Give a dress a home

Apart from the foot industry, the fashion industry is probably the second most wasteful industry in the world. An awful lots of cloths are commission, sold and the unsold usually destroyed, spending a lot of resources producing something and them spending even more destroying it is not exactly the best way to conserve and make use of the finite resources our planet have. That is why at Give a dress a home, we are taking steps to help reduce this waste by selling stylish ladies fashion dresses others cast off.

Give a dress a home approach to ladies fashion will not leave you looking like a bag lady, far from, it, most of the dresses on our site are actually from leading fashion brands, some of the garments you will find on our sites are usually destined for the incinerator, we rescue them and you can give them a home in your wardrobe and even better, on your! The best way to see how stylish our dresses are is to visit our website, browse around, we challenge you to find a fault with our garment. If you share our concern for responsible use our resources, for less than the cost of a night out you can adopt one of our dresses.

You can find  more about Give a dress a home and the thinking behind it at our website, we look forward to joining forces with you to give a dress a home.

Do you still have feeling for your ex, do you want to win him or her back?

Going through a break up is tough, and you probably would have received a lot of advice telling you to move on and find someone else. You might have heard that you can do better and that you don’t need him. Well what if you don’t want to do better and you don’t want to move on, here are some tips on how you can win back your ex and enjoy a relationship better than before the break up.
1. The first thing you should NOT do is beg your ex back, don’t nag them with constant calls; don’t bombard their inbox with desperate text messages. This will go against your natural instinct because all you want to do is tell them that you still love them and want them back, but it is really the worst and most irritating thing you can do to your ex. Restrain yourself from turning up unannounced at their home, they will get annoyed with you constantly STALKING them, and it will confirm to them that they made the right decision by breaking up with you.
2. Another thing to avoid doing, is behaving lie a doormat, don’t tell your ex that you would do anything for the, they will walk all over you and use you. You are giving them all the power by laying yourself out there and basically telling them that you are willing to do whatever it takes to get them back. You need to maintain your dignity and self-respect. Acting le your life is over because your ex broke up with you will make them lose any respect they had for you.
3. Do not and we mean DO NOT freak out if your ex starts seeing someone else, this will probably be the hardest thing to do, but maintain your cool. Apart from the fact that there is nothing you can do about it, do you really want to be seen as the insane jealous obsessive staler ex-girlfriend or boyfriend. No…rebound relationships is pretty standard procedure, it doesn’t mean that your ex has found a new permanent girlfriend or boyfriend.
4. Make sure you remain available, don’t constantly have a sting of boyfriends otherwise it will put your ex off coming back to you and will confuse them on whether or not you are actually single. Being laid back and comfortable being single will show your ex that you are not needy and that you are comfortable in your own skin.
5. Fill the gap. If you struggle with neediness, you’re probably a little lacking in the self-esteem department. You might be looking for your ex to make you feel better about yourself, but the fact is that you are the only person who can really do that. You shouldn’t base your happiness on someone else. Sure, it’s okay for someone to make you happy, but if they’re your only source of happiness, you might become angry or sad whenever they’re not around, and that can be very demanding for the other person! It makes them feel guilty, obligated and eventually, resentful towards you.

Is there room for you?
Is your idea original or are you building on an existing concept? If you are building on an existing you need to ensure that there is room for your idea for another play in the market. You need clear unique selling points (USPs). Similarly, if no-one else is doing it, is there a reason for this? A great way to evaluate the viability of your idea is to carry out a SWOT analysis – this is your businesses Strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
Is there anything about your technology or approach that couldn’t be easily copied by a rival with big buying power? If the answer is no, think carefully before moving forward.

What’s the business model?
It’s what you do with a great idea that counts – you need the right execution. Google wasn’t the first search engine and Facebook wasn’t the first social network, but by finding the right business model and improving the offering, these companies were able to build on an existing concept to become market leaders.
Often there will be different business models and revenue streams to consider; for instance, a web business could charge end users a monthly subscription fee, or make the website free for the user but earn a commission for every ‘lead’ or sale that it generates for another company, or sell advertising space.

Can you fund it?
Do you have the funds in place to get your business off the ground? You need enough to support yourself and to provide sufficient working capital until your company hits profitability.
You must undertake an honest analysis of how much it will cost to set up and you’re your business. How much you expect to sell each month and when you expect to break even. What are your margins? Can you sell enough at the right price to make it viable?

Look at sales figures from your industry and analyse your competition to forecast more accurately and think carefully about all the costs involved. It is better to over-estimate than to find yourself falling short. Ideally, do three different forecasts, covering the best-case and worst-case scenarios, and your likely results. Can you stay afloat if the worst happens?
Have you got what it takes?
Last but by no means least; have you got the right attitude and skills to make your idea a success? Setting up a business is an endurance challenge. The success of your idea is based on your commitment to seeing it through – during the bad times and the good. Your idea needs to be something you’re passionate about, and you then need the skills, drive and belief to make it work.

Click here for part 1

You have a great idea for a new business, is it actually viable?

Unfortunately not all fantastic ideas actually work out to become great businesses. Even if you’ve thought of a fantastic product or service, you need the right business model, pricing, funding, marketing and people to make it work – and of course, enough customers willing to pay for it.
So how do you know if your idea is worth pursuing? Here are a few tips to make sure your idea is a winning one before risking everything and plunging straight in.

Is there a market for it?
The first step towards determining whether your business idea is viable is to carry out extensive market research. You need to establish if there is a market for your business, and whether this is big enough to make the venture a success.
Many great ideas have flopped due to lack of research and this stage should never be overlooked. Not only do you need to work out whether there is sufficient demand for your offering, you must also determine what marketing, pricing and business model will work for your target market.
To do this, you need to find out as much information as possible about your potential customers: How many are there? What type of people are they? Where do they shop? How do they behave and what drives their purchasing decisions? If they are consumers, how much do they typically earn and how much disposable income do they have? How often would they buy your product or service?

Research strategies
Thankfully, you can carry out much research yourself at little or no cost. Market research falls into two main categories: primary (which you conduct yourself) and secondary (analysing data published by secondary sources). The research can be quantitative (based on numbers and statistics) or qualitative (based on attitudes and opinions). Ideally, you want a mixture of all of these sources to gain a reliable picture of the market.
Your primary research could include focus groups, to get prospective customers’ attitude towards your offering first hand; surveys, questionnaires and sizing up the competition. Look at your rivals’ use of technology, customer service, prices, marketing and business models and try to find out what your potential customers think of these things – this will help you to identify areas for improvement.
Often you can access valuable secondary data free of charge simply by asking for it via a phone call or email, or for a nominal charge to cover postage or photocopying. Much of it is also available online: trade and industry associations often publish data such as sales figures, economic trends, and other statistics and reports. Look at industry specific magazines and publications too.
Remember, the goal is to arm yourself with as much information as possible about the state, size and needs of your market. Do enough research to ensure the results aren’t one-sided, and take feedback on board? Be prepared to change your idea according to what your customers want, not what you prescribe as the best solution.

Click here to read part 2