People often ask, “how do you create a brand from nothing?”
There is no easy answer or one master rule, it is a mixture of many things. A lot of hard work, self-belief, persistence and having a good team all contribute to success.
I remember in the early days of VIGORELLA I worked tirelessly. I was running solo and it took all my energy to get the business up and running. 16-hour days and weekend work were not unusual, but I was not fazed because I could see that something fabulous was happening. Brett my husband was watching VIGORELLA emerge and decided to join the business mid-2005. Brett left his role in mergers and acquisitions at one of Australia’s major banks and joined me in the quest to build a great business and childhood dream. Brett brought his unmatched skill and knowledge in finance to VIGORELLA.
Together we began to create something magical. We appointed agents in a few states and VIGORELLA began to take off. We sold our product via boutiques in both traditional strip shops and in shopping centres. We had our original flagship boutique in Ashburton, Victoria. Our stockists throughout Australia and New Zealand reached 350 plus by 2007. In 2007, there was no online shopping, no click and collect and no fast fashion international brands in Australia.
It is amazing to trace the development of retail in Australia over the past 20 years. It has developed from old click clack credit card machines, paying by cheque, manual order forms and receipts to the monster business that is online shopping today.
Oh, how things have changed...Some may say for the better and some may not. One thing is for certain, it has changed!
