Can you believe it’s that time of year again?! I wonder, how many of you intended to start your fashion business in 2019, but didn’t make it happen? Perhaps you didn’t know where to start, maybe fear crept in, or life simply got in the way. Whatever the reason you didn’t make a start on your new fashion brand, I’d love to share some tips for launching a clothing brand in 2020. If you already have a business, this post will help those of you with an established brand to prepare your company.
Preparation
As dull as it sounds, preparation is key and as the fashion industry is particularly difficult to succeed in, you'll want to make sure you've got a solid strategy from the start. Don’t panic though, I’m not talking about an all singing, all dancing business plan that will take you the entire year to write. Instead, I’m talking about a direction that you want to head in. Unless you want to get a bank loan or an investor on board, you don’t need anything fancy - just a simple document for your own reference that outlines your aims and how you hope to get there. Some things to consider are;
What purpose will your brand serve, or what problem will it solve? You need to have a specific target customer in mind so that you can design specially for them, create a brand they’ll love and ultimately, sell to them. For help choosing a target customer, you can click here to read an article on this topic.
What kind of business model do you want to have? Would you like to sell your designs to individual customers, or perhaps boutiques? How will you get these orders?
Start marketing today! The moment you know that you’re going to start a brand and have an idea for the type of customers you want to sell to, is the moment that you need to start marketing. So many people leave it simply far too late, ideally you need to begin marketing at least 6 months before you launch. There’s more details on this in my free marketing article, that you can find by clicking here.
Budgeting
Next, when you know what you want to achieve with your business, you'll need to outline your budget and how you’ll use it. There's lots of different ways to start a business and you need to pick one that will work for both your business aims and situation. I truly believe that anyone can start a fashion business (and my wide range of customer’s who have successfully launched prove that), even if you don’t have a huge budget or lots of connections. Choosing the business model that works for you and being realistic about your budget is really important.
A lot of people will tell you that you have to have thousands in order to run a successful fashion business, but that's not always true. You can start with a much smaller budget, but you need to plan even more efficiently and put in more time and effort yourself. If you are wanting to work with a smaller budget, you might be interested to read about how I started my fashion business with just £150. It includes tips on how you can do the same and you can read the full post by clicking here.
Many entrepreneurs I work with are surprised to learn that it usually takes between 6 and 18 months to go from zero to launching your fashion brand. How will you support yourself during this time? If you need to make money sooner than that, you’ll need to pick an appropriate strategy. The Quick Launch Workshop can help you with a method for customising existing product that you can sell quickly, if you need to start making a profit right away. You can see more details on that here.
Costs to consider - a lot of startups miss costs they need to factor in, for example it's not often I see new entrepreneurs budgeting for insurance and electricity, but you really need to! There’s a blog post on this topic which you can read by clicking here. There’s also a free download to help you think about costs, which you can access via the link below.
It’s important to choose a budget that you can afford and are comfortable with, and use methods to work around this. Don’t let yourself be dictated to by external factors, like factory costs - it’s never a good idea to spend more than you feel comfortable with.
Educate Yourself
If you’re reading this blog, chances are you’re brand new to the fashion industry. If that’s the case, there’s a lot to learn, but don’t let that put you off! Most of the people I’ve worked with are brand new to the industry and they haven’t let that stop them from being successful! As someone new to the industry, there’s a few key things to learn;
Most industry newbies underestimate how complicated the manufacture process is. Luckily, I have a free masterclass to help with that, which reveals ‘How to Get Your Fashion Designs Manufactured, without wasting your time and money’. You can find out more about the free class, by clicking here.
I find that many new brands are too vague with their fabric ideas, so I always encourage people to go to local fabric shops to learn more about what they like and don’t like. For anything you like, note down the fabric type, fibre and weight - this will be really helpful when you get to the manufacture and sourcing stages.
As I mentioned earlier, marketing too late is a common mistake that new brands make. If you want to start your marketing off in the right way, you can watch my free marketing video by clicking here.
I’m sure that you’ve noticed that sustainability is now a key part of the fashion industry, something that I, as a sustainability campaigner for decades (yes that makes me feel old!) is delighted about. The sustainability movement is here to stay and something that all brands need to be fully aware of. You can learn more about this via the Sustainability area of my blog, which you can find here.
If you’d like some help step by step through the fashion process, you might want to consider my Fashion Startup Online Course, which has 8 modules which explain the key steps when going from idea through to having your fashion range produced and sold. You can click here for more information on the programme.
Just start!
If you're really serious about having a fashion brand in 2019, the most important advice I can give you is 'just start'! So many people never start their label for fear of failure, or because they feel they lack direction. If you make a start with the steps above you're already well on your way to starting your business and most importantly, you've taken the leap and not given in to procrastination!
Have a wonderful New Year and I'm looking forward to seeing some exciting new fashion businesses popping up!
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Pickleball outfit inspiration……