03.14.2017 - By Kevin Mako of Mako Design + Invent
In 2009 Elyse took a niche idea for fully customizable jackets, inside and out and turned it into a multi-million dollar business. Exodus Wear now produces a range of custom apparel sold Australia wide to schools and sporting and community groups with plans for international expansion in the near future.
In this episode, we learn about
* How Elyse started the business - and made a mistake on her first order
* Why Exodus Wear does not use an online customization tool - and instead prefers to have students hand-draw their jackets designs
* Why Elyse isn't worried about competing on price
* Not starting a culture of discounting
* Validating the market and the benefits of having your cutomer design your product
* Working with manufacturers to get what you want
* Sourcing products from multiple manufacturers
* Dealing with incorrect orders at manufacturers and testing new manufacturers
* Using third-part quality assurance
* Consistency among multiple manufacturers
* Financially growing the business and asking manufacturers for better credit terms
* The ups and downs of entrepreneurship
* Bootstrapped marketing
* Cold calling businesses (with a live example)
* Handling objections during cold calls
* Not making the call sound like a script
* Keeping your objective in mind - setting up a date and time to meet
* Exodus' sales process
* New products
* Exodus Wear's overall growth as a company - starting the business and working part time and then growing the business full time
* Start working on your "10,00 hours" now
Links and resources mentioned in this episode
* Website: exoduswear.com.au
* Social Media
* Twitter: @ExodusWear
* Facebook: facebook.com/ExodusWearAU
* Instagram: instagram.com/exoduswear