Archive for May, 2007
Yesterday was actually a good show for us -even though the show was slow. It didn’t occur to me that it was Memorial Weekend until about a day before the show. So I actually expected it would be slow, not necessarily the biggest shopping day of the year. But it was a good bet for us, to be the only baby company there. I’m going to target more of those shows – aiming for the gift crowd. It was a high-end show, the women’s and men’s lines were designer lines; so this helps. We are trend-setting, so trend-setters are our target audience right now. The ones that want to be the cool aunt more than the parents themselves. Almost everyone that bought from us yesterday bought a gift.
It took me three hours of stop-n-go traffic to get home. The show was way up in Studio City, about 20 minutes north of downtown LA. It was a long day. I’m so thankful that it is Sunday and I’m actually taking it easy. The down day after a trade show is always good to get your head back on.
Which is different than slowing your head down. Always going a hundred miles an hour in my head. I’m doing better about meditating, and taking some breathers in the day. But I’m always planning, what to do next, what to do better. This week, I’m going boutiqueing. Focus on sales. Keep my sales cycle in full swing.
Anyhow, people just ate our stuff up. We even did well amongst the other vendors. We sold a little of everything too. This is also encouraging – to have people like most of our stuff. Sold some samples I had manufactured about three years ago, and they were still hot & sold well. So, I want to locate a number of these cheap, quick, one-day shows and see how that works out.
Have a good weekend!
May 27th, 2007
Well, here we go, we just picked up another event for this weekend. Should just be a simple cash ‘n carry show for us. It’s amazing how far you come in three trade shows. Far enough that I feel like I can pick up a show this weekend and be fine because I’ve got the display all set. Sample blankets, hanging chains and hooks, tables and table cloths, and signage!!! This booth size is different, but smaller, not bigger, so we’ll work it. It’s just a one day show up in LA. Zip up and then back down again by that night.
We’re going to be the only baby brand there. As far as I know at least. This is a calculated risk. But I think it’s wise. Our customers are just as often the aunt or friend as the mom or grandma. The target of this event is the high-fashion crowd between the ages of 25-45. If they’re not pregnant, they know someone who is or someone who has been recently.
The other thing that makes me feel good about this is that both my partner and I feel it’s a good idea. Which, in business, is a rarer occurance than you might think. Plus, it’s super cheap. So, I’m going to go up and see what it’s all about. See if the risk pays off. In San Diego, there is a similar fashion / cash n’ carry show that is growing in popularity. I’ve been wanting to be the first baby brand at the San Diego one for awhile, so this will tell me if it’s wise.
This is part of the extra nuttiness that we’ve poured on top of our apparel manufacturing business by running a direct sales, or retail, side to our business. Maybe it’s too much craziness. Time will tell. For now, it’s working. For now, we like targeting both wholesale customers and retail customers, so we’re going to keep it going.
I owe some of you out there some info and I’ll get it to you in the next couple of days!
Three days to showtime! And I’m excited about it.
May 23rd, 2007
When I first started down this path I read in more than one reference book how big of a deal it is to ship on time. I had no idea that the reason it’s such a big deal is because it’s a really hard thing to do. I’m on it about 95% of the time, but that still leaves 5% of the time that stuff doesn’t come through on time.
As my husband said to me yesterday, about an item we’re a whole week late on shipping, “That’s TERRIBLE.” Because it IS flipping terrible. And as hard as I try, it happens once in a while. Sometimes it’s events down the line, issues with the contractors, but most of the time it’s fair to chalk it up to poor project planning. And there’s no one to blame for that but me.
We have a constant production cycle with our blankets, which are dropped into production upon placement of the order. Now we’re throwing traditional production cycles on top of that and I have to figure out how to plan it all and make sure that we are consistently on top of our shipments.
Not shipping on time to these few customers isn’t the end of the world. But I feel horrible about it. Sick to my stomach almost – and even as I say that I feel like surely I could’ve carved a few more hours out of last week to make it happen. Am I slacking? Am I doing the best I can do?
Yesterday I made the radical decision to straighten up my office – using those hours for cleaning instead of all the stuff I need to do to get above said item shipped on Monday. I’m determined to get it organized like it’s never been organized before. And this event has been sparked by two things: first, because a fellow designer recently posted her freshly Spring Cleaned office on her blog, which made me want to laugh and cry at the same time. I told her I would send her a picture of mine – but when I took the picture and looked at how truly horribly dis-organized and messy my office looked, I was too embarressed to actually send it. Second, I’ve been reading “Simple Abundance” and it’s all about Spring Cleaning towards mental refreshment right now. So, I was inspired. And desperate for the clean out.
For my mental health, I needed to carve the time out yesterday to start getting the office into some kind of working condition. It’s finally organized into stations: embroidery station, shipping station, my main work table and my designing desk. And then there’s the loads and loads of fabric I have that I’m not supposed to have because I wasn’t supposed to buy it until orders were placed. ha ha -
How we’re going to sell through all that fabric almost needs to be a seperate business plan. I laugh, but really, it’s not so funny. At least I can see it now. I see many bibs and mini-blankets in that fabric’s future.
