In two years of blogging, I have written posts related to launching a successful brand, have taught you all the necessary steps to achieve perfect samples, and have guided you through all details needed to accomplish production management successfully. Even though putting all these blogs together will give you the answer you seek (how to build a successful business), I decided to write a blog to spill the beans and give the main thing all my readers have been asking me the most, the secrets of building a 6 figure fashion business from scratch.
To build a successful business you need discipline, consistency, and strategy. So there might be no secret formula here but things can, sometimes, seem to look like rocket science. But don’t forget, you educate yourself, learn from your mistakes, and build experience along the way. Nobody builds a multimillionaire business overnight or without making mistakes. This is normal and what makes you different from everyone else is your persistence and focus on the win. However, sometimes, persistence, focus on the win, discipline, and consistency is not enough.
There are indeed a couple of things that you need to be aware of when starting a fashion business but, let me tell you, one of the main things that will always be part of building a 6 figure business from scratch is strategy.
This word is applied to every movement you make in business. So let’s look at some of the most important strategic steps you need to take when starting a fashion brand.
1. Who are your customers?
Let’s make one thing clear, your friends and family might fit in your target market, but they are not your main public. They will be your biggest supporters (DUH!), but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they are your target market.
You need to understand that you are not building a brand for yourself. You are starting a fashion business because this is your passion, but you need to remember that opening a business means more than doing what you love.
You should start a business to solve a problem and to provide your customers with a product/ service that solves that problem. That is why you need to understand your customers, their needs, their income, their hobbies, and, most importantly, why they should buy your product.
What you like or what is right in your vision might not be exactly right for your clientele. Remember, people don’t buy products, they buy stories (especially in the fashion industry), so you need to make sure you are creating a product that suits your customers and who they are.
2. What is right for your brand?
Always keep in mind that what goes inside your head is not always right for your business.
We can, sometimes, mix our emotions with business and that cannot happen. This can be hard because we tend to pour all our hearts into what we do, so it is important to separate your work from your feelings. Especially in decision-making.
You might be a good designer, but that doesn’t mean you are the best in the company’s finance or marketing. That is why listening to professionals and trusting your team is important when you are dealing with things out of your knowledge scope.
A very strategic move before decision-making is to ask yourself “What is the right fit for the brand I want to build?”.
3. What is your marketing Budget?
Understand one thing: not marketing, no business!
The size of your marketing investment should be coherent with the size of the investment in your inventory.
You want to sell your products, am I right? You don’t want to sit in inventory from one season to another, am I right? You want to make money to invest in your upcoming collections, am I right? Well, I am! So prioritizing a marketing budget is as important as prioritizing quality.
Food for thought: a lot of designers start their brand based on sketches. They draw the collection and move into sourcing, product development, business planning, and all that comes with starting a business. I always suggest my clients look into the marketing options before even going into development. Why? Because it is easy to think of a brand, create beautiful designs and move into development without even realizing that a huge part of any startup business should be on marketing.
Design your collection, work on your target market, work on the overall budget for development and see what kind of marketing investment you will need to embrace even before moving forward with your first samples.
4. Produce less, market more
Let’s make something clear, you need to make sure you are meeting your seal's demand. That is known. But here is a simple strategy to look at: meeting your demand and not overproducing and also working side by side.
Ok, it is impossible to know your demand when you are a startup, but a good marketing plan will tell you the projected sales for the season. Deciding production numbers based on your projected sales shouldn’t be rocket science. It will never be a perfect number. Again, this is an estimated number, but it certainly leaves less room for error and avoids extra costs.
5. Always look for potential growth
When I say potential growth, I am telling you to be open to potential partnerships everywhere.
Everywhere where? Potential business partners, potential boutiques, online selling platforms, manufacturers, vendors… anyone that can help your business.
Know one thing, business growth is not only expanding the brand into other markets, increasing sales or production numbers. Fabric vendors who are willing to give you a discount or decrease your MOQs, manufacturers who are willing to give you a discount on samples, investors who would like to work with you on your business, boutiques and online platforms that can help you with sales, all of these are important factors that will help you grow your business - even if the grow means keep you in your budget.
I am a business owner and I started from scratch with no help. So I understand how hard it is (and how much you can hurt your ego) to admit that you need help and seek outside investors. But the truth is that most successful entrepreneurs also had help at some point in their business adventures. So looking into space to grow and potential business partners are something that can benefit you - especially when you need extra help when making decisions.
As I said, there might be no secret formula to launch a successful business but it can, sometimes, look like rocket science. Discipline and consistency might be key, but nothing can be done without strategy - this applies to how you live your life as well, but let’s focus on the business here.
You have to remember that you don’t start a business for yourself. Ok, you might start a fashion brand because that is your dream and your passion, but the truth is that every entrepreneur starts a business trying to solve a problem and make their product/ service (the solution to the problem) available to a certain market. That is why you need to think way further than what your designs look like and how you can make money. In order to build a successful business you need to think of a strategy that will fit your brand and target market as well as be coherent with your budget and look for potential partnerships, and space to grow.
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