SUCCESS STORIES -- WildBride

Samira Araghi

Website

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BACKGROUND

WildBride is a bridal boutique for the unique, unconventional, and free-spirited bride in the heart of San Francisco, established in 2017. At WildBride, new brides can expect to find a serene and luxe space that is also a single destination for the all of her wedding needs, from decisions on the gown all the way wedding planners, venue and flowers.

CHALLENGES

To ensure consistent growth Samira knew she needed to have an ever-evolving selection of the latest designer gowns coveted by many fashion and style conscious brides with avant-garde tastes and high expectations. And that meant a cash investment in tradeshows, digital marketing and new showroom inventory. 

ACTIONS

Samira was referred to SFSBDC when she needed to learn more about access to working capital to support her growing bridal salon and to develop a strategic action plan to obtain funding. She met with an SBDC finance consultant, who also specializes in the fashion industry, to learn about the best loan options and the best type of financing for her particular needs. Samira learned about current interest rates and favorable loan terms to calculate loan payments, formatting content to present her business plan as a financing document emphasizing quantitative analysis and historical financial highlights, operational efficiencies, as well as sales assumptions to correlate with revenue, increases month over month and year over year. She worked with her consultant diligently refining overall financial goals for annual, quarterly and monthly income and expenses, profit margins and cash flow to create the most impactful proformas and apply for the Women's Entrepreneurship Fund. 

RESULTS

Samira was awarded $5000 by the Women's Entrepreneurship Fund to be used to improve the bridal experience. The success of WildBride is tied to the experience that is created for the bride. WildBride's space is set up to be a relaxing and calming experience for brides who can be very nervous and scared trying on wedding dresses for the first time. By improving lighting and new racks it will not only increase sales but the bridal experience. By creating a bridal lookbook, WildBride will be able to connect the bride to the dresses by allowing her to envision her non-traditional wedding look and give the feel and emotion of this unique once in a lifetime event and in turn inspire brides to book appointments. The photos presented on the website will be able to show the brides the look and feel of their type of weddings through the dresses. Through this photoshoot, WildBride will be able to show industry journalists this special bridal experience and collection for unique brides.

SOURCE: https://www.sfsbdc.org/story/4690