Manda again,
Guess who's blogging from Miami?? Yep, yours truly made it safe and sound! surprisingly, there was no drama during my trip here. The very first hour I stepped into the house, Arlie and I started working like crazy. We've been doing our inventory all weekend, planning for the week and updating our marketing plans. It's crazy how much work we have to do, but it feels great. Doing our inventory is really no joke either, not only does it take forever but it's really details oriented. But guess what? we did it! This week, we're preparing for our next business trip, which is happening mid week to Washington DC. We are sponsoring a great event which we will announce on the blog soon, but it's a very exciting opportunity that we're very proud to be part of. So this is going to be a very busy week for us, our web site will be going live very soon and I'm going to start my GMAT prep today! yep, yours truly is quite a multitasker, MBA school in view for next year. Later!
Monday, September 10, 2007
Friday, September 7, 2007
Goodbye (at least for now) Boston, Hello Miami!
Hi there,
Manda here- Seriously that trip to NY and DC was quite something. But I learnt my lesson, no more trying to cut costs that way. It is important that we keep our sanity to function at our best and be very productive. On a different note, I'm officially leaving Boston and moving to Miami in 6 hours. So far I had been going back and forth between both cities, but Arlie and I soon realized that I needed to move to Miami...like yesterday!
Although we both have a strong work ethic and were very productive working in different cities, we noticed that it was much easier working together, physically in the same place. The saying "l'union fais la force" (unity is power)has never been so true. Together, our energy level is higher, decision making becomes easier and we simply feel stronger. So for all of you fierce entrepreneurs that are just starting out, if you are working from different cities, states, or even countries, waste no time. Invest in those moving expenses for your business partner (s) ASAP. You may have to make some heavy sacrifices moving away, but it is my philosophy that when you engage in an activity, you should give it your all and commit to it 100%. That way you maximize your potential for great results, and you fell great about yourself.
In my case, moving to Miami is easier because I'm free like a bird (and I absolutely love it). But I'm a bit sad to leave Boston and all the great things that come along with leaving in New England. Needless to say, I will NOT miss the freezing cold weather, the loud and sometimes obnoxious Red Sox fans ( I'm truly sorry people, but you ARE loud and obnoxious). What I will miss about Boston: Clambakes, riding the T, Irish men ( lol, I just had to say it), the fall season, that accent, my friends, little family in Salem, white Christmas and a lot more. But listen, Your girl Manda is a serious trooper, are you kidding me? I AM SO READY FOR MIAMI. At the K connection, we work very hard and play hard, and there's no place like Miami to play hard!
All in all, do not be afraid to take risks like moving away from your home and stepping out of your comfort zone. You must play to win, it's as simple as that. Leave no space to "what if 's" and "I wish i had 's" in your life. The unknown can be scary, but also full of excitement.
It's 2:38 am and I must leave for the airport at 6:30 am. And did I mention that I only slept for three hours last night? that brain of mind was working very hard on some ideas for The K Connection! My next blog entry will be done from Miami, until then.....
Manda here- Seriously that trip to NY and DC was quite something. But I learnt my lesson, no more trying to cut costs that way. It is important that we keep our sanity to function at our best and be very productive. On a different note, I'm officially leaving Boston and moving to Miami in 6 hours. So far I had been going back and forth between both cities, but Arlie and I soon realized that I needed to move to Miami...like yesterday!
Although we both have a strong work ethic and were very productive working in different cities, we noticed that it was much easier working together, physically in the same place. The saying "l'union fais la force" (unity is power)has never been so true. Together, our energy level is higher, decision making becomes easier and we simply feel stronger. So for all of you fierce entrepreneurs that are just starting out, if you are working from different cities, states, or even countries, waste no time. Invest in those moving expenses for your business partner (s) ASAP. You may have to make some heavy sacrifices moving away, but it is my philosophy that when you engage in an activity, you should give it your all and commit to it 100%. That way you maximize your potential for great results, and you fell great about yourself.
