How to Set Up a Fashion Business
It is not imperative that one has a degree in fashion to start a fashion business, but industry exposure and experience is a must-have. The fashion industry is a very competitive, saturated market, with a high turn-over of failed businesses. These days, the best strategy for embarking in the business, is to be specific with your targeted customer and your product.
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Instructions
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Find a lawyer and have them file a corporate structure. Whether it is a corporation, limited liability company, or limited partnership, one should choose a business structure that safe guards their personal assets.The apparel business is one that involves high-inventory turnover, and with that comes liability. With a corporation, legal arbitration and liabilities do not affect the individual’s assets.
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Select an accountant who is able to help with the company's record keeping and cash management. When starting up there will be a lot of expenditures that must be kept separate from personal accounts. An accessible accountant is key when keeping track of financial management. Interview the accountant, making sure they have the time availability to keep records, and give warnings to when capital is running low.
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Create a customer profile, deciding on the ideal person to buy the brand. Get specific. Ask the following questions: What are their demographics? Where do they like to shop? What do they do in their off time? This will help when figuring out what type of clothing they would want to wear, and therefore develop the brand.
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Design a line with one focus. Though it might be tempting to create a whole lifestyle brand, it is easier to pool resources into one category launch. Therefore, pick one category and focus on it. So, if a start-up has a strong background in denim, then they should develop only a line of jeans to start. Design 25 to 35 pairs that all have a similar look, and are targeted towards a specific person. The line should be coherent, so that if a buyer had two different pairs of jeans in his hands, they could tell it was from the same designer.
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Source a manufacturer to produce your goods if they are not made in-house. For example, if you are designing a denim collection, find a company that specialized in that product (and manufacturers do tend to be specialized). Upon contact, ask them for samples of their various fabrics and washes. Find out their minimums for production, because this will determine the minimums that can be sold to a buyer. Moreover, send them a technical package of the product--including flat sketches, desired measurements, fabrications, washes and trim. This will be used to mock up samples of the line. The samples from the chosen manufacturers are usually the ones shown to buyers.
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Find a trade show in New York, Las Vegas, London, Paris or Milan to showcase your line. These cities are crucial, because they are known fashion capitals--each having trade shows where there are booths available to rent. Boutique and department store buyers frequent these shows to view and purchase items for the following season. An alternative to this would be to participate in a city’s Fashion Week, but that option requires more money, publicity and sometimes an invitation to showcase.
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Erect a booth to showcase your brand to potential buyers. Make sure that line sheets, catalogs, business cards, manufacturing information, samples, display and branding artwork are prepared before participating in a trade show. Only accept orders for what can be produced. It is better to turn down a huge order--and prepare for the possibility next season-- rather than accept the order, and not be able to produce it. Losing a sale is better than burning a bridge with a buyer. You can always sell to that buyer at another time.
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Producing orders on time is the best way to keep buyers coming back. Once the trade show is over and the orders are taken, the rest of the time and money is dedicated to the production of the orders. A line of credit might need to be taken to get the production started, depending on the sales agreements made with the buyers. Most of the time, with new brands, the money is paid upon delivery, so the credit will be needed to cover the production.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit jeans... image by Saskia Massink from Fotolia.com
