Initial Meeting
Posted by EYHokie
Avery and I met with Kim Newlen on April 26nd at Baker’s
Crust. I was very excited as this is one
of my favorite places in Richmond.
Avery and I met outside and walked in together. It didn’t take long at all to see Kim. As advertised, she wore a big pick flower on
her shirt. We barely sat down and Kim
gave us her pitch. She showed us all of
her clothes, the progression to the current style and some of her
advertisement. I felt like she was going
a mile a minute and was trying to get us to invest, though I know she wasn’t.
One of the funniest moments was when she was showing off her
shirts and turned around to a table behind her and told them she was a breast
cancer survivor and she was sharing with us her clothing line. Personally, I would have kept on going and not
mentioned anything to the couple.
My first reaction is that she is trying to head in 10
different directions and doesn’t seem to have a plan. I think her vision is to change hospital
clothing into something fashionable and comfortable. As a part of that she’s taking on too many
different dreams and giving her product away to everyone. We were both glad to hear that she has
recently been introduced to a venture capitalist group here in Richmond. She doesn’t seem to have much business sense
so this should go a long way for her. In
my opinion, she just needs to hire a business manager to get things off the
ground. At the same time, its hard to say
because I think she said she has been doing this for 9 years. Here are some of the things that she has
invested her time in:
-
Sweet Mondays – an organization for woman
-
Expanding Sweet Mondays internationally
-
Developing cloths for woman with breast cancer
-
Developing advertising material
-
Developing relationships with area hospitals
-
Writing a devotional book
-
Exploring the idea of creating a men’s line of
clothing
-
Speaking engagements
-
Developing a web presence
-
General marking
I can see why she hasn’t gotten anywhere in 9 years. Well, she has made a difference in woman’s
lives but from a business/profitability stand point it would seem as though she
hasn’t gotten anywhere. She needs to
focus on one thing and attack it. Once
she’s built that platform move onto another goal.
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