The Story
Hi 🙂 I’m Georgina and Onesie Warehouse started after selling hundreds of the all in one piece suits from my dining room table via Facebay (Groups on facebook selling locally to one another). Whilst this was happening my Sister, Lucy Hall who runs Kent Social Media was building the Onesie Warehouse website. This was all happening when onesies just emerged as a super comfy fashion item worn by many celebrities including One Direction and Brad Pitt. Once the website was launched and passed on to me the competition was rife – however sales were still pouring in. Therefore I made the decision to transform my garage into a Warehouse and continue to increase stock levels in order to market a wider range of designs and styles.
I knew for the business to keep going amongst big competitors such as New Look, boohoo.com, Marks & Spencers, Next and many more I needed to create partnerships. I have always liked the idea of doing business and giving back. I read Richard Branson’s ‘Screw Business as Usual’ and this inspired me to start partnering with charities.
My first charity partnership was JDRF a large Type 1 Diabetes Charity which offers support and research to cure those diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. I provided their official Onesie and gave £5 from each sale to the charity as well as going the extra mile to improve awareness of the charity. I helped with their competitions providing a onesie as a prize and held a large campaign around World Diabetes day when JDRF put on a huge walk which they do every year. I also gained my first celebrity endorser, Simon King of The Hairy Bikers. Over 150 sales of the onesie came just from the charity and raised over £750 in a few months.
I am now partnered with Anthony Nolan, the blood cancer charity, The Children’s Air Ambulance and will soon be partnering with a cause for animals, to utilise this we will make use of our fleece animal onesies. I believe Onesie Warehouse growth will be centred around developing strong partnerships and giving back to great charities.
Why start a business?
I have always wanted to run my own successful business; after university studying Media, Communication and Cultural studies I travelled to South America and returned becoming part owner of a woman’s clothing boutique. It was great fun and such a learning curve but I wanted something more and went on to travel again for a year to Asia and Australasia.
On return I started managing music artists. This combined my two passions, the first being music and the second, selling, which was brought on by years as a market trader for my family’s business. I became part of a new digital music start up company which allowed me to be involved in music projects and come up with creative ideas on a daily basis. Two years on and I am now COO for the company and have since started a new music business alongside this with a great passionate team.
Onesie Warehouse and the music management both came to fruition at the same time. I really do consider myself lucky that I have a business with low costs that is growing and at the same time building a successful career in the music industry – two completely different businesses that provides an equal amount of passion. I will continue to grow Onesie Warehouse and hopefully pass the business to either family or other passionate people who believe in the brand and its partnerships. I would love to continue to run both businesses, however managing my time between the two can prove difficult at times.
Finally, I feel I must use my selling skills to plug the Business Mentoring on offer from Kent Foundation. My Mentor Jo, has not only been a great guide but she has offered fantastic support, which when times have got stressful has made me feel at ease to create strategies and take a new approach to combating problems that have arisen in the business.
Business Tip:
Its hard for me to give just one business tip so here is a few for those early on in their business.
“Keep moving forward, think of new ways to grow everyday and start that plan as soon as possible. Don’t sit on things or procrastinate.”
“Partnering with those more experienced or those that can help you grow is important.”
“Finally give back where you can because you can.”