In my case, moving to Miami is easier because I'm free like a bird (and I absolutely love it). But I'm a bit sad to leave Boston and all the great things that come along with leaving in New England. Needless to say, I will NOT miss the freezing cold weather, the loud and sometimes obnoxious Red Sox fans ( I'm truly sorry people, but you ARE loud and obnoxious). What I will miss about Boston: Clambakes, riding the T, Irish men ( lol, I just had to say it), the fall season, that accent, my friends, little family in Salem, white Christmas and a lot more. But listen, Your girl Manda is a serious trooper, are you kidding me? I AM SO READY FOR MIAMI. At the K connection, we work very hard and play hard, and there's no place like Miami to play hard!
All in all, do not be afraid to take risks like moving away from your home and stepping out of your comfort zone. You must play to win, it's as simple as that. Leave no space to "what if 's" and "I wish i had 's" in your life. The unknown can be scary, but also full of excitement.
It's 2:38 am and I must leave for the airport at 6:30 am. And did I mention that I only slept for three hours last night? that brain of mind was working very hard on some ideas for The K Connection! My next blog entry will be done from Miami, until then.....
Our First Business Trip/ The DC part
Arlie again.
So I was telling you the other day about our trip to meet buyers for our clothes. What I did not tell you is that we only had three days to do all that. We got to NY on Sunday afternoon and we were supposed to get back to Miami the following Wednesday.
Before I go further in my story, I just want to let everyone know that I do not want to sound offensive in what I'm going to say, but not everything is rosy all the time and you have to say things like they are....So with all due respect...
During our trip we were also supposed to meet with representatives of that famous African designer, so that we could get samples of his clothing lines to show to our buyers.
Before we left to NY, the plan was to meet his representative ( who was a member of his family) in the Big Apple. They had wanted at first that we pay an airplane ticket and a hotel room for them to meet us in NY ( Huh? ). As I told you, our budget was tighter than a needle point so we finally agreed to pay for road transportation only.
On Monday morning we call them to find out when they were going to meet us. They say they'll call us back. On Tuesday we say hey! we are going back to Miami tomorrow so it's important that we meet you guys TODAY. They say they are tired and they aren't going nowhere. HAH. Don't get me started about how WE African people do business like that and the reason why WE are at the place we are now.
Try to explain to me WHY when we are giving that very famous designer the opportunity to present his lines to buyers from Macys, Saks and other departments stores, his representatives does not want to meet us halfway. All of us are trying to make it. WHY can't they help us and we help them? Why oh why?
So then it's decision time. Manda and I decide to leave NY after all our meetings to Washington and get back to the City in time for our afternoon plane back to Miami.
Because the money is tight, instead of taking the regular bus line ( greyhound) to DC, we decide to take the Chinese bus which is 1/3 of the regular price. We buy two round trips and leave NY at 6pm.
My God! We spend 5 excruciating frigging hours in that frigging bus (excuse my French but it's my blog so I'll use whatever language i deem necessary!). Here we are inside the bus, the only black girls surrounded by people who barely speak English, bombarded during five hours with Chinese Hip Hop, people pigging out all over the place, the mixed smell of food and urine...Lord have mercy!...One hour after we leave, Manda has to pee... so she gets up and goes to the bathroom. She comes back 2 seconds later...I ask how come she's done so fast. She tells me about the state of the toilet...I'll won't give any details here but you can easily imagine. So my poor Manda has to hold it for the rest of the trip. I won't be as courageous as her an hour later but let's not talk about it anymore...
So we get to DC at 11pm. Our ticket back to NY is for 3:30am.
We get to the lady who is going to show us the clothes around 11:30pm. We are in awe in front of what we see. And proud of all the talent coming from our Continent. So we see the clothes and ask for the price. Hehe. Before going to DC, we had an agreement with the designer that the clothes would be half priced for us. The lady says that he did not tell her anything so no discount for us. One dress for example is $250. How much are we supposed to spend to get enough samples to show to the buyers? I already told you what I think about those type of business practices so I'll just go ahead with the story.
