How To Get Your Fashion Designs in Boutiques: The Inside Scoop From a Fashion Buyer!
Getting your fashion designs in stores can give you major credibility, exposure and prestige! Retail stores have large customer bases, lots of foot traffic, and well-marketed online sites that can really help to launch your brand!For new designers, I recommend that you focus on getting your designs sold in small boutiques before trying to get into department stores to gain exposure and to learn the ropes. Small boutiques are usually more flexible for new designers and you can use the exposure in their store to help build up press about your brand.Trend & Lifestyle
Do your designs cater to the stores target demographic? Do your designs fit into the lifestyle of the consumer? Does your product work with what is fashionable/ on trend in their stores? Make sure that you visit stores to make sure your brand makes sense there before setting up meetings with Fashion Buyers. You don’t want to waste a ton of time trying to sell your hipster clothing line to a store, only to realize that they focus on purchasing wear-to-work clothing for businesswomen.Price Range
Do you understand what customers are willing to pay for your product? How much are customers paying right now for similar products? Have you done your research? Stores have to be able to make a profit and you need to make sure you have priced your designs for you to make a profit before even meeting with any buyers. In a tough economy, Buyers are playing it safe when it comes to price, so this can make or break you.Hanger Appeal
Does your product sell itself just by being on a hanger or is it tricky and only looks good when a customer tries it on? Your product must function and look fabulous with no explanation/convincing from sales people. Product needs to have hanger appeal that will convince buyers that customers will see your product in their stores and will just have to buy it on the spot!Distribution
Fashion Buyers will want to know who else you sell your designs to. Are you established in other stores, like small boutiques or do have a big online following? Will your designs be exclusive to their store or is it the same product that you are selling in other stores?Delivery
You have to be able to ship your product on the agreed date. You cannot be late. Trust me, you don’t want to be late…it can become a very, very expensive mistake! If you are late on shipping your product, a buyer might decide to just cancel their order all together, which can potentially put you out of business if it’s a big order because you’ve already spent the money to make the product and now you have nowhere to sent it. Also, how often will you ship new collections? Generally, most brands ship new designs monthly, some ship new product twice a month.Are you Ready?
Fashion Buyers want to make sure you are really ready to be in business. Their stores credibility is at stake if something goes wrong with your product (such as quality issues, late shipments, etc). Stores are taking a risk by doing business with you and do not want to be let down if you can’t deliver on your agreements.Next Steps
If Fashion Buyers are excited about your line and you meet all of the applicable criteria that I mentioned in the post, they may want to give you an order. Buyers may want to “test” or try your product in 1 of their stores or in a handful of their stores. You will sell the product to them at a cost price (set by you) and you and the buyer will work out the rest of the details from there.It can be a difficult for a brand new designer to launch their designs in well-known stores because of the lack of credibility and selling history as a newbie. This is why I recommend that new designers start out trying to sell to small boutiques. You can start out with a small order, as a test and hopefully grow from there.Some new designers may decide to start out by doing consignment with small boutiques. Selling on consignment basically means that your designs will be put up for sale in the store and you will only get paid for what sells. Just be aware that this concept works to the stores advantage, not yours (there is basically no risk for the store if the product doesn’t sell). You will have to take back what doesn’t sell (or you can try sell it to the store at a discounted price).
