Influencer Marketing; What it's Like to Work with a Mega Influencer

Want to use influencer collaborations as marketing for your fashion brand but not sure how it works, or what you should consider? In this video I explain my experience of working with a mega influencer (with 4 million followers!) to build my audience.

This video explains how the collab came about and what you need to know when working on a project like this.

If you enjoyed this video, don’t forget to sign up to the email list below to get notified of each new video!

{Update} The Masterclass membership offer has now ended, however I’d love to help you further with your fashion brand! You can checkout my free video, How to Get Your Fashion Ideas Produced, Without Wasting Your Time and Money, here;

https://thefashionbusinesscoach.com/freemasterclassinfo

Missed last weeks PR video and want to know how it helps me to get collaboration opportunities like this coming to me? Watch the free PR video here;

https://thefashionbusinesscoach.com/blog/prmarketing

Interested in learning more about working together and getting more visibility and sales for your fashion brand? Get in touch here;

https://thefashionbusinesscoach.com/contact

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PR Marketing for Fashion Brands

If you're wanting to grow your fashion brand and make more sales, PR marketing is definitely worth considering. Lots of fashion entrepreneurs ask me about social media marketing, especially Instagram, but PR can be just as successful in getting more visibility for your brand and increasing sales.

This video explains the types of PR you can do for your fashion brand and where to start with pitching to publications.

{Update} The Masterclass membership offer has now ended, however I’d love to help you further with your fashion brand! You can checkout my free video, How to Get Your Fashion Ideas Produced, Without Wasting Your Time and Money, here;

https://thefashionbusinesscoach.com/freemasterclassinfo

Interested in learning more about working together and getting more visibility and sales for your fashion brand? Get in touch here;

Get in Touch Here

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Email Marketing For Fashion Brands

Lots of fashion entrepreneurs know they should be using email marketing for their fashion brand, but many get stuck knowing what to write and end up not sending any emails at all 📧

If that's you, then this video was made for you! I'll share with you 3 essential emails your fashion brand needs to be sending, to help you increase sales.

Keen to learn more about email marketing for fashion? Learn about my email ebook here;

https://thefashionbusinesscoach.com/email-marketing-for-fashion-brands-ebook

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I hate spam too - if you sign up to this email list, your details won't be sold or leased to anyone else. I will email you from time to time with helpful content and occasional offers, which you can unsubscribe from at any time. 

Grow Your Fashion Brand in 2021

New fashion entrepreneurs, here’s another one for you! If you’ve already launched your brand and you’re looking for a push, read on to find my top three tips for scaling your fashion business in 2021.  

Numbers are sexy!

Yes, you read that right. Numbers & data ~you have to learn how to love them if you want to be an informed entrepreneur. I know it sounds dull and okay, maybe not so “fashionable”. But knowing and understanding your numbers will make a world of difference. 

Here’s the good news, to get you motivated. Almost all the data you need is readily available and free. You just need to dig a little, sift through and take the time to read and analyse. When you do, you will find that these numbers are very telling ~ and the stories they tell can make or break your business! 

Data will tell you which products or styles are fast-moving and which ones are taking their time on your shelves. Data will also tell you which promotions gave your brand the most traction and which ones didn’t. Data will also show you if your email marketing messages are getting your customers to click on that subscribe/buy button. Data will tell you the engagement rate of your social media community. Sometimes, data will also explain something that you do not quite understand. For instance, there might be a style that you absolutely love but is not selling. Or a marketing channel that you're convinced is the right choice, but your customers are simply not engaging with you there.   

In a nutshell, data will tell you what is working and what is not, and that is critical for any business. Understanding your numbers points you in the right direction. As an entrepreneur, that knowledge will help you make more intelligent choices in terms of where to take your brand next - instead of simply "winging it " based on your gut feel.

Do NOT neglect your website

Great product, check. Curated visual content, check. Engaging social media strategy, check. All good, but hey, don’t stop there. Do not make the mistake of underestimating the power of your website. I see a lot of entrepreneurs who fail to remember that the most important purpose of a website is to sell. With that in mind, the question is: how to convert your website visitors to actual buyers?   

First, design your site for selling. Your products should be front and center, the photographs should be crisp and clear and all the information should be readily available. Other colorways, a sizing chart, maybe even recommended pairings? The key is to put yourself in a buyers’ shoes and think about the kind of information that you would want to see.  