Anyway. Your girls here don't have enough money to buy all the samples that night. So we leave from there, having put the clothes we want aside and telling the lady that we would send her the money when we get to NY. She says Ok.
So it's 2am. We are downtown DC. The bus is supposed to leave at 3:30am so we have an hour and a half to kill in the company of all the drunkards around. Because we don't feel safe, we get inside the only restaurant opened around to have a drink. We are tired and in a bad mood.
At 3:10 we get up to go get inside our favorite chinese bus. We get there. No bus. The only person there tells us the bus just left. Huh? It's not even 3:30am yet! Yup! But the bus still left at 3.
You can easily imagine the faces we were making. So the person tells us there is another bus leaving, go catch it.
That bus is in fact driving away. So we start running after it, screaming "please stop, please stop". The bus driver stop. We ask if we can use the ticket from the other company. Nope. "20 dollars, 20 dollars". We don't have 40 dollars in cash with us. There is an atm just across the street. So we tell him "please wait for us we just run to the atm and come back. please please please, pretty please". "20 dollars, 20 dollars" he replies. People inside the bus start laughing at us.
We ask at what time is the next bus, and they say 8am. If we take the 8am bus, we'll miss our 1pm flight to Miami. So we beg the bus driver to wait 5 minutes, the time for us to get 40 dollars in cash. He laughs, says no and just drives away.
So we sit right there on the sidewalk, silent, scared and miserable. We already know we are going to miss our plane back to Miami. What are we going to do? Where can we go?
We see a hotel sign 5 minutes away, so we walk there, hoping that we can connect to their wireless system and check on the earliest way to get back to NY.
Inside the hotel, we find that nice gentleman. We tell him our sad, sob story. He lets us use the internet for free and he offers us a discount price for the hotel room.
We've never been so happy to lay on fluffy beds. We just savor the moment. Manda and I deal with stress differently. She gets inside the bed and just sink into oblivion. I'm so wired I can't sleep.
One hour before the first bus is supposed to leave DC, we are at the station, waiting. They won't get us this time! I haven't slept, we can't remember the last time we ate, so we really are in a bad mood. During the trip back to NY, I change the time for our flights to Miami and put another dent on our already stretched budget.
When we get to NY, we barely have time to go take our stuff from the hostel, check out and go to the airport. The lady from DC calls us and start literally yelling at us because it's 12pm and have not sent her the money like we told her the night before. I start yelling back but my girl Manda is there to calm things down. I'm fuming...
Anyway...there you have the full account of that trip.
There's a lesson to be learned here: the cheapest way is not always the best.
When you have a startup, you don't have money to spend around so you want to save money wherever you can. But doing that can make you loose time and loose opportunities.
If we had taken the regular bus to DC, we would have been back on time to NY, thus save money on the hotel room and the airline change fees... And save on the aggravation too.
Anyway, now we know.
So I was telling you the other day about our trip to meet buyers for our clothes. What I did not tell you is that we only had three days to do all that. We got to NY on Sunday afternoon and we were supposed to get back to Miami the following Wednesday.
Before I go further in my story, I just want to let everyone know that I do not want to sound offensive in what I'm going to say, but not everything is rosy all the time and you have to say things like they are....So with all due respect...
During our trip we were also supposed to meet with representatives of that famous African designer, so that we could get samples of his clothing lines to show to our buyers.
Before we left to NY, the plan was to meet his representative ( who was a member of his family) in the Big Apple. They had wanted at first that we pay an airplane ticket and a hotel room for them to meet us in NY ( Huh? ). As I told you, our budget was tighter than a needle point so we finally agreed to pay for road transportation only.
