Living Life the Essex Way (14 page)

So the opening on the show was like a soft launch, and then we did a proper big opening in April, when the show was over. It was manic as soon as we unlocked the door. That day we had 3,000
people queuing along the little cobbled street. Can you imagine that? It was exciting, but also worrying – what if no one had liked our clothes? But everyone was great, and we got really
positive feedback. All the cast popped in – except Lauren Goodger of course – to wish us luck and check out the place, which was lovely of them.

At the end of the day we had made £8,000 of sales, and every day for those first few weeks we took between £3,000 and £5,000, which is absolutely incredible for a boutique, as
anyone in retail can tell you. A lot of places won’t even take that in a month. We were so happy. I’ve never been so proud as I was on that first day. We went to celebrate in a little
terrace bar nearby – just close friends and family and people who work in the shop.

Since then, Minnies has just kept growing and growing. We have all put so much into it, and have made a real effort to learn everything we can about the business.

So much of it is about knowing your customer. In the beginning it was all young girls coming in, fans of the show, who had saved up their pocket money or wages to spend in the shop. They
generally spend no more than £30–60 a visit, so at first there was no point stocking high-end designer clothes. I remember that first month we were selling mostly value-for-money
jumpers, dresses and floral shirts – the simple, inexpensive stuff was just flying off the shelves.

Now we also get older, richer clients, so we have expanded our range to include more expensive brands. We even get the odd grandmother popping in, although I am not sure if they are buying for
themselves or their grandkids. My glamorous nan, Liz, always pops in for a few things for herself when she is in the area, which I think is great. She must be our oldest customer!

As far as whether people are coming in because they like the shop or because they are
TOWIE
fans, I would honestly say about 70 per cent of our clients are there because of the show,
and that is not something I have a problem with – I know the show has been a huge reason for the shop’s success, and I’m happy and grateful for that. Fans come in because they
want to see me and Billie, and then they will often look for something to take away as a souvenir. I do think the shop would have done well regardless though – there are not many shops like
it on Brentwood High Street, and it is perfect for the local market.

It is the hen parties that make me laugh most. These groups of girls will come from Cardiff or wherever and book in to a hotel in Brentwood, and then they will basically do their own
TOWIE
tour. They get straight off the train and come to Minnies to buy an outfit to wear that night. So they will turn up with their little cases in tow and pile into the shop. Then that
night they are off to Sugar Hut. Not being big-headed, but they want to see me and Billie in the shop, or Kirk and Mick in the club, so if we are working it can properly make their weekend.

When we are filming the show, we are not often in Minnies, but in the months in between, Billie and I make a real effort to be there as much as possible. It is our business after all. We will be
there serving on the shop floor at least three or four days a week, particularly at weekends, as we know that is when most tourists come to the area to check it out because of
TOWIE
. Some
days I think I spend more time standing around having my picture taken than serving! But it’s great, and I really enjoy it. Seriously, I never dreamed two years ago, as I headed off for
another day behind the counter in the bank, that this was how I would be earning a living. It’s amazing!

Profit-wise, people say it takes a year on average to earn back what you put into the business when you set up a shop. We did that within about two weeks – not bad, eh? But we
haven’t been taking big wages – so far we have put most of the money back into Minnies, so we can improve and expand. The hard work is far from over.

Once the store was up and running, the next big project for us was to get it online. Fans of the show from around the UK had been in touch asking how they could buy clothes without having to
travel to Brentwood, so it seemed the obvious thing to do. But, wow, we hadn’t realised just how big a project it would be. It was more work than setting up the shop in the first place!

We decided to aim high from the start, so we began with about 400 items for sale online, which was a huge task. Each item needed to be photographed on a model and we had to write a full
description. And you can’t just say ‘plain white T-shirt’ or whatever, you have to give details of the material, any detailing on it, how to wash it, and so on. And then we needed
to work out how many of each item we needed to stock, which was quite hard to get an idea of at the start, as we didn’t know exactly what response we would get. We decided that Billie and I
would model most of the clothes, with a couple of models to help us out. So we did a shoot with all the items, which was fun but exhausting.

Opening up this side of the business also meant that we needed more staff. We have an internet team now, who deal with getting everything online, checking the orders, merchandising and customer
services. We also use an outside distributor, so we pass the orders on to them, and they deal with the actual sending out of the clothes. With this extra staff, we now have seven people working for
us as well as the four directors. It’s mad when you look at it like that – I’m 21 and a director of a business, with a team of staff working for me. I never expected it, but I
love it!

Not everything went smoothly with the online part of the business though. We held a party for the website and all my friends and family came down to Sugar Hut to celebrate the launch, which was
supposed to be the next day – but then it didn’t happen! There were a few technical glitches, and Billie and I weren’t completely happy with the look of the site, so we decided it
was better that it went up late, rather than on time but with mistakes. I’m glad we waited, as we didn’t want to launch a site that was just OK – and actually, the delay worked to
our advantage, as it built up people’s interest.

Eventually though it went live on 7 October 2011, and within the first ten minutes, it had 410,000 hits, which is insane. It was so popular that the server went down and people were struggling
to actually place their orders.

We could see all the people online buying from our end, which was a great feeling. People were still on the website buying at 3 a.m!

It was funny, because the stuff modelled by me and Billie sold the quickest. The most popular was a little brown fur gilet and skirt that I modelled, and a blue jumper with a heart on it that
Billie modelled. Also massively popular was a pug hoodie we had given Amy Childs, and which she had worn on
Celebrity Big Brother
the month before the site was launched. She wore it loads
in the house, and I think that really helped sales of it. We sold 300 of those alone on the first day.

