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Megan McGuigan is a fashion designer based in Dublin. She sells her own designs, focusing on knitwear and sustainable materials like organic and fair trade cotton. She learned practical skills through studying fashion design and tailoring. Megan funded her business independently by selling personal belongings and reinvesting profits. She received a government grant for website improvements. She used Instagram and Facebook ads, as well as events, to grow her brand and build a relationship with consumers. Hi, so can you please tell us a bit about yourself and your company or your product? Hi, my name is Megan McGuigan and I'm a fashion designer currently based in Dublin. I sell designs that I have made myself. I have a store in Jersey Street Arcade, I also sell online and I've got some stockists as well. Yeah, I guess that's kind of it. And what are the unique selling propositions of your product and what type of products do you produce? So I sell clothes, a lot of it is knitwear, a bit of streetwear style stuff. Also, I try to be as sustainable as possible when we're producing. So I use organic cotton, fair trade cotton. And then also most recently with the knitwear, I use desktop yarn, first from Spain. One of the more sustainable ways of producing would be to use materials that we already have in circulation or a desktop. And I guess just in general it's unique because it's Irish design and it's designed locally. Okay, thank you so much. And what business skills do you have that aided you in starting up your business? I started doing this when I was quite young. So in terms of business skills, I honestly didn't really have any. I just kind of have been learning as I've gone along. And I guess in order to get my skills up to actually make clothes, like I went and studied fashion design in Dada, in MPDT and also in Barcelona. And most recently in Grafton, I've been doing a night course as well in tailoring. So I guess to learn my practical skills, that's what I've done. But in terms of the business, I've kind of had to learn it all myself. Okay, thank you so much. And through the early stage of financing your business, what personal funding methods were needed or was needed to attract outside investors? I don't have any outside investors. I'm completely independent and self-funded. So originally, I was quite young. I was 15 when I started making clothes. And I sold my iPod and I sold some personal belongings. And with the money, I made my first round of T-shirts. And then for years, I just never spent the money that I made from that stuff. And just kept putting all of the money that I had made back into making another one and another one. And I was quite lucky that they always sold. So, yes, that's basically how I grew it, just by kind of gambling the pot of my profit and just all of the money that I made. Okay, wow. That's very cool. And were there any government grants or local enterprise boards that aided you through your journey of becoming and growing your business? So I have applied for a few. I've applied for some artist grants and some business grants. So I have – the one I got was the Trading Online Venture. So that was brought in during COVID times to help you redesign your website or to make a website if you didn't have one. So I used one for SEO, which is search engine optimization. And I also won a photo shoot to improve the quality of pictures I had online. And then, yeah, there's definitely – there's a lot of, like, startup grants and there's, yeah, other ones. But, yeah, that's it. That's the only one I received. Okay, thank you. And what entry strategies did you use to grow your product or your business? That can be, you know, online websites or foreign direct investment. Is there anything that you think – any entry strategies that helped you growing? I was quite, again, not – like, I kind of used, like, Instagram ads and Facebook ads back in the day. So you can, like, use targeted ads where you can put on all your keywords and you can specifically advertise in one area as well. Honestly, I haven't really done an awful lot. I've kind of done things like events, which I find, like, helps build community and kind of organically grows your brand through just, like, positive association. Yeah. And do you think through those ads or through those events that you've had, do you think you've grown a relationship with your consumers? Yes. I think that the events are definitely worthwhile. They're very stressful to have, but they definitely are very important. I think having a community is very important. And I think, like, a young consumer, they don't want to just buy a product. They don't – they want, like, to feel a part of something or to feel connected to the brand and have those positive experiences with the brand. And with other people that also buy the brand. So I think it's quite important to do those kind of things. Okay. That's all the questions I have. Thank you so much for this interview and for your time. Thank you so much.