Carol Powell

Carol Powell realised that beauty and fashion can be created from the most unlikely materials. Friends and family admired her creation and the idea for a business was born.

Carol Powell

A dress for her daughter made from an old jumper with holes in the sleeve and a favourite shirt that she simply couldn’t bear to throw out, inspired Carol Powell to realise that beauty and fashion can be created from the most unlikely materials. Friends and family admired her creation and the idea for a business was born.

Old clothing embellished with exquisite buttons and ribbons, using contrasting colours and fabrics was reworked, and Re-jigged was launched in the summer of 2009.

Re-jigged was financed from personal savings and profits from another dress designing business that Carol had established.  In the first year of trading and testing the market, growth was hard won, with attendance at local markets, Christmas events and venues in London and sales of only £7000. As Carol says, “our ready made clothes products have a limited market as it’s unique and handmade, therefore quite expensive and I’ve found the best places to sell are directly in front of customers at stalls and fayres. This is time consuming, but I’ve gathered nearly 2,000 customers’ data – I’ve researched and listened to what they like and want.”

Apart from needing ‘bags of enthusiasm, energy and ambition’ Carol had some free Business Link input in the early days which she found quite helpful. She believes that it can be “daunting, lonely and bewildering in the early days, but input and belief from others is so important”. Her top recommendations for business support include access to gaining skills in PR and Marketing, writing press releases and general accounting, and “actually being able to call on people to help”. All this takes time to learn and costs money when budgets are tight – but could be the difference between a business failing or succeeding in the first two years.

Where next?

  • Getting started
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