We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Megan Ronning-Kodet. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Megan below.
Hi Megan, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?
Having dreamed of starting my own business for 20 years, I knew I wanted the name of my company to be personal with a special meaning. My middle name is Foster, and I’m named after my great, maternal-grandmother whose name was Lillian Violet Foster, so I shortened the name to Lily Foster:)
Megan, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Who We Are
Established in the Fall of 2021, Lily Foster is proud to be a self-financed, female-owned clothing & accessory company inspired from a 20-year dream. Our vision is to become a one-stop-shop for all of our customer’s fashion needs!
What We Do
Lily Foster is committed to offering trendy, affordable fashion with quality that customers can trust. We focus on value and longevity rather than this year’s fads. Our mission is to offer women with styles that elevate their current wardrobe and can be styled for seasons to come!
Our Why
We believe that every woman should experience joy and confidence in what she wears and in purchasing our styles. We strive to reach the everyday woman and provide her with a community for all of her fashion styling solutions!
Owner & Founder
I realized my dream of pursuing a career in Fashion at 16-years old when I took my first Fashion Merchandising class offered at my high school. I went on to graduate from Iowa State University with a B.S. in Apparel Merchandising, Design, and Production and a minor in Entrepreneurial Studies, where I was also offered the opportunity to study at the London College of Fashion. With my educational background and 14-years of corporate retail experience, I decided it was time for my lifelong dream of being a small business owner to come full circle.
For the majority of my adult life, I struggled to shop for what I nick-named the ‘in-between’ in my closet. There were no shortages of business professional options, bar/clubbing pieces, and drawers full of yoga pants. I found it difficult to find versatile styles that could be worn to work, to happy hour with my girlfriends, date night with my husband, family gatherings, and running errands on the weekend. Therefore, my vision for Lily Foster was created out of the need to solve for the ‘in-between’.
Lily Foster is so much more than a company or a brand, it’s an opportunity to share my passion with other women and create a lasting connection with our customers.
Have you ever had to pivot?
When I launched this business, I was 100% focused on creating an online only boutique. While I had always dreamed of owning my own store front, the days of COVID scared me away from the investment and overhead of managing a brick & mortar. As a new business owner, it was too risky to think my business could be forced to close for any reason, as I would immediately go out of business.
Within the first 2 months of launching, I realized my exposure was too small and needed to find a way to cast my net. My mom had this creative idea to look into doing events and in person pop-ups at our local mall. She was brilliant! I participated in my first pop-up about 2 months after launch and sold through 40% of my inventory in 3 days! In the last 11 months, I’ve incorporated monthly pop-ups and they have been a game-changer! Not only does it help me sell through additional inventory, but I’ve also gained many loyal customers who now shop with me online!
While this may not have been a part of my original ‘plan’ and they are A LOT of work, they’ve been very successful for my overall business!
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
I consider myself a very frugal person, both in my personal life and my business. I have always taken a strategic approach to finding ways to save money and capitalize on all available options. As a financially conservative individual, I knew I would never take a loan to start my own business. I wanted to be self-funded and grow from there. My husband and I set out on an agreed-upon start-up budget. I allocated 50% of that budget to inventory and the rest had to fall within the remaining 50%. My husband and I decided that there were many things we would have to manage ourselves, and if we didn’t know how to do it, we were going to have to learn. This included my husband building our website along with a few google searches on coding challenges, but we did it! In addition, while we could have paid a photographer to take photos or use stock photos, we decided to invest a couple hundred dollars into a home photography studio and my husband does all the photo editing! I’ve had both friends and family volunteer as my models and my family is a HUGE help for my in-person pop-ups. Growing a profitable business takes time and by using our personal funds as the initial investment, it helps to not get carried away with wasteful expenses!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.shoplilyfoster.com
- Instagram: @shoplilyfoster
- Facebook: @shoplilyfoster