We all are entitled to an opinion, right? But lately it seems to me that some people know everything about hm frankly everything… you know how you get the best advises from people, who haven’t got kids and those who don’t work know everything about the workplaces, etc..

Over the last few months I had to learn a very important skill (that you absolutely must possess in a business) – a resilience to silly comments, feedback, usually totally irreverent and based on no evidence…
For instance, a business must be advertised on Facebook, or you have to constantly have sales on your website or at least add something free to your product, if not, a free shipment,et.. I find it amazing how much people, who have never had a business, know about it…

Don’t get me wrong – I have come across a number of smart, constructive criticism, comments which significantly improved the way I do things today (I really need to mention my lovely partner here, who is an absolute rock, mentor, supporting and encouraging me all the way). I must say though the irrelevant opinions/judgments/ tips from God knows where are the total winner.  We all have a need of feeling useful but sometimes it is better to keep your opinion to yourself.  
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I actually now enjoy listening to those ‘experts’ who knows I won’t even sell even one pair of Gucio shoes. I have a smile on my face as I already have proven them wrong. Gucio shoes have got attention, more than I ever expected at this stage of my business (3 weeks from launching website and over 400 unique visits and ).
The journey so far has been so educational and so interesting, and I love every bit of it. I’m excited about the unknown that I'm sure is  waiting just around the corner.
Next time you want to comments on something, think twice – do you really have anything useful to say? If not, better not to say anything. Trust me – you will save yourself an embarrassment. 

​Iwona

I think a lot of mums are going to agree with me on this - There is far more choices for girls than for boys. When you walk in the shop you see all these beautiful, colorful clothes for girls and not so many for the boys. I wonder if it due to the fact that the girls's stuff sell better??? I always look for cute outfit for my boys, and honestly it is not easy to find it.    I ended up buying bits and pieces from Europe and America.

I feel like mothers of boys are greatly disadvantaged by the retailers. Surely, there is a market for boys - clothes, shoes and accessories.  At the playgroups, and mothers groups there is always little complaints from mothers going around not  being able to find cute clothes for boys (of course reasonable priced).

When I started doing Gucio shoes, I never realised the colour choices we offer are more suitable for boys than for girls. Only when my girlfriend pointed out to me I thought she was actually right.
I didn't come across many moms wanting blue shoes for the girl (nothing wrong with that).  In general the boy can wear any color, maybe except heather (which is also personal choice). I find  mothers order heather and natural colour for the girls, I also had one order for navy blue (only because the mum wants to keep the shoes for her second child, who happen to be a boy).

What I'm trying to say is that I'm very happy, that for a change we can offer more choices for boys when it comes to hand made, leather, quality shoes than for the girls.  It is a total coincidence as I don't get too much say when it comes to the colours, but I kind of like it.

I'm sure if you are a mother of a boy/boys you will like it too.

Go boys

​Iwona

Today is going to be a very short post - for the past 2 days I have been staying at home with Oscar.
He again brought something from the daycare- nothing serious, just a cold but when the baby is sick, it can be exhausting for the parents,, all the whinging and clinging , you know what I'm talking about.

I literally have maybe max another 10min to write, before the 'boss' wakes up, so not enough time for me to focus and write something 'readable'. 

I just want to wish everyone a great weekend (without sick kids at home).

I will be back on Monday  (at this stage I decided to keep my weekends free from blogging).

See you next week! Ciao for now

​Iwona

Last night we had some friends over for a coffee/ wine, and at some point the conversation moved towards my Gucio business -  how the shoes are selling, etc.  Just the usual questions you get when you have an online shop ... 

Anyway my 14 years old son joined the conversation and recommended really good sport shoes we should all buy: like Nike Air max,  Nike Air Jordan,  some Adidas and others that I never heard of. I'm not into the sport shoes but I just listened curiously to see what the new generation has to say.  To my astonishment apparently about a 100 kids from my son's school wear Gucci shoes,, (after that he said maybe 50...). I should add here that my son goes to the average public school ,and my husband reckons every time he drops him or picks him up he sees all the Asian\ kids wearing cheap, often way too big shoes.. You make you own judgment,, 

The interesting thing  he said though was that you can wear cheap clothes, like Kmart or Target, but if have good quality shoes, you look will be viewed as expensive. I think he is spot on , maybe a bit more than that - I believe in not only good quality shoes (preferably leather) but also a, nice handbag and of course a jacket. The rest can be cheaper, and you can get a good, expensive look without spending a fortune.

