So you want to sell your fashion brand online, do you? You’ve got the brand vision, your designs are in the works, and now it’s time to build that website so you can start selling online. Just add your logo, a quick About page, a few images of your soon to be styles, and watch the sales start rolling in. It’s that easy, right? Wrong! There’s so much to think about before you even start building your website or selling your fashion brand and designs online. If you want to reach your dream cust...
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So you want to sell your fashion brand online, do you? You’ve got the brand vision, your designs are in the works, and now it’s time to build that website so you can start selling online. Just add your logo, a quick About page, a few images of your soon to be styles, and watch the sales start rolling in. It’s that easy, right? Wrong! There’s so much to think about before you even start building your website or selling your fashion brand and designs online. If you want to reach your dream cust...
So you want to sell your fashion brand online, do you? You’ve got the brand vision, your designs are in the works, and now it’s time to build that website so you can start selling online. Just add your logo, a quick About page, a few images of your soon to be styles, and watch the sales start rolling in. It’s that easy, right? Wrong! There’s so much to think about before you even start building your website or selling your fashion brand and designs online. If you want to reach your dream cust...
Is your fashion brand ready to not just survive this holiday season, but thrive? Is your inventory prepped to drive those sales while still maintaining a healthy profit margin? We are quickly approaching the holiday timeframe and all the craziness that comes with it. You’ve been planning your marketing and advertising strategies for weeks, have got your e-commerce site all ready to go, and are laser focused on delivering the best customer service to drive those sale...
Are you blogging yet for your fashion brand? A blog strategy is one of the best ways to create brand awareness and in time will generate sales for your fashion business. Blogging increases your search engine optimization, improves conversion rates, and supports content through additional channels like your social media or email strategy. Not to mention it also humanizes your fashion brand, is a fantastic strategy to niche down and reach your dream customer, and strengthens your relation...
It may seem like the fall season is just getting started, but that means the holidays are quickly approaching. Are you and your fashion brand ready for the holidays? Do you have a strategy and plan in place to fully maximize all your sales and profits? Have you created a product, merchandising, and marketing strategy that will make your brand standout amongst ALL the competition? How will you make this holiday your best yet? The upcoming months are very significant...
Not sure how to get started with your fashion brand’s business plan? Or scarier yet securing that financing or a business loan? (gulp) On today’s episode I’m chatting with Bako Rambini - former finance expert turned fashion brand strategist and Founder of Fashion Cross Functional. She’s an entrepreneur, an author, a lecturer, and truly passionate about fashion and brands. Bako and I met on where else but Instagram and quickly connected. We planned our first international cha...
Do you trust yourself to make good decisions for your fashion business? Are you confident in all the decisions you make each and every day? Yes, of course you are trying to make the best decision possible for your fashion business and its growth. You’ve been dreaming about your business since what feels like forever, you’ve invested time and money into your fashion brand, and you want it to work. You believe in your brand and know that you are doing your very best to make great de...
I’m so excited to be chatting with Sara Meadows - Founder of Match Point Consultants, a copywriting and content strategy boutique and co founder of The Edit Effect, which are tools to help small businesses simplify content, copy planning, and creation. For 17 years, Sara has teamed up with businesses to create copy that drives action and awareness. From marketing to internal communications to public relations, she has tons of experience to turn ideas into words that make an impact. She’...
This episode I am chatting with fellow ladypreneur, nature lover, and spirited soul - Katherine Gramann - Designer CEO of Lake Effect Co. Katherine and I met about a year and a half ago and we quickly connected over our mutual love of retail and the great outdoors. As she told me Lake Effect Co. and her own entrepreneurial journey of where the brand has been and where she hopes to take it I was struck by how she weaves her passion for lake living into her brand, creating a community and authe...
Imagine with me for a moment... You are surrounded by complete strangers in a room where everyone seems to know everyone else, chatting merrily and exchanging business cards. You however, are clinging to the bar taking in your surroundings and people watching, studying each of the different cliques starting to form and hedging your bets on where you may best fit in. As time ticks by (and all your networking opportunities) you find yourself hoping that some kind extraverted soul takes pity on...
Have you ever received unsolicited feedback or criticism about your fashion brand or collection?…. Maybe it was from a customer sharing how the style they purchased wasn’t exactly what they were hoping for and that they wished X,Y, & Z could be incorporated because THAT would make it absolutely perfect. Or it was a wholesale or retail buyer comparing your line to another brand’s and commenting that if you would just make all these few changes to your recent collection, it woul...
