In this episode, we are talking about sales. This is the first part of a mini-series on sales, and we are going to go through how to best to sell your apparel collection to shops. Meaning wholesale.

The wholesale and retail climate in the apparel industry is no longer what it used to be. It has changed drastically over the past years. Traditional ways of selling a collection no longer work as effective as it used to. Retail is struggling, department stores are closing and in the US alone so far over 8000 store closures have been announced ranging from apparel to party supplies to even drugstores.

New technologies open up for amazing possibilities and the online shopping behaviors drastically lower the visitor rates in brick and mortar shops, making it harder for shops to stay up to date with what is happening online. Brands that adapt to the change have a higher success rate of making a profit.

There are no longer any set rules.

But, for startups and young brands selling online AND the traditional retail way, meeting actual customers, getting feedback, talking about the products and their offer can be very informative and powerful and an important part of their growth. Diversity in sales channels is what works, a mixture of ways to meet the customers and to get the products into their hands. For example, collaborations are huge. Some brands explode because of the collabs they make with other businesses. It’s an incredibly effective way of leveraging new audiences.

Another thing that is pushed really hard is the experience. It works because it gives the customer a wider experience than just a website or just a product in a shop.

So, that is why we are going to cover the traditional way of selling today. Wholesale, because we feel if it’s done the right way, and strategically, it can still be a very powerful way of reaching new customers and growing your brand.

Show notes at apparelentrepreneurship.com

In this episode, we will cover four topics. These four topics have been requested by our community, and they are all very relevant today. The four topics we talk about today are:

In this episode, we talk about your physical and mental foundation. You've heard us talk about your brand's foundation and that it needs to be solid for your brand to succeed. Well, it's the same thing with you. You need to have a solid foundation to function and have an optimized output in terms of what you deliver in your business and life.

Your business is dependant on YOU, your team is dependant on you. You are the brand and it's insurance to success. If you have a team, I'm sure your brand could be OK without you for a while but not if you are a solopreneur. If you don't function properly, if you are not performing at your best, your brand will be hurting and even go bust.

You have a mission with your brand right? Without you functioning properly, without you having full-on energy every day to do this, your brand will not be able to help all those people that you say you will with your mission. You have a bigger purpose here than just to do your job with your brand. Your bigger purpose is to serve your customers.

But it doesn't matter how great your mission is and how big your goals are. If you don't have the foundation set up, if you don't have your everyday life structured in a way that it maximizes your potential, then you will not get that far on reaching your goals for your business.

Many of you sabotage your businesses without knowing it. You do it by not preparing your life and setting yourself up for success. If you are tired, if you are constantly stressed, if you feel a bit overwhelmed, if you're not sleeping well, if you feel you don't have control of your life or business, heck you might even be depressed, then your life foundation is not solid.

In this episode we are going to get down to the five points on how to set your own foundation, so you can optimize the input you have in your business and life.

The five points are:

Having an idea for an apparel brand is easy. Making that into a reality takes knowledge and effort, and taking it to new heights into a successful blooming apparel business, well that’s an entirely different story.

What is certain though is that you will not be able to get there alone.

You might be the CEO or founder of your apparel business, and I’m sure you do a lot of things in your business already. Then you know how hard it is to do everything by yourself. We know you are doing the best you can with what you have. But again, what got you here wont get you there. To your bigger goal.

We know that it’s great to know how everything in your business works, but your expertise is only enough to a certain point. To move forward you either need to educate yourself on certain topics or bring in more people, that are experts in a specific field.

We have seen how hard some CEOs work and sometimes to the point of where they end up hating their business. They have worked so hard for so many years, that they are burned out, not making any money, they don’t have a life and they are just plain miserable. You don’t want to be in their shoes. When you let your business consume you , you eventually also let down your customers. it means you will not be able to be there for them, you will not be able to provide them with your products and service them in the way you have promised.

So in this episode we are going to talk about the roles you need to fill in your business. We are going to make it clear what positions you can have and where you can bring in experts so they can deliver high value and help you take your business and brand to the next level.

Show notes @ apparelentrepreneurship.com

In this episode we talk about online marketing, collaborations, and attracting customers. What’s most important for us and you is that you make progress in your business. We don’t just want you to listen and get inspired, well that’s fine too sometimes and its great to get you pumped up and motivated, but if you don’t implement what you hear and take action on it to make serious progress, then you will stay in the same place with your business or as an entrepreneur, and you’ll not evolve or grow.

You guys know that we are all about tactics and tangible advice so today, we are going to let you listen in on what our coaching sessions sound like. We want you to hear what it means to be coached by us.

Today's episode is an on-air coaching call with Karen Escobedo, the founder of the adorable and ethically made kidswear brand Raina La Rue, from the US.