Move on into the kids's fashion. Don't we all want our little ones look good? I  always have going out clothes for Oscar, that I keep for special occasions, such us cute Country Road shirts, Baby Gap Jackets, Ralph Lauren beanies etc. Imagine I dress my boy in Ralp Lauren's outfit and then Kmart $5 shoes, he will look cheap right? or maybe Ralph Lauren then would like like a  fake one,,, But If I dress him in a nice Kmart top, a nice Target pants plus good quality baby shoes, that would be a different story.  On top of that the shoes are so important for health reasons that if you invest in a pair of good ones, you are also investing in your children's health. Whether you dress them in Baby Gap top or a Kmart one it doesn't really matter if they both cotton, but the shoes make magnificent difference, not only fashion wise but more important health wise. 

Few days ago I post this photo on Instagram, I think my boy looks trendy and it didn't cost a fortune.
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Tshirt - Old Navy ($15), Jacket (Tkmaxx $30), Pants -Kmart ($15), Shoes (Gucio, Ergono $139). 

I had Facebook for a number of years now and I can say I’m pretty confident and frequent user but Instagram is all new to me - Big Enigma… 
Last year my almost 15 year’s old son told me to get an account, which I did - somehow, I never got hooked on it.        I didn’t really get the hashtags, just in general not my cup of tea….until few days ago when I started learning about marketing, and apparently the Instagram is the way to go.

I wasn’t really keen on the idea but there is pretty strong evidence that Instagram promotes business…  I need some promotion for my amazing handmade, leather baby shoes. It can’t be that hard right? So, I opened an Instagram business account few days ago and randomly chosen few hashtags... Awesome, not that hard….
A couple of hours passed and my girlfriend tells me my Instagram doesn’t look right – something wrong with the hashtags… hmmm,,, apparently you need to know how to use it - really?
I just randomly have chosen few hashtags such us baby shoes/ toddler shoes/ leather shoes/handmade….  This is how much I know about Instagram… so much to learn.
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Well, I’m a bit smarter now – I know when you use the correct hashtag you'll be able to tap the hashtag to see a page that shows all photos and videos people have uploaded with that hashtag. it sounds complicated but once you start using it makes sense...

That evening I spent few hours to watch you tube tutorials on Instagram…  Looks like I've learnt few things: 

• Post at least one good photo a day, add comments (not only photos)
• Better put the hashtags in comments  section than in the main text (to avoid spamming people)
• Always reply to your followers' comments (that’s kind of obvious)
• Do short videos (hmm I may be struggling with this... )

There is still so much to learn but at least I understand the basics...

Feel free to have a snick of my Instagram (29 followers, but hey that’s a start) https://www.instagram.com/guciobabyshoesaustralia/
 
Thanks in advance for comments and advices – much appreciated.

​Iwona

Everyone knows that marketing is a big thing in today’s world. There is millions of products out there, and whoever is able to promote their product/services well will get sales, which equals successful.  It doesn’t seem that hard but it is actually not easy. I know I have an amazing product – handmade leather baby/toddler shoes, the only product like this in Australia. The hard part is to reach out to the mums, who I know will be interested, but simply don’t know about Giulio shoes (just yet).

Selling baby/toddler shoes is my first business, and I don’t know much about effective marketing. All I know is that I want to be successful and that I’m very determined to achieve my goal. I did Diploma in Business a couple of years ago but I vaguely remember my marketing classes – something about trademarking rings the bell; the rest wasn’t really relevant back then , so I didn’t pay much attention (what a shame).

So, I decided to ask my friends and family, and a lot of them told me similar things – you must have a Facebook account and get the Facebook ads, you should advertise in parenting magazines, a Baby Expo is a TOTAL MUST, flyers, mothers groups, playgroups and day cares. Whilst I agree with some points, others don’t really appear to me. For a start I don’t have a big budget for advertising, therefore I can’t justify to spend over $5k to present at the Baby Expo,,, I need to sell 36 pairs of Ergono shoes to be able to break even just for entry cost. I won’t even go any further – to order a banner, flyers, my time for being there for 2 days, babysitter for Oscar, etc…
Facebook ads – none of my friends ever clicks on them, I don’t do it myself either…  I like the idea of playgroups, mothers groups and Day-Cares. I also have few of my own ideas which I’m implementing, but for now I will keep it to myself.