Second, make the buyer’s experience as easy and enjoyable as possible. Make sure your call to action buttons are visible and functional. Payment gateways should be simple, with no complicated forms to fill up. And be transparent about shipping costs. You know how frustrating it is when there are surprises or hidden costs right after you check out. 

Remember that a beautiful website is nice, but a buyer-friendly website will make the visitors click on buy. 

Automate it

As a business owner, I know firsthand that managing time and juggling multiple tasks are an everyday thing. Automation helps in streamlining my schedule and organising my tasks effectively. Most importantly, it gives me space to focus on the more strategic and critical responsibilities of a leader. 

You can do it too. If it seems too complicated, take small steps until you build a whole automated system. For example, instead of creating and posting social media content daily that takes up maybe an hour of your time, why not dedicate 2-3 hours a month to planning and developing your social feed for the next week? Then take another 2-3 hours creating your email marketing messages too. After that, automate everything and move on to your next tasks ~ maybe do a factory visit, meet a new supplier, or a potential collaborator. 

Another thing that I appreciate the most with automation is it delivers my brand message on time, when I want it to (when I schedule it, to be specific). That is critical for me or any global brand, for that matter. With automation, you can work around the time differences and make your clients feel that you are present and responsive, no matter where they are in the world. And that kind of message is always good for your brand, don't you agree? 

Liked what you’ve read and want more? Let’s get together and talk about taking your business further, click here to get in touch and find out about how we can work together.

What's the Difference Between Sustainable and Ethical Fashion

What's the difference between sustainable and ethical fashion? Or are sustainability and ethical fashion the same thing? Learn what they are and what these terms mean in this video. Plus, if you want to start a sustainable fashion brand, my tip for including this in your business....

If you'd like to get help creating a sustainable fashion brand, I'd love to hear from you! Get in touch via the form below to learn how I can help;

https://thefashionbusinesscoach.com/contact

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Starting a Sustainable Fashion Business, Profitably

A question I'm often asked is, 'is sustainable fashion profitable', or 'is sustainable fashion more expensive' - in this video I want to address those questions and share some ways in which you can make your sustainable fashion brand profitable.

Keen to learn more about Starting a Fashion Brand? Register below for my free Masterclass which covers the topics in this video in more detail;

Register for free here; ➡️➡️➡️ https://thefashionbusinesscoachlearn.com/sustainable-masterclass-register

Let's Chat! And take your brand to the next level. Get in touch to arrange your free enquiry call here;

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Starting a Swimwear Line; How to Fit Swimwear Designs

Getting the right fit on your swimwear products is really really tough. Especially if you're new to the fashion industry and don't really know what the right approach is.

Let's explore what you can do to improve the fit of your swimwear products. Here’s a transcript of one of my weekly videos in which I answer one of your questions on starting your very own fashion brand. You can click here to watch the free video.

Swimwear Fitting Process

This week I want to address a question that I've had from a few people which is about the fitting process for swimwear products in particular because I know that that one's a little bit tricky and a little bit different from a dress design.

What is a Body Size Chart?

What do we need to do when we're working with swimwear products? The first thing to know especially if you're a new brand trying to develop your own sizing for your brand is that I wouldn't refer to body size charts. 

A body size chart is something that you would see on somebody else's website, like a store's website, which helps you to decide what size to buy and that's going to tell you measurements if you measure around your bust or your waist or your hips and that's really good from a customer perspective in order to try and buy the right size from that particular brand. But it's not going to be particularly helpful for you with deciding on the measurements of your swimwear products

The reason for this is that swimwear is actually negative body size. So if for instance, your bust measures 86cm the swimwear is not going to measure 86cm. It should be quite a lot smaller than that. The amount will depend on the stretch of your fabric and also, different brands interpret fit differently.

Some brands want things to be really tight-fitting and on the skimpier side whereas others are more generous with their sizing. So it's partly to do with the fabric partly to do with personal preferences as well. 

Have You Done Market Research?

If you're a new brand wanting a starting point, then the best place to look is going out in the market, doing market research, trying on different designs, ideally ones that are similar to the ones that you want to make, and taking a mental note of the fits that you like and that shape that you like and having a look at the measurements of those items as well.

