Our vast community of entrepreneurs occupy a variety of fields, including HR service, law firm, digital product design, catering, pet care, and many more. They truly run the gamut and it’s always so exciting to see what new paths they will venture into through entrepreneurship.
One such case is Anna-Maria Nurmela, our Entrepreneur of the Month, who realizes her dream of 10 years with Elegant Affairs, her very own luxury bridal shop in the heart of Helsinki. The shop boasts an impressive selection of wedding dresses for all shapes and sizes, ensuring that every customer will find the perfect fit for the most special day of their life.
fixing the bridal sector
The idea behind Elegant Affairs stemmed from the personal experience Anna-Maria had when she first became a bride herself. She quickly noticed many issues within the bridal sector in Finland, particularly the long waiting time to arrange a fitting and a significant lack of inclusivity in dress selection.
“When I became a bride, I started to look for a dress for myself. I found out so many problems in the bridal sector. For example, in Finland, the average delivery time for wedding dresses is from 6 to 9 months, and some stores won’t even take brides in for fitting if the wedding is in 6 months. The other problem I had was looking for plus-size dresses. Most stores only offered me 4 or 5 styles, versus 20 options for everyone else, which surprised and disappointed me because it was not the same in other countries. I thought it could be a good opportunity to fix it, because I am sure, I am not the only one who faced the same problems.”
first step: research, research, research
With previous experience from two retail businesses in Tallinn, Anna-Maria began exploring the idea of opening her own bridal shop. Her first step? Doing A LOT of research.
“I did a lot of research on stores, their delivery time, and their offers. I did all kinds of research for this, and not just online. I went to bridal stores myself, I went with friends, I read reviews on Google then came to the store to compare what I saw with the reviews. One time. I found a bridal shop in Tallinn and texted them on Instagram asking to have a chat. The owner lady was so friendly; she gave me her number and said ‘let’s chat’. I got to ask her everything that was on my mind about the store. Now we’re almost partners!”
Along the way, Anna-Maria also found the Spark Program rather serendipitously. Someone had mentioned Spark in a Facebook group, and she decided to give it a try and send in her application. Little did she know that, only a couple of months after the cohort ended, she would be holding the keys to her own bridal shop.
“I looked up the Spark Program and applied in time. I was going in with an idea but I didn’t know that my time would be so soon. I graduated in December and by February I’d already had a shop!”
GREAT SELECTION AND TOP-TIER CUSTOMER SERVICE
Anna-Maria’s bridal shop, Elegant Affairs, has been open for a few months now, and while there have been challenges, she is optimistic for the future.
“Business is only beginning to pick up recently. The first 6 to 9 months are normally really hard, especially to get search results on Google. I’ve done everything I could with marketing, and you can find me on Google now.”
One of the reasons for her optimism is the overwhelmingly positive feedback she’s received from customers, some of whom travel from different cities to Helsinki just to visit Elegant Affairs.
“The reception from customers has been amazing. They are so happy to find plus-size dresses here. I’ve had a customer from Tampere who couldn’t find a dress that fit her as all the dresses were tiny, but at my shop she couldn’t believe that she got to try on 10 dresses! Another customer from Porvoo told me that there are people talking about you and your shop on Facebook. I don’t know what they talk about there but I appreciate the free publicity!”
Customers also single out Anna-Maria’s top-notch customer service as one of the main draws to visit the shop, and some have even said that she’s got the best customer service out of all the bridal shops they’ve been to. Anna-Maria attributes this praise to her just loving what she does and loving working with newly-engaged brides. This good vibe and energy is palpable in her customer service work.
“This store has been my dream for 10 years, and it’s something I could see myself doing because I really like the vibe of working with brides and doing customer service. My customers are always happy and excited because they’ve just got engaged. One customer after they’ve been shopping around for dresses for one and a half months decided to come back to me, and they said I have the best customer service! This got me curious so I did some research into what other stores were doing that made the customer come back to me.”
BE READY FOR THE UNEXPECTED
Reflecting on the lessons she has picked up from this journey, Anna-Maria advises other entrepreneurs to do as much research beforehand as possible and not be afraid to ask questions or ask for opinions. She also acknowledges that there will always be challenges and unexpected things that no one can prepare you for, and that’s why planning is so important.
“It’s quite hard to do this in Finland. You never know for sure what kinds of problems you will face. Things are never going completely the way you planned. For instance, it took me six weeks to get into the tax register when it normally only takes a few days, because the holidays delayed things. I recommend doing as much research as possible and getting as many opinions as you can before doing anything else. If I could give a piece of advice to my past self, it would be to not rush and think more than twice beforehand.”
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
So, what is in store for the future of Elegant Affairs? Anna-Maria is more than happy to unveil the upcoming plans for the shop, which include expansion, new inventories, and potentially even a new service.
“I’d like to get my own brand noticeable, expand, and add more inventory items to my store – shoes, accessories, anything that a bride might need. But it’s not just items and inventories, I want to add more services too, and the future goal is to plan weddings. A common feedback I hear is that people don’t know what to do or where to go to find restaurants and flowers. I have no prior experience in wedding planning yet but my strength is that I’m really good at planning and doing research. I really love what I’m doing now – that’s why it’s been a dream, so I don’t really set a limit or goal for it.”
To wrap up the interview, we ask Anna-Maria, in her opinion, what she considers the best thing out of this whole entrepreneurship journey so far. For her, it’s the sense of accomplishment that she feels at work every day and in this store that she’s built from the ground up.
“Coming into work into a place that I built, seeing how beautiful it is, and knowing that this is made from my hands. That is the best thing.”
Are you or someone you know looking for wedding dresses for the most special day of your life? Give Elegant Affairs a try and experience top-notch customer service by Anna-Maria!
Author & Editor: Evan Bui
Photos supplied by Anna-Maria Nurmela.
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