Setting up Fashion Business in Nigeria

How to set up a fashion business

We’re here today to talk about setting up a fashion business. But before getting into the nitty-gritty of how to run a fashion business,  I thought i might start with a reality check and that’s really to answer the question “do i really want to run a fashion Business or rather do you really want to run a fashion business”  there’s a lot of things you need to know about running a fashion business even before you start. And you know these are some of the things that I think people should think about.

How to set up a fashion business

First of all it takes a lot more money than you might think. You’re running a fashion enterprise even a small one requires capital and it requires money to make it work.

Do I need Capital to Start?

Now capital and money don’t guarantee success but without access to capital and access to funding running and growing a fashion business can be very very difficult. That’s not to say that you can’t find really creative enterprising resourceful ways to find capital and access funding but if you don’t have the building blocks of capital to help you know finance and grow your business to hire staff, buy materials to work with, setting up the company’s  website and so on. All of those kinds of things require money and so the amount of money that it takes is often more, than a lot of people realize. So that’s the first thing you should know.

The second thing is that you know running any kind of business whether that be a fashion business or another kind of business as an entrepreneur you will basically live, eat, breathe, sleep, and die by your business.

Does Fashion Business Consume lots of Time?

Running a business is kind of an all-consuming 100 percent commitment and as your business grows, and as you start building a team you’ll find that not only are you worrying about the business, but you’re also worrying about people and you know running that kind of,  it’s a very intense thing and i think oftentimes that’s not something that people are taught in fashion school it’s not something that you’re taught in a lot of places but unless you realize the commitment that you’re making by going into a business in advance, and the kind of time,  energy and passion that it takes, people can often find themselves really  surprised a couple of years down the road when they’re swimming and stuff to do and they didn’t realize what they were getting into.

The third thing is you know and this really makes fashion quite a distinct business from a lot of other industries. There’s a lot of attention on the tech industry right now and you know you hear these stories of a guy in a garage who comes up with some algorithm or some kind of app idea and like the next day you know they have millions of users , lots of money and you know they’re on the front page of wired magazine. The fashion industry and  fashion business almost by definition  takes longer.

You know it’s a long term commitment you’re making building brands which is essentially what a lot of you will be aiming to do in the coming years. It takes time and that’s something that you have to understand but it’s also something that people that you work with have to understand. The different parties and partners that you work with have to understand fashion businesses are not created overnight they take years and years and years.

You know without recognizing and understanding the amount of time it takes, people often don’t really think about what that means.

Expenses in Fashion Business

You know my previous point which is that you’re going to be eating, living and breathing your business for a very very long time this is often probably one of the most surprising points for designers.

You probably spent less than 10 percent of your time designing and in a way you should really be thinking of yourself as a CEO or Entrepreneur  first and a designer second, even if you are the creative person in your business and you know that the ideas and the designs are coming from your vision, you’ll also have to spend a lot of time doing other things that perhaps you haven’t been trained for perhaps you don’t like and perhaps you haven’t really thought about it in advance. You know i’ve mentioned managing people but that also means you know accounting finance and marketing.

You have to know a whole myriad of things that you know. Some of these words might not even be clear to you in your head of what they mean and hopefully through this article we’ll be able to make you know, provide a little bit more detail on that. But you know managing and running a fashion business is 90 was about things other than design and so you really have to be comfortable  with the idea that actually, if you want to be a pure designer if you want to spend all your time designing perhaps running a fashion business isn’t the right place for you. You could go spend 100 of your time designing in someone else’s business and leave the management to them. But if you are going to build your own business you’re going to have to find a way of balancing your interest and motivation to design with all of the other things that makes your design sustainably.

Being an entrepreneur  also demands what i call militant self-discipline. There are no  people managing your deadlines for you, there’s no professors or tutors reminding you regularly about  your assignments that are due. there’s no one to wake you up in the morning or to make sure you get enough sleep at night.  All of it comes from you the discipline to build and run a business has to come from your own motivation and your own passion to run a business.

Determination in Fashion Business

So you know when you’re  thinking about starting your day and thinking about all the things you have to do i mean you’ll have to want to get out of bed and get it all done right and there’ll be certain days when you don’t want to, you’re not feeling well you’re feeling tired you know you’re not feeling motivated, probably you had a bad  night or you know something’s going on in your personal  life and you’ll have to put all of that aside and put your business first and that means being disciplined about it and that’s really about character so often when i meet young designers who are just starting out in addition to their designs and their creative  ideas i’m also interested in their character. Do they have the motivation discipline integrity and focus to really be an entrepreneur,  that’s something you should really think about young people who dream about building fashion businesses or becoming fashion designers.

How to set up a fashion business, you know really without the kind of thick skin and toughness to work in this industry which is a very very competitive industry especially now that the profile of the fashion industry has grown so much and you know and everybody sees shows like project runway and other exposure to the fashion industry which is really opened up,  so many more people are interested in fashion and that makes it even tougher to succeed even harder to make a mark.

Discipline in Fashion Business

So you have to be tough you have to really be able to stand up and say you know, i’m going to do this even if you’re feeling not so confident even if something’s gone wrong you have to give the idea of confidence and toughness that you can do it because that’s what people will look for. Buyers will look for that in you, when they’re evaluating your collection “is this someone i’m buying into i’m not just buying into their collection i’m buying into the person” especially as young designers because so many of these retailers have been burned by designers who just don’t deliver right so they’re going to be even harder on you. They’re going to be even more exacting so you have to be tough and finally the reality is that as an Entrepreneur  especially if you’re the sole founder of a business , you know you’re kind of on your own especially at the beginning when you’re just starting out and you might have you know one or two interns or you know one or two part-time employees  working with you  often can find it a very lonely experience.

How to set up a fashion business, You Know  being that person at the at the helm of your brand and you know it’s interesting because i think from the outside people look at young fashion designers and they think  wow it’s so glamorous.

You know you get to go to parties you get to hobnob with the rich and famous you get to meet all of these exciting people but at the end of the day you leave that party you go home you sit and you think about what you have to get done the next day and like i said earlier there’s no one who’s going to be you. You know monitoring or managing you, you have to manage yourself and if you’re doing that on your own it can be quite lonely those are the things you should know before you start a fashion business.

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