A Mom who ROCKS!
If you’ve ever dreamt about creating your own business, but had all the excuses like: ‘I don’t have time’ or ‘I’m too busy with my kids’, you should look up at this girl. No excuses anymore! She is such a hustler, so full of energy. Most of all, she’s a mom of two and she’s all about her kids. And that’s exactly how her brand was created. She’s a mom who rocks! Meet Porsha Cole.
Let’s start from the beginning
You may be wondering, how a busy, full-time mom came up with an idea to create a brand with kids’ clothes? Well, the reasons were very simple and arised from a problem every mom knows. Porsha has a 3 year old little girl. When Danae was born, Porsha and her husband simply got crazy with their first kid and bought tons of tons of clothes. When she got pregnant again, they hoped for a girl to be able to reuse the clothes. But they had a little boy. And that’s when the problem appeared: ‘What are we supposed to do with all these clothes?’.
That’s when Porsha picked up sewing
She found this really awesome pattern that was a grow-with-me clothing and she thought: ‘This is golden! Clothes that grow with the kid and last longer than 2 days? This is perfect!’. So she started sewing for her kids and some people suggested, she really should start doing it as a job. As she’s an entrepreneur at heart and always wanted to have a business, she decided to give it a try. Especially that she used to have another vinyl business, but pushed it to the side, while in her heart she was missing being an entrepreneur.
So she started to hustle
She knew her business would be a perfect thing for other moms. She decided to create a brand as she knows the struggle of kids’ clothes not lasting long at all. She thought: ‘If I love it, they’ll love it’. But Porsha not only decided to create a brand – she also decided to go big really fast and started hustling really hard. She had someone to design her logo, someone to design her website, someone to do her copyright, she had professional photographers, etc.
Her brand’s name is Linc & Cole. Why? She tried different names and talked to various people. Her son’s name is actually Linkin Cole and her daughter’s name is Danae. She was supposed to write Linc & Danae, but accidentally she wrote Linc & Cole and everybody thought that was really good. So it became the official name of her brand.
An interesting thing is that Porsha didn’t study fashion design or anything of this kind. Actually, as a kid she absolutely hated art. When teachers at school were telling her to color a page she was thinking: ‘This is stupid! I’d rather do an actual worksheet!’ And now her work is all about being creative. Porsha feels like kids just bring out our creative sideas she could have never guessed she’d be running a clothing company. She was looking for something that she really loved and it just came to her. (You see? Such things really happen!).
How a stay-at-home mom managed to start such a business?
In the end, it’s not easy to buy fabrics, design clothes, sew them, create all the marketing machine etc. Seems a mission impossible, right? Well, not for Porsha. It took her 3 months to open her online shop. She wasn’t getting done as much as she’d like to, because, as she says, she’s a mom before anything – her kids come first. Her husband is a construction worker and he’s rarely home. So Porscha’s goal is to bring him home so that her kids would have a dad. By the next year she wants to build a six figure company. (Seriously, this girl rocks!). Staying with kids is a hard job so she was only able to be part time in for her business. But in her mind there was only one thought: ‘If I gotta grow, I gotta grow’. At first she was doing all the sewing and designing herself, but it was all going to slow. So she hired a seamstress to do the sewing and Porsha herself will be doing all the back work, like social media. Before she wasn’t able to consistently put out new stuff and her brand was lucking because of that. But now that will change. Porsha also thinks that when she’s able to put more products, she’ll get bigger. It was a half time, but she definitely want
s to turn it into a full time thing.
She thought she knew what she was doing
Porscha had businesses before, and she thought she knew what she was doing. However, this time she decided to dig reallydeep. She says there are so many things about business nobody thinks about, like social media, pictures, etc. There’s so much work with a business, but she loves every step of it. As a stay-at-home mom she was at home for 3 years and she was getting down. She didn’t know what to do. This company gives her something. Additionally, she likes giving her kids something to look up her to. ‘Being a stay-at-home mom is a big deal but I like that I can teach my kids how to run a business too.’ – Porsha says.
