Archive for November, 2006
I am having the hardest time getting ahold of people. It’s that busy-outside-of-work time of year. At least I’m leaving the messages and sticking to my plan. I’m hoping to get a few more boutique appointments before the end of the year, and am also hoping my pattern maker is available sometime soon.
Feeling incredibly overwhelmed today. Don’t even know how to take a step back and figure out where I am. I have a cold and that has me feeling extra knocked down, extra foggy. I think the best thing I could do for myself tonight is to hash out my schedule - based on fall market dates and prioritize my “to do” list. AKA find some sanity.
Hopefully, tomorrow’s post will share the schedule dates I’ve come up with (I also can’t find the one book I need right now that gives me an overview of key dates for the development & production cycle - BOO).
We’re doing KIDShow in February. We’re doing KIDShow in February. We’re doing KIDShow in February. We just need to make it that far. 
November 28th, 2006
Woah. The Thanksgiving weekend is behind us. I had grandiose plans of using some of the down time doing some designing. But that didn’t really happen. Some in my head, which is where it all begins anyway. But for Fall 2007, I need to get in touch with my pattern maker today and let her know some stuff is coming. And then I have to figure out what stuff is coming.
Last week was all about rushing a wholesale order for a great boutique in a high traffic area of San Diego. They’ve got a fabulous display blanket hanging in their store and they couldn’t be happier.
I highly recommend the book “The Irresistable Offer”, it’s good. If I wasn’t so lazy right now, I’d look up the author. I feel like I now have an irresistable offer for boutiques when I walk in for the appointment, and an irresistable offer means can’t-turn-it-down. It took me until the end of last week to figure out all the details.
Just go just go just go. I think this needs to be my mantra because that’s really how I learn the most. You have to just go and talk to people to find out what their questions are going to be. You have to just jump into the vendor / supplier phone calls to find out what information they are going to need from you, to even learn what questions you are supposed to ask. But reading and research are still very valuable.
I find that what I read doesn’t make complete sense until I have real life experiences to match. Reading that suppliers and vendors will ask what you’re making - always if they’re good - is different than having the conversations. And it has nothing to do with wanting your designs; it has to do with saving you time and getting you exactly what you need. So they won’t show me silks and unwashable trims when I need jersey. And also, so they can suggest some cool stuff I might not even know about.
Referrals are as valuable as research. If you find a contractor that you love, who consistently performs well and does beautiful work, ask them for a referral to their colleagues. They will not stake their name on someone they don’t believe in, and thus the referral is likely very good. I caution that you should seek referrals from someone after you’ve seen their work, not just based on their reputation. I found my pattern maker by a stroke of luck, called a pattern maker who was listed in the yellow pages. She was going out of business, but had heard of another pattern maker in the area who was good. (This wasn’t a reliable referral yet - I hadn’t seen anyone’s work, but it was a phone number and contact name).
Called the pattern maker, had her make and adjust a few patterns (our cost for children’s patterns runs anywhere from $30 - $75 depending on complexity and number of pieces - adjustments have been around $10). Pattern maker turned out to be excellent. Our sewing contractor is a referral from her, and our cutter is a referral from the sewing contractor. Find one piece and you can find the others is the point here. Just call and call and call. And read Kathleen Fasanella’s posts at www.fashion-incubator.com on recognizing good patterns, because that’s huge too. You need to know that what you are getting is well-done.
One more tip on finding contractors: give them ONE or TWO samples to work up first. Yes, you should expect to pay for this. But don’t dump a bunch of work on someone you haven’t tried out already. We made this mistake with a random sewing contractor and it cost us big time, every sample came back wrong - weeks late. Referrals and testing, referrals and testing.
I’m really going to try to update this blog every day so I can keep on top of the fall schedule. Which means contacting our pattern maker and lining up a meeting with her. And getting the number of pieces ironed out and what they will be. Now the pressure’s on, we’ll see if I have the designing mind I think I do.
November 27th, 2006
Marketing, Marketing, Marketing. Once you’ve tackled one big hurdle, like learning product development, there’s another one rearing it’s BIG GIANT CHALLENGING head. Marketing, Advertising. Similar, connected, but not one and the same.
Here’s how I’m keeping them straight in my head: every contact with a customer, ex-customer, or future customer is marketing. So, your marketing is what brands you. Your emails, your web pages, your stationary, your product, YOU, - all of these are part of your marketing, which is why you strive for a co-hesive look and feel to everything about your company.
Advertising (this might be over-simplification, but it’s working in my head right now) is paying for marketing opportunities with prospects. Basically, paying for a shot at a contact.
Guerrilla marketing - tactics such as posting on message boards & leaving your business card everywhere you can, are examples of “guerrilla marketing”, but I think that it better referred to as “guerrilla advertising”; you pay in time for a shot at a contact. The marketing part should already be there by the time you’re looking for traffic.
For our clothing line, one of the biggest branding things we’ve done is the use of an identifiable symbol in our logo. Think Nike, think Guess. You can recognize them by a symbol alone. That’s what we want. I think of our happy star, “Pinch” (named by my daughter and appropriate for us in so many ways), as a stamp into our customers minds. So he’s everywhere. Then there’s color. Green and blue for us. Think Tiffany’s for an idea of the impact of a color scheme.
So, I think we’re doing ok on the branding part, but we have to get our marketing messages clarified and figure our how best to target our advertising. We need to let people know we exist!!! Here’s a couple of our advertising efforts:
- Purchasing advertising space on a few mom sites; working on ads for www.jamesgirone.com
- Purchasing an ad in an expectant moms guide which will be distributed to local obgyn offices and put into the expecting mother welcome packs
- Yahoo, pay-per-click
- Direct Mail campaign (of which I need to create the next newsletter for both retail and wholesale again already, so this one is a time consumer).
I also just read that a refer-a-friend script on your site (with an exclusive offer or benefit for doing so), can be HUGE for building your mailing list and spreading the word.
Well, my kids are rising with the sun. I have SO much that needs to get done, and my husband is gone for the day - yikes.
OH!!! A PS: I’ve been contacted by so many people over the last couple of weeks who are in this whole crazy starting a clothing line experience with me and I think it would be a great idea for us all to help each other work towards the Fall market. We could at least help with where we’re supposed to be in the schedule, trade show prep, that sort of thing. I’ll work on this idea a little more..but feel free to let me know what you think.
November 12th, 2006