On Monday morning we call them to find out when they were going to meet us. They say they'll call us back. On Tuesday we say hey! we are going back to Miami tomorrow so it's important that we meet you guys TODAY. They say they are tired and they aren't going nowhere. HAH. Don't get me started about how WE African people do business like that and the reason why WE are at the place we are now.
Try to explain to me WHY when we are giving that very famous designer the opportunity to present his lines to buyers from Macys, Saks and other departments stores, his representatives does not want to meet us halfway. All of us are trying to make it. WHY can't they help us and we help them? Why oh why?
So then it's decision time. Manda and I decide to leave NY after all our meetings to Washington and get back to the City in time for our afternoon plane back to Miami.
Because the money is tight, instead of taking the regular bus line ( greyhound) to DC, we decide to take the Chinese bus which is 1/3 of the regular price. We buy two round trips and leave NY at 6pm.
My God! We spend 5 excruciating frigging hours in that frigging bus (excuse my French but it's my blog so I'll use whatever language i deem necessary!). Here we are inside the bus, the only black girls surrounded by people who barely speak English, bombarded during five hours with Chinese Hip Hop, people pigging out all over the place, the mixed smell of food and urine...Lord have mercy!...One hour after we leave, Manda has to pee... so she gets up and goes to the bathroom. She comes back 2 seconds later...I ask how come she's done so fast. She tells me about the state of the toilet...I'll won't give any details here but you can easily imagine. So my poor Manda has to hold it for the rest of the trip. I won't be as courageous as her an hour later but let's not talk about it anymore...
So we get to DC at 11pm. Our ticket back to NY is for 3:30am.
We get to the lady who is going to show us the clothes around 11:30pm. We are in awe in front of what we see. And proud of all the talent coming from our Continent. So we see the clothes and ask for the price. Hehe. Before going to DC, we had an agreement with the designer that the clothes would be half priced for us. The lady says that he did not tell her anything so no discount for us. One dress for example is $250. How much are we supposed to spend to get enough samples to show to the buyers? I already told you what I think about those type of business practices so I'll just go ahead with the story.
Anyway. Your girls here don't have enough money to buy all the samples that night. So we leave from there, having put the clothes we want aside and telling the lady that we would send her the money when we get to NY. She says Ok.
So it's 2am. We are downtown DC. The bus is supposed to leave at 3:30am so we have an hour and a half to kill in the company of all the drunkards around. Because we don't feel safe, we get inside the only restaurant opened around to have a drink. We are tired and in a bad mood.
At 3:10 we get up to go get inside our favorite chinese bus. We get there. No bus. The only person there tells us the bus just left. Huh? It's not even 3:30am yet! Yup! But the bus still left at 3.
You can easily imagine the faces we were making. So the person tells us there is another bus leaving, go catch it.
That bus is in fact driving away. So we start running after it, screaming "please stop, please stop". The bus driver stop. We ask if we can use the ticket from the other company. Nope. "20 dollars, 20 dollars". We don't have 40 dollars in cash with us. There is an atm just across the street. So we tell him "please wait for us we just run to the atm and come back. please please please, pretty please". "20 dollars, 20 dollars" he replies. People inside the bus start laughing at us.
We ask at what time is the next bus, and they say 8am. If we take the 8am bus, we'll miss our 1pm flight to Miami. So we beg the bus driver to wait 5 minutes, the time for us to get 40 dollars in cash. He laughs, says no and just drives away.
So we sit right there on the sidewalk, silent, scared and miserable. We already know we are going to miss our plane back to Miami. What are we going to do? Where can we go?
We see a hotel sign 5 minutes away, so we walk there, hoping that we can connect to their wireless system and check on the earliest way to get back to NY.
Inside the hotel, we find that nice gentleman. We tell him our sad, sob story. He lets us use the internet for free and he offers us a discount price for the hotel room.
We've never been so happy to lay on fluffy beds. We just savor the moment. Manda and I deal with stress differently. She gets inside the bed and just sink into oblivion. I'm so wired I can't sleep.