The website is ten times harder than running the shop though. It is just on such a huge scale, and it takes constant work. We update the online range every two weeks, which means doing fresh
shoots and writing descriptions all the time. But I get a real buzz from it all, and would never complain.

We have been very lucky to receive help from a few pretty high-profile businessmen who have seen how well the website is doing, but realise we are new to it, so have offered up advice when we
need it, with no strings attached. On an average week now, between the shop and the website, we take about £40k of payments, which is amazing.

One of the highlights for me since opening Minnies was when we introduced Beyoncé’s range, House of Dereon. As I am always saying, I am a massive fan of her style, so when I heard
that she was bringing out a range that stayed true to the kind of fashion she goes for herself, I was really excited. I was like ‘Billie, we need this in Minnies now!’

To make it even more exciting, one of the perks of getting her range into the shop was that we got to go to the fashion show that launched it in Selfridges in London – and she was there!
It was well good to see her in person – she is stunning – and there was a great vibe to the event. I felt really privileged to be there with all these proper fashion people.

The other big step we then took in our business was to bring out our own range. Until then, all the clothes we had stocked in the shop had been other people’s designs and lines, but we had
always intended to create our own when we got a chance, although there was so much going on at the time that we didn’t think the opportunity would come so soon.

Basically one of the ranges that had sold the best in Minnies is called Maggie + Me, and House of Fraser also stocks their range. They saw a massive increase in its sales in their stores, and
couldn’t believe the impact the show was having on it. So they contacted our friend Jeff and asked him to chat with us about the possibility of doing our own stuff.

We decided to go for it, and in between filming – yep, trust me, it was madness! – we put together a range of 35 pieces that we took to House of Fraser. They were really positive
about them, and ended up buying 31 of the styles and stocking them in-store! It was so exciting. I remember being at Meadowhall in Sheffield for a signing before the range launched, and being shown
the area in House of Fraser where they were going to have the clothes. It was mad – it’s such a huge store, and only two years before even having the money to shop in there was a big
deal for us, so to have our range stocked there was like a dream.

We decided to call the range GraciEve, after our cousins Grace, who was nine at the time, and Eva, who was seven, who are Auntie Sam’s daughters. We had brainstormed what our typical
customer would want, and went for real Essex girl glam, glitzy and dressy, with diamantes and sequins.

Outside designers came up with the outfits, but we chose what we thought would be right for our range and bought them in. In the future though, I want to be able to actually design the outfits
myself from scratch. I want to sit and sketch out how I envisage an outfit to be, although I am not a good drawer at all, so I guess I’m going to have to work on that! But I have so many
designs and visions in my head. I would love to do catwalk-style outfits but at high-street prices. Really creative, flowy dresses with bits cut out and trouser suits. Pieces that look stylish and
expensive, but are affordable for everyone.

But for that first GraciEve range, we used other designers. It was insane though – we put our entire budget into the clothing, and suddenly realised we had none left for the labels and
packaging! So just a few weeks before it was due to launch, our house basically turned into a factory. We had our friends around, and everyone was pinning labels into the clothing and packing them
up. It was a madhouse, but it was the only way we could get around it, with no budget left to pay someone else to do it!

For two weeks I remember poor Mum getting in from Minnies at like 11.30 p.m., and then working on GraciEve at home, while I would be off doing PAs around the country, and then go home to do the
same. But it had to be done before Christmas – and in amongst all of this we had to do the advertising shoot.

The range was exclusive to Minnies and House of Fraser, and the deal was to keep it like that for two seasons, before opening it out to other stores. Right from day one though, we already had
shops asking about stocking it, which was so exciting – it meant people really believed in us. Some days I really have to pinch myself, as it has all happened so quickly. Sometimes I will
have moments of doubt, and think it can’t be real that all these people suddenly want clothes chosen by me. Then I realise it is reality, and if I don’t concentrate and get back to
work, it will all fall apart!

As a family, our dreams for our businesses have no limit. Now our plans are to just keep expanding. We want more Minnies stores around the country – it would be great to have one in the
North, and one in the Midlands – and, who knows, we might even go abroad. We have had interest from Dubai – how amazing would that be? Of course I am sure it would be crucial for me to
go out there a lot to get that set up!

The business side of things is really important to me, because much as I love
TOWIE
and the celebrity stuff, I have no idea how long it will last – that will be largely decided by
the public. But what I can do is take responsibility for how well the businesses do.

I would like to be comfortable by the time I am 30, as I don’t always want to work. I want a large family, and I want to be a mum who has time to be at home with my kids. I don’t
want to be like Jordan, still doing the business and celeb thing at the same time as raising a family.

Don’t get me wrong, you can’t really knock Jordan for that, because she is clearly a great mum with happy kids, and she is also a great businesswoman. I’m not sure about her
choice of men though, and the way she puts her family in the limelight, but that is the way she has done it, and it’s her choice. But I don’t want to be like that.

And I definitely don’t want to be posing in a bikini or leotard when I’ve had a few kids! It’s a free country, and everyone has their way of doing things and all that, but
I’d rather look smart in a dress and jacket or something – an outfit that gives off the right signal and a genuine image of who I am.

For now though, I am really happy with where I am at, and if the businesses continue as they are, there is no reason I won’t achieve my aim. As for the other
TOWIE
cast members
who have businesses, fair play to them – we all know the show won’t last forever, so it makes sense to open up other options for yourself. But I hope people always remember that
although people have opened up other shops since the show began, Minnies was the original!

Kirk already had Sugar Hut, Mark already did club nights, and Peri’s family already had the card shop, all of which have increased their success off the back of the show. But we were the
first to think of the potential the show could bring to a new business.