Confessions of an Entrepreneur is a series of events run by Leaders in Heels that showcases stories of entrepreneurs who have gone through hardships and difficulties of launching and growing their business. Some were wildly successful, while others failed. You’ll get to hear both sides of the story for a change!
Our first event is on Tuesday April 12 at 6:30pm, and we have four amazing entrepreneurs telling their stories on the night. Sound interesting? Purchase your tickets here!
A quick note from LH Agenda…
Did you know our award-winning planners and journals are designed in collaboration with industry experts? They feature mindset, productivity and leadership content to inspire and empower you.
To give you a taste, we’ve asked each of our speakers a series of questions about themselves, and a teaser of what they’ll be sharing on the night. In this interview, we talk with Elyse Daniels of Exodus Wear!
In 2009 Elyse took a niche idea for jackets you could customise inside and out and turned it into a multi-million dollar business. Exodus Wear now produces a range of custom apparel sold Australia wide to schools, sporting and community groups.
Briefly describe what you do during the week.
My week is spread into the following main areas:
Managing our team
With the sales team a lot of it is just checking in over the phone. They are pretty self sufficient. With the factory I spend a lot more time emailing backwards and forwards making sure we are on track with all of our ETA’s, that we are going to make the cut off’s for sea freight shipments and getting involved with urgent orders that have really strict lead times. The other area I spend a lot of time talking to the factory about is product development. I am constantly looking for and developing products that we can add to our range
Finance
A big part of my role is spent on managing cash flow, payments, reviewing reports, etc. For me this is the hardest part because I am much more creative and so I have had to learn to love spreadsheets!
Marketing
I try and get involved and post on social media accounts, write blog posts and I do a lot of research by following what our customers are doing on social media.
Why do you love doing what you’re doing?
I love what I am doing because I can help my customers bring their vision to life. We go from concept all the way to end product with each customer and there is nothing that makes me happier than walking down the street and running into someone wearing a jacket our company helped design and make. Our customers are also extremely passionate about the product because it is something that they were involved in designing. I love seeing photos and videos of our customers opening the box and screaming with excitement when they get their order.
What will your confession be about… without spilling the beans?
I will be confessing about how I got Justin Bieber to wear one of our jackets without paying a cent!
How did you grow as a result of it?
Having Justin Bieber wear one of our jackets gave us a lot of exposure but also credibility and the cool factor with our target market. It is now something that all of our Sales Reps use as part of our their presentation. The ongoing benefits are priceless.
