Secrets to becoming a successful entrepreneur: what we have learned working with Princess Diana’s wedding dress designer

Grain Creative’s senior designer Juli Ferguson, Elizabeth Emanuel, project manager Anna Gilson and PR Executive Kent Le at the fashion designer’s press launch in November 2014.

Are you an aspiring fashion entrepreneur? Then you will love this read. Developing the branding for world-renowned fashion designer Elizabeth Emanuel is a real pleasure for us. Here are a few things we have learned from this creative partnership.

According to the Timmons Model of Entrepreneurship, the three most important factors that make up an enterprise are resources, opportunity and people. In other words, to run a business you need to have money to invest, the right people and potential in your market.

Since the recent financial crisis it is ever more clear that nothing is certain. With the rise of online PR including social media and the decline of traditional advertising, the way businesses are promoted has changed dramatically. One could add three supporting elements to the Timmons Model: leadership, communication and creativity.

But is that all that’s needed to boost a business and to stand out? I have been working with Grain on PR and social media since March 2014 and when fashion designer Elizabeth Emanuel asked us to brand her new company, Art of Being, I identified three key ingredients to become a successful entrepreneur in the fashion and luxury space.

1. Passion. If you’re a digital native like me, you probably already know of Elizabeth Emanuel and her story of dressing the world’s style icons. In the nineties, divorced from her former creative and business partner and then losing the rights to her own name, Elizabeth’s career took a dip and many people thought that was the last hurrah.

But it wasn’t the end. Since then, Elizabeth has designed the Metamorphosis and Little Black Dress collections as well as costumes for film and the stage and an ongoing stream of couture gowns for celebrities. Actresses keep coming back to her for more because the designer has such an eye for detail and each design has its own look, something you cannot do if you don’t love your work. Her enthusiasm and creativity are such a great inspiration for people around her and that’s exactly what an entrepreneur needs: the passion that makes people believe in you.

2. Chemistry, I believe, is extremely important. Once you’re specialised in a specific sector, finding a creative agency with a similar mindset and taste and with whom you can get along is extremely difficult. It’s even harder in the luxury sector, where the agency needs to be au fait with different fields like art, history, retail and fashion. Good chemistry between the business and its agency is essential for the creative work to be achieved smoothly.

Grain’s team leader for the Art of Being project is our creative director Madelyn Postman, who was formerly a senior designer and art director at Gucci. A fan of Elizabeth’s designs, Madelyn jumped at the opportunity when Elizabeth and her team asked for professional help in branding her new venture.

Art of Being and Grain share similar interests and work in the same sector of luxury fashion; hence communication has been smooth from the start. We have worked with Elizabeth to develop her concepts and reflect them on each section of her website. Together we brought to life a huge amount of work including the branding, website and video in a very short time ahead of Art of Being’s launch on the crowdfunding platform Crowdcube.

Finding the right, trusted agency to do the job is hard, but once you’ve found the right one it all pays off!

3. Keep company with positive people. During the Art of Being press launch, I had the opportunity to chat with Elizabeth. When asked how she is always full of ideas and inspiration, she told me that she keeps company with the friends who are encouraging and enthusiastic. In your daily life as well as in business, being around positive people is vital – working with inspiring people motivates us to come up with the best solutions, which in turn creates success.

The promotional video we created for Elizabeth, in which she talks about her work and inspiration.

Here at Grain we have been working with entrepreneurs for more than 12 years, and we learn every day from our experience. Are you an entrepreneur who would like to share your opinion on branding and creativity? Do you have advice for other entrepreneurs? We would love to hear your story. Email Kent Le at kent@graincreative.com.