Starting my own clothing business - Leadership and Influence essay

Chevening Essay on Leadership and Influence

Back in my university days, I always wanted to make extra money and start a clothing business. The idea first popped into my mind in February 2017; I decided that selling t-shirts would be the most plausible option due to its versatility.

After conducting meticulous research, I narrowed down the essentials of the things that I needed to prepare to start the business:
1.Good design;
2.Trusted business to print my t-shirts; and
3.Marketing.

I started by recruiting people. I reached out to my friends that I know possessed the required skill to get the business started. For the design, I reached out to my junior high school friend - Kiko - whom I know had an excellent photoshop skill. After convincing him to help out, he decided to contribute more by pitching in some money.

It was hard to find a good, trusted yet affordable t-shirt printing business and most of the business are located in areas that are pretty far to reach. Therefore, I decided to go with my very own best friend, Ladinna. She rode a motorcycle, so she was able to travel around the city very efficiently. Besides the convenience, I trusted her. I also asked her to be my partner, she immediately agreed.

Marketing is quite tricky yet very important part of the business. I needed someone who had a good eye for the trend, active on social media, and good photographic skill. I asked two of my friends for this task; Virsa, my college friend, whom I know is very keen on keeping up with the trend and has a huge social media following and Ardi, which at that time, were taking lessons on photography. Virsa agreed since she thought it would be fun; Ardi also agreed since it would be helpful to sharpen his photography skill.

Once I have managed to gather my team and have assigned them to each of their tasks, we all went to work immediately. As the leader, I was responsible for supervising and assisting the task of each of my teammate. I helped Kiko to choose the color palette of the design, traveled around the city with Ladin to find a good t-shirt printing company, brainstormed the idea of the marketing in social media with Virsa and helped Ardi in choosing the concept for the photo shoot of the t-shirts.

With good teamwork, clear task and a definite timeline, we were able to come up with a design that I personally really like, got the t-shirts produced with a good price and ready to upload the photos of our t-shirt to social media as the platform to market the product. We were able to do this in less than 3 months and to our surprise, even managed to sell out the t-shirts.

my friends that I know knew possessed to possess the required skills to get ...
whom I know knew had to have an ...
After Iconvincing him ... (Only use V-ing after "after" when the two clauses have the same subject)

go with my very own best friend (I think "very" is unnecessary here)
Ardi, which who at that time, were was
Once I have managed ... and have assigned them ... --> I think that the past perfect tense is more suitable

each of my teammate -> repeating the word "of" twice is unnecessary here

@ruthmargaretha21
This is a very good sample of leadership, the reader understands well about your role in coordination but I would suggest that it would be better if you also include task that was done by none other than you(if any). It will help to create a good image that you are not only an all rounder but can also take on an independent task. Apart from the suggestions given by cao1km I do not have more to add.

Ruth, why are you giving a business history presentation to the reviewer? He is going to read the first 2 paragraphs of your essay and trash this because you are not delivering on the leadership and influencing requirements at all. Even if he finishes reading the whole essay, all you established was that you know how to start a business, but not lead or influence your staff. This is not a usable leadership and influencing essay.

An effective leadership and influencing essay starts after the business has already been established and you need to handle your employees already. That means, you have to be in an actual management mode when dealing with your people. As a leader, you should showcase how you handle problem situations within the workplace such as a problem with managing supplies, discussing with suppliers, handling your QA supervisors, and other related incidents. For the influencing, you should be discussing how you manage to get people to work for you when there are management issues such as a potential worker strike, unionizing, or even salary issues. How do you influence the workers to cooperate with you as the business owner when it comes to dealing with their demands for wages and fair labor practices?

You are missing out on a whole range of leadership and influencing issues that could definitely catch the attention of the reviewer. It will be best for you to come up with a 2nd version of this essay that takes places in the middle of the business already rather than starting at the bottom where there is no real evidence of leadership and influencing yet. All you did in this essay was explain how you hired people and that, does not equate to leadership and influencing skills. Remember, you need to focus on showing how you can be a leader and influencer in the future to help improve your country. At this point, you haven't really established that yet.

Thank you very much for your input. I will be taking your consideration and focus on showcasing my leadership and influence skill.