Hi all -Just taking a quick second to share info with you about a new trade magazine: Maternity 360.
Since it’s a new magazine, I can’t vouch for the quality or the contents, but since subscriptions are free to the first 5000 visitors, I thought I would pass on the link:
Enjoy!
~Amber
Add comment August 5th, 2010
Come on in, the water’s nice. It’s work. It’s hard work. It takes more self-motivation than you imagine you have the ability to produce. But if you have been blessed enough to discover your passion, you darn near have an obligation to jump in and after it. I think I jumped in at the wrong time – maybe I wasn’t as ready as I should have been. But what else would I have done? Not jumped? Ha ha ha ha
So, right now, I write for additional money while I’m raising my business and my family out of a recession. But we are still here – and growing. Finally growing. I don’t think I’d be half the business owner I am now without the recession. I lost a lot of kindred spirits through it – I watched some throw in the towel early with an “I-see-the-writing-on-wall-and-I’m-outta-here”. They closed their doors before I really wanted to see, or believe, that we had launched at the brink of a sinking economy.
And they kept surrendering, so many shutting their doors – just facing the fact they weren’t going to pull through. And in turn we lost a lot when so many closed their doors.
A certain amount of bull-headedness saw me through times I logically should have thrown in the towel. But tsk-tsk -tsk, in spite of all the craziness, I kept persistent and I learned. I learned how to love my business again, I learned what a blessing it is to be brave enough to follow my passion, but, most importantly, I’ve learned to run a much tighter ship.
Recession Lessons
My point here is that yes, you are likely to go through incredibly stressful times too, just like me, but what’s the other option really? You have your gut, your guardian angels, your dreams – all telling you this is your passion and you’re going to hold back? The time is going to pass anyway, you might as well walk to the path you were born too. It’s a lot more painful to live a life that is a lie – right, you hear me?
Honestly, I feel like I’m rebuilding a business from the ground up, so build one with me. Start talking OUT LOUD about starting your own line, start sharing your designs, think of the perfect name and commission a logo design, get your business license – start taking the doggy-paddling steps that will gear you up for jumping off the diving board.
1 comment June 25th, 2010
Center Stage for
Getting into stores. This whole game comes down to whether or not you can earn retail shelf space and then whether or not you can keep it.
So how do you get into stores? I think this is the question I get the most often. The answer is simple – hard work. Once you have developed a high-quality product, sales materials, and a stable production cycle, you’re ready to approach the retailers and sell your product.
You have to go through a pretty standard process: phone calls and emails to peak interest and introduce your product, appointments and phone conversations to show, describe, and sell your product. Then there is the paperwork (they sign!) and finally, the delivery and follow-up.
The first and most important thing is your product and your readiness to produce your product in mass quantities. If you are the starting sales rep, then you can control the rate at which you sell. If you are ready to really jump into it and ready to produce and deliver, then hiring a sales rep might be the way you want to go. If you have the same experience as me, your first sales rep might not sell anything at all. But you could land a real go-getter with established accounts and so you should be ready to fill as many orders as your rep can produce.
I recommend that you undertake the process of getting your product into the first stores. There is nothing more valuable than the first-hand experience of selling your product. Especially when you are first launching. Making the first sales enables you to understand your sales process, establish a presentation order for your products, understand which selling points hit home with the retailers and which ones don’t work at all. This is also important so that you can train future reps on your sales process.
So assuming you are going to be the one to get your product into a retail location, you have to start with emails and phone calls. Start by calling and asking for the buyer and owner. Here’s where your personal product spiel comes into play. Or if you don’t get the owner or buyer on the phone, then you ask for their email and name and a good time to talk to them. Don’t be afraid to tell them who you are when they ask.
Then you have to keep following up, via phone and email, until you get an appointment with the buyer. Sometimes this happens right away, other times it can take months. But you keep at it, and keep it at consistently, and it will happen.
Others who have tips on getting into the first boutiques, share, share, share!!
I got into my first boutique by walking in the door and asking for the buyer. As they were telling me they were busy, I was pulling out a sample product – this is where you really need a product that speaks for itself. If it does, it will peak their interest enough to give you an appointment. This is true whether you have just walked in the door, sent your first email, or are making the first phone call.
Add comment June 21st, 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?
Add comment May 27th, 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!
Add comment May 7th, 2010
Hello everyone!! How is everyone? I’m hanging in there. Hanging. Everything is one step forward, two steps back. I had a conversation with one of the entrepreneurs that I met through this blog and that I admire very much, Jamie Lentzer at Jamie’s Painting & Design. I had stopped in at her blog and read that she had just not been up for blogging lately. I wrote “me too! me too!”.
She connected with me and we gabbed about how really, sometimes it’s just all too much and something has to fall by the wayside.
I’ve been all over the place like a yo-yo so why would I have anything to write? Um, gee Amber, because that is why you started this blog. See, somewhere I got caught up in the trap I said I wouldn’t – stopped sharing the aches and pains lest it should make my business look less successful. But that’s ridiculous. I know from every job I’ve had that mistakes happen everywhere on a daily basis. It’s the mistakes we learn from, and it’s my learning experiences that I wanted to share in the first place.
