Dreaming about the fashion shows, sourcing trips abroad, beautiful people and lavish parties? That's what owning your own fashion brand consists of right?! Wrong! Let's check in with reality - yes there will be fashion shows, sourcing trips abroad, beautiful people and the occasional lavish party - but this is a very SMALL part of what owning your own fashion brand involves. Running your own fashion business (or any business for that matter) is not as glamorous as you think, and requires your attention 24 hours a day, 7 days a week! If you're up for the challenge, and set on creating your own fashion brand, then go ahead and ask yourself these 7 questions... this will help you be certain that this path is the right one for you?
Do you really want to run your own business?
You don't have to be a fashion designer to start a fashion brand, but you DO have to think of yourself as a business owner. Business owners manage people, finances and processes. If you're going into starting your fashion brand as a designer, thinking you will spend all of your time just designing - you'll act as head designer and that be that. Well, you need another reality check. Yes, you might be the head designer (if that's your desire) but you are also CEO. Therefore, you will have a great deal of responsibility and important business decisions will face you each and every day. Everything lies on your shoulders, the business should always be at the forefront of your mind, not just an afterthought. Which means, even when you're on vacation, you'll still have to check in. This could be extremely satisfying and exciting for some, for others a complete nightmare. How do you feel about taking on that amount of responsibility?
Do you have something unique to offer?
There are so many fashion brands out there in the market place - why does the world need your brand? You need to be totally clear on what it is your brand is offering, and make sure it isn't available on the market already. If it's already available to the consumers, and they trust that brand or retailer - what's going to make them trust in your unknown brand? This is where you need to make sure you have done your research. Go to stores, go online, hold market research groups so you can ask your demographic directly if your line or product will interest them enough for them to purchase. If it doesn't, go back and brainstorm another idea until the response is good, and your research holds substance to your product or way of operating is unique.
What skills do you have?
There are a number of different areas that you will need to oversee as CEO of a fashion brand but you'll need to decide from the beginning, where your skills lie and what role you will play daily, to make your business a success. Do you come from a design background? Are you wanting to be head designer? Can you draft patterns? Get tech paks created accurately and time efficiently? Or maybe your skills lie in managing all the moving parts to the supply chain, overseeing quality control. Or are you a people person? Driven by sales? Have creative marketing strategy? Know how to close a sale? Really spend some time evaluating and imaging what you want your daily duties to look like. It's the fashion industry, so not one day is really the same, but your responsibilities will be. Your time will not be used efficiently if you are spending hours on making an accurate tech pak, when you can hire a technical designer to do it in half the time it takes you. Time is money, your daily tasks should be spent on what you know you can do efficiently. You will also loose motivation for the brand if you are spending your days frustrated and tired from working on areas that you are harder for you. Let's get real - you wouldn't hire a chef to build your house? Or a taxi driver to fly an airplane. Again, be realistic here - what skills will you be able to contribute to the success of your company?
What's your network of people like?
This is key for two major reasons. Firstly, if you don't already have an "in" with the industry it's going to make starting your fashion brand all the more harder. Are you already connected to people that will help you get the operations of your business set up? For example: Do you know manufacturers or mills that you can work with? Do you have acquaintances in the industry? Is there someone that can become your mentor? People are willing to help other people, you just have to know the right people to ask. Search through your connections and make sure you have some people in your network that you can turn to for advice, or at the very least send your press release too, so they are kept in the know and might potentially share with their coworkers, friends and family.
Secondly, do you already know your target customer? Is your brand focused to your age group or to a select group of people you already know? If it is, it'll be easier to get your brand in front of your customer, making the development and sale stages a lot more straightforward. However, if your idea is unique yet you don't know your target customer, it'll just make it a little harder to get feedback at your research stage, and require a lot of creative marketing strategies at a later stage to generate sales. It is possible though, do you have the personality to go the extra mile to making those new connections?
What does it take to manufacture an apparel product?
You need to have an understanding of the product development process before you start your own fashion brand. If you aren't aware of every stage a product needs to go through before it can hit a shop floor or an e commerce page, it will result in unnecessary and expensive errors. Knowing exactly what has to happen during the design, development and production stages and in what order, will keep you organized and in control of the whole process. There are a lot of moving parts when you're producing a line or collection and if you miss one of the stages because of unawareness, you could find yourself hitting a substantial loss before you've even begun! Do you feel confident you know what it takes to manufacture an apparel product?
How are you going to create a demand for your product?
There is absolutely no point having a unique well made product/collection if know one knows about it. Your skills may heavily lie in the product development field, and so hiring PR and Marketing people to get your products in front of the right people is essential to your business. Do you have creative marketing ideas? How solid is your social media network? Do you have supportive friends and family who will help spread the word for you? This is essential to figure out at this early stage. Why? Because if you don't have a strong social media following, a network of people who will give you shout outs, any connection to someone in the public eye, you will need to pay for a PR company to help you, which you will need to budget for. Do you know the going rate to hire a PR company?
How do you plan to fund your fashion brand?
You're going to need money, a lot of it. Starting a fashion brand is far more expensive than you think, and even at this very early stage you need to know how you're going to fund it. Getting investors, using your own money, applying for funding, sponsorships, grants or taking out a bank loan are all options you will need to consider. I suggest you start with your business plan, make a note of every single cost you will have. That means everything! Don't miss out a budget for hiring staff (whether it freelance or taking on employees), paying yourself and marketing. Make sure your costs are accurate, connect and call PR companies to get them to send you a proposal, workout how much you need to run a successful ad campaign. You have to think of everything. With that knowledge you'll know how much you need to start and how much you will need to make to keep going.
This is a lot of information to take in but essential for you to consider before you decide to start your own fashion brand. If you're feeling overwhelmed at where to start and eager to learn more why not check out my online courses.
If you want to:
Know the fashion industry secrets to starting a fashion brand
Understand the product development process
Feel confident in how your fashion brand will make money
Then one of my courses will be perfect for you.