In fact, independent designers have two options. One is an independent designer who will always be a niche. Adhere to your personal style, only seek sustainable development in business, and do not want to make big money. Although such designers do not necessarily have a successful business scale in the traditional sense, this does not mean that they cannot be an excellent designer.
The other is designer brand with commercial capital injection. Many independent designers look forward to the investment of professional capital. They believe that as long as they have money, coupled with personal design talent, they can be successful. In fact, the failure of many brands is precisely due to the intervention of professional investors. The work of professional investors is to maximize benefits in the shortest time, and its investment goals are simple- "profit". Once professional capital intervention is involved, designers will inevitably swing in the style of personal design style and business capital requirements. This is not a relaxed process. Therefore, when investors need to intervene, designers should define their future positioning.
1. Consider the brand
■ Consider why you want to start a business
The opportunity for many friends to start a business usually has the following situations:
1. The ability, resources, funds, and relations have a certain foundation, and the original company platform cannot satisfy the space they want to play;
2. When people reach a certain age, there is always an impulse, wanting to break;
3. Don't want to be controlled by the original company, it is better to start a business by yourself.
Preparation before establishing a brand
Fashion brand business model
If you want to design and develop a personal clothing brand series, please collect this guide. If you are interested in fashion but do not intend to become a professional designer, you can consider wholesale or purchasing brand clothing and get profits by resale.
For those designers from scratch, now, you must decide which type of business you want to operate to determine the time, energy and funds of the early investment.
Here are several business models listed:
Handmade: Through personal websites, pop -up activities, online or offline markets, hand -made clothing directly to customers.
Cooperate with manufacturers: The manufacturer produces clothing series and items, and then wholesale products to retailers.
Print on demand: Design repeated patterns or graphics, print on the clothes such as solid color T -shirts on demand, and sell it through personal online stores.
What is the cost of making clothing series?
When your entrepreneurial idea has begun to take shape and is ready to start the production of clothing, you can design and make it. Start the project with the least resource. Independent design and sewing fixed clothing means that you don't need to worry about inventory problems. However, in the early stage, you need to invest in equipment and buy a large amount of fabrics to achieve cost benefits. Other expenses also include material transportation costs, website construction fees and marketing expenses.
If you plan to cooperate with the manufacturer and produce clothing according to batches, then you need to pay more funds in advance to meet the lowest production requirements. Therefore, you need to make a comprehensive business plan, account for cost, and determine the funds that need to be invested.
Finally, no matter what business model you choose, thousands of dollars in the United States. "To make clothing, you must not only calculate fabrics, buttons and labor costs. You also need to pay freight, heating and rent.
Of course, this industry also has some low -threshold investment methods, such as consignment, shipping and printing on demand.
2. Build the company's core architecture and team
First, you must determine your business structure (limited liability company, partnership, company, etc.). Secondly, the selection of the team and the establishment of the rules are also important for start -up brands.
If it is a partnership model, then choose the right partner to have common values and understand each other. Stytilizer, dare to do, dare to do it, hard work. And all partners should be able to bring different things, resources or technology. This is a question of complementary resources. When the two sides are in operation, the module responsible for each other is mutual.
In addition, does the company team need to hire personnel? What kind of employees are required, how many hours are required every week, how much wages you can pay, and so on.
Establish a solid and clear business plan
Your business plan needs to formulate how you plan to manage your clothing brand.
When writing, you should be as detailed as possible. Remember, it is best to underestimate your profits and get surprises, rather than overestimating your ability and eventually disappointed.
1. Career description
2. Product/service
3. Market forecast
4. Manufacturing plan
5. Competitive analysis
6. Management mode
7. Marketing strategy
8. Financial plan
9. Risk management
10. Growth and development
Establish a company's financial plan
In the early stage, funds were the lifeblood of an enterprise. Even if you do not have external investment, it is important to make your company's financial progress smoothly and master a certain foundation.
You can start from the following:
How much do you need to start your clothing brand? Do you have enough funds for this?
What is your cost? List of all expected costs (materials, manufacturing, materials, equipment, advertising, marketing, management costs, etc.). Add up the cost of running the business for one year. Can the income you achieve offset these costs?
3. Clarify brand positioning and strategy-brand planning
■ Do research in the target market
Who is your current and future possible competitors? Who is your target market? How do you think your design can be sold in retail and wholesale? Ask people around to get feedback. Talk to malls and potential customers.