So, I thought I’d like to share a couple of BIG mistakes I’ve made (there are a lot, but in the interest of keeping myself upbeat this morning, I’m not going to share them all at once).
This goes for all the follow-ups I’ve failed to do, or follow-through. There just hasn’t been enough PR over the last couple of years (and I’m a writer for pete’s sake!).
So many of the mistakes made over the last couple of years are wrapped in that second bullet point. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said “what if we try this…” without following up and researching the change in direction, but just jumping in instead. I attribute a lot of that to impatience on my part, I want to see results a lot sooner than is realistic for a mom running a business at the same time she is raising two kids.
Add comment June 4th, 2009
We’re getting more help. Hip hip hoorah. We’re growing good and good help is on the way. We’re bringing on more sales reps and more seamstresses. A virtual assistant has to be next b/c I’m going to pull out my hair with the admin stuff. But, I’m most excited about the new sales representatives. We brought on a sales rep in the Fall of last year and that was a complete disaster. I keep hearing from other business owners, almost everytime I mention wanting sales reps, “(ha) good luck finding someone good”. Good is such a subjective word – should be “someone who delivers”. In the form of sales. Lots of sales.
But, having gone through working with (if you could call it that) a sales rep, I feel like I’m in a much better position to support the next rep we bring on. Here’s a huge noticeable difference w/ the new rep compared to the old rep – the new rep sought us out because she loves our products. The old rep sought us out because we were somewhat new and they were looking to build their sales rep business. They thought, rightly (unfortunately), that we would be willing to take a risk because we were pretty new too.
Here’s the biggest mistake I made, which actually ended up having them cost us money instead of make us money – gave them exclusivity to a territory. DUH!! Don’t do that – I won’t say never, because if someone was established, reputable, and had a zillion accounts that they just couldn’t wait to show your stuff to, then maybe I’d consider exclusivity. After they first turned in x number of sales. But otherwise, proceed with caution. Or put time limits on it, you can have exclusivity for 90 days provided you meet (enter quota here).
I like to stay on the positive side of things, so I think the best way for me to get the shakes out of the old (and bad) sales rep experience, is for me to share with you what I learned about supporting a sales rep:
Have good sales materials, marketing collateral, and lots of it
You need to have materials for your representatives to use as sales tools. A look book would be great, but at the very least, line sheets, account setup forms, and postcard mailers. Make sure that you use consistent branding so that your sales rep, and potential vendors, will feel they are working with a professional company.
Setup a weekly meeting and address questions
I did not set up enough phone conversations with the old sales rep. This time around, we will have a weekly phone meeting – at the very least. The reps should feel that they have a direct line to getting their questions answered and should feel comfortable calling to ask questions.
Provide great customer service to your reps and their clients
Always beat expectations for your representatives – happy reps will be passionate about representing your company, so I think it’s important to treat them well. I simply didn’t pay enough attention to our last representative.
Also, if you are a representative, you have to keep in mind that we don’t know what you don’t know. You have to speak up and ask questions about our products, our shipping policies, special offers, company philosophy, etc. Ask for the support so that we know where and when you need it. It’s a win win!
Add comment May 4th, 2009
I’ve recently received a flurry of emails asking if I was aware of the new CPSIA testing requirements which will go into effect in February 2009?
Yes, I am, – but thank you and kudos to all of you who are “on it” and are actively spreading the word. Since we pick up new readers everyday, I’m posting a couple of links to THE main source for the CPSIA information on Fashion Incubator.
The archive for all posts relating to the new CPSIA requirements:
http://www.fashion-incubator.com/category/cpsia/
The link to the CPSIA forum section:
http://www.fashion-incubator.com/phpbb/viewforum.php?f=32
Good news – Fashion Incubator CPSIA forum open to everyone!
This section of the forum has been opened to everyone in the hopes of spurring more action and preventing mis-information. Kathleen is doing an incredible job of spear-heading this movement, it’s great to have a central location for everyone effected by this new legislation.
If you manufacture consumer products, please get your head around this information. It’s very important and yes, it all applies to you!
Note - so, now, in the “events” section of your 2009 business plan / calendar, you should add “CPSIA testing requirements in effect” to February and “certified third party testing requirements in effect” to August. Then back up from those events to schedule out all the little steps that need to be taken in order to be ready in time.
Happy Weekend!
Add comment December 12th, 2008
I’m actually going to attempt to answer some questions that I get over and over from people who are ready to sell to their first boutique, but are just a little unsure about what to expect. I had these same questions too, because it’s such an unknown – getting that first order.
How many items will a boutique want to order?
It depends. You set your own minimums. I know companies with a $100 minimum for the first order and I know companies with a $750 minimum for the first order. We have minimums but I’m not completely strict about them. To me, the long term relationship is more important. I want to get in the door and get shelf space. If being a little lenient with our terms is the way to convince a popular boutique to take on a new brand, then I’m ok with it.