Linc & Cole was launched on May 18th
and within the first month already had sales and placed in the top 14% of shops on Shopify that launched the same week. However, you could never say her company is small. Her website looks so professional. It took Porsha 3 months to perfectionate everything, but it was worth it. At the moment her clothes are only available on the Internet and she’s only shipping only in the US. However, when I asked her about why she doesn’t ship worldwide, that’s what she answered: ‘As I think about it I really don’t know why. Shipping is expensive, but if somebody’s willing to pay the shipping there is no reason why not to. I’ve been thinking about it and I think it’s something holding me back as there is really no reason not to ship to other places.’ True.
So what is it all about? What makes her brand so special?
The main point of Linc&Cole are the grow-with-me clothes. How do they work? First of all, they are made with fabrics that are super stretchy. Secondly, the clothes are made the way so that you can fold or unfold their parts, depending on your kid’s size, for example, the waist round is super big, the leg bounds are long, etc. There are 3 sizes available:
1. 3-12 months
2. 12 months – 3t
3. 3t-6
These are the sizes, but Porsha says the 3-12 months fits her 3 year old, as well as the 3t-6, but the second one is just like a super long dress. That was exactly her point: these are grow-with-me clothes, they will last forever and they will serve multiple kids.
Porsha thinks about every detail of her brand
For example, her shipping box is a coloring page for kids. As she doesn’t want her box to go straight into the garbage, she created this page that kids can color. This way her box won’t be easily forgotten. Simply brilliant!
Another, even more brilliant thing is the reward program she’s working on. As she’s all about moms, she wants to reward them for buying clothes for their kids. Pretty awesome, right? Porscha says: ‘When you become mom, you always buy for your kids. You put yourself aside, you never do anything for yourself. You always buy clothes for kids, so why not to get rewarded for yourself!’ She hasn’t figured it out yet, as she’s trying to get it perfect (I guess you’ve already noticed she’s a perfectionist). When you buy something, you earn points and then you can exchange them. At first Porscha was going to do gift cards, but she realized, moms can always find ways to spend money on their kids. She wants to find stuff that is directly for moms, like lotions or chopstick. I really can’t wait to see this program coming to life!
So, being so busy, how does she find inspiration for new designs?
Porsha says, she’s a minimalist, so she doesn’t want to see nothing super crazy out there. At the moment she’s working on Halloween and Christmas stuff, so it’s about what’s up and coming, what’s new.
What does her 3 year old think about her mom’s designs? Well, every time Porsha tries clothes on her, Danae shouts: ‘I don’t wanna take pictures!’ Being the face of mom’s company, she’s the little model and when you want to take a picture of her, she poses. So cute!
So, what are Porsha’s plans for the future?
Seeing what a hustler she is, I’m sure she can achieve anything she wants. Her absolute goal is to grow and expand her website to be so much more. She’d like to be on a travel for her business. She’s love to be able to go internationally and show off what they’re doing. At the moment she’s going to do a wholesale within a couple of months. Later she wants to add some accessories and hopefully other kid friendly stuff. ‘I wanna stick with the minimalist grow-with-me stuff. I think little mocasins and headbands would be super cute.’ – she says. Right now she’s growing her social media. She also hired a seamstress, so it will help. As she says, she want to be able to support other families with her business. Soon she’s going to go to the two biggest fairs in her city to check how people react to her brand.
Anything to add?
Looking at her energy and at what she achieved in such a short period of time, I’d say she’s an example of a well started business. However, she says that if she could start again, she’ like to be more prepared. ‘I thought I did a really good job,
because I did everything I thought I was supposed to, but the only thing is to be extra prepared.’ Not sure if you can ever be completely prepared for starting your business, however, I cross my fingers for this girl as talking to her gave me so much energy and inspiration for my own work.
What do you think about Porsha’s company? Do you love her ideas as much as I do? Would you like to buy her clothes? Would you suggest her some actions that could lead to even more success? Or maybe she inspired you to take actions and make your dreams come true too? Let us know in the comments!