It is a good way to do part -time retail work in a store that cater to the target market. See what kind of goods in the mall and the guests buy. Find a similar example that you want to design and know how much they can sell. When you create a clothing brand yourself, this will be a powerful support.
■ Start establishing a brand
It's time to make some interesting and tasteful decisions! How do you build your brand will affect your clothing brand, so you need to make a wise choice.
Choose a name. What kind of name can represent your clothing brand? No matter which one you choose, make sure it is unique and recognizable. Note that your brand name is different from the company name.
In addition, a logo must be designed, which is widely enumerated in a variety of different signs, and then narrowed the range until you choose one to be completely certain. People will gradually recognize your logo, but if you continue to change, they are easily confused. Check to ensure that the name you choose has a available domain name and consider registering a trademark.
4. Brand name and trademark
1) Brand market positioning
2) Determine the brand story (how to talk a good brand story?)
3) Brand style and customer positioning
4) Store image design (physical shop or online store)
5. Product design and production
■ Product design
This is the most interesting part for many designers, but in fact it only accounts for 10-15 % of the entire process! Make sketches, seek feedback, and decide which designs will become your first series. Select fabrics and materials with cost -effectiveness and popularity.
At the same time, we must also think about whether the design and production lines are limited. Remember the details are everything. When you make a sketch, you should create a sketch that can clearly display every detail and the term. Learn to talk and make it to correctly identify the details and structures you want to design.
The design of your series according to season design usually depends on the season. Most department stores will buy at least two quarters in advance, and small stores usually purchase one to two quarters in advance. You need to formulate the time for design, production and delivery accordingly.
One of the designer ideas: (1) Follow the trend closely
Looking for creative inspiration, you can read fashion publications, pay attention to fashionistas, subscribe to fashion information and podcasts, keep yourself in a state of inspiration and active, and grab them before the emergence of the trend.
The world of fashion is noisy. Where is your starting point? Maybe you can explore the niche market and try to fill the industry gaps, such as the following successful entrepreneurs:
Designer Leanne Mai-Ly Hilgart found that the lack of animal-friendly clothing brands on the market, so they founded Vaute Couture, a vegan winter clothing brand. Although Vaute closed afterwards, Liana's new brand Humans We Love inherited the same concept.
The lady's underwear brand Naja, the lady's underwear brand of Catalina Girald, is built on the concept of empowerment and tolerance.
Camille Newman entered the large -size clothing market and founded the brand Body by Love (formerly "Pop Up Plus").
Mel Wells launched a neutral retro swimsuit series.
Taryn RODIGHIERO also designed swimwear, but she focuses on custom swimwear and is tailor -made according to the needs of each customer.
(2) According to seasonal trend planning and fashion series
The fashion industry takes the season as the cycle (spring and summer and autumn and winter). It needs to be prepared for each season in advance, and even starts to develop a new clothing series for more than one year in advance.
The design and development cycle and delivery period depends on your customers and listing strategies. It is recommended to prepare for the fashion series of the next season at least 6-8 months in advance. If it is sold to a wholesaler, then one month before Fashion Week, buyers can see your work.
Calculate from the delivery date to determine your design and production schedule. Add important global fashion activities to the calendar, such as New York Fashion Week to set your delivery goal.
(3) Four Seasons Fashion Series
The season does not determine how to design all the series. "When I designed a beautiful print pattern, I always think about it. I only need one season of this pattern. I only have the time of June." Sarah said. Therefore, she wanted to design the printed seasons in four seasons.
Although product development has always been the focus of fashion brands, the iconic products of the brand, or core best -selling items, are likely to keep it in your series for many years. Basic clothing brands are especially in this way. Classic styles such as "cotton T -shirts" will only be updated occasionally. For example, the basic brand KOTN adheres to the concept of excellent workmanship and sustainable development. The main T -shirt is sold with seasonal clothing.
■ Metal board and production
After the design drawing, the next step is to give it to the board house and manufacturer. Generally, a prototype or sample will be made first to make you confirm whether the clothing you want to produce is what you want. In any case, we must communicate fully.
In fact, in terms of clothing processing, most designers are blind spots. The problem is mainly concentrated in three aspects:
First, I don't know how to find the right clothing processing plant.