The most interesting thing for me was when I asked for marketing tips the owner and founder of Gucio shoes - Slawomir Piwowarczyk (a guy who has been successful in a business for over 20 years). I was expecting a list of great hints and tips from him - instead I was told that he NEVER did any marketing, the kids shoes are selling fantastic, and the only marketing he is aware of is a word of mouth. I was really amazed.

If you have an amazing product maybe the only marketing is TIME – mums will find out about Gucio shoes sooner or later.  I will then enjoy my coffee and wait for the word to spread.... 

Have a great day
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Iwona
 

Some of you may be looking at my shop and thinking …OMG who is going to buy these shoes? They are so expensive…

Since I started to talk about Gucio shoes (even before launching this website) a number of mums said they would NEVER spend $100 or over $100 on shoes, which will be worn for a couple of months… That’s fine – we all make choices when it comes to buying stuff for our children. I’m not here to judge you or tell you to buy Gucio shoes. I just want to show you a different perspective.

Guess what? There is plenty of mum out there (including myself) who are happy to pay this price! Let me tell you – I’m sensitive with money! I’m not a big spender but Gucio has everything I look for in shoes: health, quality, comfort, and on top of that, they are so pretty! You must admit- they are just gorgeous.
The way I see it – for a pair of decent shoes or something closer to decent I would need to pay around $60, I honestly prefer to add $40 on top, or even $80(for Ergono) and buy the best possible shoes.  It is not about my son outgrowing the shoes in few months – in fact he was in his first pair for 6 months, that’s half of a year…!  The shoes stretch and grow with the child - Oscar got two sizes out of it.. (The owner of Gucio shoes confirmed that usually kids get two sizes out of one pair). Then my calculation changes because if I had to buy 2 pairs of average shoes it would cost me $120 so I already have my money back AND my son wears the most amazing shoes!

To me it’s simple an investment in my child’s health. Shoes are extremely important for babies and growing feet. I just don’t want my son ending up with problems later in life. We all know- prevention is better than cure. Of course I hear your argument - my kids didn’t wear ‘good shoes’ but their feet are healthy and they have no problems – that’s fantastic, and I’m really pleased to hear it.
I choose not to take any risks and ensure I look after my son’s health.

I’m nowhere near ‘rich’ - just an average mum, like you. If I had to choose, I would buy cheaper clothes, but my kids always wear good quality shoes. Think ahead. Don’t think about the $100 here today. How many times you like something, you spend a lot of money and then next month you don’t even think it about ?

I also absolutely love the fact that Gucio shoes are 100% hand made... This is an art in itself.
​I'm fed up with  products manufactured in China in thousand of hundreds.

So how much is too much? It is really up to you and your pocked to judge. 

​Iwona

Feet are very important, as they are foundation for our bodies. The foot is one of the most overworked, under-appreciated parts of the human body. Here are some facts about human foot:

Humans have worn shoes for a very long time - About 40,000 years ago, according to research from Washington University. Older specimens had thicker, stronger toes, likely from gripping the ground as they walked barefoot. That’s around the same time that the archaeological record shows a burst of artistic and technological advancements among early humans, including the first stone tools, which may have aided in the production of shoes. The oldest preserved shoes, incidentally, is 5500 years old and was found in an Armenian cave, buried in sheep dung.

One quarter of your body’s bones are in your feet. Each normal foot has 33 joints, 26 bones, 19 muscles, and 107 ligaments. it is a complex and highly evolved mechanism. They can support your entire weight, while also performing rigorous tasks including running, jumping and climbing. 

Skin on the soles of your feet is thicker than it is anywhere else on you, and the cells divide more frequently in response to pressure and friction. 
Feet are one of the most ticklish parts of the body.

Walking is the best exercise for your feet, and it’s also a great way to get overall exercise for your body: it boosts circulation and helps you burn calories.

The younger the foot, the faster it grows.

Kids’ feet endure about 3 times more stress than the average adult feet.

There is a lot more facts to share but I only shared the ones I really find interesting,  I hope you will too.







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