Hey, It’s Jane 😀

Recently I’ve been noticing so many emerging fashion designers and fashion band startups not making it past their first three years of running a sustainable fashion business and it occurred to me that most of them have similar problems.

If you’ve been doing at least one of these it means that you are you’re likely dealing with something I call the Curse of the Fashion Designer…trying to sell while your brain is still in creative design mode!!

1.

You’ve been working 14 hour days with no social life for 3 months or more putting your heart and soul into a 20 piece collection but only get 2 or 3 sales of only one of your designs

2.

You’ve been in business for 1 to 3 years but still losing money and every 3 to 6 months your new collection goes over budget so now you’re wondering if you can even afford to do another season.

3. 

For 1 to 2 years you’ve been trying different products and posting images of them on instagram at least five times a week in a...

As a fashion brand startup or emerging designer,  trying to compete with the big brands when pricing your fashion products is preventing you from making any profits and growing your business to the next level.

I get it….   All your friends are telling you that Zara or River Island sell similar pieces for a fraction of what you’re charging .…. But are your friends your customers?   

Trying to keep your prices similar to the big brands could just be your reptilian brain trying to keep you small and safe.....   You might be thinking that if you keep your prices low people won't criticise, reject or judge your designs.

But, they are going to judge them any way.....  and wouldn't you rather your designs were judged for being high quality & high price that allow you to grow a profitable business instead of being judged as poor quality & low price where you can't make any profit.

This fear also shows up in your marketing when you hold yourself back from EFFECTIVELY communicati...

This is only the start of a major shift that will bring exciting opportunities for fashion designers to work independently on their passion and create a work/life balance doing what they love!    

Society has been set up in such a way that prevented people going after their dreams.  The large retail chains dominated the market for so long and most graduates gave up their dreams of having their own fashion brand to work for these companies instead.    I was one of them….. When I left college I initially worked as an employee, working all hours, underpaid and I felt as if I was stagnating in “designer jail” …. Yet I did it for five years before finding the courage to be my own boss. 

Working really long hours, as an employee, in an understaffed, pressurised environment actually gave me a chronic health condition, so it has been my mission ever since to prevent young designers experiencing the same.

Yes, I found the courage to take the leap of faith ….  But most people who ...

For generations we’ve been told a degree is necessary to start the fashion business of our dreams.

However countless numbers of big name designers including Cristobal Balenciaga, Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons became INSANELY SUCCESSFUL without a degree!

Every year thousands of fashion graduates get a degree from the outdated education system and clearly most won’t be successful.

So, is it REALLY worth spending 4 to 5 years getting a degree if you have nothing but debt to show for it and no understanding of how the fast changing fashion business is working NOW?

No-one comes out of the womb with all the skills and knowledge you need to be successful so of course you DO NEED education….  If you can afford the time and money to get a degree then yes do get it!!....    But if not then isn’t it more important to focus your VALUABLE time & energy on gaining the SPECIFIC up-to-date skills and education about what you are most passionate about… 

..  And if running your own...

If you have a burning desire to create sustainable hand crafted unique products but are still procrastinating about starting your fashion business or if you have started but can’t make a profit…..then you’re more than likely, what I like to call a Floundering Fashion Designer 😜.

If you are a Floundering Fashion Designer then you more than likely are doing one of these three things:

• NOT MAKING A DECISION about which business model to start, who your customers will be and at what price points.
• You have a business model in mind but are not sure if customers will pay high prices points for your unique EXQUISITELY created artisanal products…because they can buy it Primark for £2 and your manufacturer quoted you £80 JUST TO SEW and embroider it!!!
• You have already started but UNDERPRICED your products that took hours of love, devotion, blood sweat and tears to create!

So, this indecision and fear keeps you:

• FLOUNDERING in procrastination, not getting across the starting line.   
...

You are more than likely suffering from Overdesign Syndrome if you've been struggling to sell your products for more than three months, have trouble manufacturing a wide variety of products  and you’re running out of money.   

It could mean that you are failing to EDIT your collection succinctly enough.   You might be trying to get every single one of your great ideas noticed in just one collection and its confusing your audience.....   And we all know that a confused customer never buys!!...      Or maybe you're unsure what will sell so you give them everything….. but designing “everything” is keeping you broke!!

What you really need to do is FOCUS on a specific product range and strategically edit it to a final range of designs you know will sell and is as cost effective to produce as possible.

Have you ever wondered how brands like Prada, Loewe or Gucci can make 100 piece collections repeatedly several times a year, scaling into the millions?...

... Yes, I know t...

Most fashion designers, and this probably includes you, want their designs to be sold and in their customers wardrobes...

... They have lots of fabulous ideas and want to get noticed.   They want their talents to be recognised, to be in-demand and not have to worry about how they’ll finance the next collection.   They want lots of loyal customers who value their designs and will pay a fair price for them.

The problem is that most designers work flat out depriving themselves of sleep to produce their collections and when they attempt to launch get no sales so they waste time and money switching from design idea to design idea hoping that eventually they’ll land on a winning design that will make them “famous”!  

But that never happens.  They loose sight of the fact that it’s not just about any one particular product.   There is a lot more going on.    It's about the SYNERGY of designing and producing an original product and communicating its value to the right people at t...

If you’ve been THINKING about starting your fashion business for three months or more without taking any action it could be because you don’t want to waste time or money producing the wrong products.  

Perhaps you’re worried that all of your ideas, so far, might not be original enough to sell…..  and you want to create a really ORIGINAL brand that goes VIRAL!

Well I’m about to give you a method that’s going to help you find the best concept and most original product for your fashion business so that you can stop procrastinating and FINALLY get started!!!

You see the biggest mistake I see most designers making is that they think they have to create a huge range of designs and they don’t focus enough on any SPECIFIC original product that would best suit the personality, lifestyle, finances and resources of themselves and their customers.  Its a bit like throwing all your darts at a dart board blind-folded and just hoping that one will hit the bulls-eye!

Unless you have a ...

I’ve had lots of requests to repeat the three day training event “Manifestation of the New-Age Fashion Entrepreneur”, so I have edited about 4 hours of content into this teeny micro training:

In “Manifestation of the New Age Fashion Entrepreneur” I talked about how a Fashion Launch Formula is the most effective way to start a fashion brand in the 2020’s and here I’m going to show you how:

The 3X Fashion Launch Formula consists of three key areas:   

STEP 1 MANIFEST

The first step to becoming a successful New-Age Fashion Entrepreneur that’s making a very good living doing what you love and living the best life for you and the planet, is MANIFEST: 

1. Before you dive into making all those ground-breaking ideas that are jumping around in your brain you firstly need to develop the MIND of a fashion entrepreneur.    I have a unique methodology to help you do this which I'll talk more about at my next free event...  so for now just believe that you CAN do this!    
2. Get cle...

In the fashion industry it’s common for new businesses to be financed solely by their owners and develop organically.   Bootstrapping is the term used to describe the challenge of financing your startup without relying on outside funding and instead relying only on existing resources such as personal savings, materials equipment and workspace.

It's what I recommend to clients and students going through the Fashion Entrepreneurs 3 X Launch Formula and in my experience that's what I recommend for most people unless of course you already have someone ready to invest and they are willing to wait a while to receive a return on their investment.

There are many reasons why I recommend this:

• If you obtain funding too early your investor might not be aware how long it can take a fashion business to become profitable and if they don’t see a return on their investment early on could pull out.  
• In the early stages you need some time and creative space to build your customer base an...