Fashion business information, advice, guidance, and education for fashion brands
It's no news that pricing your product right will have a big impact on your sales.
But what is pricing it right means?
This question can be even harder to answer if you are just starting your fashion brand.
There are few ways to determine the right prices of your fashion products even at that stage. It requires some research, but It all comes down to defining your market positioning, your specific target customer and the value of your product for that customer.
Helping you avoid the thousands of pitfalls that can shatter your fashion business dreams.
That is my job!
And I love it!
However, as a result, in the majority of my content I usually address what mistakes to look out for, which doesn't leave much room to talk about the great things that our fashion industry has to offer.
After all, there is a reason why soooo many people want to be part of this industry.
The most challenging part when running a marathon is the middle part.
This is where the excitement of the beginning is starting to fade out and the finish line seems far far away.
This is when thoughts of quitting start to surface inside our heads and we start to feel that something big has to happen otherwise we will never make it.
When did being busy become the new measure of success?
How many times you heard someone says 'I'm so busy,' yet you couldn't stop but thinking, what are they so busy with???
Feeling busy makes someone feel successful and accomplished while giving others the impression that that person is indeed successful....more so, they might even envy them.
What a great slogan.
I was never a fan of Nike (has to do with my favorite sport), but I do LOVE the message of this phrase and I do use it a lot!
Anyways, I’m not here to speak about that.
I’m here to speak about you and turning your talent and great ideas into a business where you can make money doing what you love!
Just one?
You're probably thinking that there are a million important lessons a new fashion entrepreneur must learn, and you'd be right.
However, not all lessons are made equal.
That's why we reached out to the speakers at this year's Be Creative Be Profitable seminar and asked them, "what's the single most important lesson every fashion entrepreneur needs to learn?"
Below is the conversation that ensued...
When I first heard about cash flow in relation to my fashion business I thought to myself: What does it have to do with fashion??? I went to fashion school not accounting, right? ....Just checking.
And my ego added: I have a great style, people love my designs, they'll buy them and my brand will be successful...
As I mentioned before...I made quite a lot of mistakes with my fashion brand and paid heavily for them, the above was one of them.
What is cash flow?
Cash flow is the net amount of cash moving into and out of a business.
We often get asked if a fashion design degree is necessary in order to have a successful fashion brand?
The key words in that question are necessary and successful.
If you have a fashion design degree, this means that you learned in theory how to design a full collection, got introduced to the technical and design terms and the process of making a fashion product. HOWEVER, if you do not have a fashion design degree you
As creative people most fashion designers are not well versed (nor they should) in the legal aspects of starting and running a business. Never the less a design business that is responsible for producing products from scratch. When done wrong, things such as protecting your business identity, dealing with vendors and contractors, paying your taxes etc. can end up costing your business money and quite a lot of headache and time when facing these issues later on.
To help you with this, here are 4 things to consider before your start your fashion business:
Starting your fashion brand means starting a business! Hold on, don’t laugh, it might sound obvious to you but many designers out there are not fully aware of that aspect.
Many people (especially those who have never owned a business) tend to glamorize the idea of being your own boss, setting your own hours, your own rates, your own rules, choosing who to work with, not to mention receiving all the credit and rewards for your talent with hopes of being famous and other unrealistic ideas. These alluring benefits are often the drive for many designers to make the leap to start their own business without closely examining the other logistics.
I am currently reading the book Great By Choice. In this book the authors, business researchers: Jim Collins & Morten T. Hanson, enumerate the principals for building a truly great enterprise in fast-moving times.
What are the key points for building a successful business? Is it innovation? Do you need to be a geniuses leader who can predict the future? Is it a question of money?.....Is there a secret that we should all know of?…… maybe it’s just pure luck after all???
This is Jessie, I’m a production associate here at Human B.
This past weekend we attended the Freestyle Fashion Conference hosted by Open Source Fashion here in New York which brought out an inspiring group of industry professionals to talk about fashion and business. We spent the day attending and teaching workshop classes on subjects ranging from Pop-Up Shops to Data Driven Marketing Strategies.
I want to share a few stand-out moments from the classes for those of you who couldn't make it:
1. “Think about your personal brand socially versus professionally”. Across every industry, the
Spring 2015 market is just around the corner, how is the sample making process going for you so far? Hopefully your collection is coming well and on time. A major next step for you is pricing your products right to make sure you are making a profit. So as you are getting your cost sheets ready and to help you avoid this bad experience here are 5 points to consider while costing and pricing your fashion line:
Let's take a second to talk about the feasibility of your fashion business.
Before you jump all in to execute your vision it is really important for you to do your homework and find out how feasible your idea is.
Yes lots of times you will need the help of industry professionals which is where we can help, but even before that there is market research that you can probably can and should do on your own that will answer that question.
I thought the best way for me to address this subject will be to share an example of a general conversation that i often have with a designer on a feasibility consultation session.
Made in USA or Made overseas? That is a production question that every brand find itself engaged in at one point or another. To better Illustrate the debate I chose to share a story of a brand I have been working with.
What should we do?
A couple of weeks ago i received an email from Cathy, 1 of 4 owners at NoNetz – who designs anti-chafe swimwear for boys and men. In her email she asked for my thoughts on the following: “Staying in Brooklyn, we get to decent profit in 7 years. Going overseas, we are highly profitable in 2 years. Producing overseas will cost us 75% less in labor...What should we do?"
When starting a business, the unknown is bigger than the known. Where do I find….? How do I…? What is the best….? Are normal questions to have and having the right answers, answered by the right people for your business, will make the process smoother, more effective and much less expensive.
Congratulations on starting your own brand, what now?
About 10 years ago I was hired by a designer, for the sake of this story I will call him Mark, who by then had a very successful career as a creative director for big brands (RL, Nautica), to join and help him as he was starting his own brand. He had a very clear vision as to what the product should look like and the concept of his brand (since he’s done that successfully for these other brands for nearly 20 years).
But when it came to starting his own business there were many aspects that he wasn't familiar with. While working at these bigger brands, things such as sourcing, costing, developing, producing and selling the product where not an issue, or at least not issues that he had to deal with. This time he was starting as a small business with a limited budget
I was invited to answer a reader's question on Jane Hamill's blog who is my co. founder of Indie Design Association on working with a contractor and getting the best possible results from them, so i thought I'll share the answer with you all since it has a LOT of great tips for you to use especially if you are new to the process and don't have any help!
“I’m drowning in QC! What can I do?” -Bobbi, Canada
Today we answer a question from a reader who is fed up with Quality Control problems. I feel your pain, Bobbi. I’ve been there! I solicited my friend, colleague, and NYC product development guru, Boaz David, to answer Bobbi’s question. GREAT info today, check it out…