One hour before the first bus is supposed to leave DC, we are at the station, waiting. They won't get us this time! I haven't slept, we can't remember the last time we ate, so we really are in a bad mood. During the trip back to NY, I change the time for our flights to Miami and put another dent on our already stretched budget.
When we get to NY, we barely have time to go take our stuff from the hostel, check out and go to the airport. The lady from DC calls us and start literally yelling at us because it's 12pm and have not sent her the money like we told her the night before. I start yelling back but my girl Manda is there to calm things down. I'm fuming...
Anyway...there you have the full account of that trip.
There's a lesson to be learned here: the cheapest way is not always the best.
When you have a startup, you don't have money to spend around so you want to save money wherever you can. But doing that can make you loose time and loose opportunities.
If we had taken the regular bus to DC, we would have been back on time to NY, thus save money on the hotel room and the airline change fees... And save on the aggravation too.
Anyway, now we know.
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Our First Business Trip
Ok. Arlie here. As I promised, here's a brief account of our first business trip in The Big Apple and The Nation's Capital.
I get to NY on a rainy Sunday. The weather is awful but I'm happy. I'm going to spend a few days working with my partner in crime.
I have big hopes for this trip. We'll work very hard, we'll party harder. I have a list of stores managers that we need to meet with and also a list of all the clubs I want to hit before going back to the MIA. Of course...of course...we have to do all that on a very tight budget. We are just starting. Right? Riiiiight!
Anyway. Speaking about budget. We had made reservations for what I thought was going to be a room for two at a very famous hostel in the city. First surprise. I get into the room and I find four other girls there. We are actually going to bunk with other girls during the whole time here? Noooo. I tell Manda: "Ok. I know we made reservations here and wanted to save money but can we sneak out of here and find another place where we could actually have some privacy?" Nope. As it happens, they have our credit card number on file. We're stuck. But that's ok. We're girls scouts. We'll handle it. So we toughen it up, even it we have to shower almost fully clothed not to catch any germs in those ^&(*&^&%& public showers and bathrooms. Ugh...never again.
Soooo! Sunday night, we plan our trip. I told you I had names and addresses for department stores managers we wanted to meet right? Ok. Did I also tell you that those people were so hard to reach the weeks before our trip that we just decided to drop in on them? No? So now you know! So we set the schedule that night.
On Monday, we spend the whoooooole day perfecting our business proposal... It's our baby, it has to be perfect... We want to make an impression....10 hours straight. No pause, no food ( at least for me ...hahaha). When we are finally done at night ( writing, printing a binding), it's time to go partying. I would have told you about it but that is the subject for another blog...
Tuesday, we hit the stores. Let me tell you about how a few of them went.
We walk into the first one, as if we know where we are going and what we are doing ( fake it 'til you make it right?). The office door is locked. Oh oh. How are we going to get in? Manda tells me: "let's just seat here until someone opens the door"(that girl is crazy I'm telling you).
I say: "no, they'll ask us to leave. Let's walk around the clothes a little bit and when someone opens the door we run to it before it closes. "
So ten minutes later someone gets out of the office. I run to the door. I catch it before it closes. Manda follows quietly. It's funny now, but we were not laughing at the moment. We follow the hall, to a secretary (I suppose). To the secretary: " We want to see Mrs. X regarding distributions of our clothes with your company". The secretary : "her office is right there". I look at her. I can't believe it was so easy. So that's how we find ourselves sitting down in front of one of the buyer for that huge department store, shaking in our boots and trying not to show it.
How did the encounter go? ...well...you'll know soon enough. Just know when you see those African designs in the racks that the K girls were there...
For the second store, the buyer was not there but we had made arrangements with one of his associate to drop our proposal at the lobby with the guard but dis we do that? Hell no! We just went up to her office, walking as if we knew were we going. It's funny because we were cruising in the offices of that huge department store, and no one was stopping us. So we found the girl, introduced ourselves. She was too polite to throw us out so we sat down and gave her our pitch. Again, you'll know how it went eventually. LOL.
