Fashion startup success sounds so much interesting. We often come across stories of people starting small and becoming a market leader in no time. Well, some of the stories are true. But most of them are marketing stunts and made up. I am not saying you cannot be successful in a business. What I mean is to be realistic and set a realistic goal and try to achieve it. Once you reach that set another one. The journey should be more exciting in a business than the destination. So, do proper research before you start your fashion startup. In this article, we will focus on some of the (KPIs) that lead to a thriving apparel line. There would be some tough questions you need to answer yourself. Once you convince yourself and you know your goal you should take the first step. So let’s dive into it.
Know What You Want to Achieve For Your Fashion Startup Success?
Sounds like an open-ended and generic question right? But, this is the most important question that will clarify your vision and show you a clear goal to achieve your fashion startup success. I have interviewed with few of my clients and asked the same question. Only 10% of those could give a clear picture of what they want to achieve from their fashion business. Almost 90% of fashion startups are not clear about where they are heading and what they want to achieve. Therefore, they do not have an understanding of the value they should get from the vendors. And when you do not know what you want you cannot expect what to expect from others.t. I don’t need to say what would be the result.
Let’s talk about that 10% of the customers who convinced me what they want from their fashion business. The first thing is they know what they want. So, they understand the value of every service or product they want to buy or take. They know the value of time and their decision is clear when it comes to taking a decision. They exactly know what they are looking for and why it is important to them. Be it a logo designer or a tech pack designer to prepare technical specifications, they know what it takes to seal the deal. This post is for those 10% of the people who want to research before they pitch their idea to a vendor or a tech pack designer. In short, this is the next step forward once you know what you want. So let’s get started.
10 Key Considerations for Aspiring Designers
Starting a fashion business and leading it to success has a lot of responsibility. As I know business is not all about money but it’s about people. People we work with, people we do business with. And people with positive mindsets take the business to the next level. So, your customers, your supply chain, and your vendors are your real assets. In the modern business scenario data and network is the key to a successful business. So, your active network determines how you grow in your business. So, you have to identify and determine whom you are going to work with and lock them. This is the base on which you can build your business. So here are the 10 considerations that an aspiring custom clothing designer should follow to be successful.
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What does it take to start a successful fashion business?
I will come straight to the point. You need funds to start your business. If you have fashion investors it becomes easier for you to start. But if you are funding from your savings you need to be careful in every step. You must know how much funds you need to start and how you should be able to allocate the funds to your business effectively. You can plan your budget and the size of your collection based on the funds you have. This would help you see what your collection will look like.
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Collection Planning and Finalizing Collection Line Sheet
Be sure of what you want to do. What segment, what categories and what products? This gives a focused approach to your line and gives you a focused approach that helps in achieving fashion startup success. This will eliminate all kinds of distractions that may kill your time and money in research and further processing. You should do all fashion trend analysis and refer to the fashion forecast for the season. Once this is done the step forward is how to give shape to your style ideas. This will help you organize your styles in a way that a tech pack designer can understand and process further for making tech packs.
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Building your Brand Identity
Your brand identity is the face of your brand. People recognize your brand through your logo, tags, labels, etc. So give maximum focus on building that. Brand identity is something that gives you recognition and identification for years and it is that part of your design process which you cannot keep changing. So make sure you design your brand identity and finalize it carefully so that you do not have to rebrand or refresh it for a long period. If you plan to do remember this will completely change how you represent your brand in the market. In short, do your brand identity design and do it correctly. You should hire a good brand design consultant for this. And once you finalize it stick to that for a long period. This is why people charge quite high when it comes to branding and brand identity design.
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Registration Process of your Brand with (USPTO)
You can register your brand name online at the United States Patent and Tread Mark Office (USPTO) www.uspto.gov. You can do the registration through the Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS). Consider trademarking your brand name and logo to protect your intellectual property. It is always preferable to work with a trademark attorney. He can help ensure that your application is duly prepared and filed. This helps expedite the registration process. Normally, the registration process takes around 6 months to 1 year depending on the complexity.
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Sourcing Tech Pack Designer for Tech Pack and Spec Sheets
You can source a freelance fashion designer or a design studio with all amenities and professionals. You should hire the right person who has a factory-level product development experience in that particular category. So that those who develop your tech packs know in and out of the garment and its stitching and construction details. You can hire an individual or a team with a tech pack designer, pattern maker, and spec technician. The choice would be yours based on your budget and how big or small your collection is. It is always good to hire a fashion design agency that is equipped with the right technical designers, pattern makers, and garment spec technicians.
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Sourcing Manufacturing Partners
I am a technical designer and owner of a clothing manufacturing and export unit. I get inquiries almost every day. Unfortunately, the inquiries that I get are for a manufacturing unit to produce their sample. Upon inquiring more I find that those who inquire about manufacturers skip all the above 5 steps and jump right here. They expect a custom clothing manufacturer to be capable of processing your collection without those. This is a wrong practice. This could be fatal as if anything goes wrong you cannot blame the clothing manufacturer. You have no control over the outcome of this. So go back and start from the beginning before start sourcing manufacturing partners.
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Garment Pattern Making and Sample Development
Sample development follows the same process as bulk production. If your design and technical specifications are correct it gives less chance for error and rectification. In many cases, the sample measurement differs because of the style cuts and shape. In this case, the measurement spec sheet and pattern are adjusted based on the new measurement resulting from the sample. This process is completed and you are ready with your fit sample. This is the first phase of the sample development process. Apart from this, some manufacturers do size set samples, PP samples, and photo-shoot samples. You can club the process to reduce the cost or timeline. However many reputed brands follow every step in the sample development process.
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Sample Approval and Rectification
Samples are sent to the client for the sample approval process. This is an important process for the client to give their comments and approve samples based on the specifications given to the clothing manufacturers. If the sample is approved, the client may give the go for the bulk production. The process of sample development continues if the buyer has any modification request or the sample is not as per the specification given. Sample development is always a paid operation. The money goes from the pocket of the buyer. Therefore, the tech packs and spec sheets given to the clothing manufacturers should be correct and final.
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Purchase Order: How to Prepare a Purchase Order?
A purchase order is an important document and has its importance in apparel production, Shipping, and customs clearance. Without a purchase order, you cannot ship goods from one country to another. This explains what you want to purchase and what is included in the order. You must include the Size and color options in the purchase order for a particular style. This must apply to all the styles you are ordering for bulk production. The purchase order also includes the terms and conditions, timeline, and payment terms. Also, it should include the transaction number of the Advanced Payment against the export of goods. All this information needed to be furnished in the purchase order. Below is the sample PO format with detailed pointers to be included in the purchase order.
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Quality Assurance and Quality Control
Normally the production sourcing and process starts from the day the clothing manufacturer receives the Purchase order. The quality assurance process starts along with the production. The quality assurance Process involves 3 steps. Pre-Production QA which ensures that the raw materials sourced should meet the quality standard. Production QA ensures the inspection process to monitor the garment quality during production. Finally, Post Production QA ensures each product produced meets the quality standard. Normally QA standard is to ensure a continuous improvement process to meet the quality standard.
As a fashion studio, we believe in ethical practice and transparent business relations with our clients. And we believe a happy client is most likely to refer 10 other clients and this has been happening with us over a long period. We offer tech pack services to custom clothing companies. We help brands who want to start with generic styles through the tech pack template store. So wait no more connect with us for all your fashion design sketches and tech pack design requirements.