Mistakes I learned from, only after I left Renee of Ghana

This blog exists as a channel for me to share the knowledge I have learned and continue to learn from school and work, which include wins, failures, and everything in between. However, for now, all my blog posts are centered on BUILD. If you don’t know what BUILD means by now, you should go back and read the posts from the beginning - because it’s a very valuable framework or tool for everyone, especially young entrepreneurs like me and you. I will try and keep it concise and focused on the BUILD theme.

 

This is the second of the two scenarios I promised to share, as we gear up for the final stage (D) of the BUILD process next week. These experiences should give you real-life examples to learn from as you work on your own project using BUILD. 

 

Last week, I drew my BUILD lessons from my experience working with the best team at ALA. You can read about it here.

Today, my lessons will be from my experience working with Renee of Ghana (RoG) - the beginning, the new beginning, my wins, failures, breakup (NO I WASN'T FIRED), and post-breakup (which will be covered in the next post). 

Renee of Ghana is a Ghanaian fashion brand that makes high quality tailored clothes using wax prints and textiles. Having worked there unofficially for some years, I noticed a gap that was young women like me not finding clothes to fit their size and taste. After highlighting this, I was tasked to assist them in solving the problem. My aunt, Renee, started and has been running the brand since 1997 and felt that I would be the best person to assist since I had also started my own clothing line, was studying fashion in Paris, and had some experience with entrepreneurship. The perfect fit, right? I was eager to jump on this because it felt like a full-circle moment for me - working for and with a woman I have adored throughout my life. 

 

I started working on the new RoG brick & mortar and online store ideas officially in May 2019. For those who haven’t been following, good luck! 😂 My B (click here if you’re new/need a refresher) was covered from the word go. That wasn’t a problem. I got to work immediately to help myself ‘U’nderstand the work I was about to do and what it would entail. 

 

For all the years that I had bugged my aunt, THE Renee of Renee of Ghana, to consider creating for younger women like myself and those a bit older, never had I considered a physical store as the solution to my problem. I call it my problem because I used to get sad whenever there was no dress in my size or style in the showroom and I knew for sure the problem was for many of her older client’s children like me. I am an internet baby and all I used to fantasize about was the photos on the online store and Instagram page. Never a brick and mortar store. 

 

My first mistake: I let my excitement override my knowledge from research and personal experience.

 

Knowing what I knew then, I should have turned down the idea of a brick-and-mortar store because although the idea was pretty and bougie, results from my research in the UNDERSTAND phase and my experience as an internet and social media savvy young woman showed no NEED for the shop. So yes, the shop was a good idea - not a great one. It was nice, but it wasn’t needed, taking into consideration the fact that my main goal was to create for 16-35 yr/olds who didn’t need physical stores for clothes in the Instagram age.

 

The thing about the BUILD process is, the repetitiveness of it all starts at the Invent phase - not the Understand one. This is because understanding is like the foundation of your makeup or your building - if it’s wrong, everything layered on top can be pretty, but it doesn’t match that foundation. In fact, the end result could be disastrous regardless of what you put on top of the messy foundation. You cannot keep changing your foundation (unless it is absolutely critical, which comes at an extra cost - time, money, etc). You can cover up the foundation with many other layers, but your foundation will still be visible as the days go by. 

I promise you; I did that Understand phase pretty well so in this case, I just opted to use the wrong foundation just so that I could do certain things I would otherwise not have had the chance to. To be specific, at the end of the Understand phase, I came to the conclusion that Renee was missing out on a market that was just within arm’s reach from them - younger women. I say they were just at arm’s reach because most of her long time clients currently between their late forties and fifties have daughters like me, who would find it easier buying and making clothes where their mums do. We all deserve quality clothes - not just our mothers. Knowing my target market was young women who mostly shopped online, a brick-and-mortar fashion store was not on my list of possible solutions at all. Just from interviewing my target audience, coupled with internet research and reading the history of various competing brands, I became very aware of the fact that what I needed was an online store with a focus on social media presence. I only ran with the idea when someone else on the team mentioned it. I thought, “Oh wow, this would actually be very cool to do” instead of “is this the best solution to my identified problem?”

In hindsight, it was very selfish of me, and to date, I console myself with only the fact that I was not the initiator of the idea. It doesn’t make me any less complicit but it’s past. I have moved past that and since learned my lessons. Here are two of the most prominent ones I carry with me all the time;

1. In all things, may my personal preferences come second to the necessities of the task. The same goes for clients I work with - their personal preferences will have to take the backseat next to mine, while we strive to work in the best interest of the solution being created. 

   
   
   

2. I owe it to myself and clients to carefully explain the thought process involved in crafting suitable solutions because not everyone knows BUILD and thinks the same way. 

 

Invent.

Inventing was very insightful and sometimes humbling for me in so many ways at the various stages of the project. I like getting to see the ‘inside activities’ of fields I am unfamiliar with, so doing errands with the interior designer was one of my favorite things to do. On the other hand, seeing that I actually knew almost nothing regarding decorating commercial spaces was just… wow. Fun fact I learned: Mirrors create an illusion of excess space so if you want your place to seem bigger than it actually is, install mirrors. Tried and tested.

Sincerely, I got sucked into the Invent phase and stopped BUILDing after that. That was the most exciting part for me - experimenting with new, different, and unfamiliar interior and clothing designs, crafting a social media campaign strategy, planning effective communication strategies, even hiring two young women amongst many other things. It all felt good - having so much control over everything.

Listen.

This is where things got a bit interesting for me.

 

My second mistake: When it got to making decisions (creating designs, choosing a location, space, bank, etc.) for the shop, I listened to only me.

 

I can’t blame excitement this time. I had started the real work and that process was frustrating enough to drain me of any unnecessary excitement lol.

I was the one who wanted certain designs in certain sizes. I wanted clothes a certain length, with a certain fabric, all of my preferences. In the earlier lesson on Listening, I spoke about listening to the right voices - when I was working on Renee, I was the only voice in my head. Selfish much, but I am only realizing that in hindsight. I only listened to myself in other aspects as well, as if I was the only person the shop would impact. Listening, in other ways, was the beginning of my breakup with the shop even before we launched. 

Just like last week’s example, the last stage that led to me parting ways with Renee of Ghana will feature in the ‘D’ in BUILD lesson coming next week. Similar to my Jabali story, I parted ways before I could see the results of my work directly (both good and bad). I can’t wait to share the ending of both stories next week as we explore the ‘D’ in BUILD- the final step of the BUILD process. I’m very sure you’ll love it!

Thank you for reading and please feel free to comment and let me know what you learned from this and how I could've made it more helpful for you.