For one of the other store, we had actually called the lady so many times ( like everyday at the same hour the week before our trip) that she actually called us back to learn about us. See? It can pay to be tenacious.
So the lesson for that part of the trip? Be daring and tenacious. What's the worst that could happen? people saying no? Oh please!
Ok. I'm a bit tired now so I'll let you know later about the DC part of the trip.
Arlie's OUT!
I get to NY on a rainy Sunday. The weather is awful but I'm happy. I'm going to spend a few days working with my partner in crime.
I have big hopes for this trip. We'll work very hard, we'll party harder. I have a list of stores managers that we need to meet with and also a list of all the clubs I want to hit before going back to the MIA. Of course...of course...we have to do all that on a very tight budget. We are just starting. Right? Riiiiight!
Anyway. Speaking about budget. We had made reservations for what I thought was going to be a room for two at a very famous hostel in the city. First surprise. I get into the room and I find four other girls there. We are actually going to bunk with other girls during the whole time here? Noooo. I tell Manda: "Ok. I know we made reservations here and wanted to save money but can we sneak out of here and find another place where we could actually have some privacy?" Nope. As it happens, they have our credit card number on file. We're stuck. But that's ok. We're girls scouts. We'll handle it. So we toughen it up, even it we have to shower almost fully clothed not to catch any germs in those ^&(*&^&%& public showers and bathrooms. Ugh...never again.
Soooo! Sunday night, we plan our trip. I told you I had names and addresses for department stores managers we wanted to meet right? Ok. Did I also tell you that those people were so hard to reach the weeks before our trip that we just decided to drop in on them? No? So now you know! So we set the schedule that night.
On Monday, we spend the whoooooole day perfecting our business proposal... It's our baby, it has to be perfect... We want to make an impression....10 hours straight. No pause, no food ( at least for me ...hahaha). When we are finally done at night ( writing, printing a binding), it's time to go partying. I would have told you about it but that is the subject for another blog...
Tuesday, we hit the stores. Let me tell you about how a few of them went.
We walk into the first one, as if we know where we are going and what we are doing ( fake it 'til you make it right?). The office door is locked. Oh oh. How are we going to get in? Manda tells me: "let's just seat here until someone opens the door"(that girl is crazy I'm telling you).
I say: "no, they'll ask us to leave. Let's walk around the clothes a little bit and when someone opens the door we run to it before it closes. "
So ten minutes later someone gets out of the office. I run to the door. I catch it before it closes. Manda follows quietly. It's funny now, but we were not laughing at the moment. We follow the hall, to a secretary (I suppose). To the secretary: " We want to see Mrs. X regarding distributions of our clothes with your company". The secretary : "her office is right there". I look at her. I can't believe it was so easy. So that's how we find ourselves sitting down in front of one of the buyer for that huge department store, shaking in our boots and trying not to show it.
How did the encounter go? ...well...you'll know soon enough. Just know when you see those African designs in the racks that the K girls were there...
For the second store, the buyer was not there but we had made arrangements with one of his associate to drop our proposal at the lobby with the guard but dis we do that? Hell no! We just went up to her office, walking as if we knew were we going. It's funny because we were cruising in the offices of that huge department store, and no one was stopping us. So we found the girl, introduced ourselves. She was too polite to throw us out so we sat down and gave her our pitch. Again, you'll know how it went eventually. LOL.
For one of the other store, we had actually called the lady so many times ( like everyday at the same hour the week before our trip) that she actually called us back to learn about us. See? It can pay to be tenacious.
So the lesson for that part of the trip? Be daring and tenacious. What's the worst that could happen? people saying no? Oh please!
Ok. I'm a bit tired now so I'll let you know later about the DC part of the trip.
Arlie's OUT!
