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3 ways to jumpstart a struggling fashion business

3 ways to jumpstart a struggling fashion business

Is your fashion business struggling or going through a difficult phase? Have you been having poor sales, budget deficits, and low revenue despite your high operating costs? You are not alone! All businesses go through tough times too. 

The good news is that you can change things; the hard part is that you will need to do things differently. It is not easy considering all the efforts and resources that go into running a business. But, it is what you can handle.

Ready to turn your fashion business around? Here are three ways you can get things running again:

Fashion business owner

1. Study the warning signs

What went wrong? What were the seemingly salient things you overlooked that made things go wrong? Was it when you decided to expand? You will need to carefully reflect on your business, check the records, try your best to identify where the problem started. This will help you come up with a plan to transform things.

2. Get Fresh Eyes on your business

Competent professionals and consultants were made for moments like this. Get a proven and credible fashion consultant to look at your business and find out what went south and how you can be steered back on course. Be ready to be cooperative with the facts discovered, and also for the hard decisions that will follow. It might seem like an unnecessary expense, but it will save you a lot more in the long run.

3. Take a new course of action

After getting professional insight into your business, it is time to act on them. Study the new trends in the fashion industry. How can you set yourself apart and offer a Unique Selling Proposition? Maybe it is time to pivot and start offering value your customers did not even know they need. Whichever action you take, review the results after some time and act accordingly again.

When you know your business is struggling, you will need to get proactive and take action. 

Is your fashion business struggling? Are you on the brink of a shutdown? What steps have you taken so far? Let’s discuss this in the comments.

Fabulous Ideas to Market Your Clothing Brand Online

Fabulous Ideas to Market Your Clothing Brand Online

The online clothing market is undoubtedly saturated. With so many clothing brands launching every day, it can be difficult to stand out from the pack and be noticed by consumers. But one of the best ways to make your mark is through online marketing, as it can help increase brand awareness, and you can easily track if your efforts are working or not.

As mentioned in our ‘How to Define Your Target Market’ post, it imperative that you tailor your marketing and sales efforts specifically to your target market in order to generate sales. Here are some tactics you can try out:

Highlight inclusivity

Inclusivity is not something to be seen as a trend—but a movement. It’s something that all brands must try to embrace and celebrate. Fashion brands, especially those that sell clothing, should have a wide range of sizes to accommodate most, if not all customers. And of course, your marketing should also reflect that with your choice of models.

If you’re selling dresses for small-framed women, your marketing materials should have “real” models in them instead of mimicking stereotypical ads that only feature models of one size. Pretty Me’s guide to the best dresses for petites notes that petite girls have a very beautiful and unique body structure, and it’s only right that they are represented. Tailor-fit some designs for the petite body structure to really make the match stand out. On the flip side, if you offer plus-sized clothing, the models you hire should not make your market feel alienated. At the very least, the clothing pieces you have should be worn on at least three types of models so customers can have a realistic idea of how the product will look on them.

Collaborate with an influencer

If you’re trying to target or cater to a niche market, it’s better to work with influencers like fashion bloggers and vloggers who have a considerable following. These people have a large following for a reason—their audience looks up to them and they respect their views and opinions. Influencers can do wonders in increasing your sales by recommending or even just reviewing your items.

When looking for influencers to collaborate with, A Small Business Trends article notes that you must first check their relevancy so you can be heard by the right audience. Have a look at the topics they write or talk about, the content they share, the brands they have worked with, and if their followers are in your target audience in terms of demographics and location. It’s an extra step, but choosing the right influencer is crucial so you can ensure that they can help you drive engagement and conversations.

Host a giveaway

Conducting giveaways, especially when properly done, can result in a lot of exposure for your clothing brand during the first weeks of launch. The initial period is critical because it’s all about gaining brand exposure, so you have to make sure that you come up with unique ideas for giveaways. It can be your own slate of products, or it could be other prizes. The only thing to keep in mind is that you should be promoting the giveaway as hard as you can on your website, social media channels, and other PR.

It would also best if you made it unique so more people would be compelled to join. For instance, a brand called Ringly that sells fitness trackers modified their giveaway by raffling off two products to the winner and their BFF. The giveaway became more fun because it was a shared prize, thereby increasing the number of winners and doubling engagement, too.

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This article was written exclusively for martwayne.com

by Abi Cooker

Recommended Resources

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How to Use Storytelling to Sell Your Brand

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How to Price Your Work & Make a Profit

Factors to consider before changing your fashion business model

Factors to consider before changing your fashion business model

To run a fashion business that hits target goals, you will need to do more than make beautiful clothes. Running a fashion business, just like any business, requires a business model along with other factors.

It may sound unprecedented for a fashion business to change its business model but think about it: just last year, the pandemic brought some major fashion stores to their knees, with many stores losing patronage due to lockdowns. Business Insider wrote last year, that multiple industry leaders declared the death of the fashion industry as we know it. These show that the industry is changing rapidly, and if your business will survive, your model has to evolve, it must.

