There’s a lot to be said about persevering – just keep on going,” explains Vera. “So many people go into it thinking success is going to happen overnight and then they get really discouraged when it doesn’t, even though they’ve got these fantastic ideas and they’ve put so much into it. So what’s the secret to turning a side hustle into a fully fledged business? Persistence.Įntrepreneur Janine Allis speaks to us about how best to impress your boss, and the right way to go about getting a pay rise. “We owe it to our customers and to our staff to keep moving the brand forward.” “Never! I don’t want to get to a stage where we sit back and exhale because I feel that would mean we’re not pushing ourselves hard enough,” explains Vera. With a team of staff now working from their Sydney office and sales spiking, you’d think Vera and Katia would be sitting back pretty comfortably. Yep, it’s clear Nimble has no plans to slow down. It’s this quality and aesthetic that’s propelled the brand on to score a coveted spot showing at Fashion Week in Sydney last year, receive the ‘In-Store Customer Experience Of The Year Award’ at the Inside Retail 2017 Retailer Awards and open two successful bricks and mortar stores open in Bondi and Melbourne. We made the decision to keep our jobs so that we could support ourselves and continue to invest back into the business.” “We invested all of our savings at the beginning and it took a while before the business could support itself.
NIMBLE ACTIVEWEAR FULL
“Katia and I were both working in other jobs at the time and continued to work in those jobs while we balanced the business,” explains Vera, who only quit her job to focus on Nimble full time in 2016. A pretty impressive feat to achieve in such a small amount of time, right? But the pair are quick to point out that the brand isn’t an “overnight success”. In just 5 years, Nimble Activewear turned over $5 million, annually.
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In 2014, frustrated by the lack of options and the obscene price tags of workout gear on the market, the pair created Nimble Activewear as an affordable, colourful solution.
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It’s the fantasy of every set of best friends: Dream up a business, work together 24/7, be outrageously successful.īest mates since they were in year eight attending a Melbourne high school, Vera Yan, and Katia Santilli, are doing just that.