Go that step further and looking at what brands similar to yours are doing with their measurements. You can also compare that to that body measurements chart if you'd like. I know a lot of people like to do that comparison. It's not something that I would do personally, but you may want to, just so you can start to understand what that variance between the body size and the measurements of the garments are.

Why Do You Need Tech Pack?

I would always suggest in terms of perfecting that fit, that you have detailed measurements in the tech pack and when I say detailed, I mean literally, anything that requires measurement of some kind to be added in there because I see a lot of tech packs which have just the basic measurement. So maybe like the bust, waist, hips, and length on a swimsuit. 

But actually, we need a lot more than that. For instance, we want to be looking at the armhole drop. We want to be looking at any measurements for seam details or for ruffle details the neck drop and so many more measurements, so make sure that you don't skimp on measurements in your tech pack when you're creating that and also make sure that you preparing for the sampling process as well.

You don't want to be rushing, you want to allow enough time to have samples made so that you can perfect the fit on a real model, because as much as you can put a lot of time and effort into your tech packs, and I definitely recommend that you do, you still will need to have a fit process.

If you have a really great tech pack and your item isn't too complicated, then you hopefully going to be able to get two to three samples and they're ready to go to bulk production. But if you skimped on the tech pack or you're not communicating properly with the factory, you'll probably find that it's going to be more like 5, 6, 7 even 8 or 9 samples until you're actually getting a good fit on your model.

Don't skip on that initial research phase or the tech phase and make sure that you go through the sampling process.

Is Your Brand Swimwear Fitting Ready?

If you don't know what any of those things mean that I've just said, feel free to put a comment in the box below because we have got videos and free training on those topics, which we can link to for you if you're unsure.

I hope that's helped, at least having a starting point for where you can look for some measurements and how you can approach your sizing. If you do want some more help on perfecting the fit then I do have a service that helps people go from the initial idea to factory ready. So I'd love to chat with you, just click here for more on how I can help!

Fashion Supplier Lists; Why They're Not Helpful Video

I often get asked about lists of fashion suppliers, from people who want to find a manufacturer for their fashion brand. Truth is, these lists aren't much help. In this video, I explain why and what you need to do before you look for a factory, to help make the factory finding process easier.

Ready to learn more about fashion manufacturing? Join my free Masterclass by registering here;

https://thefashionbusinesscoach.com/sustainable-masterclass-register

Let's Chat! And take your brand to the next level. Get in touch to arrange your free enquiry call here;

https://thefashionbusinesscoach.com/contact

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I hate spam too - if you sign up to this email list, your details won't be sold or leased to anyone else. I will email you from time to time with helpful content and occasional offers, which you can unsubscribe from at any time. 

Finding a Fashion Factory; What You'll Need to Provide

Are you one of those people who have been contacting factories trying to get your fashion ideas produced, but you’re just not hearing back or you’re not getting a positive reply from any vendors?

If you don't have a detailed tech pack, then I'm not at all surprised. This is one of the key things that you need to provide the factory with before they can even tell you if they're able to help you. So in this video transcript, I want to tell you a little bit more about what you need before you can actually approach a factory to make your fashion designs. You can also watch the free video here.

Why Hasn’t a Manufacturer Replied?

This week we're looking at one of the common questions that I get asked which is ‘why hasn’t a factory replied to me’ and nine times out of ten it's because the person in question hasn't got a tech pack yet and they've missed this very important middle step. Unfortunately, we can't go from design idea to communicating with the factory straight away.

We have to get the tech pack done first because that includes really detailed and useful information for the factory that will first help them to determine whether they can even help us and second to determine what the pricing would look like if they can.

Why Do You Need a Tech Pack?

The reason that a lot of factories don't reply to new brands who don't say that they have a tech pack or don't mention it at all, is because they're inundated with so many emails from people wanting to work with them. And the thing is, quotes are really time-consuming, emailing people back with information is really time-consuming.

They're only going to spend time on people that they know that they can actually help and if they don't know the kind of construction techniques that you're using, they won't know what kind of machinery that they'll need and whether or not they have it. If they don't know the specifics of the fabric they won't know if their factories capable of working with that fabric.

What is Tech Pack?

Many factories are specialised in a particular area. So they need to know quite a lot of information to determine whether or not you could actually be a customer of theirs. We need to make sure that this tech pack is completed along with some other information such as how many items you're willing to buy from them and how long you have when you need the stock.

