Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in fashion but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Tammy Phan, Founder of Luxe Du Jour, located in Calgary, AB, Canada.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
Luxe Du Jour is an all-in-one online luxury platform where consumers can shop, sell, rent or restore designer handbags and accessories. Our consumers are anywho who have a love for designer luxury. Our demographic is mainly women between the ages of 25-45, but we recently launched the men's department, so now expanding to the men's audience.
Tell us about yourself
I started collecting designer handbags at a young age and grew to have a passion for designer luxury. While growing my collection of designer handbags, there were some bags I wanted to sell, but there was no trustworthy place in Canada to sell my high-end items at the time. eBay and Kijiji were not reliable places to sell a $5000 Chanel bag without getting scam payments, lowballers, etc. Consignment boutiques that mainly sold clothing took 50-60% commission on items they sold, so that was not a viable solution to sell such a high-end designer bag so. I thought to try and sell it on my own on a free platform that was just peaking at its time - Instagram. I took what I felt the market lacked, and it was the educational aspect and adding value to the consumers, and integrated that into the Instagram page, which eventually led to me building a strong community of bag enthusiasts. This was the inception of Luxe Du Jour. The company strives to provide informative content like fake and scam alerts, which bags are great investments, how to spot a fake, what's trending etc., to stand out in the industry. I am motivated every day by what I do when I know that we stand for a bigger purpose - circular fashion. Everything luxe du Jour does integrates the 3 R's; for example:
- Reduce: Luxe Bag Spa can restore and revive your bag back to life, so this helps reduce waste in a bag you may throw out or never use again because it's damaged or stained. Luxe bag spa will give it another chance at life!
- Reuse: Luxe Bag Rental offering designer bag rentals at such an affordable price allows more and more bags to be reused around the world.
- Recycle: Luxe Du Jour selling and buying pre-owned helps recycle all these bags back to a new home, and if we can continue this cycle, we can reduce the production of new bags. This is Luxe Du Jour's bigger purpose of normalizing Preowned.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
My biggest accomplishment is that I built this successful company without a post-secondary degree or a high school diploma. My parents are immigrants, and although they wanted me to take the traditional path of going to school and becoming a doctor, engineer, or lawyer. I proved that you don't always need to take the traditional path set by others to have a fulfilling life. I hope anyone who didn't grow up with much knows that anything is possible. Believe in yourself as I believed in myself when no one else did.
What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?
The hardest thing as a business owner is finding a work-life balance in the early stages. Finding things to balance my mental health and prevent burnout was hard when I was working 16-hour days dedicating my life to the company, and it became very lonely.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Be resourceful as you can find out how to do anything with the help of the internet. Google or YouTube what you don't know how to do, and you'll find your answer.
- Take advantage of free social media platforms to promote your brand because I built up Luxe Du Jour into a multimillion-dollar company without running a single paid ad for 5 years. Everything was organic through social media.
- Be original and innovative. If you are too busy looking at what your competitors are doing and trying to copy them, you will always be behind. Find a way to stand out from your competitors.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://luxedujour.ca/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LUXEDUJOUR
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/luxedujour/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/luxe_dujour
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/luxe-du-jour/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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