Monday, September 3, 2007
Manda here- So I'm in Boston at the moment and should be back in Miami within a week or so. It's a bit harder for me to to be away for so long at this time, because there's so much to be done in Miami. We have a shipping of Kabas arriving in Miami tomorrow, which means that we have to start working on marketing and sales for those. One would say that we can get going before they get here. True, but we're actually rather limited not having the Kabas here and can only do so much. Anyways, I'm really excited to be back in Miami next week.
While I'm here in Boston, I work mainly on finding new designers that fit our profile. This means African designers who create beautiful garments that are wearable in daily life here in America and incorporate African fabrics. Even with simple, everyday garments, I'm always looking for that "wow" effect. I believe that when you see a garment, you can actually get a sense of who the designer is just by the way it is made, combination of fabrics, quality and more. In other words, a garment should never be just a garment. While there are many young designers in Africa that fit our profile, it's a bit harder to find them because many do not have web sites and have not been discovered. But that's why The K Girls are here right? So we scout those designers and once we find them, we truly bring their work to the the next level by providing them with the best sales, marketing and PR services in the country. Because we are Africans and grew up in Africa, we understand the difficulties they encounter as fashion designers. The dilemma for most African designers ( and designers everywhere I'm sure) is not creating, it is rather financing the production of a clothing line. But that will be the subject of another post!
I'm confident that in the future, we will be able to scout on location, which is exciting because trust me there are some REALLY talented designers in Africa.
I wanted to write something else here but I forgot.. oh well! No wait, so I'm really excited ( I know am I ever not even a tiny bit excited?) because I'm starting fashion school in October. Of course I have always liked fashion and had a strong interest in it, but truly I never even imagined I would go to fashion school until recently. So when did I have my Aha moment? When we started The K Connection, I was very disappointed with the quality of work of some designers we encountered. Moreover, I realized that no matter how hard I try to explain to someone my vision for a specific garment, they will never be able to execute it the way I see it. At that point I pretty much said: OK, what the heck, I'll learn how to do it myself. Besides, it will only make me better at my job, voila!
K, your girl Manda's sleepy here. Later, a plus!
P.S: For all you entrepreneurs out there, watch The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch on NBC. You will save yourself a lot of time and mistakes. I absolutely love Donny and guess what? Soon enough The K Girls will be on his show!
While I'm here in Boston, I work mainly on finding new designers that fit our profile. This means African designers who create beautiful garments that are wearable in daily life here in America and incorporate African fabrics. Even with simple, everyday garments, I'm always looking for that "wow" effect. I believe that when you see a garment, you can actually get a sense of who the designer is just by the way it is made, combination of fabrics, quality and more. In other words, a garment should never be just a garment. While there are many young designers in Africa that fit our profile, it's a bit harder to find them because many do not have web sites and have not been discovered. But that's why The K Girls are here right? So we scout those designers and once we find them, we truly bring their work to the the next level by providing them with the best sales, marketing and PR services in the country. Because we are Africans and grew up in Africa, we understand the difficulties they encounter as fashion designers. The dilemma for most African designers ( and designers everywhere I'm sure) is not creating, it is rather financing the production of a clothing line. But that will be the subject of another post!
I'm confident that in the future, we will be able to scout on location, which is exciting because trust me there are some REALLY talented designers in Africa.
I wanted to write something else here but I forgot.. oh well! No wait, so I'm really excited ( I know am I ever not even a tiny bit excited?) because I'm starting fashion school in October. Of course I have always liked fashion and had a strong interest in it, but truly I never even imagined I would go to fashion school until recently. So when did I have my Aha moment? When we started The K Connection, I was very disappointed with the quality of work of some designers we encountered. Moreover, I realized that no matter how hard I try to explain to someone my vision for a specific garment, they will never be able to execute it the way I see it. At that point I pretty much said: OK, what the heck, I'll learn how to do it myself. Besides, it will only make me better at my job, voila!
K, your girl Manda's sleepy here. Later, a plus!
P.S: For all you entrepreneurs out there, watch The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch on NBC. You will save yourself a lot of time and mistakes. I absolutely love Donny and guess what? Soon enough The K Girls will be on his show!
