The expectation for 'cheap' prices is leading Australian-made brands to burnout.

The good, the bad, the ugly, the stuff everyone’s talking about and the stuff we need to talk about more... If it’s happening in the fashion business world, I want to talk about it.?Conversations create change and that’s what my weekly LIVE chats are all about.

I speak with incredible guests doing amazing things in the slow fashion industry and we talk about all things fashion, business, sustainability, growth strategies and sales.

And today's?Instagram LIVE with Simone Agius, the Founder of Melbourne-based leather bag label Simetrie, was the perfect example of why we need to have honest conversations in the fashion industry.?Simone openly shared experiences that were simultaneously hard to hear and inspiring at the same time,?and if a talent like Simone can be pushed to burnout running a slow fashion business, it’s clear there are a few things going on in the industry that we need to improve.

You can?watch the full interview on Instagram here?and catch up on the three big takeaways from our chat below...

1. It's easy to start a business, but it's hard to?scale one without a strategy. When Simone started out, she was in love with the idea of running her own slow fashion business but she didn't implement the business strategies she needed for real growth. Simone didn't price her products high enough to pay herself a living wage, and the impact?led to slow growth and burnout,?making it hard to scale over the years. She's only recently changed her pricing model and now she's approaching business with more of a strategy, but it's a journey.

2. Community and support are everything when you're running a business. Simone did what she could to carry Simetrie?through?the pandemic, but the stress of?trying to scale for so long?coupled with doing too much and wearing all the hats through one of the toughest times in our recent history - led?Simone to burn out. Simone even contemplated quitting and closing down Simetrie, but after?ending a relationship,?starting a new one with herself, and a year of taking things very slow, she worked out how important the right community and support network is, and she moved forward running her business armed with one.

3. There is no such thing as perfect. There's no such thing as perfect, in life or in business. Striving for perfection will only?lead to burnout, but striving for 80% is good enough. Get to 80%, learn from that experience or the mistakes along the way, move on to the next step and?keep learning as you go. Otherwise, you'll get stuck, and you get nowhere. Running a business is about constantly improving and constantly learning, not being 100% perfect 100% of the time.

Learn more about?Simone and her work?via the Simetrie website here?or?watch our full?Instagram live interview here?to learn more about fashion, business, sustainability, sales and growth strategies that you can apply to your own label.

If you're running an ethical, sustainable, circular or slow fashion?brand and you have a challenge you're trying to overcome, tune in every week on Instagram to watch my LIVE interviews with brands and businesses who have overcome their own challenges - proving that you can too.

You can also?reach out to me here.

Claire.