Friday

Today was a calm day because we had an action plan team meeting in the city. The team meeting was an action plan for the next thirty days. It was a meeting where Camilla delegated to each position what needs to be done in the next month. In the meeting specifics were discussed on up coming marketing events, international trips for Camilla to check on how the production is going at the different manufacturers, production, and national sales. By Tuesday Camilla wants projection reports from all positions, so she can see where she stands financially. The reports will help show were the company is standing. Finances are always really important in a company, but currently it is especially important because Camilla is opening two stores and recently purchased a new office.

Thursday

On Thursday I packaged all the press banners, press kits, show cards, look books to our international agents. I sent them to Greece, Italy, Japan, England. In order to ship the packages that I had to create a customs invoices for each shipment and booked it through Harrison logistics. After sending the packages off, I downloaded some prints that were sent to us by a print developer. Then I saved the prints to the S drive for Britt (design assistant) to use when designing with Camilla for the next collection. The prints were also put together and printed off in a sample table for Camilla to go through, since she likes to see things visually on paper. The table included the print image, print name, and code. From there I helped Deva (international sales) with getting shipments ready for 2 international orders for our over seas stockists. I filled half the order from our stockroom and the other half from our warehouse.

Wednesday

Sorry to everyone for late posts, but this week I worked a lot of hours. 30 hours in the past two days, 15 hours on both Wednesday and Thursday. Wednesday and Thursday we hosted a style night for all the owners/managers of all the national stockists. At the style night Camilla opened up the event with her story of how and why she chose the silhouette, colors, and prints. She explained the inspirations behind the designs. After that Hannah our in house model and our stylist/retail manager explained how to wear each garment several different ways. The style night was created in hopes to show the owners/managers how to sell to their customer in order to drive sales. When the customer knows the versatility of the garment they are more likely to buy the garment knowing that they can get more wear out of an expensive garment.

Tuesday

Well, today started out with implementing images into a sample table for manufacturing. Then arranging our split orders to get to the head office to be sorted through from the warehouse. Getting that task sorted out was a nightmare...lol It took forever to get everything worked out. Once the warehouse had all my orders ready I booked a courier to pick them up and had the courier deliver the boxes of garments to the head office. I more than likely will be packing what I received from the warehouse and sending it to our international boutiques tomorrow. I then put together 100 press kits, 5 press banners, 10 show cards, and 350 look books together to send to our overseas agents to use to promote the brand. What I have definitely learned from this internship is to always follow up. Constantly checking that people are doing what they promise to do and that shipments are coming and going. As far as tracking shipments, making sure faxes and orders have been sent or arrived, phone calls are followed up etc. It seems like a never ending trail of follow up, especially with orders and samples coming from the manufacturers. I also worked with Bec (national sales) by putting together a run sheet for the style night that we are hosting tomorrow night at the Bondi store. The purpose is to show the national stockists how to style the garments, so they can use it as a selling tool to their customers. It will be from 5pm-9pm Wednesday. So a long day tomorrow about 7am-9pm:( But it will be fun and a great experience to be a part of!!!:) The style guide that Hannah and I created will be used as examples of the styling tips that will be demonstrated at the style night. It will be for the stockists to take home and help jog their memory of what was shown at the style night.

Monday

The start of a new week! Today was a full on day. I started out by sorting international agents orders. While organizing the orders I noticed that we had some stock in our stock room, some at the warehouse, and some still coming from the manufacturer. Needless to say there was a lot of tracking going on. I had to figure out how to use what we had and what we were planning on getting to complete some of the orders. On each order I marked a garment as have on hand, have at warehouse, and will be receiving. After that I packed what we had on hand, and left the packages open to continually add to as we received garments from the warehouse and manufacturer. In order to get what I needed I had to email the warehouse what I needed and have them send it to me at the head office to be sorted through. I followed up the e-mail with a phone call making sure the workers at the warehouse received my e-mail and understood what I needed and the urgency of the orders. Tomorrow I expect to receive the garments from the warehouse and manufacturer to complete my orders. After that I worked on adding manufacturing notes from the India trip that Camilla and Britt took to our manufacturing folders. I also worked on putting in images from a few manufacturers into the sample table that I created. The table makes it so much easier to read and understand, it especially makes it easier for Camilla to go through manufacturers proposed ideas for samples. I also booked a few international orders through Harrison Logistics.

Friday

A late post for Friday. On Friday in the morning I worked on sorting a shipment invoice that we received from our main manufacturer. The invoice showed that it was a partial shipment, meaning we were short on the amount of garments that we needed to ship to out international clients. Therefore, I had to organize a way to split the order from the manufacturer to complete our priority international clients orders. There was only enough garments to ship complete orders to 5 out of the 9 international clients that needed orders at the time. Later on I worked on putting together a sample table template to send to our manufacturers. This way the images and product information per garment that is sent from each manufacturer will be more organized. The idea of the template is to save us time and it will be easier to read since it will be coming back to us the same way from each manufacturer. I also worked on scanning in magazine inspirational clippings for the new product line that Camilla wanted. This way we have a hard and soft copy of the inspirations. Then I organized both the hard and soft copies by category and put them in folders such as beading, fabric, color, etc.