Finally!!!!!!!!
We've started the blog!! yay us!!
Arlie here. To those who know us and read this blog, welcome and make yourself at ease. To those who are just getting to know us, we are crazy like that. You'll get used to it. Just sit down and read!
Humm ...where should I start? At the beginning I guess...well for me it started back in June, just after graduation. Like a lot of people my age leaving grad school, I had a few prospects in sights job wise but was not really eager to go out there and start a 9 to 5, corporate America, the whole nine yards.
So I was taking my sweet time deciding what I was going to do with the rest of my life when I fell upon a bunch of cool and nice clothes my aunt had sent me from back home (Cameroon). All beautiful kabas that she wanted me to wear here or give to my friends as gifts.... Gifts? as in "give"? not in America sweetheart. People want to rip those clothes off me everytime I wear them, let them pay for it... Then the I-dea took a hold of me. Why not sell those? they'll be a smashing success. And they were! So I decided to work for myself, in a field I love and make it big...
So I started writing all my ideas down and I called my partner in crime, the one and only Manda, who was at work at the time. It just happened that she was bored out of her mind and wanted to do something else with her life. Funny enough, she was checking a few African fashion websites when I called. So I talked to her about what I was planning. She told me "I'm quitting my job tomorrow and coming down to work with you Mamita ( the term of endearment we use for each other)".
Well here we are, ready to take the world on!
I'll be back later to tell you about our first business trip. that one was unforgettable...haha, still laughing about it...
Humm ...where should I start? At the beginning I guess...well for me it started back in June, just after graduation. Like a lot of people my age leaving grad school, I had a few prospects in sights job wise but was not really eager to go out there and start a 9 to 5, corporate America, the whole nine yards.
So I was taking my sweet time deciding what I was going to do with the rest of my life when I fell upon a bunch of cool and nice clothes my aunt had sent me from back home (Cameroon). All beautiful kabas that she wanted me to wear here or give to my friends as gifts.... Gifts? as in "give"? not in America sweetheart. People want to rip those clothes off me everytime I wear them, let them pay for it... Then the I-dea took a hold of me. Why not sell those? they'll be a smashing success. And they were! So I decided to work for myself, in a field I love and make it big...
So I started writing all my ideas down and I called my partner in crime, the one and only Manda, who was at work at the time. It just happened that she was bored out of her mind and wanted to do something else with her life. Funny enough, she was checking a few African fashion websites when I called. So I talked to her about what I was planning. She told me "I'm quitting my job tomorrow and coming down to work with you Mamita ( the term of endearment we use for each other)".
Well here we are, ready to take the world on!
I'll be back later to tell you about our first business trip. that one was unforgettable...haha, still laughing about it...
First entry, Yeees!
So excited! So we really should have started this blog earlier but like they say, better late than never right? Arlie will tell you more about our humble beginnings latter on but I will start by this, we decided to start a blog for many reasons: We want to provide all you fierce entrepreneurs out there with an inside look at the daily struggles, and joys of building a successful business in fashion. Also, there's growing interest out there about African fashion in the US and we want to ensure that everyone has access to the right information, as well as best of African Fashion.
About me: please call me Manda, I manage Fashion and Public Relations for The K Connection and I love it! I have a background in Political science, International and Educational travel, Fashion and the list goes on. I'm from Cameroon, hopped around the world for a bit and here I am in Fab Miami! My favorite clothing item is a trench coat and I love sushi. I'm very positive, very competitive and in this business, I'm the bad cop.
About me: please call me Manda, I manage Fashion and Public Relations for The K Connection and I love it! I have a background in Political science, International and Educational travel, Fashion and the list goes on. I'm from Cameroon, hopped around the world for a bit and here I am in Fab Miami! My favorite clothing item is a trench coat and I love sushi. I'm very positive, very competitive and in this business, I'm the bad cop.
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