Twin sister founders of multi-million-pound fashion brand reveal how to grow your startup
After building a multi-million-pound business with celebrity fans, including Vicky Pattison, Olivia Bowen, Charlotte Dawson, Josie Gibson and Gemma Collins, one fashion brand is sharing its tips on how you can grow your own successful fashion start-up.
Founders of Manchester-born breast tape brand Perky Pear, Samantha and Charlotte Ryder have revealed their top tips on how to grow your own successful fashion brand or start-up, with advice on how to get started, to approaching worldwide fashion retailers.
How to Grow your Own Successful Fashion Start-Up
Establish Your Product – First, you need to know if you have filled a gap in the market, if you haven’t, what is it about your product or idea that sets it apart from others?
Check it’s Possible – Make sure you have a clear idea of how you will make, price, and market your product. There’s no point in establishing an idea or brand if you don’t have the ability to bring it to life!
Be Willing to Learn – We didn’t go to business school so we learnt a lot as we went, so be aware that you’ll constantly be bombarded with new things or concepts you might have never heard of before!
Hone your Skills – We found that eCommerce relies heavily on visuals, so we focused on making sure our website, branding, and marketing materials like emails, digital ads etc. were perfect. We already had a background in design that made this easier, but you can hone your own skills to help keep initial costs down by learning basic photography, photo or video editing, and web design skills.
Consider your Retailers – When it comes to branding, keep in mind the variety of retailers you are interested in. When it came to branding our product we realised that some retailers wouldn’t want to display our old packaging, which featured a lot of images of cleavage! Even though it was relevant to our product, we wanted to appeal to a wide range of retailers, so we redesigned our packaging to be more discreet, yet still informative.
Size Matters – Just like with your branding, your packaging needs to appeal to all types of retailers. We redesigned our packaging to be small enough to fit on shelving, meaning we could approach both brick-and-mortar stores and online retail stores.
Don’t Forget Your Margins – If you want to go wholesale, your margins are extremely important. Most retailers will want at least a 70% markup, so ensure that you’re accurate when costing your RRP. This way you can work out the best wholesale costs, get a good profit, and still give retailers a good mark-up.
Reach Out – We were lucky enough to be based in Greater Manchester, the fast-fashion capital of the world with brands like Pretty Little Thing, Boohoo, I Saw It First and more – but it still required lots of work. Don’t be afraid to message buyers for retailers on LinkedIn, you have to be willing to make the first move when it comes to building business contacts and getting noticed, and once you have that footing it becomes much easier. As soon as we got into Pretty Little Thing things snowballed as this gave us instant credibility, and retailers are always after what their competitors have!
