3 Tips for Starting a Fashion Line
Perhaps you can pick out genuine antique fabrics, or you’ve an eye for patterns and fabrics that are yet to become mainstream. You might know which graphics will sell tee-shirts. Or you’ve made something unique – something that people want to wear – then why not start up your own small-scale line? Whatever your specialism is or niche interest is, use it to your benefit.
Make Sure You Have a Reliable Supply
Make sure you direct your creativity and seek out access to cheap or unique materials to go into business. You don’t have to restrict yourself and look locally. It could be your access to contacts overseas that gives your line the advantage it needs to thrive in the marketplace. You may think whatever unique info you have is useless without a big starter loan, but there are ways to secure investment without all the risk, whatever you wish to sell. For instance, Betterfunds is a funding engine which specializes in working with small business, and finding a bespoke funding solution that works for them individually.
Find Ways to Encourage Customer Demand
Once you’ve got something to sell – a product you’re proud to make a profit from – then you need to focus on a marketing strategy. There are hundreds of ways to get your business’s name out there, from making a profile on a social media website to cold calling distributers or customers, but it’s important to decide on a strategy that’s right for your business.
Giveaways can be used in an informal way, if you’re just starting up, to target friends and family or even people who’ve never heard of your brand before. This kind of approach ensures a non-hostile reception at the beginnings of your customer base. To build up demand for your product you need to be visible, and to do this it helps to have a stable location, even if this is your home at first, as well as an easily recognizable logo, image, slogan and other type of branding.
Own Your Niche
Be original. It could be bracelets made from shells you’ve found on the beach or a new type of fabric that you’re pioneering, but how impressive it is to the customer depends on who they are, and what they like. You need to think about what sort of person is going to buy your product, and why they would like it. You may find that someone just around the corner is selling something very similar, or something that seems similar from the customers’ perspective.
If you want your product to have a specific appeal then you need to keep an eye on the competition, learn from it, and try to look at it from your customer’s point of view. You may not have a family fortune backing you up, or a team of lawyers surrounding you, but you can control your product and you can control how you communicate with your customers. Not everybody wants to buy everything from a big, established company so let your appeal be the homely side of your product, and let your customers know that they’re the reason you’re still in business if you want them to keep coming back.
