L U X T R A

LONDON

To Raise Or Not To Raise...?

That is the question

.... and it's been plaguing me for the past five years.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Hello!

I hope you are enjoying your weekend.

For our Canadian readers: Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow!

For our Sydney readers: happy "freedom day" tomorrow!

The old hands amongst you know the drill: we start first of all by welcoming the newbies:

Dear Lauren, Sarina, Alex, Nick, Adam, Rebecca, Ha, Paulina, Natalia, Margareta, James, Eng, Claire, Hala, Becky, Christiane and Laura. Welcome!

This newsletter? My intention is to create an enjoyable read, sprinkled with a few cool insights into the world of sustainable fashion and what it's like to run a sustainable fashion brand.

This week I'm writing about money, but if you're new around here, I always recommend delving into the newsletter archive to bring you up to speed with all the cool developments in the world of sustainable fashion.

But back to money.

It's such a universal topic, and as much as I'd like it not to be the case, moulah really does make the world go round.  

A book that has stayed with me is "Open up: Why Talking About Money Will Change Your Life". It does what it says on the tin: being open about money and finances is extremely liberating and... the more you think about, it really is just common sense. I recommend.

"Hockey Stick" growth chart: what start up dreams are made of.

In the world of start ups, raising money is the "in" thing to do. If you raise a lot of money, you're immediately put on a pedestal. There is no glory is being small and growing organically (i.e. slowly, "healthily" IMHO).

Call me old fashioned (and I'm sure the fact that my father is an accountant plays a role too) but I feel that running a successful business means that the business actually makes money... rather than burning it.  

Inspiration: Sara Blakely, wearning her Spanx 

I've long been inspired by the success stories of Sara Blakely of Spanx (the slimming underwear brand), and more recently by Ben Chestnut and Dan Kurzius, the co-founders of MailChimp (the email marketing company) which has just been acquired by Intuit for $12B.

Sara, Ben and Dan are founders that have built their businesses without taking a dime of outside money. Spanx manufactures products and Mailchimp is a tech company - both of which traditionally require a lot of capital. I'm heartened to see that both these types of businesses, despite their cash thirsty nature, can indeed be built by going it alone.

Ben Chestnut and Dan Kurzius. Mailchimp co-founders.

I've been building LUXTRA since January 2017 without outside investment. But I regularly have moments of great doubt as to whether I should continue to "go it alone".

I ask myself if I am being hard headed? Stubborn? Or worst of all... simply stupid (?!?!) for not trying to take LUXTRA to the next level more quickly.

There's also the important aspect of changing the world. Our strap line is "Leading the way in sustainable fashion" but we're not going to be leading anyone if LUXTRA remains a microscopic piece of lint floating in the midst of the enormous fashion industry...

I don't have the answer as yet - maybe I never will! But if you have any words of wisdom, I'd really love to hear from you. Simply hit reply and your email will come straight into my inbox.

With that, I'll sign off and leave you to enjoy your Sunday.

Ciao for now. 

Jessica x

Founder | Plant Parent | Proud B Corper 

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