I am most often inspired by reading success stories of women entrepreneurs.  Quite often they are behind some of the largest brands and companies but are still not recognized. I have decided to start highlighting some of these successful women on the blog.

Natalie Massenet, is the woman behind Net-a-porter.com, which she launched 10 years ago. This site has become the premiere fashion destination of many women around the world, for online shopping. We cover most of the heels in our Sexyfi My Heels section from the site. Net-a-porter ships from everywhere and to everywhere, and offers a wide variety of brands to their customers. The biggest selling point of Net-a-porter and niche it filled was utilising the internet to provide accessibility to high fashion to numerous women who wanted to shop but had little time or weren’t near any designer boutiques.

As with most great ideas, her timing was excellent, as we saw a growth in online shopping; she was prepared to cater to the market. It is reported that nearly 2 million women log on a month to read, browse and purchase from over 200 brands. What started out as a 5 person operation, now employs over 100 and ships to more than 50 countries. Net-a-porter from the beginning was never limited to only selling high fashion items around the world. Net-a-porter is designed as a luxury online magazines, where visitors can read fashion articles, get tips and see latest collections online.

I should also to mention that she also runs the very popular site theOutnet.com, which is a type of online outlet store, where you can find discounted out-of-season pieces by leading brands. Natalie insists on treating this site with the same quality as Net-a-porter, although it retails out-of-season pieces; as Massenet says, “Good fashion doesn’t date.”

Natalie also states: “I was completely confident. I never thought it wouldn’t work. I never once thought it wouldn’t be huge.”

One could think this is a lot for one woman to undertake – well things are far from over. Mrs. Massenet just announced that she is launching a male shopping destination, similar to Net-a-porter called Mr. Porter. She sites “I’m more excited about this than anything we’ve ever done,”

Here below are a few some mantras Natalie uses to stay focused- as she shared with The Business Of Fashion.

“But my dad taught me never to be afraid of what’s on the other side of the mountain.”  “walk before you can run” and “lead not follow”

I also read in an article that she has a formula for ensuring meetings go well: “I visualise the outcome. I visualise it going well and I put myself in the other person’s situation and think about what will make them do the deal. It’s something we do a lot of at Net-a-porter — the win-win situation.”

Here is an interesting interview if you want to learn more about Natalie Massenet