Working in a fashion company is exciting – at least to me. I enjoy seeing how projects come to life and being part of them. Obviously, when developing an idea, content is almost always the last link in the chain but, rightly because I am part of the last piece of the puzzle I get explanations on the different bits of any projects. Working in editorial within e-commerce is the occasion to attend trend meetings with buyers and brands, SEO meetings, get analytics and sales reports from the analytics and merchandisers teams etc. In brief, you have a plethora of opportunities to understand better how the place you are working in operates. I have talked about my case in content but whatever the department you are working in, you will always have interactions with different people in the business. Especially now everything has become digital. Now this said, experience taught me that you don’t get to understand the place you are working for – therefore doing your job better – by waiting for everything to come to you. You need to ask for it.
I have grown the most when I went to ask different departments about what there were doing for mine, what I could do for theirs and how we could work together. And to this day, it is something that is tremendously precious in understanding what my next move will be in my career. But not only, now let’s see why you should be curious about the place you are working in.
Teamwork is the best way to understand how your fashion company works
Like no man is an island, a company can’t be successful without teamwork. By this, I mean, you need to have people coming from different backgrounds and departments to make it work. SEO is absolutely not my thing, let alone everything related to understanding how Google ranking works but, as a content person, I am interested in knowing what people look for to find what they want. That is why having regular meetings with the SEO team are important. They explain what people type in their search bar and we are in charge of including these terms in a non-obvious and beautiful way. On the other side, because I am on the writing side, it is also possible discussing with the SEO team what appears when people look for Gucci or Balenciaga and then see if there is a need to write differently, include new terms etc.
In the word teamwork, there is also the word team. As much as it is great to have lunch with direct members of your team, don’t hesitate to get in touch with other people within the company. If you are new, inductions are the best way to meet people from different departments, get to know each other and above all understand what their job is. More often than not, the people you meet during your induction will be the one you will go to to ask for specific information. Working within one department it is easy to isolate yourself and see your work only from your point of view. Meeting with people from different departments even for lunch will be a great eye-opener. So after your induction, don’t hesitate sending an email to the people you chatted with saying you’d love to have lunch with them from time to time. Besides creating a great sense of camaderie, it can help you get access to information you usually don’t have access to, not because you aren’t allowed to but because no one thought it was useful for your team to know. For example, working for the French market, I always find it useful to know someone in departments that can give me numbers like the sales of the week, the top ten sales, what was the most clicked item in an email etc. In brief, everything that can help me understand better the French customer therefore improve my copy.
Don’t miss out trainings and conferences organised by your company
More and more fashion companies go beyond creating clothes. Feminism, empowerment or environmental issues are some themes, they now like their employees to get involved in through workshops, talks, social initiatives etc. Rome wasn’t built in one day, hence why taking part to these initiatives will teach you that within a company changes aren’t easy to make, especially when they keep getting bigger and bigger.
Some companies start initiatives to improve their employees working life and explain step by step how they want to achieve these changes. The most forward-thinking businesses will always invite their employees to make suggestions or invite people knowledgeable about a specific subject to do talks, coaching sessions and workshops to improve the company’s culture. Early on in my career, I became friend with a coach whose job is to help start ups and established businesses working on their growing pains in communication, management and project management. His job isn’t one you hear about very much but I assure you that it is worth going to these workshops. If a company asks you to reach your targets and numbers, my friend’s job will to reach them in a way that benefits both the companies and employees.
Working in a fashion, you might want to attend all the trainings with that designer you love but really don’t just attend those. Get the opportunity to grow as a professional when you have the type of occasions mentioned above.
Being interested in the company you are currently working in is the best set up to understand how you want your future business to look like
A lot of entrepreneurs don’t have a common path. Often, the virus of entrepreneurship got them young and they never worked for anyone else but themselves. Look at Giada, one internship was enough to make her understand she preferred being her own boss. For others on the other hand, becoming an entrepreneur is a learning process through reading books, Youtube tutorials, taking classes and going to conferences. Nonetheless, Â I also realised meeting with entrepreneurs that their past experiences in fashion companies are invaluable and guide them through creating their own business.
The advantages of having a career as a full-time employee before launching your company are multiple. If you have worked for different companies, you are able to see different work ethics, management, organisation and therefore have a clearer idea of the type of business you want. Have you heard that entrepreneurship is a very lonely path? Well, working for different companies you will have the advantage to build a portfolio of useful contacts and who knows, meet your future co-founder, CFO or content manager. Lastly, you will know about the inner workings of the industry and where and what to look when you need it.
A lot of future entrepreneurs state they get easily bored at their job and that they’d prefer investing time in building their business than working for someone else. It is fair enough when you know what you want, nonetheless if you feel you are still staggering, take your job and company as a school and look for what you can learn from it that can benefit your business.
Are you an entrepreneur who was formerly a full-time employee? Tell us how much your past experiences influenced the way you shaped your business.