Thursday

This morning started out by entering an order for one of international stores on MYOB. Then I worked on putting together a sample table for Britt (Manufacturing). It had images of the garments sent by one of our manufacturers along with style name, code, prices, and fabric type. I also organized an inspirations folder of magazine clippings for color. prints, style, cuts, and embellishments for the next collection. Not only did I make a hard copy folder of them, but I scanned them to add to the inspirations folder on the S drive. After that I took two different sheets of information one containing samples that we needed and the second one was samples that had been produced by a manufacturer. I used the two sheets to cross reference which samples out of the ones that we needed were produced and what ones we still needed. I made an excel sheet of what we still needed to send to our manufacturer to remind them what we were still missing. We sent it as a reminder to get production rolling a little faster. We are really rushing the production processes of our manufacturers in order for us to make sure we meet our deadlines for getting our garments in store. Then from there I saved images that other manufacturers have sent us, recorded their codes, saved them on the S drive, and then printed them off for Camilla to look over. Since Camilla is a visual person we always have to have a hard and soft copy of everything.

Wednesday

Hump day!!! I can't believe today is Wednesday already. This morning and afternoon I worked in the showroom up at the studio organizing the collection for the shooting of the reality tv show for channel 9. The show is called THE BOSS COMES TO DINNER. It is about 3 contestants who are trying to get the PA position for Camilla. Thats about all I can say about it, I can't get into anymore detail. I was actually in the shoot today. A five minute clip took about 3 hours to get ready for, fixing up the room, hair and makeup. I was just working in the background nothing big, it was fun though!!!! After the shooting I went back to the office for 2 hours and worked on putting together a sample table for manufacturing. It contained images, styles, codes, colors, and prices for one of our manufacturers. Then I recorded last orders prices to the current ones we received, this way the prices from the manufacturer can be questioned or negotiated on to bring production prices down. If the prices can't be brought down then we will see if their is alternative material of fabric that we can use or another alternative.

Tuesday

Today was a great day! I got a lot accomplished. First, I worked on updating our potential agent and boutique list for international sales. Then I worked on putting together an order for four seasons resort in Hawaii. I looked at their two previous orders to see what they had received from us. Together with the previous orders I went through our stock from soleil and gelato to see what we had left. With the look book, their previous orders, the style numbers that we had available, and the resorts consumer in mind I put together an order for them. I took awhile to compile the order with keeping all the information in mind on top of their $6,000 budget. It was time consuming, but a lot of fun especially since I got to do it on my own with Deva's (International Sales) final approval. After putting together the order for four seasons resort I went with Bec (National Sales) to the studio to set up the Babylon collection in look book story order for the shooting of the reality show tomorrow.

Monday

So my day started off with placing orders from our international agents into our accounting program MYOB. By entering the item codes from the agents invoice an invoice from us is created of what we have available to send them. After entering the orders on MYOB I ran the agents account numbers to be charged for their orders converted the currency of the total sales, then package the order and sent it through Harrison Logistics. Once I finished doing that for international sales, I worked with Britt (manufacturing) we went through our latest samples that we received from India. The samples that we were looking at were the garments that were discussed on by Britt and Camilla when they were in India. However, the samples that we received were still not exactly what Camilla wanted. Therefore, Britt and I decided to change the length on one of them and took photos of the other things that we wanted changed to send back to the manufacturer to fix. Today was also the first day of filming for the reality TV show for channel 9 in the office. Not sure If I was even in any of it...lol thats ok I rather not be on TV.

TGIF!!! It was a calm day in the office with only two staff members and myself. Since it was a slow day and not to much to do I worked on my SWOT analysis with the two staff members Bec and Isobel. Bec is national sales and Isobel is the retail manager. A slow day at Camilla' is unheard of. It was nice though to have time to concentrate on my project. Next week should be full on though, since there is so much to do for winter production and the reality TV show that will be shot in the office. So if anyone watches Sydney's channel 9 I will be the intern in the background...lol :)