The second is how to calculate the price of processing.
Third, the specific communication details of the studio cooperation with the factory.
■ How to find the right processing factory
1. Introduction to acquaintances
This method will be more reliable. For example, some colleagues have worked with that factory, and then introduced you to the boss, so that you can take less detours and reduce trial and error costs.
2. Network search
For example, if you google to customize the factory, you can get a lot of factory information, but in general, you must pay attention to the two -handed hand -stir -fry. In this case, your cost will naturally rise. Your area+clothing+factory type factory, the general factory's website generally places pictures in the workshop.
StoneSportswear is a professional sportswear wholesale production. It has cheap prices, good fabric quality, fast delivery, complete craftsmanship, and in -depth cooperation with many big brands.
3.Alibaba International Station and other pick -up websites
There are many companies registered in Alibaba. Many stores have their own factory production lines. Click the certification merchant to see basic information and factory information. Mainly find the XX studio or XX factory. There are some factory photos or videos in the homepage, and you can ask it online.
■ How to calculate the processing price
● What parts of processing costs are composed of?
The cost of clothes can be roughly divided into the following aspects: fabric prices, auxiliary materials, single -piece materials, embroidery costs, printed costs, water washing costs, pure processing costs, tail costs, factory profits, etc.
● What is the difference between processing processing and packaging?
The processing processing is not the same as the contractor. Normally, the customer does not need to bear any risks, so the clothing processing plant only needs to pay the normal processing fee. If it is a factory contractor, then the factory has to pay for the purchase of fabrics, then it is an investment behavior. In addition to the cost of raw materials and processing costs, the price reported by the processing plant must also have his profits.
● How is the processing fee calculated?
There is a set of standards. In the clothing processing industry, each place will have a set of industry standards according to the local salary level and the size of the factory. How much is the clothes, how much money is the last sleeve, how much money is opened, how much the zipper is the last zipper, how much the rear, and so on. These have an industry standard. The processing fee of a piece of clothing is to give all the working prices of all the workers and then multiply the corresponding multiplier. This multiplier is given according to the scale of the factory. The larger the multiplier rate is between 2.3-2.5. For example, a piece of clothing gives the workers is 10 yuan, so the processing fee that the factory wants to customers is 23RMB-25RMB. The more more than a dozen pieces are rents, hydropower, taxation, and the profit of the boss. (Data will float according to different regions and markets)
■ Specific communication details of the studio and factory cooperation
● The process of cooperation with the factory is about the process:
Send Formation Picture -Find Find Faber of Factory or Studio
● The main communication is clear:
How much does it cost for a version of the version?
How much can be removed for orders?
How many pieces are generally ordered?
- Making price?
How much time can be shipped after ordering?
What is the payment method?
In any case, cooperation must be fully communicated, and it is best to implement all agreements in writing.
6. Brand marketing and promotion
■ New Media Platform display
In addition to the website, the new media platform is the most interesting and effective.
For example, the display of Weibo and public account platforms, as well as traffic platforms such as Tiktok.
■ Create a brand website
Ensure that the design of the website is unified and the brand image, and can show your brand very positively.
Provide contact information so that the store or other businesses must contact you.
If you want customers to buy clothing directly from the website, then you need to build a shopping cart and customer account, so you can accept credit card payment.
■ Other channel promotion
• Write some soft texts regularly to send it to other public large and other media platforms.
• "Buy" advertisements on the publications and websites that your target group may read.
• Sponsoring activities to cater to your target audience.
• Please endorse the traffic star (it is best to have a relationship, smash too much pain with money).
• Or give them free of charge for free, let them wear you (this requires a high starting point of the brand).
■ Improve your promotion value
Taking yourself or employees as a walking billboard, wearing your own brand's fashion and asking for the opinions of others, and then recording, this will also help you design a product that people like.
Adopting the suggestions made by everyone, just like having their own marketing and design team, but it will not cost any cost. At the beginning, the funds were very tight, so make good use of every opportunity to use.
7. Establish an important concept of brand
Detailed business plan formulation
Most designers do not have any awareness of business strategy. They handle the way of handling very artistic, and hope that things can be solved naturally in some way.
Although there are no ways to "be allowed to release the seasons", it has no disadvantages to understand the knowledge of cash flow, legal foundation, value -added tax, shipping rules, and invoicing.