Those three things you need to have decided and finalised before you can start the factory outreach because otherwise, the factories aren’t in a position to give you helpful information

and many will just not bother to reply because honestly, they don't want to educate you. It's not their job and I can understand that. That's why I'm making this video so that you know. Make sure that you get that tech pack done.

Create Your Tech Pack for Clothing Production Process

If it's something that's totally new to you and something that you'd like a bit of help with, then just click here, this is a link to my website that explains how I can do those for you if you're interested. But even if it’s with somebody else please don't skip that step because it will not only help you in this initial phase of getting a reply from factories, but it'll also help you further down the track as well when it comes to holding the factory accountable when it comes to perfecting the fit, making sure that everything's as you expected. 

You need a tech pack basically is the moral of the story. So please don't skip that step. I have had clients in the past that didn't want to pay for it. They've skipped it and then a few months later have come back to me and said ‘I should have had a tech back shouldn't I, I’ve just

wasted a ton of money on samples that were no good because the factory just did what they wanted because I didn't give them enough information so that they could translate what was in my head into an actual product.’ So, please make sure that you do that and I hope that this has been helpful.

If you have other questions around working with a factory or making contact with a factory, please feel free to leave those below this video and it can certainly be considered for another video in the future. If you like this video, make sure that you subscribe or follow depending on which channel you're watching this on. I do have new videos out every single Tuesday. 

If you don't have a tech pack already, I'd love to share this link with you, just click here to view it! It will give you more information on what it is specifically and how I can help you with it if you're interested in outsourcing that. Thanks so much for watching and I'll see you next week.

How to Launch a Fashion Brand in 2021 Video

If you want to launch your own clothing brand in 2021, this video is for you! I share my tips for launching your fashion brand from scratch.

Keen to learn more about Starting a Fashion Brand? Register below for my free Masterclass which covers the topics in this video in more detail;

https://thefashionbusinesscoach.com/sustainable-masterclass-register

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I hate spam too - if you sign up to this email list, your details won't be sold or leased to anyone else. I will email you from time to time with helpful content and occasional offers, which you can unsubscribe from at any time. 

Sustainable Fabrics for Fashion Startups

What fabrics are sustainable?

Sustainable fashion is something that I've been working on for years and years and I'm really happy to see that more and more people are starting to share my concern for the environment.

As a sustainable brand that can be really hard to figure out what fabric is best to use, what actually is sustainable and what maybe says it is, but it actually isn't. I want to give you some tips for sourcing sustainable fabrics.

If you’d rather learn about this topic as a video, click here. Or, read the transcript below;

What are Sustainable Fabrics?

Well, the first thing that you need to understand and decide about sustainability is to define what it means to you. There's  no official guidelines as to what sustainable fashion actually means, there's no legislation on it. You really need to decide, for you and your brand in particular, what that means.

A classic example is recycled fabrics, loads of brands these days use recycled polyester and a lot of brands and a lot of sustainable shoppers are going to be fine with using recycled polyester or recycled polyamide. Other people are not happy with that, as they view it as essentially a plastic and they don't want to be using that at all, they only want to use bio-based fabrics. You really need to decide from the get-go what your sustainable values actually are and what sustainability really means to you, your brand and also what it means to your customer as well because obviously it's them that you're going to be serving.

We also need to understand that there's not one ‘safe’, so to speak, fabric that you can use. For instance, bamboo could be a great option, it’s a bio-based fabric, bamboo grows really quickly, uses a lot less water than a lot of other fibers, but there's good and bad in everything.

How are the Fabrics Processed?

What's actually more important than looking for a particular fiber is to actually look beyond that and figure out the process in which that material was made. If we look at that bamboo as an example, that can use a lot of chemicals in the process, a lot of harmful chemicals, in the process of turning it from bamboo plant into actual fabric that we can use.

What we want to do is work with suppliers, who can trace the raw materials, they can trace the process of going from that bamboo plant into a thread that's made into a fabric and understand each step of the process and essentially work with suppliers who were actually committed to being better. 

Does Your Suppliers Ensure Sustainability?

If you have suppliers that are just answering questions about sustainability really vaguely chances are that it's not a priority to them and they’re just using it because it's a buzzword at the moment. 