Thursday

So we found out today that we will be getting a new office and will be moving there in about a week. Which will be really nice, it's brand new and a lot more space! Today I processed some accounts from our international agents. Packed the garments that they ordered, processed their account information, then booked them through harrison logistics. After that I steamed close to 100 Babylon pieces to send to HUSH our PR agents. I bagged them and booked them through a courier. Then I put together a invoice which contained look book images. The invoice had the image of the garment next to their proper codes and descriptions. It was created so that our international agents would know what could be ordered. The invoice with the images were of stock that was left over from our two older collections Soleil and Gelato. Instead of shipping the international agents two look books and an invoice stating only the pieces that were left over. We e-mailed the international agents images with codes so they wouldn't get confused, and it was a lot faster than mailing look books. The invoice was made so it would be straight forward for the agents because it was images of only the garments that we had left. I guess in the past the agents were told specifically what we did and did not have and they still put an invoice through including garments that we no longer had stock of. So I put together a dummy version of an invoice. It took a while because I had to create an invoice of what we had left over in the stock room and then find all the look book images that matched the codes on the server to put into the document. Then I had to use my own look book to match the images on the server with the codes that matched the invoice of the left over stock because all the images on the server are just pictures none of them are coded.

Wednesday

Camilla came back today!! We had a team meeting this morning of a recap of her trip overseas of the things that she got accomplished and what needs to be followed up on now that she is back. Then there was a celebratory lunch of her being back and what she had accomplished for the company, and for all the hard work that the team put in while she was away. Needless to say it was a nice day out with the boss. After Camilla had met with various agents and manufacturers it will be full steam ahead following up with everything through international sales and especially manufacturing for the new winter collection. So much to be done. The winter collection woodstock rock should be completed by the end of August! It will be exciting to be apart of the newest collection.

Tuesday

This morning myself and the entire office staff were helping tidy up the office before Camilla gets back tomorrow afternoon. We cleaned out old files, sorted and hung up samples that we have received from the manufacturers that she visited while she was gone. We made sure that everything that was on the agenda to get done before she got back was done. A precise run through on the press was done by me to make sure it was up to the Camilla standard for approval. I then worked with Deva (international sales). We took inside pictures of the Camilla beach house store, and pictures of certain garments and how they are hung in store to send to her international agents to use as reference. This way no matter who is selling the Camilla label they know the proper way to display the garment. We sent the pictures along with specific descriptions to all her international agents. After that I worked a little bit with some visual merchandising for the beach house store.

Monday

This morning I put together an invoice for a few international agents. Japan, UK, Greece, America, Milan were a few of the places that I did invoices for. The invoices included the product code, product name, product color, product fabric type and the amount of that product that the international agent needed for their area. Then I booked a mail courier to pick up samples from Camilla's assistant that she went with during her international travels. Once I received the samples from the mail courier I counted and went through the samples. Some of the samples needed to go back to our show room and the others needed to be sent immediately to one of our manufacturers. So I frantically had to book through harrison logistics to pick up the samples no later than 3:30pm to guarantee that the samples would make it on the airplane tonight in order to arrive at the manufacturer tomorrow. I then processed invoices that we received from two of our stockists. Again worked on press, who ever knew that a designer would be in the press 3 times a week including when she isn't even in Australia the press is still writing about her. All in a positive way though, so that is always good! Camilla's press definitely one of the companies strengths that is driving there sales and customers attention.

Friday

TGIF! Another week down. Today I packed up two shipments worth of garments to send to two different international stores. I took both invoices and collected the merchandise from the stock room that needed to be shipped. I then boxed both shipments up, recorded it in MYOB, printed up an invoice from us containing the information of what we sent them including customs paper work. The invoice that we send to them lets them know what should be in the box, and what garments we had on hand to send to them. The shipments might not include everything that they requested on their invoice to us, just because we might be out of what they want and will be sending it to them once we receive it from our manufacturers. I shipped both boxes through Harrison Logistics one to the U.S. and the other to UAE. After that I processed the credit card information from both of the stores after converting the exchange rates. Then I worked on some research for the SWOT analysis that I am working on for Camilla.

Thursday

This morning I shipped some stock with all the appropriate information for customs to one of our U.S. agents through Harrison Logistics. Then a little work on the press folder. After that the big project of the day was organizing all our international stores/boutiques accounts that we are stocked in on MYOB. I organized all the stores by including all their invoices of stock that they have bought from us by collection and then by how many drops they received per collection. By doing this it will help Deva (International sales) project the next seasons estimated sales in total for international sales. The project was huge: many stores, three collections, and some stores had 5-10 drops per collection, very time consuming. A little nerve racking because I was aiding in the projected sales for our international department. So if I recorded something under the wrong collection or forgot to record a drop it could be crucial in figuring the totals. Needless to say I was double and triple checking myself. Even though Deva would be double checking it too I still felt very responsible in case she still doesn't catch something that I did.