Financing College Education
College education is the main investment in human resource and therefore plays a major role in the development of a country. The US government plays a major role in ensuring that Higher Education is affordable and easily accessible to the larger mass through different loans and scholarships. Nevertheless, there are some factors that have contributed to the unfortunate reduction of federal aid. According to a Study by the Joint Economic Committee, tuition fee in High Education Institutions has doubled in less than 20 years and seems to increase by the day. The study also showed that in 1995 High education was far much cheaper at a price of US$ 6000 including accommodation for public institutions. College financing is therefore a nightmare for the average parent.In the last 10 years, federal aid has increased by a margin of 65% margin but this has not helped in making education affordable. The cost of student loans is regularly increasing and this directly affects its availability. The upper and middle income earners are getting better deals, while the poor have to seek alternative Financing options. Some look out for Grants while others seek other scholarship chances for their education. Federal aid has gone down by 36% and this has left little if any hope for the poor students.Student loans are not perfect enough to seal the gap for the middle income earners as well. The tuition fees have rapidly increased in the last 10 years by a 45% margin, which in turn affects the benefits of the student loans. In general this system depends on student debts not considering the less fortunate families. Due to these factors, the gap between middle income earners and the poor who attend college has significantly increased. The fear of getting into debt has made many poor families avoid the loans altogether and hence never attend college. So what is the way forward and what should parents do in order to ensure they are better prepared to see their children through college?Saving for CollegeParents are supposed to contribute a certain percentage towards college education and while this is the case, there is a tendency of not saving. Whether your child wants to get a 2 year associate degree or a 4 year bachelor degree, planning in advance is important. There are several things you need to consider before you start saving and this includes the college the child is going to attend, the course they will be pursuing and the charges for the same.In this regard, community colleges are least expensive. They offer courses that range from $ 300 to $ 600. State colleges on the other hand are known to vary in cost though the average cost per course can be high or lower than $ 1000. Private universities are the most expensive and while this is the case costs vary from one school to another. Regardless of the costs, one thing you have to note is that college education is not cheap and you need to prepare in advance for the challenges that lie ahead.The dangers of not saving for collegeThere are several dangers posed by the lack of an early saving plan for your child’s college education. Top on the list is the fact that you deny your child the opportunity to pursue college education. As mentioned earlier, education forms the backbone human resource and failing to educate your child only places them at a disadvantage in the job industry. In the future, it is expected that college education costs are going to rise higher and lack of preparation only poses a serious threat towards continued education. The future is also unpredictable and preparing early is the only way to ensure you are forearmed and your child is set for college.Foreign Education and the CostsForeign education has been an alternative for some parents who have had it rough while trying to get their children an education. With the high increase in education costs in some of the leading cheaper foreign education destinations such as Asia and the Middle East, it is even more difficult for parents to meet the cost. This has led to an increase in the number of students searching for alternative funding such as scholarships and part time jobs. Yet, this has done little to alleviate the situation and make it easier for parents. Overseas education has roughly fifty scholarships and some countries do not allow students to work and study at the same time. Those who manage to get funding get lesser amounts and this is because of the recovery from the Global meltdown. It is for all these reasons that parents need to look for alternative financing options for their kids’ college education such as independent scholarships. For more information refer to financingcollegeedu.com
Business For Sale – 3 Things To Consider When You Want To Sell Your Business In A Large Market
There are a lot of things to consider if you are interested in selling your business. You need to be sure that you are getting good value for your business so that you don’t get ripped off in the process. You have worked very hard to make your business what it is today, so don’t leave money on the table with a bad sale.What is the most important part? The most important thing you need to learn when you are about to sell your business is where to find the most eager buyers on the market. That is why you need to consider the following 3 very important ideas:First Thing To ConsiderWhen selling your business in a large market you should be very aware of all the possible ways to sell your business. You can try to sell it on your own, but must likely this will be the most difficult for you to do. Why? It is because most people don’t know where to look to get the highest value for their business. Sure, most of us know about classified ads websites and auction websites, but there are a lot of other resources for you to use other than those ones.Second Thing To ConsiderSelling your business can be a very stressful time for you. You need to make sure that you are actually ready to sell. Have you asked yourself the important questions? After you have sold your business where will you get your income? Will the sale of your business be able to support you for the rest of your life? Why are you selling? If you can answer all these questions then it is a very good start for being able to make your sale without having a feeling of regret afterward.Third Thing To ConsiderWhen you put your business on the market you need to make sure that you demonstrate the true value of what you are selling. You should be able to step back from the table and try to see the business from the eyes of someone who knows nothing about it. They will want to know how much profit the business is making every year. They will also want to know how long the business has been consistently making the profit. Also, they will want to know why you are selling. This can be the trickiest part because you should be honest without making them disinterested in purchasing.