Starting or growing a fashion business can be hard with the current shifts and changes brought on by the global pandemic COVID-19 as well as local, economic and social challenges that it comes with. We wear many hats as entrepreneurs and you can easily feel at a loss in terms of where to start , what is next , what to do or where to go to?
Street-smarts meets Business Smarts. As fashion entrepreneurs , designers and fashion business owners you feel the failures and successes on a personal level. The business either started as a hobby (I can use a sewing machine); from a career (I studied or worked the corporate circuit) or I had to put food on the table anyway anyhow(survivalist entrepreneur). Whatever the reason, you are faced with understanding what your business requires of you and who you are in your business.
There’s no secret to fashion business success. One could easily break down a list of just some of the pain points :
- Funding or capital
- Building relationships and finding the go to people
- Learning the fashion language
- Sourcing fabrics and trims
- Visibility or lack thereof on social media
- Finding manufacturing services
- Minimum orders and sampling
- Business and Strategic Plans
- Understanding your costs and expenses
- Understanding our local markets
All of the above pain points can be solved with the proper guidance, a supportive community, tools and the right attitude.
Every fashion entrepreneur or business owner wishes they started by knowing the things that would have saved them a number of headaches and money. Some even thought if only they had a to-do list like a checklist of sorts it would have really provided at least some structure and not the initial overwhelming or even failures.
So then what is the actual physical steps ?-.
- Understand why you are getting into business . For some it’s a struggle if you don’t come from money, if you don’t have partners, financial help or have investors. Get to know why you want to start or grow your business. When the manufacturers mess up your order and you are upset because you are not getting your money back – you must really understand why you are doing this business. When things get hard you have to remind yourself why you are doing it.
- Having a mentor. There will be times that you want to give up and need to refocus, when you want to be kept accountable to your goals and have access to guidance and expertise when needed.
- Understanding the finances , costs and expenses (where’s the money and where is it going?). Many fashion entrepreneurs and business owners lack the business and finance acumen and it’s one of the decision triggers that either send an entrepreneur back into corporate or becomes the main cause of entrepreneurial existence.
- Pick a name and logo that resonates with you, that has meaning, aligns with your why; let the name be a reflection of you! It is YOUR brand. Also make sure that no one has that name and check trademarks, check Instagram, check websites, check Google. Do proper research on your name and logo because you don’t want to get into legal troubles because somebody already has the name, the logo, domain or social presence.
- Product Design / Service . What are you designing? what are you launching ? Is it a collection with 6-7 pieces , Is it a service area? How many locations are you accessible to? Are you outsourcing any parts of your product or service? Will you be doing everything yourself?
- Technical specifications . A tech pack is the most important piece of information you can give a manufacturer. It’s an essential document that tells a manufacturer all the measurements, all the specifications, mock-ups, drawings, fabric specifications, sizing charts, measurements, spec sheets ,etc.
- Find a manufacturer or manufacturing service. Are you looking at local or overseas, what is the factors that are influencing your sourcing strategy – price, availability, ethics, seasonality, minimum order quantities, affordability, etc. Make sure that you understand the barriers and conditions for making use of overseas providers as well as the minimum order quantities.
- Request a quote before the sample. You want to make sure that you can afford it, if it’s too pricey, do you have room for negotiating down or find a manufacturer that fits your budget.
- First Sample. The first sample is going to reflect the tech pack, do a proper inspection , check the stitching and density, check the quality of the fabric, try it on, etc. With samples, remember that any adjustments and reworks will cost money. If you have a long standing arrangement the manufacturer will credit samples off the total order.
- Production/manufacturer. Understand the service agreement . For some companies if you are a first-time buyer you have to pay 50% upfront and 50% before shipping . Once relationships have been established this will change . The last sample you will receive is a pre-production sample . This sample is an actual representation of what will come in the mass production. Understand production lead times as it will impact your deliverables and customer commitments.
- If you are using agents they will charge a fee to do all of this for you, from sourcing fabric and trims , manufacturing services etc. at the end of the day they present you with the designs, fabric , tech packs, etc and all you do is approve your range or collection.
- Figure out where your goods are going to be housed – is it in the garage or are you going to have a warehouse? is it bespoke? etc.
- The business side of things should not be neglected. Registered business name, official documentations , licenses, compliance, finance , marketing , sales and operational business plans and forecasts.
- Websites and E-commerce. The best investment to make in your own business is understanding where and how you are going to sell your items, is it accessible and does it speak to your target market. Big difference between paying someone or doing it yourself with the use of tools (free or paid) .
- Shipping and delivery are the things that you want to make sure you have the best rate for . It adds to the costs and expenses.
So there you have it. There’s many more steps and processes in between, but this post hopefully provided you with some of the actual physical steps to enable a better understanding of a fashion business and it’s requirements.