Whenever I speak to a supplier who's excited to work sustainably, they are super excited to answer all of my questions. They want to show me things. They normally have some kind of video or booklet or or some kind of further reading because they're proud of what they've achieved. So if someone's just labeled something sustainable and doesn't really give any further details, I'd be a bit suspicious about that. 

The other thing you can do is to look out for independent certifications. There's a lot of different ones, two common ones I see are GOTS for example and Oeko-Tex, but really understand this, similarly to the fiber types, there's not one rule that means that something is sustainable.For instance a Oeko-tex, they have a ton of different certifications and some of them aren't actually at all related to sustainability and that's - actually scarily enough, the one that I see most commonly used on fabrics to claim that it's sustainable -when actually it has no relevance.

What you need to do with certifications is make sure you actually go to the issuer, go to their website, email them. If you prefer, to understand exactly what that certificate means

and then you can decide - going back to that step one, those brand values - you can decide if that makes it sustainable to you or not.

Are you choosing the right fabrics?

I hope those tips have been helpful as we know sustainability is a very complicated topic, not really something we can cover in detail in a short video, but I hope that's given you a little bit of insight. If there's more that you like to learn about sustainability, please do leave a comment below and I can definitely keep it in mind for a future video or I may well already have a video training on that topic.

If you'd like to get some more support and learn exactly how you can create a fashion brand that doesn't cost the Earth, let's chat! 

My courses and services have helped a ton of different brands go sustainably from zero to launch and I'd love to help you to do the same. Just click here to arrange something! We can set up a chat to see if it's something that I'm able to help you with.

Hope to hear from some of you soon and thanks for watching.

How to Grow a Fashion Brand in 2021 Video

If you have a fashion brand and want to grow and scale your business, this video is for you! I share my 3 tips for growing your fashion brand online and scaling your clothing line up in 2021. We'll cover tips for marketing your fashion brand online and strategies to help you get more sales.

If you'd like to get help scaling your brand, I'd love to hear from you! Get in touch via the form below to learn how I can help;

https://thefashionbusinesscoach.com/contact

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I hate spam too - if you sign up to this email list, your details won't be sold or leased to anyone else. I will email you from time to time with helpful content and occasional offers, which you can unsubscribe from at any time. 

Social Media Marketing for Fashion Brands Using Instagram

How to Promote Your Fashion Brand Using Instagram Marketing

Do you want to sell your fashion products on Instagram, but you're just not seeing traction, or you're not really getting the results that you want?

If you're chasing likes and followers. I'm not surprised because there's something much more important that we should be doing on Instagram when it comes to monetizing it and actually making sales for our fashion brand.

I want to explain to you what that is and give you a few tips to help you see more success with your Instagram marketing. If you want to learn about Instagram Reels specifically, you can click here for info on my free Easy Reels Ebook.

What is Instagram Marketing for Fashion Brands?

I've been getting a ton of questions about Instagram marketing lately. So in this video I wanted to share my biggest tip for Instagram marketing, although this will work across other platforms as well if you choose.

What is it? Well, it's going to be this….don't focus too much on the likes and I know that may be counterintuitive. It may be the exact opposite of what you've been trying to achieve but here's the thing…if you have 10 million followers and 10 million of them like this cute picture that you've just posted of a puppy. What have you got? 10 million likes, right? 

You've not got a sale. You've not got people going to your website. You've not got people sign up to your email list or becoming a customer. You've just got 10 million likes and while that's good for the algorithm admittedly and it's good for the ego - not going to lie - it doesn't actually build your business. 

We have not achieved anything. We've just spent time posting something and people have spent time liking something. We haven't actually gained a new customer. We've not brought money into the business. We've not really achieved a whole lot when we think about it.

What do you Want to Achieve?

My tip really is to really consider what it is we want to achieve with our marketing and chances are, we want to achieve more than just likes when we think about it. 

We want to achieve leads and people who are interested in our brand, who want to go and check our brand out and who want to hopefully buy our products. So rather than creating content that people just like because it's funny or because it's just super cute puppies. We want to make sure that we're actually strategically posting content that makes people trust us more that explains to people what our business is about and that attracts people.

What content should you post?

Content that is helpful or entertaining or funny and something that's going to drive people to your website, or a very least to view our products on our Instagram store section. And the way that we do that is not by posting things because it's super cute but really thinking about what does our audience love, or what is our audience struggling with, and thinking of a way that we can transition this post into getting them to take some sort of action. So when you're creating a post, lead with ‘what do I want the customer to do’ in your mind?

