A Business Born Again

Hi Creative People,

I know it's been a while since my last post...unfortunately, life happened...but I am back. As a treat for being away for a while, I will be uploading a couple of more post this week...maybe even a give-away...stay tuned!

In this post, I am introducing you to the business I use to run some years ago. This business was never a 'brick & mortar' type of business, I was operating this business out of my home. Life happened in the past and the business was put on the back burner while I finished years of college, had another child, got married and then divorced...blah, blah, blah!. Anyway, before I go any further, which I will try to keep it short, I want to give you some history on this business.

MY BRIEF BUSINESS HISTORY

As part of my many years of sewing, I have had several sewing related businesses and one of them was my favorite. In the middle to late 90's I had a business of custom designed lingerie and evening wear. I named that business, Lenique's Originals, with the tagline, Innovator of Style. The primary focus of this business was to offer women custom fit lingerie and evening wear. I really enjoyed working that business because of the clientele, the many fashion shows, and especially the lingerie house parties. I especially liked the lingerie house parties because it lended itself as an opportunity for women to get together with their girlfriends for a subject for 'girls night out', camaraderie, and most importantly, income for my business.

During the lingerie house parties, I would show a lot of lingerie pieces that I often refer to as lingerie samples, clients choose from those samples, and at that time I would take their measurements, deposits, and make their garments, and within 4 to 6 weeks, I will have their completed garments. At the fashion shows, I will have models modeling my designs and gain clients after the show to set up their consultations at a later date. I also edited, produced and printed a bi-monthly newsletter, that highlighted local fashion designers, fashion trends, fashion events, fashion advice, etc. The newsletter also served the purpose of promoting Lenique's Originals advertisements and current events.

Unfortunately, I began to let life dictate to me what to do with my time. I slowed down all promotions on my business and started college in 2001. When I realized, I did not have enough time to wear all the hats that were required, I hung up my tape measure and sewing machine for thick college textbooks. Term papers became my life and although, I was deep in writing college papers, I always thought about my business and sewing but, I didn't have time considering all the papers I had to write and not to mention, everything else life had to offer.

Although I allowed life to dictate my direction in that business and even while not working that business, it remained on my mind as something I wanted to bring back to life one day. Well, one day happened in 2005. At that time, I still was writing papers for college but I was also writing a business plan for my current business, Sewing Treasures. My focus at that time was to write a business plan to use as a blueprint for the direction I was looking to take my business. This is when the development of Sewing Treasures started. I wrote some background info on Sewing Treasures and you can read more about that here.

PRESENT DAY

Lenique's Originals-Lingerie Sample Garment

While operating Sewing Treasures, which is in the business of teaching sewing classes, I was designing my lingerie and evening wear under my business name of Sewing Treasures. When it came time to order my garment labels for my lingerie, I was not feeling the name of 'sewing treasures' to be listed in the back of the sexy lingerie. Sewing is a name that describes doing something and since wearing lingerie has nothing to do with sewing, I decided to bring my business back to life. So in March of 2017, I decided to redeveloped Lenique's Originals, Innovator of Style.

Since redeveloping, Lenique's Originals, I have completed my first lingerie line, which I named 'The Date Night' Collection, and I had a very successful lingerie house party, in April. I have included a couple of pre-view pictures from my collection. I am currently working on several client orders which is time consuming in that I have a hard time keeping up with the requirements and demands of social media. I am making every attempt to get better with that! Anyway, I am looking to develop another blog dedicated to Lenique's Originals and perhaps a website, whereas I can run this business fully online. More information on that in the future.

UPDATE: PLEASE VISIT MY NEW WEBSITE, www.leniquesoriginals.wordpress.com

Lenique's Originals-Lingerie Sample Garment #2

CONCLUSION

I am now the business owner of two businesses, Sewing Treasures, LLC-Learn the Art of Sewing Stitch-by-Stitch and Lenique's Originals, Innovator of Style. Sewing Treasures is not only in the business of teaching sewing classes, but also alterations, historical costumes, and Etsy store products like make-up pouches and travel bags. Lenique's Originals is in the business of custom designed lingerie, evening wear, children dance costumes and Exotic Dancer costumes. Custom designed to fit 'any-body' and from my own self-designed and self-drafted sewing patterns.

Although, I currently have a few clients for Lenique's Originals, I am still writing the business plan, I will keep you up to date on any new additions and changes. If you are interested in making an order from the photos I have shown, please feel free to contact me at my email address for Lenique's Originals: leniquesoriginals@gmail.com

Thank you, for reading, I hope you enjoyed.