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Founder@ Interview
With Polina Karbanova
“Let it brew! I believe in power of manifestation, i believe in being at the right time at the right place, i believe in aha moments. So when you are thinking about starting your own business, do the actions, speak about, enquire about it, and when its right, you will know it. Listen to your gut, dont be persuaded into something that does not feel aligned with your vision. So when you need to make a decision, dont do it, until it feels right. ” – Polina Karbanova
Today we feature Polina Karbanova, the founder at Good Fabric. We hear their story in their own words, their successes, their challenges and their insights.
Let’s start by getting to know you. Can you please tell us a little bit about you and what you do?
My name is Polina, i am founder and owner of online fabric store – Good Fabric. Prior to setting up Good Fabric, i worked in production and product development within luxury products, but i have been made redundant twice in a row, once during mat leave and second time during Covid.
A great introduction and start to this interview. Can you please tell us, how did you start, from what age, and what made you decide to change direction and start?
My business story starts in 2020 – the year the world got a little crazy – and the year I was made redundant following a decade-plus long career with big fashion names like Burberry, Ted Baker, Missoma, and Anya Hindmarch. Like a lot of crafters, I wanted to come out of lockdown with a new skill. I’d worked for years in fashion product development and production, so it was about time I actually learned how to sew for myself. A handful of online craft classes later and I was utterly hooked. It turned out I’d gained two new hobbies; sewing, and building an epic fabric stash for projects that I’ll definitely finish one day… And then I got frustrated. The sustainable fabric options I was finding online were so limited in colours, patterns and composition. I wanted an eco-wardrobe, not a beige parade. You can probably tell where this is going… My fashion supply chain experience, passion for crafting, and desire to work for myself all came crashing together. I had to create Good Fabric.
Thank you for that insight. So can you tell us…What does your business do and where is your company based?
Good Fabric is your go to source of eco friendly and sustainable fabrics. I am based in London, UK but being an online shop our customers are all over the world. Every fabric I stock has at least one eco-credential, and am working towards my sustainability goals to improve this further. We also stock indie sewing patterns, ex-designer deadstock, eco friendly haberdashery suppliers and sewing kits.
What’s the story behind your success? What led to your aha moment? how did you get to where you are now?
I guess i have answered this question in the first question but to add a little bit more: Whilst being furloughed i knew i didnt want to go back to full time employment as i had small child and childcare in London is extortionate so i literally made a list of things i wanted and needed from my next move. All whilst doing this, i was sewing at home as a hobby. As all shops were closed, i started looking online for fabric stores and i really struggled with it. even the best stores didn’t have great imagery, website UX and a lot of the fabrics were frumpy or too childlike. So here goes my aha moment. I sourced materials for 12 years in my career, so i know how to do that, i also worked for small brands and start ups so i was part of every single department from branding, to marketing, to research and development. I felt very strongly that i could bring a new store online for sewist to enjoy and fix all the pain points that current websites offered. Given that we were in the midst of lockdown, i felt that i have absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain, so i just went for it.
Thank you for sharing that. What’s been your life’s biggest lesson so far?
The biggest lesson i learned is that i cannot do it all and i should hire professionals/freelancers to do the jobs i cannot do myself. I used to stress so much about copywriting or branding, i would second guess all my decisions and it would give me sleepless nights. So i hired a copywriter who helps me present my thoughts in fun and engaging way, i hired an accountant so i literarily dont have to think about tax returns and hired web developer who manages website for me. All this hired help, freed up my time and energy, so i can focus on the core of my business and run it to my best ability. Without these freelancers i would really struggle to grow the business, so lesson learned that i cannot do it all by myself and i need to find my team who gets my vision.
I naively thought that running a fabric store, the core skill would be sourcing fabrics. Now i know that sourcing fabrics is actually the easy bit of my business. I spend most of days working on digital marketing which i knew absolutely zero about prior Good Fabric. But ignorance is bliss for sure. If somebody told me that my day to day focus will be business development and marketing, i am not 100% sure that i would have jumped in to starting Good Fabric.
If you were to go back in time, what piece of advice would you give to your younger self?
My advise (and i followed it) is prior jumping in and starting your own business is to go an work for somebody else first. Even better is to go an work for completely different type of companies, from worldwide corporate or small start ups. This will give you the most valuable experience, you will get to learn from other people, from their experience, learn about different cultures at work and different ways of running a business. This will cement your position as to how you want to run your own business and it will be based on lived experience. If you were to jump straight into setting up your business, you might get lucky and get it right first time but more likely you will make mistakes and without the team/company/manager to look after you, these mistakes will be very either expensive or painful. My second piece of advise is to NEVER ask for professional advise from friends and family, unless they are professionals in your chosen field. Friends and family often will mean well, but they can project their own fears and insecurities when giving advise or give you advise that is not based on any professional experience. This may lead you in the wrong direction or plant a seed of doubt. If you need help, look for business support groups, join mentorship programs, work in co-working space to surround yourself with people who can give you advise based on knowledge. Should i have started my own business? This has never been my dream or crossed my mind until i was put into this position by two redundancies and lockdown, so i felt like it came to me at the right time, in my personal and professional life. So i guess it is the case of being at the right place (in my life) at the right time.
What do you know now that you wished you had known before?
I naively thought that running a fabric store, the core skill would be sourcing fabrics. Now i know that sourcing fabrics is actually the easy bit of my business. I spend most of days working on digital marketing which i knew absolutely zero about prior Good Fabric. But ignorance is bliss for sure. If somebody told me that my day to day focus will be business development and marketing, i am not 100% sure that i would have jumped in to starting Good Fabric. 
What has been your greatest or proudest achievement or moment?
I worked very hard on my website, it is completely bespoke with lots and clever built in features that are very specific to my industry. I also spend a lot of money on it, as custom built websites are expensive. We used Elementor to build our website and it has been shortlisted as top 10 best website in 2022 built by Elementor. This is such a huge complement both to myself and my web developer as we poured our heart and soul into building it. My website is my baby so to speak so to have it recognized as one of the best one is incredibly rewarding.
What future life goals do you want to achieve and why?
I have worked all my life in creating and manufacturing products for other brands, so now that i have my own brand i can almost feel like there is something brewing in my brain and starting to this about producing my own product. The idea of combining my decade long experience in production with my new business makes sense to me. I haven’t quite figured out yet what that product will be as i want to bring something unique to the market that no body else does. So maybe now that i have said it out loud, i will start manifesting it and putting things into action.
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To finish our inspire questions…”We believe that sharing inspiring words can inspire others.” If there was one positive thing you would say to someone to inspire and empower them what would it be and why?
Let it brew! I believe in power of manifestation, i believe in being at the right time at the right place, i believe in aha moments. So when you are thinking about starting your own business, do the actions, speak about, enquire about it, and when its right, you will know it. Listen to your gut, dont be persuaded into something that does not feel aligned with your vision. So when you need to make a decision, dont do it, until it feels right.
“Thank you it has been great learning more about your founder story and Good Fabric”
To learn more about Good Fabric Visit https://www.goodfabric.co.uk/
Find on social media @
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/good_fabric_store/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/goodfabricuk
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/goodfabric.co.uk
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