So for instance if you want a customer to go and check out your website and look at a blog post, rather than just leading with ‘go check out this blog post’ you could have an image with how to style something, say your customer is interested in trends, you could have an outfit, a really nice looking outfit, a good image. 

In the text you can talk about the trends that are on at the moment and how you style this item of yours to use different things and basically style it to this trend. Then you can explain in the caption, if you want to see more like this, there's a free article go to the link in bio to check it out or something like that.

Why do we Always Want a CTA?

We always want this CTA, this call to action, with everything that we do because we don't want to be leaving the customer just to think ‘oh okay, well that's done now. I'll move on to the next thing’. We want to keep them in our world essentially and direct them to our website or our products. We want to be building trust with the customer, we want to show them you can provide really good value for them and then you can introduce your products as well once you've built that trust. 

I hope that makes sense and hope that it's made you rethink the way that you want to do your marketing. Rather than creating content to get likes, we want to create content that gets the customer to our website and check it out our products. 

Are you posting the right content?

If you're still struggling a little bit with marketing in general and you never know what to post, or what to say, or you don't have any photos to post, you might want to check out my Fashion Sales Kit which includes all those things basically.

It tells you how you can get really great images that you're allowed to use, not ones that are taken from someone else’s profile! How you can actually post content, ideas for content, even swipe files are included as well. Click here for the link to my Fashion Sales Kit.

If you liked this article and found it helpful, please feel free to follow or subscribe depending on which channel you're watching this on. We have a new video every Tuesday and you can ask your questions in the comments. I'll try and answer as many of those as I can in the future videos.Thanks for watching and we'll talk soon. Bye!

How to Start a Fashion Brand Fast

In this video, I share how you can start a fashion brand fast and get quick results! Traditional fashion business models can take a long time to launch, but there is one option which allows you to launch in a short amount of time. Watch the video to find out what it is →→→

If you enjoyed this video and want to know more about how to launch a fashion brand quickly you can register free to get my ebook here;

https://thefashionbusinesscoach.com/how-to-start-a-fashion-brand-from-scratch-claim-

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Fashion Brand’s Cost and Budgeting for Product Samples

Recently, I was asked about the sample development process and specifically, if you as a fashion brand have to pay suppliers for samples of their products. I'm talking about samples of clothing products that they've made.

In my recent video, I wanted to answer that question for you. It's really important one as many people, rightly so, want to get samples from multiple vendors so they can check quality before going ahead with production. So I created a video on the Fashion Product Sampling Process. Below is a direct transcript from the video, or if you prefer, you can click here to watch the free video.

What is the Sample Process?

The first thing that I want to address is the sample making process, and the question that I had about whether or not brands are expected to pay for their samples. So I wanted to dive into that topic a little bit today.

First things first, if you're brand-new and don't know what the sample making process is, then let's go over that. Basically a lot of fashion brands who are brand-new think that they can just draw out a quick sketch or something like that, hand over to the factory and the factory can take it from there.

But unfortunately that's not the case. We actually have to provide a lot of information ourselves to the factory. Before we're even doing any kind of factory sourcing/searching anything like that, we want to make sure that we have this detailed document, this blueprint so to speak of our products and that's something called a tech pack. When we've got to that tech pack stage what we typically do in the industry is send that to multiple vendors and get some ideas for pricing and see what they offer whether we're happy with different inclusions and then normally we will pick one or sometimes we pick multiple to make an initial sample of our product to check whether we're happy with that factory.

Why Make a Sample?

There’s really two reasons for this sample in this first instance this first sample.

The first one is to check the quality of the factory, check that we're happy. Not only with what they've actually delivered the work that they've produced and sent to us in the form of that sample. But also just to see how things went. How is the communication? Did they listen to us? And use that as a bit of a trial for whether or not this factory is one to work with again.

Some people have multiple factories that they have a sample with initially, so there may be comparing the samples and the quality and the price and so on. That's the very first stage and so to go back to the original question.

