Book Reviews....

Alright so I read a book from Entreprenuer Magazine's "Design and Launch an Online Boutique in a Week". So the "Design" part I really don't get because there wasn't much about designing in the book. Overall the book is meant to target up and coming luxury boutique owners, which I won't be... but it was a good read in terms of finding out all of the steps you need to get through to get started and how to manage your business once it is running, that was the information that was pretty universal to me. The book was forewarded by the CMO of Bluefly.com Bradford Matson. For some who may not know bluefly.com sells luxury apparel, we're talking about 200.00+ for a really trendy designer dress and they were also featured in the hit reality show "Project Runway"...my fav!! They had some keypoints about internet marketing which found very informative and they talked about tracking your customers to find out what may be hot items on your site as well as inventory fullfilment and much more. How to obtain funding was another important portion although they really only talked about amounts over 100,000 and people who financed their own comapnies out of their own pocket with larger amounts of money.............uh ..ya... no.
Realistically my partner and I are talking 5,000 or even less depending on what is needed. The book also talked about website features more than the aspect of designing with html codes which was what I was hoping for. They also had some good resources that I looked up after I was done reading. I mean it wasn't bad for someone who has not done some research before reading, but all of the questions I had, seems as though they had been answered by my internet research already. I guess what am trying to say is, I was hoping to be surprised with something really new.
Speaking of books, I highly recomend picking up "Ladies Who Launch" excellent book about ditching the road to un-happiness and following your dreams and launching what you really want to do... whatever that is. I consider it to be like "The Secret" but only for women... it is like my bible. One thing that always gets me about it is how they talk about how to make yourself happy regardless of wether you want to move up the corporate ladder, make money off of a hobby or becoming the best mom or wife you could be without thinking that you must give all of your dreams to do so.

I did have one enlightnement after I reading the first book. I thought about possibly having some type of designer collection, I mean afterall we would like to appeal to everyone. Although we would like for things to be affordable at the same token, would it be a conflict if we had a few designers on there like Lauren Conrad or Beau Boise in addition to our more affordable collection. Would that be like drinking a beer out of the bottle in a 5 star restaurant??? I guess it would depend on the quality and price of our other items. Then I thought some more... what about cosmetics?? for now I guess we would just have to take it one step at a time but it could be a great idea... time to add that to my agenda!
On my final note.. you know how I mentioned I started a new job part time... well it is a landmark for business professionals.... wednesday I had the pleasure to meet the owner of all of the Love Culture juniors apparel store, usually located inside of a mall, kind of like Forever 21. I was able to speak to him for a little while and got some really good information and resources...yay! I have had a long week in training but monday-friday I will finally get a little break. I was a little scared about cutting my paycheck in half and giving up my job at corporate america. But by working at this place, I now can clearly see that I have full control of my life. I finally will have time to finish my degree, I have twice as much time now to spend with my family and since my husband has been a big support I now only work partime 2-3 days a week I have more time to focus on getting this venture going. So as the ladies who launch say,
"There are many people who give up successsful careers to sort mail in the mailroom. Why? because launching for them means doing whatever it takes to get moving in the right direction; even if it means starting at the bottom of the food chain"!

ta ta for now!
-Annmarie