job I was doing.
Fast forward to now – I have a book published, I write regularly for national magazines, I have 2 blogs, run wedding fairs around the country, I sell part time (as I cannot seem to close the shop fully) and hold workshops sharing my experiences and knowledge as part of Vintage Academy. Wow, sometimes I cannot believe it myself!
But actually I am fully aware of how I did this. I created a brand that was not just about being a shop but about me, and my family, and my life. The brand became bigger than the handbags I was selling, and has enabled me to grab amazing opportunities and more importantly, pay myself a wage!
I created a brand story.
I now want to share this with you, so you too can grow your business and brand to be everything you want it to be. Whatever that may be.
Create Your Brand Story Workshop
On September 22nd, at my home in Bedfordshire, I am holding my workshop in association with Vintage Academy titled “Create Your Brand Story”. I will share with you how to create a personal brand especially through blogging and Instagram.
- We will open up, after some pre work, discussing our brands and identifying where you want the to be in the future. I will share my experiences with you in an honest and open way. We will cover some basics too within this session; what is a brand and why is it important. But this is more than a branding session – this is discovering what you want from your brand to make it bigger than the products you sell or the service you provide. We will not be discussing logos and website design in this session.
- We will discuss blogging in detail – why blogging is important to grow your fan base and support your brand. I again will share what has worked and not worked, as well as discussing how to create revenue from your blog.
- Finally we will go through how social media supports your brand and how to actually create a visual brand through photography. Focusing on Instagram we will look at who does this well and why. We will touch on how to grow your follower numbers, choosing to focus more on how to gain their trust and loyalty…so when you launch new products or services they buy!
By the end you will have a greater understanding of branding and how to create the personalised brand to grow your business.
It runs from 10-00 – 3.00 and includes light refreshments (feel free to bring your own packed lunch). Early bird tickets are available until 18th August at £50. Tickets after this date are £65. There are 6 places available.
*Please note this workshop is for all businesses, not just vintage. It is also useful for new businesses as it will be a great opportunity to work out what you want from your brand at the start. However, it is worth noting we will not be discussing retail, event management or traditional marketing- if you want to learn more about this then a full day Vintage Academy workshop will be best for you.
I will be offering the course via Skype for £50 an hour at a time that suits. Depending on what you need this could take up to 3 hours to complete
