Archive for May, 2010
It’s only because the “forgive me” call I had to make yesterday was an incredibly pleasant one that I feel like writing about this, but it is important. Kathleen Fasanella has in her book the advice to always call your retailers when you are going to be late for shipping.
This is so so so so important, but so so so flipping hard to do. You think sales calls are hard? Wait until you have to make the first “we aren’t going to deliver on time” call. Ick.
It’s not a pleasant feeling to know you are letting your customers down, so it’s not a pleasant feeling to have to pick up the phone to tell them yourself. But believe me, in general the call will be at least bearable, if not a lot smoother than you are anticipating. Here’s the thing – things go wrong, all the time. And people understand this, and people you’ve been working with for awhile really understand this, because they have built up some trust in how much you’ve delivered in the past.
The most important thing to remember is that it’s not the end of the world, even if they ditch the order and don’t want to work with you anymore. I think that if you let too much of a “I can NOT lose this customer” dark cloud hang over your head, it’s harder to make the call, and easier to put it off. When I said in my last post that most of our existing customers have forgiven us for falling behind, I really meant it.
The call I had to make yesterday was to our longest-standing customer, and that alone made me a bit sick to my stomach about picking up the phone. Deep breath, smile, dial, it’s just-a-conversation. This retailer has two incredibly great locations and an incredibly great reputation. I really didn’t want to lose them, even though I told myself “it is what it is – it won’t in any way be the end of the world”; I still had a fear of losing them. I really like them, they are an ideal customer.
And, thank goodness, turns out they really like us too. The co-owner, who I’ve worked with personally for years now, didn’t even let me get through my explanation. It was very much an “oh, no problem! when can we expect it”? conversation. It was very pleasant. Phew. There have been a few customers I couldn’t reach, sent emails, left messages, didn’t hear back – so it’s very likely we’ve lost a couple of customers. That happens when you don’t deliver. But you’ll keep a lot more customers by making the tough calls and keeping your customers in the loop. Sounds like a super fun part of the job, doesn’t it?
May 27th, 2010
I figure a good place to start talking about planning the Fall ’11 collection is to just start listing some of the things that I need to start getting together NOW and the things that I need to make sure stay on my radar the whole time.
Get it together
Literally – I want a collection that goes together. No matter how many styles I settle on for the final collection, they must be cohesive. Cohesiveness matters to more than just the look and feel of my collection- it matters to my overall brand building and my bottom line. If you are a small, just-starting-out business, then you are going to want to maximize your buying ability. You will want to use the same fabric in more than one style – this will help ensure you can ‘make the cut’ (meet the minimum yardage required by the supplier).
To get it together, I’m starting with a theme. I feel incredibly lucky to have been struck by a theme idea when I was doodling the other night. Right now, there is nothing solid behind my theme idea – but it gives me ideas for discovery. I’m starting with a combination of two keywords – those keywords are already inspiring me to look at fashions, cinema, movie posters, etc. from certain eras. They are basically a great starting point for exploring. Just an idea to kick-start your theme hunt – try random keywords together, jot down words that strike your fancy.
Plan, plan, plan
Right now – I’m gathering some discovery tools (sketchbooks, color books, reference books) and hashing out a broad time line for the production of my collection. From there, I can layer my marketing and sales plans on top of the production plan. To start your production plan, work backwards from your launch date (selling season for Fall collections is late Jan/early February through May; shipping starts end of July; of course, nothing is ever set in stone) and set at least the following milestone dates:
- Salesman’s samples complete
- Trade show booth (and/or marketing materials) complete
- Website/wholesale ordering information complete
- Sample (production or technical kits) dropped for assembly
- Sample fabrics ordered (I have a lot to share about sourcing in the next couple of weeks)
- Final patterns approved
- At least two cycles of: pattern design, test sample for fit, fit meetings, pattern edits, test sample for fit….etc.
