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10 Things You Should Know Before Starting A Fashion Brand
Running a successful fashion brand does not happen by chance, these are things you should know before starting a fashion brand
Running a successful fashion brand is not something that happens by chance, as it requires both top-tier fashion designing skills and a whole lot of business acumen. You may be a talented clothing line designer but that will not automatically make you a successful businessperson. This is because running any successful fashion business requires more than just talent. So in this article, we will be helping those willing to start a fashion business, with some basic requirements to help them run their brand successfully. In essence, these are 10 things you should know before starting a fashion brand:
1. Pick And Know Your Niche
First, you need to determine your field of expertise in the fashion industry. A niche is the industry you will be in and the types of products you will sell. Take into account two things: first, you need to be passionate about that niche, and second, find out if people are searching for the type of products you’d like to start selling.
When you know your niche, you should bear in mind the particular products you’re selling. Even if you branch out and introduce lots of other designs as time goes by, your original idea gives you heritage, a guiding principle, and a reason to be remembered.
2. Identify Your Target Audience
Many fashion brands tend to fold up because they do not know much about their target audience i.e. their target customers before starting a fashion brand. Avoid making this mistake. Research your target audience’s social, financial, educational, and other backgrounds. This information will help you in designing and producing your clothing line as per the choice and needs of your customers.
Do not try to sell one product to every section of the population. For example, if you identify pregnant women as your target consumers, then you should create fashion items as per their choice of colours, trends, etc. Knowing your target audience is also important from the marketing point of view. You’ll know the right channel to use in advertising your products when you know the set of people you’re selling to.
3. Find Out The Cost Of Starting Your Business
Lack of funding is surely one of the reasons for many businesses closing early without realizing their full potential. To avoid such a situation when starting a fashion brand, have a realistic account of how much finance you need to set up and run your company. Write down all of your essential expenditures such as payment of employee salaries, purchasing of office furniture and equipment, raw material and other supplies, and postage.
Do not forget the expenditure you need to make for creating marketing materials such as business cards that you will distribute to your clients. Moreover, your company may not be able to start earning right away. Clients may also delay your payment. Keep some funds aside to meet unforeseen expenses.
Some of the ways to get funds for your business is by applying for business grants, you can also consider applying for a bank loan. You can also think of getting financial help from investors.
4. Set Your Prices Right
After starting a fashion line you would probably want to make your startup profitable. Make sure that the pricing of your fashion items is right. You will earn a profit when you generate more revenue than your fixed and variable expenditures. You have already made a one-time investment in fixed items such as office furniture. But other expenditures such as salary payments and buying your raw materials will be made regularly. Keep these costs in mind when determining the prices of your fashion items.
Generally, business owners set their wholesale and retail rates way higher than their expenses. You can think of fixing your prices at such a high level that you earn a profit margin of 30-50% over your total expenses on running the business.
5. Create A Memorable Business Logo And Brand Name
Your potential customers will get a first impression of your fashion business by looking at your company’s logo. A logo is not just a business symbol of a company, but it’s an identity mark. A professionally designed logo has the power to drive customers. This is because people react emotionally to the colours, typefaces, tagline, images etc. elements of a logo.
The fashion logo of a company should have vibrant colours depending on the type of fashion products it makes and sells. A well-designed logo conveys the brand message of the company. So, create your fashion logo design considering your business message for the customers.
Also, a good brand name can give potential customers confidence that a brand will deliver, therefore don’t choose a shabby name for your brand.
6. Create An Online Presence For Your Business
Another major thing you should know before starting a fashion brand successfully is to put it on the web. Most of your consumers search for fashion products online. A good online presence for your fashion business is therefore essential to your business.
However, a basic requirement to do online business is to create a website for your fashion company. Your e-commerce website should provide consumers with all information such as your fashion products or services, pricing, images of products, product descriptions, contact information etc.
You can also create pages for your business on social media apps like Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp etc.
So, when you start a fashion business, you must have a user-friendly website for your business to drive online traffic toward your company’s site.
7. Get A Business Partner
A smart way of running your fashion brand is to find someone who can work side-by-side with you. In other words, get one or more business partners who can share your burden of running a company. The partner should have some experience in the fashion business. Someone whom you can trust with the smooth running of your brand.
8. Build Up Your Brand
Another thing you should know before starting a fashion brand is that your great effort in building your business is one of the things to consider for attracting a consistent stream of customers. You will need to devote a lot of time to your brand-building exercise. A business becomes a brand when people start trusting its products or services. Spread a good word about your company’s fashion products by using all platforms such as fashion events. Talk to the clients personally about your new fashion venture and tell them how it stands out from other similar ventures in the market.
9. Create Marketing Strategies
You cannot hope to start a successful fashion brand without first having a sound marketing strategy in place. Your fashion business will largely depend on your plans for reaching out to your target audience. To create a marketing plan, consider exploring all the platforms as fashion events take place in your locality. Meet the clients and invite them to have a look at your new fashion products.
You can send some of the well-known fashion designers your clothing apparel and other products for their review. A favourable word by them for your fashion brand can enhance the reach of your business in the market.
Think of building a social media marketing strategy as well. Your potential consumers are on social channels like Instagram and Facebook. Your business must be visible to the consumers on major social channels. Make a strategy to engage them with your fashion products on different social media platforms.
10. Learn From Your Mistakes
You will most definitely make mistakes while starting a fashion brand. Learn from those mistakes quickly and do not repeat them. If some of your business strategies are not yielding results, then discard them and make new plans. Quick learners will always be ahead of their competitors in the market.
We hope these 10 points will be of great help to you and your fashion brand. don’t forget to research your niche, market, and consumers, make an effective marketing plan, get a memorable logo, ensure the online presence of your fashion products and learn greatly from your business mistakes and ensure they are not repeated.