May 20th, 2007
I want to share with all of you this wonderful blog: Fashion: Graduate School. This blog is written by ayomide,and she’s documenting her journey to, and through, Fashion Grad School. For those of us who are going at this industry from the outside, with no fashion school background, I have no doubt that her blog will be incredibly informative.
Plus, we’ll get some insight into what all we’ve missed & how it compares to just jumping in blind.
Very cool!
May 18th, 2007
I’m happy that I’m miraculously starting the planning for the Spring ’08 season relatively early – because we’ve just been thrown our first curve ball.
I have a very focused vision and the fabrics I need to make this vision happen have a longer-than-usual lead time because they are knit-to-order. I’m SO happy that the rep took the initiative to follow-up and call me back, and that she just happened to mention that because I have to get on the ball now. I have to narrow the selection down, make sure the finishing process I want to do is going to work and then get the sample fabrics ordered.
On the plus side of the whole knit-to-order side is that it enables me to make this a ‘forever’ baby line for us – I know the fabrics will always be available. As long as I’m prepared for the lead-time.
On the negative side, it means that I have to plan for orders well because if I have a 4 – 6 week lead time to get the fabrics, and a 4 – 6 week lead time to get the items cut & sewn, then I’m at least 8 weeks out from product-in-hand at any given time. So, I already have to adjust the “order sample fabrics” milestone on my project schedule.
And yet, I don’t want to over-order just because I think this is a brilliant idea. That’s why, the sales for this first round will be traditional – show the salesman samples, take orders, order the fabric (based on actual sales), and then place the production order. Once the collection is rolling, I visualize a contanst flux of production. Visualization followed by action makes dreams turn into reality.
May 16th, 2007
I’m about to do something you are not supposed to do – I’m about to go through a production run before taking a ton of orders. I’m only doing this because I have a good basis for knowing that this item will sell & because I’ve already opened my big mouth and sold a few, and I don’t want to make them myself. Here’s the reasons I’m doing this:
- This item generates interest everytime someone sees it; this item has already sold and has sold to people who are willing to wait a few weeks for it.
- I have orders for it – not enough orders for a full-production run, but enough to know it’s a hot item.
- I want to be able to offer this on our website without having to make any of them just because I’m waiting for enough wholesale orders to place a production run.
- The fabrics are limited-edition and I already have the fabric in-stock, and people love it.
- The sewing contractor has made the salesman samples, so I have the production quote and we can afford to do this.
- It would be a good experience to go through a production run.
I think that if I didn’t already have the fabric, then it wouldn’t even be a consideration. But, since I already committed no-no number one and bought the fabric before I got the orders, and I now definitely know people love it and will pay the price for it, and I DO already have some orders for it – so I’m going to go for it.
May 15th, 2007
Oh boy, there’s so much designing to be done. But I’ve actually done a lot of the designing; in my head and in scratches on scrap paper. Now, I have to actually work it out. I feel I have somewhat of a grandiose plan, so I have to make sure that I keep myself at the “realistic” level.
But I am really excited about this collection. And, as promised, I’ve hashed out all of my first drop-dead deadlines for the project. Let me just say that, get it in black and white, and suddenly, you realize that you don’t really have a break – that, actually, you’re pretty time crunched right now if you’re going to do this right.
We’re mid-May, and I’m looking at needing to drop the tech sketches for first draft patterns in 3 weeks. If I can do it in two, then I’ve got a great start. That makes it May 26. I arrived at this deadline by working backwards, and I’ll share with you what I’ve set up as the major milestones, the deadlines that I absolutely have to meet to make it to market by beginning of September.
I know a lot of us are racing towards the ABC Show in Vegas in September, so shall we race together? In the next couple of days, I’ll update my design project schedule to include my print / media / pr schedule. Because it ALL has to happen, and I want it all planned right. And, I’d like to be out “boutique-ing” before ABC Show even comes up – so I can brag about what a great hit the new collection is when I’m at the show.
Click here to open the PDF of my first hash at the design project schedule deadlines.
May 12th, 2007
Wow, what a novel concept, a consistent sales cycle actually pays off. We picked up a new account yesterday, and it’s a great boutique, so it’ll be great. I’m holding myself to all the “pseudo appointments” I make – by which I mean those appointments where a sales rep has told me when the owner will be in the store next. That’s how I landed the account yesterday. And here’s a little tidbit of information that might speak to why persistence pays off: I had been to that boutique two times before, and I had left my catalog both times. When I met the owner yesterday, she said she hadn’t seen either of them.
I’ve learned that the owners / buyers will rarely, if ever, actually “get back to you”. You have to call back, you have to keep trying. But it’ll work, eventually you’ll get in, and if nothing else, your company name will start to ring in their ears. I know this from companies that won’t stop calling us to carry their lines in our boutique – even if I’m not ready to buy, I know the name of those few companies over all the other competitors out there.