We cover three main topics, and those topics are decided by Karen.

It is here that she needs help the most so we do a deep dive in every topic.

Enjoy!

Find the show notes at apparelentrepreneurship.com

In this episode, we are addressing how to work with patterns and communicating with manufacturers overseas. Is it possible to make the patterns and samples locally and then send them overseas for pattern grading and production?

A few years ago, we started and ran a kids clothing brand. In this episode, we talk about how you start a children's clothing brand, and what's different from creating a brand for grown-ups.

What do you do when you are running a brand and making very little profits? In this episode, we talk about different ways to address a brand that is struggling to make a profit.

We also talk about how to find showroom representatives and agents for your brand.

The episode is packed with useful information, and we also have time to address how to find sizing information for different markets.

Find the show notes at apparelentrepreneurship.com

How do you get back after a setback in business or a failed business?

Presumably, this is your dream, this is your passion, but stuff happens and your business failed, how do you bring it back to life, back on track and turn it around into a profitable brand.

Actually, this is an episode for all brands and apparel entrepreneurs, cause you know what, even if you are a super successful entrepreneur right now, you never know what might happen in the future. it’s always better to be aware that things can happen and how to tackle them then to go bananas if things happen and go into panic mode.

There are no businesses that have had an entirely smooth path to success. There are no businesses that have had zero bumps in the road. This is what running a business is - tackling whatever problems that occur, in the best possible way and trying to minimize the impact. 

Business happens, life happens and some brands miss the mark by little while some miss the mark entirely. So what do you do when you are emotionally, mentally, physically and or financially “defeated”? How can you make a solid plan to bounce back successfully?

In this episode, we will get, as usual, very tactical.  So, listen in, bring out pen and paper, close the doors, keep the kids happy and quiet somewhere, make sure the dog doesn’t need to go out for a walk, that you have everything you need…water etc…

Find the show notes at apparelentrepreneurship.com/podcast

In this episode, we talk about entrepreneurship and your apparel brand’s foundation.

10 years ago we started our first apparel brand. Even though we had experience from working in the apparel industry, it was a challenge getting a good grip of starting up a business. Just the administration around registering the business, arranging bank account, creating a business plan, making a budget, and getting the finances in order were all new tasks to us.

Then the big question: how do we do this? 

We had to find factories and suppliers that suited our needs. 

How should we go about this? 

How much can the garments cost to produce?

How do we work with minimum quantities? 

How can we make sure our finances will cover the launch? 

How can we protect our designs and feel safe when communicating with other parties? 

To answer these questions we have written the book:

Apparel Entrepreneurship - How To Start & Run A Successful Apparel Brand

It is an indispensable manual, an inspirational and educational book that will guide you in the achievement of starting and running a successful apparel brand. This book provides you with hands-on tools, business education, and actionable steps to achieve it. In this episode, we read two sections from the first chapter about entrepreneurship.

Show notes at apparelentrepreneurship.com

In this episode, we talk about How To Find Your Niche In The Market Place. This is an extremely important topic and one that is vital if you are just starting out. If you are an existing brand, you might want to tap into new markets, expand your collection and product segments and these strategies that we will be covering today will help you go into new territories successfully.  

In this episode, we are going to address an issue many startups and existing brands face. We work with many brands worldwide through the Apparel Entrepreneurship Member Zoneand our one-on-one consulting. We help them identify the exact actions they need to take to move forward and to grow their business. We help them take their brands to the next level of income, profits, and entrepreneurial lifestyle. To make sure we are a good match for each other, us and the customer, we have a relatively short consultation call, about 20-30 min where we ask them a bunch of questions related to their business to see how best w can support them. When we have our consultation calls with new brand owners we hear 2 things over and over again. 

No matter if you are just launching or if your brand has been around for a while, you want to be known for something unique. 

You want to be known for something specific, and something distinct, that isn’t already out there.  As you know there are tons of existing brands and products. So how are you going to make sure you stand out, and that the customers will buy your products instead of going somewhere else?  Today we are going to talk about how to find your unique, special place, that gap that only you can fill. 

Find the show notes at apparelentrepreneurship.com

This podcast episode is about sourcing fabrics for your apparel brand as well as preparing you for visiting fashion trade shows. We know this topic is really interesting for many of you since there are loads of trade fairs going on now. This episode will prepare you as much as possible before visiting fairs so you can source amazing material and educate yourself more for future collection. 

This episode is, among others, addressing these questions:

How do I work with minimum order quantities? There is a really great inside tip, midway into the podcast episode, of how you get around the supplier's MOQ.

How can you tell the difference between an average fabric and a higher quality fabric?

Are there other ways to source?

How do I find out about trade fairs and market places?

Read the show notes with links at apparelentrepreneurship.com