Yes, you are going to pay for samples and it is absolutely worth it because you don't want to be proceeding with a factory committing to a big order potentially without having seen a sample and what they're capable of. I would always have a sample of your own product made before you commit to any large order. Yes it might be worthwhile and helpful to see a sample that they've made for somebody else, but of course at the end of the day we want to make sure that your product is possible to be made by them and they understand the fashion manufacturing process. We want to make sure that they have all of the equipment that they need for yours and that they understand it that they can execute it well and although there are benefits to seeing a product that they've made for someone else, of course, no two products are identical.

Factory sourcing is very much like matchmaking, just because it was good for someone else doesn't mean that it's going to be good for you, which is why factory recommendations don't tend to be that helpful. Again a bigger topic for another day.

Essentially with this sample, we want to make sure that we're getting a sample of our product from the factory before we commit to a big order with them. So yes, there is the downside because we're going to have to pay for this sample. But in my opinion the reward massively outweighs the cost of that because it just gives us that bit of confidence that we're happy to move forward with this Factory and basically give them more money in the form of a large order and let's face it. It's better to know now if this factory is no good or can't produce what you want than after you've paid them a deposit for a massive order.

So yes, we do need to pay for the samples. But yes, it’s something that that is worth doing in the long run.

Is that what you're expecting?

Did you budget having samples into your forecast? If not don't panic at least, you know about it now and it's something that we can move forward with. If you're struggling with anything else on the manufacturing side or even the marketing side, design side, or the sample products budgeting I'd love to know let me know in the comments and this can always be considered for a topic in a future video.

These videos are out every Tuesday, so there's always content that we need to fill. So by all means I would love for you to ask me a question.

If you really excited to start your fashion brand but feeling a bit nervous because you actually don't know what you're doing, I'd love to help you. Let's chat!

My products and services have helped a ton of people go from zero to launch with their fashion brand, even though they'd had no industry experience whatsoever. So I'd love to chat to you, just click here to arrange something! You can just let me know a little bit about what your challenges are so I can try and help you overcome those and we can schedule a chat if it's something that I can help with.

I'd love to hear from some of you soon! Have a great week and I'll see you in the next video.

How to Promote Your Fashion Brand Using Instagram Marketing Video

If you want to market your fashion brand using Instagram, but aren't getting sales from it, chances are you're missing this one part of the marketing puzzle. In this video, I share my biggest tip for marketing your fashion brand using Instagram.

If you're curious to learn more about the Fashion Sales Kit and how it can help you to market your fashion brand without spending the entire day on social media, you can see the details here;

https://thefashionbusinesscoachlearn.com/The-Fashion-Sales-Kit

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I hate spam too - if you sign up to this email list, your details won't be sold or leased to anyone else. I will email you from time to time with helpful content and occasional offers, which you can unsubscribe from at any time. 

Manufacturing Fashion Products - The Biggest Challenge Startups Face

One of the most common questions that I get asked by new startup fashion brands is what is the biggest challenge that I'm going to face when I'm manufacturing my products? Or what are fashion startups biggest manufacturing challenges?

I recently recorded a free video to answer these questions. Below is a direct transcript from the video, or if you prefer, you can click here to watch the free video.

So what is that challenge? It's the MOQ.

If you've not come across the term MOQ before, it stands for “minimum order quantity” and it's something that you're going to be facing all the time as a new or small brand. MOQ means that you have to order a certain amount of either units, if you're having a manufacturer sew your products together there will be a minimum order quantity for that, but also for things like fabrics and trims, buttons labels, you name it, most things are going to have a minimum order quantity, particularly when you're working direct with a vendor rather than through a third party or buying it in a retail store for example. And we definitely don't want to be doing that because the price is going to be more expensive if we're buying from a brick and mortar store or if there's some kind of third-party middlemen, or middle woman involved.

So this minimum order quantity becomes a problem because the minimums are often very very high. As well as working with startups and as well as having my own fashion brand, I also work on the factory side, which is great to kind of see both sides of the argument when we're dealing with pricings in negotiations and things. The factories that I work with, typically our minimum is 20,000 units and that is per color and style. So obviously as a small fashion brand that is completely unworkable.

The good news is there are smaller minimums available. You do have to do a lot of detective work though, particularly if you're looking for something and very small 50 units is about as small as you can go again, this is per style/colour and a minimum as low as 50pcs is hard to come by.

The fewer items you have, the higher the cost per item and that cost difference can be quite substantial as well.

