The LONDON E-Business Programme provides small business across London with support to develop their digital skills. Recently, our E-Business Adviser, Corinne McGee, supported Helen Kamya with understanding how to market her sustainable gym-wear brand, Unmatched by HK.
Thank you for taking the time to talk to us! Could you start by telling us a bit about your business and the work that you do?
My business, Unmatched by HK, is a sustainable fashion brand that was previously for tall people because I’m 6 foot. I then changed it to make it inclusive for all sizes, all shapes and heights, and focus on sustainability. I use recycled materials, plant-based materials, and because I’m also a PT, I wanted the collection to be sporty and functional. You know when you’re struggling to get comfortable leggings that are not see-through? My goal was for my collection to provide options that are sweat-proof and you can go to the gym and do your workout without worrying. But a key thing for me was also that I wanted something that could transition from gym-wear into clothes you’d wear for going out for brunch with your girlfriends, for example.
So the top is very versatile, you can wear it in nine different ways, which means that you don’t have to carry around a change of clothes with you if you’re going to the gym on the way to somewhere else.
The heart behind the brand was to support small projects. It was important to me that a part of the proceeds would go towards programmes, for example, right now we’re supporting a small project in Uganda that helps single teen mums as young as thirteen years old. The stigma of being pregnant and going to school in Uganda is huge, so they don’t have the opportunity for further education. What this project offers them is the chance to learn skills such as tailoring, hairdressing, financials so that they can have practical ways to develop and earn for their family. Hopefully I’ll be able to work with even more small projects in the future.
That’s really inspiring how you’ve committed to supporting charities through your business! You touched on it already, but could you expand on what inspired you to start your business?
I studied fashion, so that was what I did my degree in. What inspired me was partly my passion for fashion, but what really made me start my business was that I wanted to use my fashion for good. In 2020, when I was introduced to this project in Uganda, I thought “how can I use what I know, which is fashion, in order to help a project like this?”. That’s when the idea to create my collection and have part of the proceeds go to charity sparked, as opposed to trying to fundraise.
That’s really cool – it would be great if more businesses did things like that. What has the business journey been like so far? What have been the challenges and the wins along the way?
My biggest win was being brave enough to start my business – telling myself that I’m just going to go for it. But I’ve also learn so much on the journey. As an entrepreneur I’m constantly learning on the job. I’m just the creative, I do the fashion and the designs and that’s what I was taught during my degree. But for example, the marketing side, especially social media, is all new to me, so I’ve had to learn a lot about how to put my business out there. I’ve also learnt a lot about sustainability, because I did my degree a long time ago and there have been so many developments since then. So I’ve researched about the different fabrics you can use – there’s fabric made from milk, bamboo, so many different things that you can use. Then there’s the business side of things, with financials, forecasting, getting in touch with manufacturers, which I wasn’t familiar with at all when I started this journey. And I’m still learning!
The challenges have definitely been there. I feel as an entrepreneurs it can be a very lonely journey. You kind of feel “I’m on my own here”. Other than that, social media has been quite challenging: the constant posting, and stuff like that. Finally, I’m manufacturing in the UK, and I’ve found it hard to find manufacturers who manufacture with minimum quantities. A lot of them want big orders and as a small business I can’t commit to that.
It sounds like you’ve been on a massive learning curve since you started your business. Could you talk a bit about how the support you’ve received from the LONDON E-Business Support Programme has that helped you with that?
Corinne has been really amazing because, as I mentioned, the key thing that I was struggling with was the marketing side, and especially finding structure and traction. I’ve attended a few webinars to learn more: one about marketing strategy, which has helped me understand that I need to outline a plan with key goals, and then another one about 3 month content creation which I’m working on now. So it’s given me the structure that I needed, because before I was kind of winging it or discovering from month to month what I needed to post.
Corinne has also helped me with reviewing my website and understanding SEO. I just did a soft launch of my top, and she was so helpful with finetuning what I’d put on my website, telling me things I should tweak which I wouldn’t have seen. When you’re in it, you get tunnel vision and she’s able to come in with an outside perspective and help me see what needs to be done. For example, she helped me realise that I needed some new videos describing how to style the top to make it clearer how it worked, and she’s suggested that I research keywords that I can write blog articles around going forward to improve my SEO.
What I also love about the 121 sessions that we have is that I have accountability. Once Corinne and I have had our conversation where she’s advised me on things I need to do and change, I can go away and have the accountability to come back and say “okay, this is what I’ve done”. And like I said, being an entrepreneur is a bit of a lonely journey, so it’s nice to just have someone to walk alongside you and help you.
What does the future hold for you and your business, what are your plans and dreams?
My dreams are big. I want to be an international brand; that’s my end goal. I want to impact more smaller projects, not just locally, but in different parts and inspire change. So the interim goal at the moment is to find funding in order to help me grow towards that. Right now I’m working towards creating a capsule collection that I can bring with me.
I’m also working on building brand awareness: I would love to attend a few fashion shows, and one of the things I spoke with Corinne about is to start getting press releases out to spread the word about my business. At the moment, everything is online and I think that’s the problem, I need to start allowing people to come touch, feel, and see the collection for themselves. So those are the next steps before the dream, but it’ll require funding. I’ve been self-funded until now which has been very costly.
I’m also considering working with boutiques that share my values around sustainability, to see if they would hold a small collection of mine, which would also help spreading awareness of my brand. I want to be very inclusive, I want as many people as possible to try it and buy it so that I can support more projects.
It’s been great to hear from you, and it sounds like you’re business will go far! As a final question, what advice would you give to someone starting their own business?
Despite the fact, like I said, that it can be lonely journey, for me it’s all about following the dream, if it’s something that you want to do. I’d rather try and fail than not try at all. So I’ll tell anyone starting a business, just try. Do what you can do, especially if it’s something you’re really passionate about. For me, it’s not about making money out of your business – it’s more than that, it’s about following your dream and impacting people’s lives. If you fail, that’s okay, but at least you’ve tried. So I would just tell people to go for it.
Learn more about Helen Kamya
Website: https://hkwellbeingmentor.com/shop/
Instagram: @unmatchedbyhk
Facebook: @unmatchedbyhk
YouTube: @unmatchedbyhk
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