Wednesday

This morning I started off with working with international sales receiving an invoice from one of Camilla's U.S. agents. So I went through our stockroom to see what we currently had available for them on hand. The kaftans that we did have that they wanted I boxed up, wrote up an invoice of what was packed, included the AUD and USD prices per garment, then booked it through DHL with all the customs information and country of origin data. I then recorded what I sent the U.S. agent in MYOB which is the accounting system that we use. After that I processed the agents credit card account for the shipment of goods. Then worked on the Press Folder a little bit more as per usual. Then at 1:30pm I attended at meeting with Bec (National Sales) with David Jones. David Jones is one of our biggest stockists, it is probably comparable to SAKS at home. We were meeting with them to show them the latest pieces from the Babylon collection that was on the runway in May. David Jones will be having a fashion parade in a few weeks showing casing all the brands that they will be having for their summer collection. Before our garments drop into their stores they wanted to take some sample pieces that we had for their parade. Bec and I met with them because Bec deals with all of their sales and knows what garments they have already bought from the collection and wanted to make sure that they only chose pieces that they will have in-store, and that they didn't choose any that the David Jones Buyer hadn't already purchased. The people that we met where the David Jones Stylist and the Assistant Stylist. We met them in Sydney at HUSH. HUSH is our Public relations firm. After the meeting I continued to work on the press folders.

Tuesday

Starting off my day was finishing up the organization of the look book quote folders that I started last week. Then I transferred some pictures off a camera from the one off sale party to the server to use for marketing and PR. After that I took some pictures of the best one off pieces that were left over from the party. I used the images of the one offs to send to our overseas buyers, so they could have the opportunity to purchase some one offs for their stores. Once I took all the pictures and sent them to the buyers I updated the press folder with the most recent press from this weekend. In the middle of updating the folders we received 20 sample garments for the upcoming collection. I checked all the samples in and hung them in the back room to look over for correct details and quality with Britt. Following the shipment of samples that arrived, I researched some potential stockists in Norway, Finland, and Denmark. The list of potential stockists that I was working off of was a list of places that Camilla came across when she was overseas. I was in charge of looking into each potential stockist more thoroughly. I would peruse their websites and record all their important information that we could use to contact them. Finally after researching I frantically was splitting orders, repacking and booking shipments. Due to the fact that one of our manufacturers was behind we had to split up some of our shipments. We sent partial shipments to some of our stores to hold off the stores a little longer before the real shipment comes through. This one manufacturer is causing the whole Camilla team a lot of stress, because it is causing some places to cancel their orders due to not meeting the deadlines of promised shipments.

Monday

Today went by so fast. I worked in the stockroom today checking to see what we had in stock and the quantity that we had in each style. While I was checking the stock I was organizing and making the stockroom look nice. Once I went through all the stock I made a list of every style that we had three or more of. Then I logged onto our online merchandise and edited what we had available. So anything that we have three or more I made available and anything that was online and that we are now out of I made it unavailable on the website. Needless to say that project alone took up a lot of my day. When I was done working with the stock I worked on the styling guide book. The style guide will be used as a selling tool. It will also help the customers see how differently they can wear their kaftan. While increasing their confidence level in how they feel when wearing the kaftan.

Friday

A late post for Friday. On Friday I helped put together a folder on manufacturers pricing, negotiations, and correspondence for Britt to take with her on Sunday for India. It will be used when Britt goes to check on the samples at the manufacturer in India. She will be checking samples to make sure production is at high standards and that it will all be able to be produced on time. If certain garments are not produced correctly and on time penalties will apply toward the manufacturer. She also will be double checking the prices that were negotiated per garment. Since, the pricing list that was sent to us with the garment image that it corresponds with does not match the price that we thought we had agreed on. Therefore, Britt wants to question why the prices are not matching. After that I talked with Isobel the retail manager about all three of the Camilla stores in the Sydney area. Our discussion was on the sales and how she sells to her customers and looked at monthly sales per store to see the percentage of increase or decrease. After gaining a little insight from her I spent the remainder of the day doing research for my SWOT analysis. Since there is so much that is confidential I had to figure out percentages since I can't use exact figures and eliminate the names of the manufacturers that Camilla uses for the research.

Thursday

WOW.....what a day. I packed more boxes of garment samples of cuts, prints, and embellishments for the India trip at the design room. Made another customs invoice to send with the package of samples. Sent the boxes through Harrison Logistics to the hotel were Camilla and Britt will be staying in India. I definitely will be tracking the package to make sure that it gets to the hotel by Monday for Britt and Camilla to go through before they meet with the manufacturers. Went over the India schedule again to make some changes and confirm appointments with manufacturers. Then I steamed all the one off garments for the VIP "one off" sale party. The "one off" party was invitation only from 6pm-9pm. The entire office crew and store crew worked the party. There was champagne and appetizers and about 100 frantic women grabbing as many kaftans as possible. It was crazy busy and the line to try on the kaftans was about an hour long. It was similar to crazy brides at a bridal sale it was so busy. I worked 7am-9:30pm today, but it was all worth it because we brought in about six digits worth of sales. Overall it was a long day, but I had so much fun at the VIP party sale!!