15/10/15

Today, my target was to try and focus on gathering as much book sourced research as I possibly could. After my 1:1 I noted down some of the things I was missing throughout my folder to gain the highest marks possible and went over to the library. I found a perfect book called How To Set Up And Run A Fashion Label by Toby Meadows. Reading/photocopying/annotating this book really helped me improve my fashion based business knowledge as many of the online articles etc are just aimed at people wanting their own business in general so miss out crucial details such as manufacturing and production time scales. It helped me understand why businesses chose the wholesale route - which is something for me to consider. "The three main reasons why many fashion start-ups choose the wholesale route; limited funds, distribution and credibility." It also helped me understand the full production process for when I start sampling myself. "Researching trends, colours, shapes, fabrics. Developing product designs. Ordering sampling fabrics and trims. Patterns developed. Toile developed. Product samples cut and sewn. Final sample collection selected. Selling season - orders taken and production run calculated. Final product modifications made. Patterns graded for sizes sold. Production of order. Quality control checks. Packaging and shipping." Learning the full insight of this process can help me set up my professional critical path of manufacturing coinciding with my Final Major Project. 

I went through and highlighted and annotated what I found important and useful in relation to what I hope to be doing within my own business. 

Reading this information also made me aware and opened my mind to new possibilities. For example, I ideally want to make all my dresses from scratch - to order,  but if I found there was a demand for a small capsule, ready to wear collection; I now know slightly more information on how to go about having that mass manufactured. 

This is all I got done today as I had to leave early to complete my final touches on the dresses I made for the Midlands Fashion Awards for the next day. 

My target for next week is start summarising each section within my folder to increase my word count and improve my grades. 

8/10/15

We moved on to learning about competitors and marketing today. I enjoyed looking into this as one of my main values within my business is not stepping on anybody's business 'toes'. Also its helpful to see who my competitors are and what they offer so I can help carve my own business plan and find my own gap in the market rather than just copying somebody else's business idea and constantly fighting for each other's competition. 

I did a quick competitor analysis in this part, just to be able to sum up their pro's and con's and make it easier for me to flick back to and refer from. I also did a case study on my 'biggest' competitor to help me identify their weaknesses so I can help build up on that therefore, using them as my strengths. 

I started research on marketing and using Bridal Buyer as a source of specific bridal business marketing. This really improved my knowledge on marketing as most of the internet based sources are very loose and direct their information at people who want large corporate businesses rather than small 'homely' style ones. They also had information on marketing through visual merchandising etc which again, I found really helpful as bridal shop windows tend to be designed a lot different than normal garment shop windows; so it was nice to have specific information within my specialist area. My aim before next week is to look further into researching about a social media strategies and start writing my own marketing strategy.  

1/10/15

Today we mainly focused on narrowing down the target audience for our businesses. I decided on my target audience by researching into various different business similar to mine and searching through their 'real brides' section on their websites to build up a good image of who I would ideally sell to. I found this really helpful as I was able to start aiming my product at a potential customer. This will then lead on to help me when I start to draw up a marketing strategy for my business, and the market research. I also began to look into the costings and cash flow forecasts. This was meant to have been looked into last week but I had missed the lesson. I drew up my own persona survival budget so I knew how much money I would need to make a month to cover my own personal outgoings to make the business a job rather than just a hobby. From these figures I also completed my own cash flow forecast and financial forecast. I made sure these were realistic figures to ensure I had the best chance of making my business a success straight away. I am trying to limit my loan income and focus on saving the money myself to cut down on the potential losses when repaying my loan. I also tried to take into consideration the wedding season and the dips throughout the year so I am prepared for 'dry patches' throughout the year and I can put money aside from the busy periods to cover my outgoings in the quieter periods. 

I will be looking into the marketing and promotion side of the business for next week's lesson.