It's not personal; It's just business!

I know a lot of designers when they start their own fashion label take everything personally. The buyer didn’t buy the collection because it wasn’t good enough; the journalist didn’t write about the brand because your pictures suck; you weren’t accepted by the fashion week organisers because your competitor is better than you!

But the real honest truth is – none of this is personal. It is just business. It is really important that you try to take the emotion out of business issues.

I know that for a designer, selling the collection that you have put blood, sweat, dreams and tears into, is like selling your children and you take every knock back personally. However, maybe the buyer didn’t mean it personally, it could be that they have no budget left this season, or already have a similar brand at the moment. The journalist may have felt compelled to include their advertiser for the feature or you just didn’t fit the brief this time. And the fashion week organiser may have already filled the schedule!

Or it could be that the collection isn’t ready yet, the pictures aren’t great and you aren’t popular enough to host a show yet - but whichever it is – you can’t blame someone else for doing what they have to do in the best interest of their business.

You need to develop a tough skin to run your own label. If you weren’t successful this time, don’t take it personally consider it another step in the business path and pull up your big girl/boy pants and start again and come back bigger, better and stronger!