When you want to create a brand, compared with tailoring and design, you spend more time management, because the brand is a business, and you must strictly manage it if you want to succeed.
■ Strict control cost
For a brand, there are several years of loss before turning losses to profit.
Therefore, whether it is self -raised funds or investors sponsor, the key is to maximize the use of funds. Before spending a lot of money to buy things you may not need, try everything to personally experience.
And before formulating budgets or business plans and assigning funds, it is necessary to ensure that the money is spent on the blade.
■ Pay attention to the supply chain management
The design and production and operation of perfect product are equally crucial. This includes price negotiation, quality control, production quantity period plan, etc. As long as there is a mistake in one aspect, it may cause your company to be unable to support it.
For designers who lack supply chain management capabilities, try to perform a certain period of precipitation in all links, learn the ability to optimize and integrate supply chain resources, and finally from R & D, procurement, production, manufacturing, logistics services, sales management, and the entire supply, the entire supply, the entire supply, and the entire supply. The quality of the chain can strictly control the core of "customer value" as the core.
■ Clearly understand customer needs
Nowadays, the trend is changing with each passing day, and customer preferences are also impermanent. Therefore, it is extremely important to understand that the life and needs of customers' lives and needs are very important, and it will provide information for product development.
Many designers emphasize themselves too much, but ignore the market and ignore consumers' affirmation. For designers, we must better understand consumers and have a better design, so as to have a market.
Designers must always understand the customer's lifestyle: her identity, her destination, her work, and the way she choose. This is really important to establish a deeper connection with customers.
■ Maintenance brand image
Clear brand image is essential for the brand's long -term development.
Secondly, while developing the brand image, we must realize the value of the designer's personal characteristics and existence, and maintain its consistency and height.
The last is to protect the brand, so intellectual property registration needs to be completed early.
8. Whether the creation of clothing brands has requirements for clothing professionalism
To this day, the development of the mobile Internet has greatly changed our lives and provided many new job opportunities and entrepreneurial opportunities. For example, many people have become KOL with the power of the Internet. The problem is naturally in front of it: In compared with the fact that non -professionals founded the clothing brand, what are the gaps and disadvantages? How to make up?
■ How to define professionals and non -professionals
In simple terms, people who have received professional education or training of clothing, and those engaged in clothing design and production related work, such as a certain part of the fashion industry chain (design, production, etc.) have practical experience, systematically studying clothing design, clothing design, and systematically studied clothing design, and systematically studied clothing design, Marketing and production are professional. Others are non -professionals.
■ The advantages and disadvantages of professionals and non -professionals founded the brand
Professional product design ability is often stronger and easier to make brands bigger, but it is usually difficult to operate and sell for designs, unless there is a partner responsible for this piece. Of course, there are also cases of non -professional people who have made brands bigger and stronger.
The founder of Kate Spade was initially worked as a fashion editor in the Mademoiselle Magazine. In her fashion magazine's career, she felt that she lacked a stylish and practical handbag in the US market, so she started to do bags for baggage after leaving.
Li Lin, the founder of Jiangnan Bobe, graduated from the Department of Chemistry. After graduation, she went to the chemical factory. Later, she got a facade of the street and began to do her favorite clothing business. After that, she had a new women's clothing brand "Jiangnan cloth suit".
Therefore, the advantage of non -professionals is that it is more likely to jump out of the inherent scope. The brain hole will be relatively large, and the design of the design may limit their thinking because of fixed thinking.
Perhaps "have you learned clothing design and production" is not the key to successful establishment of clothing brands, and hard work and courage.
9. How does the designer brand go further
The product must be popular. After all, fashion is not only a piece of art, but also a consumer product. Facing consumers before sorting out what is their own design, what kind of design consumers will like it and get a balance from it.
■ Pay attention to brand operation management
This road of independent designers is not easy to go. This is not only about the market environment that coexists with opportunities and challenges, but also how independent designers take into account another identity at the same time -brand manager, in popular terms, that is, the identity of "merchant" Essence
It is recommended that people who have management talents can develop together to become partners.
In addition, designers are also recommended to take more industrial and commercial management and human resource management courses. These courses can help designer leadership teams, suppliers and customers.
Sichuan -Pauling, who has a unique vision in brand operation and management, although Comme des Garçons is a creative brand, she has never ignored innovative business models and marketing strategies. Female businessman, accurately described as "artist and businessman Artist-BUSINESSSSSSSWOMAN".