- Technical Sketches complete
- Styles approved for pattern-making
- Final style meeting
- Fabrics sourced
- Logo, website, and stationary design underway
- Collection theme finalized
Keeping on my radar
So much goes into just developing a collection, that it’s easy for me to let a lot of the “launching a business” activities get pushed to the side. I will keep bookkeeping activities on my radar daily. Stay on top of your bookkeeping from the very beginning, if you can manage. In addition, I have to constantly and consistently work on your branding, pr, and marketing –>both the plans and implementation. We just wrapped up a new logo design today – I’ll need it on my hang tags and care labels, website and marketing materials, email signatures, social media site avatars, website, and on and on. This time around, I promise to keep the trade show booth design and trade show schedule on my radar from the beginning too. Also – supporting my sales rep by providing them with pre-launch information and sneak peeks at the collection.
Ok – enough to do right now and more than enough to keep on my radar, I think I just made myself dizzy!!
May 20th, 2010
“come go with me -oh wo oh – have no fear” – I’m pretty sure those are the right words to the song that’s playing in my head.
Here we are coming out of a recession. And I’ve been quieter than ever in the last few months because the sudden growth spurt almost killed us quicker than the recession did. All kinds of stuff fell apart at the same time, but really, it all boils down to the fact that I got in over my head. Looking back, I don’t know if there is much I could have done about it. And “it” isn’t really that bad. “It” is just falling way behind on a few orders..but there were a lot of root causes to those orders falling behind (sewing contractor falling off the face of the planet) that had me questioning our viability for awhile.
But bygones – we are here and a good half (okay more) of those customers have forgiven us and been patient during our delays. And now that we’re growing and getting out of the “keep-spending-beyond-tight” times, I see, finally, the possibility of growing our product lines. Which brings me back to “come go with me” – we’re launching a new collection for Fall ’11. I know a lot of you are in the design and development phase, so I’m hoping that if I share my design experiences for this collection, it will help move you through the steps too. And maybe I can keep you from making the numerous, costly, and very painful mistakes I made during my first round.
Sharing with you helps keep me on track, and I hope that you will join in the conversation often – I can not tell you how much it helps to hear from you, no matter where you are on your design journey. That means whether you have a question to ask or advice to give – please join in!
And I’ll find out if I can design a collection from scratch better and more efficient this time, knowing what I know now. So, this week we’re going to start planning and exploring potential themes. Come go with me – oh wo oh – have no fear….
May 14th, 2010
It’s Friday. The school year is almost over. The kids are sleeping in, this is rare. I haven’t been around here in way-too-long because I’ve been way-too-busy. As in seriously, way TOO busy. I had not been good at saying “no”. Then someone mentioned something about not reacting to everyone’s needs. And I started saying “no”.
I definitely catch the super-mom syndrome at times, and yet, I feel more like a “super-mom” having the strength to NOT jump through hoops. And not jumping through hoops for other people is helping me focus on some of my own “to dos” (novel idea).
I finally hit burnout with the methods I was using to run the business. It just wasn’t working. The business itself, fine – but me, over-stressed and burnt out. We finally took a vacation. This refreshed me in so many ways. So, please, take my advice and PLAN some vacation time for yourself. I remember at a business seminar, the speaker saying that sometimes, just the act of scheduling a vacation for yourself will put a new energy into everything you do. It’s true. From the moment I booked the hotel (we went to Catalina Island) my whole outlook was brighter. We unplugged for four days – you think that you can’t do that, but YOU CAN!!
It gave me time away, time I haven’t taken away from this business since the year I was pregnant with my son. That was pre-launch. This was post-launch. Fresh eyes gave me some new perspectives on some of the foundation basics that I need to finesse, define, go back and re-plan.
Oh, and of all selfish things, I now take a Saturday morning brush art class in the most fantastic little art studio – and that two hours of ME ME ME time is changing my life. Business is better with me happier – make time for yourself, especially if you are raising kids AND a business.
So now that I feel like talking again, I’ll write more often and I’m going to start with sharing some of the basics I’m re-setting for the business. Welcome to all the new readers out there – please jump in and ask questions, especially if you are starting out on your journey!
May 7th, 2010
