The work is progressing!

I was listening to JVG and Pete Parkkonen's song Etenee while drinking a cup of coffee in the early morning. This time it somehow hit harder than normal and made the coffee taste better. It hit home quite well at this moment and made me think a little that things are progressing just fine here. Inspired by this, I decided to write you a story in which we open up about our current situation and the progress of the work. I don't think you can make a song out of this, but you can make a readable blog post out of it!

Onward, we go forward

We're always moving forward here. I have to admit that sometimes we do go pretty fast and the speed limits go bang. It's a bit like the feeling when you got your driver's license. I would really like to show off and show you how to push the pedal down, even though the knowledge and skills are still terribly lacking. A good old 80's can do good in some situations... Our company has moved forward at a fast pace. Hundreds of clothes have left our online store all over Finland and it's really cool to see clothes from RIVA Clothing come across the street. It does make for a pretty big smile, it's probably the most rewarding thing in this job. In addition to the street image, we have gained a lot of visibility on social media, where, for example, we just reached the 1000 likes mark on Facebook. That's a REALLY big deal for such a small startup! Some is our battlefield, where it is possible for us to cope with larger companies with smaller military forces. You just have to come up with different and surprising strategies to beat others. Every day we meet a new person and maybe even make someone smile, so we have at least somehow succeeded and moved forward in relation to Some. People who react to us in some way on Some are very important to us, they are not some code in bit space, but the foundation of our brand.

Things are progressing again

And things will continue to progress! We are also eager to learn a bit about the clothing business and printing. The different clothing materials start to become better known and you start to recognize them after a little hopping around. The same thing also applies to prints. This is very important to us, as we want to offer you the most convenient and practical options. We want to handle the search for the best options for you and make it as easy as possible for you. At the end of this, we could still reveal that things are also progressing with regard to materials and collections. We've been looking for our own direction and now that direction is slowly starting to be found... So something new and cool is planned for the end of the year in this field as well ;)

Although there are a lot of gigs, it's still not a Lamborghini

Maybe one day...

I can't help but feel like we're not doing well right now

But how has this progressed? Well, before April, I had no experience in the clothing business and running an online store. By that time, work experience consisted of pedaling a postal bike, playing with children in a kindergarten and cutting meat at the delicatessen market. In the past six months, a limited company, a clothing brand, an online store, and now, most recently, a brick-and-mortar store for a month in the center of Jyväskylä have been established. After all, quite a bit of progress has been made here. Really, this Saturday we're getting down to business when we open our own pop-up store in Torikeskus for a month. We immediately grabbed this opportunity when we were given one and the reason was clear: so far we have only sold in the online store, so the possibility of fitting our clothes for customers has been quite challenging. Now customers can try on clothes and be sure of their fit and comfort. In other words, welcome on Saturday to arrange clothes and have a good time in our new store! The coffee pot slowly starts to simmer and the interior is finished. Eeva moves clothes racks and Meitsi nods that it's good! Vaaterekki will probably find quite a few new places before Saturday and meitsi will nod just as many times that it's really good! ;) Our original intention was to take a slightly smaller business space, but when we wrote the lease agreement, we were offered a bigger, cleaner space in a better location. We couldn't refuse that! So now we're at the heart of it! This is going to be cool! Fortunately, we have our own Teemu here to help with the renovation. By the way, he's a handy guy!

I'm not going to work, I'm doing my own work again

This is how you feel quite often. Meitsi is actually doing training here at the same time, so running the company is my job. But in the morning, when you start to press the dune, it feels more like you're just doing your own thing. It's the kind of thing you've always wanted for your own dune place. Designing new prints with Photoshop, generally fooling around on Some, business meetings over a cup of coffee and running an online store are all your own business. I hope that things go well and that you can continue to do these things as you please.

Do I want to sit in lectures or do I want to sit in flights?

This thought has also been running through my mind this summer and fall. In connection with this, I would like to give other students a small tip. Studying and related lectures are really important, but you should think about what else you do on the side. I have to admit that I've learned a lot of things from running a business that you don't learn in lectures. When I was sitting in the lectures, I didn't quite get it. Able to say that he has studied something, but he could not say that he has learned terribly. Now that he has considerably reduced the lectures and got down to studying something, he can say that he has learned a lot! Of course, everyone learns in their own style, and I don't encourage anyone to skip lectures. But if you feel that sitting in lectures is a waste and you're just talking on the phone, then I encourage you to pull yourself together and get to work! Especially if you have even a tiny thought about a possible business idea. Or the idea in general. You never know if one day you'll end up sitting there on a flight! Good luck until this Thursday, remember to keep going! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W89maczyy6I Cheers, Riku