Your business model dictates your profit-making. It is how you adapt to trends and challenges that your business will face. It should be updated regularly, or the fashion business will fail to move forward. Fashion business models are the same too.

If your business has been running on a model for a long and you have noticed diminishing returns: then you need to rethink your model. So how what factors to consider before changing your fashion business model?

1. The target audience

If your target audience is not responding to your marketing efforts, it’s rapidly changing, too small, too large or has no buying power. Your model should change to accommodate the new audience you are targeting.

2. Expansion

If you are expanding, what worked for you before might not work again. It might be time to evaluate the market once more and check your plan to see if you are ready to meet the demands.

3. Profitability

A model only works if it is bringing in the expected profit. When you start getting recurring losses, it is time to change your model.

4. A change in trend

The pandemic, for example, is a change in the lives of people. It has drastically changed how much they get clothes as well as other aspects of their fashion life.

Is your model currently working for your business? Do you need to change it or make slight adjustments? Let’s discuss

Starting a fashion business? Here’s what to plan for

Starting a fashion business? Here’s what to plan for

When starting a fashion business, it is easy to focus on just the branding and products, neglecting other crucial aspects of the fashion business. However, you need to evaluate all the necessary costs to come up with an ideal financial plan.

Generally, your startup cost depends on the type of fashion business you plan to launch. If you want to open a physical store, you will most likely have more upfront costs compared to a brand that operates solely online.

Notwithstanding, we will cover areas we consider essential, especially when you’re just starting on a lean budget.⠀

 

1. Daily operational cost

Your daily operational cost includes all types of expenses, including one-off, monthly or annual payments. These payments are for your workspace, electricity, phone bill, transport, accounting, internet, and phone bill.

They don’t seem trivial, but if not considered and planned for carefully, you might find yourself running the business at a loss.

 

2. Samples & Product costs⠀

Think of all the expenses that will contribute to your final clothing cost, and no, stop calculating just the fabric cost. There are other costs for you to consider, such as your technical drawings, patterns, tech packs, trims, labels, packaging, labor, and storage.

 

3. Training & Consulting Costs

Why make expensive mistakes when you can learn from an industry expert? Invest in a session or get training to avoid making mistakes that will cost you a lot more.

 

4. Sales & Marketing Cost

Marketing is an aspect a lot of fashion entrepreneurs forget to plan. But it is crucial to the success of the business. Marketing can gulp a whole lot of your reserves if not carefully planned. The costs that fall under this category include; branding, photography, PR, models, make-up, hair, fashion shows, web design, and ad spend.

 

The important thing to note though is all these costs must be factored into the price of your products if you want the business to survive.  If you have no idea how to do so, the Built2Bill Price Calculator does the costing and pricing for you automatically.

If you need in-depth knowledge of how to start and grow a viable fashion business, we have detailed ebooks and online fashion courses you should enroll in. ⠀

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Recommended Resources

Tips for Developing a Fashion Business

Tips for Starting Your Fashion Business on a Low Budget

Fashion Business Growth Tip: Develop Your Unique Selling Proportion

3 ways to start a fashion brand with little or no money

3 ways to start a fashion brand with little or no money

Do you want to start a fashion brand but have little or no money for it? You are not alone! I have met and spoken to alot of people who want to start fashion brands but are being held back by limited funds, and I totally understand. Many people do not realize this, but alot of successful fashion brands did not start with alot of money.

There are methods you can use to fund your fashion brand without taking out loans or getting investors. If you are interested in learning how to start your fashion brand with little to no money, read on;

1. Start with Samples

You can startup faster if you launch with just samples of your product and produce for clients when they place orders. With this method, you don’t have to wait longer for mass production because you’ll have samples available for sale in less than a month.

Another pro is that you also won’t be spending alot because you do not need to stock a lot of products. Many fashion business owners have used this method successfully, and you can do it as well with limited funds. (If you will like to start, your own clothing factory, I have a Step-by-Step Blueprint that can guide you.)

2. Use your Day Job 

Having a job is very important when starting a business, especially if you have no other means to fund it. You need to be able to support yourself and the business financially until you’re up, running, and making enough to pay yourself a salary.

If you already have a job, you should keep it and start saving monthly. If you do not have a job, you should consider working at a fashion startup. Not only will you earn money but also gain experience.

3. Start a different business 

I know this might seem counter-intuitive but hear me out first. You can identify low-cost opportunities around you and come up with creative ways to earn money from them. For example, if you have a 9-5, you can source beautiful thrift bags and sell them to your colleagues to earn quick cash.

It doesn’t have to be long-term or have anything to do with fashion, feel free to monetize any other skill you have such as cooking, baking, or writing. Who says you can’t have more than one successful business?

Starting and growing a fashion brand with little or no money, is not impracticable for you to do. I hope these ideas give you the encouragement you need to get started. 

Do you have more ideas, please share them in the comments, so others can learn from them. 

 

Recommended Resources

Tips for Starting Your Fashion Business on a Lean Budget

Fashion Business: How to Start a Fashion Business with No Money

Want to Start a Fashion Business? Remember the words “baby steps”…