Are you struggling to “do all the things” and get everything done on the daily that it takes to run your fashion business? Or you are so passionate about designing and creating that it feels like you can’t quite get ahead of all the OTHER things you have to do to run your fashion business? Maybe you feel like you know that you need to get your business in order but don’t know how or where to get started. Getting your business organized and keeping it that way is often a c...
Since I launched The Designer CEO Podcast, I’ve been sharing advice on the business of retail and fashion and offering how-to’s, strategy ideas, and interviews for fashion brands and Designer CEOs but I haven't told you too much about myself or my own journey. And I’m so excited to share this week’s episode with you because I’m the one being interviewed! My friend Beth Ridley recently made the move to entrepreneurship and launched her own content and consulting company The Brimful...
What to do with your extra and old inventory is an issue that EVERY fashion brand has to figure out. It doesn’t matter if you are just starting out or are an established brand, inventory management is always an issue. So many fashion brands struggle to know how much to buy, when to deliver, and what to do if their inventory doesn’t move quite as fast as they had planned. So they end up with too much inventory and in a cycle of never ending promotions and even deeper markdowns, eroding t...
Laura Bavlnka and I met recently at a local fashion event in Milwaukee and I absolutely loved the story of her and her brand. She is a fashion designer and textile artist and until very recently was designing girls’ clothing for the brand Jumping Beans at Kohl’s. In June of 2017, despite being terrified, she left her job at Kohl’s to pursue her passions head on. Now she is the Designer CEO of Bavlnka Brand, a lifestyle brand of clothing, accessories, and home decor designed and ...
It’s something you do every single day and you probably don’t even realize it. It affects every one of your partnerships including those between you and your employees, 3rd party business partners, and even the one you have with yourself. However many Designer CEOs hate the idea of it and often find themselves a bit intimidated by the mere mention of the word. So what is it that I’m talking about that strikes fear in the heart of many Designer CEOs? ---- NEGOTATION. Negotiat...
If you’ve started reaching out to fashion buyers you probably are realizing they can be a bit hot & cold. One day you’ve seemingly got your foot in the door, are furiously emailing back and forth, and maybe even working on scheduling that first big appointment and the next day...nothing - absolute silence. It’s like it never even happened and now you have no idea where you (& your fantastic fashion line) stand. So what gives? Many Designer CEOs who are new to pitchin...
How much time are you spending shopping? I know that question may be a little unexpected and maybe even ridiculous. You’ve got a lot going on - creating a brand, designing a line, building your empire - you don’t have time to go shopping even if you wanted to! Well I’m here to tell you that as a fashion brand business owner, shopping is an absolute must do, but I mean competitive shopping - researching and studying up on your competitors to ensure that you are continuously positio...
If you’ve been dreaming about quitting your 9 to 5 to start you own fashion brand but feeling hopelessly frustrated that your dream may never become a reality - then listen up. I’m thrilled to be chatting with a good friend of mine, Amanda Ergen-Jennings, Designer CEO of Love Lives Here Bridal. Amanda and I met over a decade ago when we were both grinding our way up the corporate ladder at The Bon-Ton Store Group. We were learning the ropes in product development and finding our footing...
I recently had the opportunity to lead a panel surrounding strategy, merchandising, and marketing with a room full of attendees just like you - Designer CEOs. I was asked so many amazing questions that I noticed got a lot of attention, head nodding, and discussion surrounding fashion brand startups. So on this episode I’m sharing these question and of course answers, that I know you’ve been wondering about including, How do you create an authentic connection with your customer through s...
Does that idea of reaching out to a retail buyer and pitching your line sound overwhelming to you? Or maybe even a little scary? “How do I approach retail stores to sell my products?”, is hands down one of the questions I get asked most frequently by Designer CEOs because there’s a lot of unknowns and even more on the line. They are unsure of where to begin and what what to include and left wondering: “How do I reach out to a retail buyer?”“What should I include in my pitch?”“How do I g...
So you want to sell your fashion brand online, do you? You’ve got the brand vision, your designs are in the works, and now it’s time to build that website so you can start selling online. Just add your logo, a quick About page, a few images of your soon to be styles, and watch the sales start rolling in. It’s that easy, right? Wrong! There’s so much to think about before you even start building your website or selling your fashion brand and designs online. If you want to reach your dream cust...