I’m also ok with it because I know our stuff sells really really well once it’s on the shelves. This means re-orders and on-going shelf space. A long term relationship is what you want, so make sure you deliver on what you say you will and do what you can to get in the door!
What do I need to have with me when I go to the appointment?
Samples, samples, samples! You also need line sheets, price lists, and order forms. If you have marketing materials to show, that’s a bonus and can only help. Be prepared to talk about what boutiques carry your line – and yes, I mean be prepared to talk about this at your first appointment because it is true you will get asked. If you’re trying to get your first sale, don’t shy away from this question – swing it towards what marketing you are doing and consider how you’re going to get a piece of that shelf space.
Would it make sense to offer consignment to the first boutique? Of course – shows confidence and gives you a better answer to the “who carries your line” question when you’re at your second boutique appointment. Generally, buyers are looking for commitment to your product and a commitment to marketing your product. They like to hear other stores are carrying your line, but also like to hear that those stores aren’t in too close of proximity to their store.
What are line sheets?
Line sheets give the buyers a visual of your line. They include a technical sketch of your garments and the garment specifications – sizes, styles, and colors (prints) available. I’ve seen a lot of different variations of line sheets, but you’ll be fine if you think of setting it up in a table format. Make sure you have style numbers.
A price list is a list of prices by style numbers. We keep our prices separate from our line sheets – and it has helped. Our prices have changed, and when they did we didn’t have to re-print all of our full-color line sheets, just the mostly black-n-white price list. I have seen companies put their prices on their line sheets, so, again, it’s your call.
How will a boutique appointment go?
I think I might have mentioned this before, but I finally started prepping a presentation for appointments. I do pretty much get right into showing the samples, but I have a specific order that I show the samples in and more of an introduction to the company and why they just have to have us. I’ve had buyers who want me to set up in a specific area, I’ve had buyers who want to meet at a coffee shop or somewhere offsite, and I’ve had buyers who want me to show them right there at the register so they can work the store. Most importantly, make sure you ask for the order!!
I’m sure there’s more, but I’m tired after a very busy week. Crazy week is probably a better way to put it. Business is actually doing great, our line is still selling for our retailers and is also selling well online. I hope it stays that way! I have watched a few of our retailers go out of business this year, so I’m not trying to pretend by any stretch of the imagination that everything is rosy. But I am trying to focus on the positive things because it does no good to focus on the negative ones. I also hope you all know that just because I share the way I do things in this blog doesn’t mean it’s the only way, or even the right way. It’s just me wading through the madness of keeping our business alive and growing. I didn’t go to business school and I didn’t go to fashion school, real world experience is how I’m learning. But I am learning..oh boy, am I ever learning! Two years in business and still going…
Add comment November 7th, 2008
Wow, how is everybody out there doing? I am happy to say I’m doing good, but it’s been a journey to get here. Sorry that I haven’t blogged so much lately. I’ve been on a mental roller-coaster ride, but I think I need to just suck it up and get used to it if I’m going to stay on this entrepreneurial route (and I am! I am! I am!)
The economy is no joke right now, and no laughing matter. So what do you do? Up your game and keep your spirits up while you’re at it. I know that’s easier said that done, but you have to fight for it. When I say up your game, I mean get up a little earlier and make more pitches to the press, commit an extra 30 minutes each day to business calls, and believe in yourself and your dreams and the good you are doing.
Are you in the starting phases of your clothing line? Are you planning on launching for Fall ’09? Then you need to be in the sourcing and designing phase. Make sure you are getting your suppliers lined up, make sure you are getting your patterns made and tweaked. Your salesman’s samples, order forms, and linesheets need to be done by January. Fall ’09 sales will run from February to May.
Are you trying to get sales now – maybe, like our graphic onesies and personalized blankets, you have “seasonless” products? Then you need to be making calls, calls, and more calls. Get the decision maker on the phone. One of the biggest things for me was to realize that I can focus on being a good “local” brand before worrying how big we are nationally. Get those face-to-face meetings. Get some sales reps if you feel you’re ready.
Are you considering starting a boutique? Or trying to keep the one you have alive? Look for unique brands that offer good price points. Consider consignment. I have talked to a few owners who say “I’m trying to get what I already have to sell” – well, honestly, if what you have right now isn’t selling, you better get something in that does. Small local designers might be willing to work out consignment or drop-ship deals with you. You’ll get a refresh on your inventory and you’ll start bringing in some money.
Most of all, we need to keep our spirits alive. I’ve been on a journey to do this and I can tell you that motivational books from the library have helped a lot. Going to a monthly business seminar helps a lot (I have the most motivational, profit increasing, keep-you-in-line business coach if anyone wants a reference. Email me: info@startupkidsline.com). And watching this seminar on happiness, given by Srikumar Rao for google, is one of the best ways you can spend an hour this weekend. It will change your life and your outlook and will motivate you to stay on the path towards making your dreams come true.
Keep your heads up. We can all do this, we can keep each other motivated, we can help each other!
Add comment November 1st, 2008
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