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:

http://www.maternity360.net

Enjoy!

~Amber

          

I have not done this right in the past, and I’ve paid for it (in wasted time and money). This time, the key piece I was able to provide was a detailed document about selling our line. It covers everything from company details and philosophy to product descriptions, selling points, tips for the in-store appointment. I’ve pounded the pavement, so I know the kinds of questions that sales reps get asked.

This particular rep contacted us just a week ago. There are a lot of good signs about this rep that encourage me to get, and keep, her on board:

Enthusiasm for our products and her job
She loves the line! She sounds excited about our products and her job.  I can hear it in her voice. I can tell she truly loves her job because she is action-oriented beyond any of our previous trial reps. She was looking for the perfect organics collection and she feels ours is it – that means she will show it to her buyers with enthusiasm.

Established Rep w/ similar but non-competitive products

This rep has a number of accounts and she currently carries gift lines and a few other baby lines that are not the same (ie: stuffed animals). She is established enough to understand the importance of getting in to see her buyers before they head off to the trade shows. She has appointments lined up for every day this week and she has already primed them to be excited to see the Baby Fabulous collection.

Open communication

She answers her phone and she calls me immediately, without hesitation, when she has questions. You might think this is basic, but just wait until you’ve worked with the wrong reps, you’d be amazed how hard people can be to get a hold of when they don’t want to have a conversation.

On my end, I know I’ve let my reps down in the past too, by being too busy to give them the support when they need it – not just when they ask for it. This means I have to be committed to keeping my end of the bargain. Keep them supplied with the right amount of samples and marketing materials, keep new designs coming their way, and make sure that someone is always available to answer their questions, when they have them. Most importantly, I swear we’ll keep her clients happy. It’s one thing to say it, another to do it, I can promise as much as I want, I have to show it. She will help us grow if we are there for her. I know this with absolute certainty.

          

Location, Location, Location

One of our first retailers to go out of business had an absolutely quaint boutique. It was setup in  a little craftsman’s cottage, and each room had a unique theme, such as stationary, toys, baby clothes, etc. Great layout for the store itself. But, for it to be in a cottage pretty much put it in the middle of a neighborhood. The owner told me when she had decided to close up shop, that her foot traffic had gone from about 30 people a day to four or five people a day. when I paid her my first visit,  I remember being somewhat shocked that shops existed in that area at all.  And I’ve lived in the San Diego area for years!

The trend continued, those shops that were setup in “unique” areas were consistently some of the first to close. Hand-select your location, consider the reputation of the area – hang out and watch how much traffic comes by…”we thought we were in a great spot in this newer strip mall, but we are off in the corner and there is virtually NO traffic.” – from a boutique owner that mostly pulled through but just quit.

Keep it simple

People do not like to walk into an over-crowded boutique. People like to walk into a boutique that they know has hand-selected the best of the best for them already. Too many options and you start to overwhelm the senses, start to lean towards a more “discount store” type of atmosphere. I think that buyers start to think “if I offer more options that will save me”.

I think the opposite is true – offer fewer, absolutely perfect, options, and you’ll create a loyal following.  We had a retailer in a very touristy area of town – as she got more desperate for sales, she kept piling more stuff in her store  (adding to her costs too mind you – the more inventory you carry the more money you have that is just sitting around, not making money for you).

The last time I stopped by, she had added buckets of plastic $5 and under trinket toys  – saying to me “this seems to be all people are willing to pay for in this area”.  She couldn’t see that when people walked in, there was no rhyme or reason to her selection – there was nothing that said “THIS is the superb style you can count on finding here”  – instead it said “we have a little of everything, search around and see if there is anything good”.

Your style

In the end, the selection offered by a boutique comes down a lot to the style preferences of the owner or buyer. As a buyer, you need to know your style, need to know that your customers look to you to tell them what is cool, beautiful, unique, the next “it” product.  They want you to do the work for them. Make sure your boutique has a cohesive look and feel that matches the product selection, and says exactly who you are….trust that you went into this business because you have ideas about what people “are really looking for”, and then offer it to them.

Mind Set
In the end, the attitude of the owner is what makes the biggest difference between survival and giving up. When I was in the thick of doing sales, I got to the point where I could almost tell by the tone of voice when the buyer said “hello” whether it was a good avenue to pursue or not. You would not believe how many sob stories I would get right off the bat. Which isn’t to say that those with the “right” mind set weren’t realistic  – it’s just that they always start with a positive note in their voice and end with an “but there’s no question, we’re making it through this.”  I don’t care how cheezy it sounds, success starts (or ends) with your state-of-mind, your ability to visualize, and how much fight you have in your spirit.

Learn, learn, learn
I have learned so much just by visiting so many boutiques over the last few years. You should do this too – visit baby boutiques that you know have a great reputation, take note of how MUCH product they carry, their price points, how long they’ve been in business, their location. I bet the ones that have been around the longest have a relatively simple selection, are in the “hot shopping districts” in town, and have spent time building a reputation for excellent customer service and top-notch style and trend spotting.

Selling to boutiques

Because I was just starting out, I was more than happy to have our product in all the boutiques that I talked about above…but I really shouldn’t have been. What boutiques your products are spotted in matters a lot to your brand. It also matters a lot to your time and ROI. Focus on getting into established boutiques but don’t ignore the new ones either. Sometimes, a new boutique nails all of the necessary criteria to be the new “it” boutique in town. Just make sure it’s a boutique you’re proud to see your product in.

          

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

1. It doesn’t matter how much I love a product – if that product is not selling, must cut the fat. As hard as it is, or as much as I KNOW it’s an incredibly fabulous design, it’s best to learn to let go from the beginning. Plus, it makes it easier to walk into a retailer’s super-cool boutique, put your designs on the table, and take an onslaught of comments with a grain of salt.
2. Location matters and sometimes it’s better to be selective – it really doesn’t matter if you have umpteen boutiques under your belt if those boutiques aren’t producing for you. Focus on the retailers who are jazzed about your product, give it fair shelf space, and reorder and reorder and reorder. ***I say this over and over again, but it goes both ways, your product better DESERVE shelf space
3. Watch every dime, plan, and never let up - always true; but I tell you I’m a lot better at it after the pain of the last two years.

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.

          

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.

          

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?

          

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!!

          

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….

          

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!

          

Yesterday, I got final confirmation from this fantastic woman that she definitely wants to rep our baby line. This was particularly thrilling because I really feel right her, and right about bringing her on board; lord knows I’ve been praying for help in the sales department. And more importantly, I feel we are good for her too, we have so much room for growth. That was in the morning. That was a whole bouquet of blooming flowers.

The day was busy.

Late afternoon, I had an appointment with the blanket sewing contractor. They want to raise the prices on every single little aspect of the manufacturing process  – to such exhorbant rates -, that I spent most of the appointment with either my jaw on the floor, or giggles of disbelief escaping my mouth. But I kept my cool, shared my perspective, and left saying I would look it over, price it out, and see what the helllllllllll we are going to do now.  That’s was a three-alarm fire.

Did you know that there are some flowers that only bloom after a fire has heated their seed pods to a temperature high enough to makes them pop out their seeds? Maybe it’s plants, but flowers works better here…

So, that fire blew over me and honestly, I went from thinking it could be the death of a product line to discovering options I didn’t even know existed. Thank you crazy contractor for having such an extreme moment that it pushed me to look for a new way. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Things are going to get so much better…

Have fun on your roller coaster today (it’s a thrill ride we are on by choice), remember to stop and smell the flowers (sometimes we don’t pat ourselves enough on the back for how far we’ve come), and most importantly, keep a fire extinguisher buckled in the seat next to you!