17 Dec Start Before You’re Ready (But Know Who You’re Doing It For)
The lesson that changed everything when I started KIK
In 2015, I was working in the mines in Western Australia as a health and lifestyle coordinator. Good money. Stable job. Absolutely not where I was meant to be.
I was reading a book called Online Entrepreneurs during my downtime, and somewhere between chapters, it hit me… that dream I’d been carrying around for years, the one about starting my own clothing brand? There was no reason I couldn’t actually do it.
I’d moved to Australia years earlier and worked for a bikini brand, sewing swimwear. I knew fabric. I knew fit. I knew I loved this world. The only thing I didn’t know was how to build a business.
So I decided to figure it out.
I flew home on my week off, sat my boyfriend down (now my fiancé and father of my two kids), and told him about the dream. He didn’t talk me out of it. He said go for it.
And I got to work.
I did it the long, hard way
I taught myself CorelDRAW to design tech packs. I sewed samples at home. I built a website with zero clue what I was doing.
In 2016, someone tipped me off about a fabric sourcing expo in Melbourne. My sister flew down, walked through hundreds of factories, and found one she liked. From there, we started designing activewear from scratch.
I took out a $20,000 personal loan. I still remember placing that first bulk order — it was the most money I’d ever spent on anything in my life. My hands were shaking.
By 2018, our activewear launched. We showed on the catwalk at the Women’s Expo in Perth.
KIK Clothing ran for nine years across Australia and New Zealand before I closed it in 2024 to focus on what I do now — helping other founders build brands that actually reflect who they are.
Here’s what I wish someone had told me
Starting before you’re ready? That part’s non-negotiable. If I’d waited until I felt confident, until I had all the answers, until everything was “perfect” — I’d still be waiting.
But here’s the thing nobody talks about: starting is only half the equation. Clarity is the other half.
You can launch tomorrow. You can build a website, order business cards, set up an Instagram account. But if you don’t know who you’re serving and why it matters to them, you’re going to burn out creating content for no one, second-guessing every decision, and wondering why it feels so hard.
Clarity doesn’t mean having a 40-page business plan. It means knowing three things:
Who is this for? Not “everyone.” A specific person with a specific problem.
What do they actually need? Not what you think they need — what keeps them up at night?
Why are you the one to help them? Your story, your experience, your perspective — that’s your edge.
When you’re clear on those three things, everything else gets easier. Your website copy writes itself. Your content has direction. Your offers make sense. You stop trying to appeal to everyone and start attracting the right people.
Why I’m building something for people like me
I figured it out. But it took years, thousands of dollars in mistakes, and a lot of lonely late nights wondering if I was kidding myself.
I don’t want that for you.
That’s why I’m launching a membership in 2026 — for founders who have the dream but need the roadmap. The one I wish I’d had back in 2015 when I was sewing samples in my lounge room, Googling “how to start a clothing brand” at midnight.
It won’t do the work for you. But it’ll make the journey a little less lonely and a lot less confusing.
So if you’re sitting on a dream right now…
Start before you’re ready. Seriously. You’ll never feel ready. The confidence comes after you begin, not before.
But do yourself a favour — get clear on who you’re building this for. Not a vague idea of “people who might like this.” A real person with a real problem you can solve.
That clarity will carry you through the hard days. And there will be hard days.
But there will also be days like the one I had in Perth, watching my designs walk down a catwalk, knowing I built this thing from nothing.
You can have that too.
You just have to start.
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