Interested in starting a handbag accessories line or making your existing design development and manufacturing operations more efficient? Starting this kind of business is the same as any other, you have to ensure that your idea is solid, that you have attainable goals and you’re fully equipped for anything to come.
If you are serious about launching this type of business, then keep reading to ensure all of the steps necessary for success. At Solasta, we understand how hard it can be for up-and-coming designers, we offer practical services at reasonable prices to help you achieve your goals. For more information feel free to contact us.
Prepare Your Strategy
Preparation is key, and as the fashion industry is difficult to succeed in, you’ll want to make sure you’ve got a solid strategy from the start.
You need to analyze your macro-environment in order to understand the factors that will affect your business the most, in terms of political, economical, social, technological, ecological and legal factors.
This will give you a deeper insight into the environment you’re operating in and also help you construct alternative scenarios in order to address possible changes.
Learn And Discover
Educate yourself about market trends, fabrics, manufacturing processes, lead times and choose the best product offering and supplier that matches your criteria. Establishing a good connection with your supplier is key to make sure your production process will run smoothly and you’re ready to fulfill customer orders.
Also, monitoring changing market factors and customer needs can give you a competitive advantage, as it’ll make your products more desirable. For example, sustainability is now a key part of the fashion industry, if you’re already offering sustainable products, it’s more likely that you’ll gain customer’s attention.
Find Your Market Segment
Market segmentation is the means by which you can define the broad context within which your products are offered. This way you can divide the mass market into identifiable or distinct groups, each of which has common characteristics and display similar responses to marketing actions.
A market segment is a group of consumers who have similar needs that are different from customer needs in other parts of the market. You need to have a specific target customer in mind so that you can design specially for them. Finding and focusing on your niche can help you build a long-term segment strategy.
Discover Your Competitive Advantage
To create a competitive advantage and ensure your long-term survival, you need to identify strategic capabilities in terms of resources and competencies and how these relate to the strategy of your brand.
In order to meet the needs of a rapidly changing environment like the fashion business nowadays, you need to familiarise yourself with dynamic capabilities to create, extend or change your existing operational aptitude.
At Solasta we can assist you with developing a strong competitive advantage, our advanced printing systems and designs will allow your products to outshine the competition. To learn more feel free to reach out to us and see what we can do for you.
Budget
Having a business budget is essential for any size business, so you must outline your budget and how you’ll use it. Start by outlining your budget goals because these goals will help you establish clear spending boundaries right from the start. It’s important to choose a budget that aligns with your goals and you are comfortable with.
Thereafter you should calculate all the sales and revenues you project to collect hand in hand with your fixed and variable costs throughout different times of the year. Once you have everything accounted for, you can calculate your projected profit margin for a specific period.
Budgeting Template
Using a budgeting template is essential to rack cash flow, expenses, and revenue, allocate your budget to the portions of your business that need capital most and plan for business investments and purchases. Don’t forget to review your template often, and compare estimates with hard data.
Market
To establish your marketing strategy, you always have to focus on finding the answer for the three core pillars in marketing, the What, Who, and How. Answer each of these questions in order for your business to have a cohesive and successful strategy.
Three core pillars
What? – This is the first question so it won’t be hard to answer as you would not have started your business if you didn’t have a product that you believed would be successful on the market.
Who? – This question refers to your target audience so, only by being fully aware of their characteristics can you deliver value to that audience and make sure that they are responsive to your content.
How? – This is how you will reach your audience and persuade them to purchase your goods or services. The how can be as simple as content marketing, or as complex as paid advertising across various social streams.
This requires you to have a set of grounded principles on how you’ll reach your target audience. Define which platforms you’ll contact your audience, how often you’ll do so, and with what sort of content.
Social media platforms
Social media platforms, such as Facebook or Instagram, let you target very specific audiences based on a variety of editable parameters and collect even more data on your customer base. Also, as these platforms share information and experiences between users (both personal and business accounts) they can also interact and build improved relationships with your customers.
Other alternatives or additions to digital marketing include:
- Email Marketing, which allows you to target clearly defined groups or individuals with personalized content that meets each of your contacts’ needs.
- SEO, which is a process used to win a high/ranking position on major search engines and directories.
- Blogs, which are a simple way of creating an online presence, providing content for your target audience and giving them another reason to revisit your website.
Start
Many people never start their business out of fear of failure, or because they feel they lack of guidance. If you make a start with these steps, you’re already well on your way to starting your business and you’ve taken
the leap and not given in to procrastination!
If you’re looking to expand your business or put more into the Western market then we are here to help and Solasta offers superior quality on-trend designs and solutions to help any business effectively penetrate and operate in the Western market.
For more information feel free to reach out to us via our Contact Page and see just what we can do for you.
