There’s a big difference between having a passion for fashion and having the entrepreneurial mindset necessary to turn that passion into a business model. It’s important that you understand that before you get stuck into this process because you need to know what you’re getting yourself into. The fashion industry is overcrowded and it can often be unkind to newcomers. Every clothing or accessory line thinks that their ideas are the most innovative ones on the market.
The point is that you won’t be the only designer with an artistic and intriguing approach to fashion. It has to be about more than the idea. It’s about good business, at the end of the day. You need to know what the consumer wants. If you love fashion then you probably already have an idea of what they want because you’re a consumer too. The following guide should help you create a fully-fledged business model to help you storm the fashion market.
Make a plan
Having artistic ideas for clothing, jewellery, or other fashion-based products is a good place to start with your business plan, but you’ll need far more detail than that if you want to turn an innovative idea into a fully operational and profitable business. It’s so important that you get the plan right because you’ll likely need investors in the early days of your company’s formation, and you need to get your points across with clarity.
A lot of research will need to go into this process. You need to make it clear as to which market you’ll be targeting with your designs and focus more on the practical business side of things rather than the artistic description of what makes your ideas so great. This business plan is the place in which you need to talk boring corporate jargon about why your products will sell.
Hire the right people
The fashion industry is a highly competitive and finely-detailed one. Nobody can fake their way into a career in this industry. That’s why it’s so important you hire the right people for your new business because you need passionate minds like yours but you also need a team comprised of people who know their stuff about this complex industry. You might want to look into executive headhunters to help you with the hiring process if you’re worried about hiring the wrong person or simply that you’re not widening the pool in your candidate search and you might be missing a better candidate.
Branding is important
We talked with Tom Lovelace of Hawthorn in a previous article, and his advice is worth repeating: be unique but commercially-viable. That’s the key to success. Either extreme is dangerous territory. If you cut corners and strive just to sell any old nonsense in order to make a profit then you’re going to hit a brick wall when consumers realise that you don’t offer high-quality products. Alternatively, if you strive to create fashion that’s a little too weird and “unique” then you’re going to struggle to attain an interested client-base. Getting this fine line right with your brand is integral to your success.
You can be as creative as you want with your fashion as long as you don’t go off the deep end. Still, as long as you market yourself to the right target market then you can be as unique as you want with your fashion ideas. It’s important that you get your digital marketing strategy right because the modern age has made it easier than ever to find a niche audience for your niche product, with sites such as Etsy proving this point.