■ Don't be paranoid to any channel
Channels are divided into promotion and publicity channels and sales channels.
For promotion and publicity, the designer itself must be the biggest selling point of the brand, not others, so you must pay attention to the designer's story and ideas when promoting.
Aspect of sales channels
1. Store
You can display your design in the store, and retailers do not need to bear any risks. The deficiency is that you can receive the payment only after the product is sold.
2. Wholesale
Retailers purchase a batch of clothing in advance at the wholesale price (below the retail price). The risk of retailers is relatively large, so you might as well try first to prove that your design can conquer the market.
3. Open the online clothing store
Even if you don't understand graphic design or programming, you can easily open a store on Shopify. Select a Shopify template for display photos, customize design elements such as trademarks, colors, and add your product.
Consider other online sales channels, such as social media. In addition, integrate your Instagram and Facebook stores help touch a wider target audience. ETSY and other e -commerce platforms are also a good choice for selling clothing series, because there are already ready -made handmade products enthusiasts on the platform.
Brand Marketing
When starting a business, your budget is limited, but there are still some low -cost original ideas that can grasp the customer's attention:
Investment content marketing, optimizing video or using keywords for website drainage.
Before publishing the content, create a list of emails. Store the upcoming clothing series on social platforms, and inspire users to subscribe information in an exclusive preferential way.
1) Rental clothing for commercial shooting (eg, beauty brand) for more exposure and likes.
2) Try online celebrity marketing and let Douyin or Instagram's new Internet celebrities help you promote the brand.
3) Formulate a loyalty plan or a recommendation reward mechanism to let your loyal customers help you promote the brand.
4) Cooperate with complementary brands, promote new series, organize flash activities, or conduct joint promotions.
5) Learn search engine optimization, which can attract more traffic for your clothing stores.
6) Social media advertisements, including paid advertisements, let bloggers help you promote posts, or have the organic content of potential.
As the business grows, you can hire a public relations company to apply for your clothing series at a small fashion week event. These are the ways to increase brand exposure.
4. Open offline retail stores
5. Temporary clothing retail space
Opening a physical store to sell clothes is not to sign a 10 -year store rent. You can also sell through some more economical and not promised ways:
1) Tenture retail space, open temporary pop -up shop
2) In front of the retail space, or a display rack, hold a mini pop -up event
3) Apply for a stall on handicrafts, fashion or designer stores
4) Supplier booths for activities such as music festivals and other activities
■ Unlimited widening ideas
Try more cross -border cooperation. Fashion is not just clothes but also accessories. Everything can be attached to fashion.
At present, the domestic designer brand's propaganda channels are relatively single. The growth of the designer's personal IP requires more cross -border business cooperation opportunities. Cross -border cooperation with other large IPs can not only collide with new creative sparks, but also greatly increase greatly. Brand exposure and influence.
■ Seek external help and resource sharing
If the independent designer brand lacks the ability of business operations, it is a clever approach to use the help of external incubators or the cooperation of resource sharing.
"One person can walk quickly, and a group of people can go far." The Chinese independent designer brand that has always been used to fighting alone. If you want to obtain greater living space and development space, you must know how to rely on your own strength to achieve complementary advantages through cooperation with other platforms and strengthen your competitiveness. This is easier to win the market share and development opportunities than the brand's "single -gun horse".
10. Designer experience sharing
Graduates and entrepreneurs who want to create their own brand will face a long and rugged road. Creating a fashion business requires time, talent and hard work. So, what can we learn from those fashion designers who have successfully created our career?
Starting from the design assistant as a piece of white paper full of dreams, it really becomes a designer who is "successful" in the eyes of the world. This process is not easy. It will definitely go through a lot of helpless moments. The helplessness of the brand, even the helplessness to yourself.
The feeling of being frightened by a shot of a shot must not only feel heartache, but after heartache, whether to deny others or deny themselves, they must be supported to support it, and make the next choice.
In the middle, there are compromises, persistence, stagnation, growth, and the journey must be bumpy, but if there is no tortuous, there will be no Fashion Show's last bow.
In the end, no matter how much you say, it is not as important as action. Do a good job of planning, make good expectations, and prepare for long -term fighting. He is not defeated by the difficulties in front of you.
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