How to Overcome This Issue

So, how do we overcome this one of the major challenges faced when manufacturing fashion products, that is, issue of the minimum order quantity? What do we do if we can't meet a supplier minimum and we can't find an alternative who's going to do it?

The good news is that we can basically for see this problem coming.

When I'm working on my own fashion business, I also have this problem because I don't have the facility at my fashion brand to order a thousand units, plus that wouldn’t align with my brand values anyway. So, I'm really strategic in the way that I plan my collections and as much as I would love to offer like 10 colors have lots of different prints and patterns I have to be restrictive I have to rein myself in with the options. I don't often have many different color options because I need to remember that I'm going to have to buy a lot to meet factory requirements and to meet supplier requirements. I keep minimums in mind when designing and consolidate the fabric and trim options needed as much as I can, to help myself out with the minimum order quantity later.

Designs Need to be More Than Just Pretty

If you can I would definitely recommend not to just sketch in a things and then going all guns blazing trying to find a factory to make them but actually put a bit of thought into design process rather than just designing something that you think looks good. There's a lot more to design than just something that looks good.

Effective planning can really help - make sure that you're not ordering a little bit of something here and a little bit of something there, but actually consolidating what you need to buy so that you're not ordering a small amount of this and that, but just one big order of a particular fabric or colour for example.

What I would say in general to a start-up and a brand is that we need to compromise, we can't have everything that we want at the price we want, we just don't have enough power as a small business to have everything and a good price as well.

So be prepared to make some compromises.

Is that the challenge you were expecting?

I’d really love to know if that was the challenge you anticipated me saying! Or, if there's something that you are struggling with or that you're worried about that is stopping you from getting to the next stage with the manufacture, definitely comment below and I can keep it in mind for future videos.

Not feeling confident on your fashion terminology? I have a free ebook which has 100 of these must know fashion industry terms and abbreviations, the things that people are going to say to you in the industry. You can click here to find out about the free ebook.

I hope you've enjoyed this video. Thanks for watching and I'll see you next time.

How to Size Swimwear Designs; Swimwear Startup Tips

Starting a swimwear brand but don’t have much experience and struggling to get the product fit right? You’re not alone! In this video I share tips for fitting your swimwear and what you can do to perfect the fit ready for production.

Got great ideas but don’t know how to make them a reality? Learn about my zero to manufacture ready service here;

https://thefashionbusinesscoach.com/working-with-me-tech-packs

Curious to learn more about starting a swimwear brand? Read this interview with one of my swimwear clients;

https://thefashionbusinesscoach.com/blog/houseofleidy

Thanks for watching!

I hate spam too - if you sign up to this email list, your details won't be sold or leased to anyone else. I will email you from time to time with helpful content and occasional offers, which you can unsubscribe from at any time. 

Finding a Clothing Manufacturer; What You'll Need to Provide

Struggling to find a factory who can make your clothing designs, or not getting a reply from a factories? If you're not providing the factory with the information they need, I’m not surprised! In this video, let’s explore what you need to have before you can start approaching factories who can manufacture your fashion designs.

Got great ideas but don’t know how to make them a reality? Learn about my zero to manufacture ready service here;

https://thefashionbusinesscoach.com/working-with-me-tech-packs

Curious to know the kinds of businesses I’ve helped? Take a peek at some examples here;

https://thefashionbusinesscoach.com/portfolio

Thanks for watching!

I hate spam too - if you sign up to this email list, your details won't be sold or leased to anyone else. I will email you from time to time with helpful content and occasional offers, which you can unsubscribe from at any time. 

What Fabrics Are Sustainable?

If you want to create a sustainable fashion brand but are getting confused by what fabrics to choose, this video is for you! I cover common misconceptions about sustainable fabrics and what you need to look out for when buying eco-friendly fabrics for your clothing line.

If you want to get some support and learn more about building a fashion brand that doesn’t cost the earth, let’s chat! My courses and services have helped lots of new brands go sustainably from zero to launch and I’d love to help you do the same.

You can get in touch with me by clicking here.

Curious to know the kinds of businesses I’ve helped? Take a peek at some examples here;

www.thefashionbusinesscoach.com/portfolio

Thanks for watching!

I hate spam too - if you sign up to this email list, your details won't be sold or leased to anyone else. I will email you from time to time with helpful content and occasional offers, which you can unsubscribe from at any time.