Now, I have to see if I can stay persistent. Today starts my catalog follow-up calls. I’m trying to track the whole darn process. For all the catalogs that got mailed out last Friday, I have follow-up calls today. Catalogs have really, really gone out every day, at a steady pace of three a day, since last Friday. And we’ve got a new account rolling – so I’m going to keep going with it.
I also met an owner yesterday who didn’t buy anything. I have to say that they both loved the reversible baby poncho we have – the same one people were willing to wait for at Baby Celebration – but both said they couldn’t take it in until winter. When I was at KIDShow, a lot of the vendors were telling me the market is changing – that buyers want to buy for the current season. This would alter a lot of things about the manufacturing process.Worthy of a seperate post.
Yesterday was an especially good day because the package which got lost so long ago has finally been replaced. Never found the old one, but I created two brand new custom-designed blankets and they have been delivered. Talk about blowing away a black cloud – that was hanging over my head for two months with all the drama. But it’s over, and they were beautiful blankets in the perfect colors this time – so in the end it was better to get a “do-over”. I’m just happy it’s over. YES!!!!
May 10th, 2007
So, today I started using Business Contact Manager in Outlook. I’m finally starting to monitor and standardize my sales process. From first email pitch to getting the close. So, I’m starting to use MS Outlook Business Contact Manager and it isn’t as great as I thought it was. Just the other day, I came across an article on great free software that would help any and every business owner. Now, I hope I can find that article again, because it had a link to a free sales management tool. Just want something that tracks the sales cycle for me and gives me reminders of what the heck I’m supposed to be doing on any given day.
I’m trying to implement a method to the madness. Catalog goes out – follow up x amount of days later – and these follow-ups are actually schedule on my calendar. I never wanted to be a sales person. Here I am, making it my number one priority because it is just where we’re at in our business. Unless we get some miraculous financing, it’s me doing the sales. I know that we should get a sales person, but I need to build up enough of a business that I’m able to handle (financially) the amount of orders a dedicated salesperson would bring in.
But, this is not far in the future, and we already have a cool lady who is on board and ready to start when we are. This is where goals comes into play. I should make that my next task – to sit down and set some concrete goals for sales. I need to learn sales forecasting, and how would I know what sort of quotas to set for a sales associate if I did have one?
I have confidence in myself, I can do this. (This is part of the daily pep talk I give myself to keep going). A consistent pattern will increase our sales greatly – everyday requested catalogs are going out, pitch emails and pitch postcards are going out, follow-up phone calls are being made, and boutique appointments are happening. I can do this, I believe in myself. I’ll keep you posted as to how it’s going – but my number of hits and contacts is already increasing tenfold, so there’s no way it won’t help. Talking up the business; we’re in the “talking up the business” phase.
Congrats to my husband who just coached his team to league champions – and he deserves a BIG congrats. It was a great game, and I also owe my kids a big thanks for hanging in there and being really good, which meant I actually got to watch most of the game!
May 8th, 2007
Wow, I feel my inner-designer coming alive again. I feel like I’m tackling my first ‘real’ season for some reason. Once I decided to start my own children’s clothing line, I realized that I had a lot of learning to do. A lot – like, I don’t come from this industry, this part of the world, so where do I start?
I didn’t know how seasonal colors are decided. I didn’t know that pattern making, cutting, sewing, grading, etc. are all seperate functions. I knew nothing of market or how to get to the point of salesmen’s samples.
Then, as I started learning, I had the inspiration to create our personalized blankets. And I went on a whirlwind of a journey to figure out how to get those babies manufactured. All late nights, all phone calls and meetings on my lunch hours, and it took forever.
Meanwhile, I had dabbled in an attempt at one season of designs, but the sample-making process was such a fiasco that it never happened in-time. Then, this last season, I got it down through all the stages and am still working on the sales -so we’re doing good. But honestly, all with old designs or old ideas. Not old to anyone else, they’ve never been launched, they’ve never been seen. But old to me.
So THIS season. This season is like a whole new beginning. Because I’m sitting here way at the beginning of it, and I’m holding and touching the swatches in my hands. And I’m designing TO the fabric. I’m selecting my fabrics and letting them inspire me, the way it all did in the beginning. And I’ve got a lot of ideas.
So, I’m also ready to start messing around with scrap fabrics to see what kind of look and feel I can get. And I’m doing it at the right time. I’m already thinking of the collection coming together as one, about layer-ability, about color and number of styles. And I almost have my project schedule hashed out.
I guess I feel that I finally know the process well-enough to do this right. Instead of being so late in the season that I have to go with what I have, or being stuck on one type of fabric because it will work with my existing patterns.
So, that’s why I’m excited again. Because for the first time since I started this thing, I feel like I’m really designing again. And it makes me so so so so so happy.
May 6th, 2007
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