As I sit in the glorious Spanish sunshine enjoying a few days of relaxation with some good books and of course delicious Spanish food, I’ve got the urge to check in with the 4Couture team back at home to make sure they’re all getting on OK in my absence, not because I don’t trust they’re doing a fabulous job without me, but more because I care about leaving the team ‘one woman down’ and want to ensure they are OK.

This got me thinking, we don’t often (if ever) talk about what the magic is behind the 4Couture vibe we have created over the past 19 years, which I think it should be something we should be celebrating more by actually talking about it! 😉

“‘Success is better when it’s shared’ ”

— Howard Schultz

‘Success is better when it’s shared’ Is a mantra I feel as a company, we really do strive towards - our accidentally all female team based in Dorset comprises of sales, seamstresses, production and the warehousing teams – we love nothing more than getting excited for incoming client orders and also celebrating each other’s personal ‘wins’ of smashing team goals. Whether that’s within the work environment or outside of work, hobbies and personal gains - we’re all routing for one another!

It goes without saying that if you’ve ever had a fittings day experience with our team, you will probably have noticed that we arrive like a pack horse, our 4Couture van loaded up to the hill with rails of exciting new corporate wardrobe but what you don’t get to see is the hours of preparation our studio team have put in to help organise for this event in advance.

But also, the post-session welcome back the 4Couture sales team members receive from the team, wanting to hear how the session went and wanting to know ‘did the client love it?’ ‘what have they decided on for their uniform choices?’.

I don’t know if this support, positivity and drive towards delighting the client is something I’ve always received from colleagues in past roles I’ve been in, which is why it feels so special that we’ve managed to create this bond in our v pink themed home we call ‘The Studio’.

Post pandemic, as the working world and many of our clients came back to life, it really felt like 4Couture had an injection of energy burst into us and it’s a great feeling to recognise that we’re working better together than ever before. If you’re a client of mine, you might not know that when you place an order with me, there are many human touch points within the 4Couture studio up until your order leaves our door. This means communication amongst the team is crucial in meeting deadlines, ensuring that orders are produced correctly and that our quality is extraordinary.

You may have even heard us say ‘we never miss a deadline’ – it’s something we’re super proud of and is still true today, we are prepared to pull an all nighter to avoid disappointing our clients. I really think that the years of hard work put into creating a workplace that celebrates and supports successes has proven we have a well oiled 4Couture ‘machine’ running.

Even down to the small things, such as we have an in house ‘post box’ where team members submit anonymous thank you’s and compliments for fellow team member – it might sound silly, but to us it’s the little things that can make someone’s day and in return, build a company that we all enjoy being a piece of the puzzle of. Although, any one of the team will tell you that receiving a compliment from myself comes with it’s challenges – as my hand writing is so dreadful you can’t actually see what’s been written LOL but hey it’s the thought that counts right?! Feel free to give the team a buzz, they will confirm that it’s an ongoing joke…

You probably have heard us mention a few times in the past that we’re also very partial to any excuse for cake and sweet treats, so we put this into practice at various points during the year by taking time to celebrate achieving company goals and targets by stuffing our faces at various yummy locations! It’s important to take this time physically outside of the day to day work place and to take a moment of gratitude for how well the 4Couture blended team makes the dream (work)!

“Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life ”

— Amy Poehler

The act of creating such an atmosphere amongst the team isn’t taken lightly, each month we organise various activities as voted for by the team – this can include our latest fave, forest walking and meditation but has been known to also mean spending an afternoon enjoying cupcake decorating classes or taking part in a cookery course! Whilst many think we are just the ‘pink uniform girls’ and I’m fully aware my previous sentence makes it sounds as though we sit around a lot LOL in fact it is quite the opposite, we very much live by the saying of ‘work hard play hard’ – customer deadlines always come first!

But my point is, the above is what I believe has improved our team communication and direction that everyone is aiming to row the boat in (this is another mantra of ours that we have discussed in many team meetings, inspo from Olympian Ben Hunt Davies, check him out if you’ve not heard of this).

We’re so lucky to be in our 19th year of dressing our lovely clients & supplying promotional merchandise for them too, we don’t ever take for granted how lucky we are to have many repeat clients, some of which have been along for the ride since day 1. So as much as this is a blog to talk about us, we wouldn’t be here without YOU so thank you (mainly for providing the excuse for lots of cake 😉).

So, whilst I know that my whatsapp reply from the 4Couture group chat will be one along the lines of ‘we’re doing absolutely fine so stop messaging us and get back to enjoying your holiday’ – just knowing that the team are OK and that if they weren’t they would know they can ask me anything, helps in building the vibe we’ve got going on so well.

A short and sweet one from me as I really must dash back to dipping my toes in the pool, so I’ll see you when I’m back, but not before I’ve caught up with my fellow colleagues!

Adios😊