CASH & FUNDING: The 7 Steps to Write your Fashion Business Plan

7 steps fashion bp

Hi guys,
We  have been talking a lot about fashion business plans lately.
But what is it for? Why do you need it? and what is inside?
The Business Plan: a courtesy for your investor
When you apply for a job, you need to send a resume and your fashion portfolio to the recruiter and share your experience in the framework of an interview.

It’s the same when you raise capital. The Business Plan is your passport to the funding. Everybody including the investor knows that it’s highly probable that reality will differ from what you wrote in the Business Plan. However it’s a basis that shows what you are aiming at, how you plan to do it, based on which assumptions.
The specificity and the difficulty of a fashion business plan
Any usual business plan book begins with two questions:  What is your product? What need does it serve?
The answer to those questions are simple: you sell fashion pieces. And they are used to dress people, carry around objects if you sell bags, etc…
Now how can you concretely justify that the world really needs another brand? Would we die if your brand does not exist?

If we analyze fashion through the angle of need, the answer is clearly no. We do not need another fashion brand.
So need and hence the traditional business plan is not the adequate angle to present your fashion brand.
Because in the end for you, it’s not a question of need, it’s a question of impact.
Transform a yellow spot into the sun

Picasso once said “Some painters transform the sun into a yellow spot, others transform a yellow spot into the sun.” and that’s exactly what you need to prove in your Fashion Business Plan: you have the ability to transform a yellow spot into the sun. 

As a fashion designer, your job is to dream. Your job is to translate your inner world in a brand. Your job is to stir up desire, arouse curiosity, give people what they want and create an obsession to reach maximum impact.
What guarantees maximum impact?

  • A powerful vision
  • A collection and a brand strategy that perfectly reflect this powerful vision. In the brand strategy, you have to share your knowledge of your target customer.

The structure of a Fashion Business Plan

  1. Present your fashion brand identity
  2. Present your target audience
  3. Present the main conclusions of your market research
  4. Summarize your conclusions in a SWOT analysis
  5. Present your strategy and tailor it as much as possible to your fashion brand identity:
  1. Present your financial estimates and show how your strategy (and the related action plans) can make your business profitable:
  • Startup costs
  • Financial plan
  • Profit and loss statement
  • Cash flow analysis
  • Break-even analysis

7. Present your exit strategy
 

Photo Credits: MBFW Berlin 2013 Lena Hoschek by Patrick Raczek – Creative Commons
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How to write a Fashion Business Plan?

Find the complete version of this article as well as other tools to help you through your fashion business plan, with the number one FXF guide.“The Fashion Business Plan” by Bako Rambini is available on Amazon.
button Fashion BP
Book cover - The Fashion Business Plan

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Fashion Designers: From A Dream To A Fundable Business

Quote bako R
Hi Guys,
This weekend I remembered my grandfather. He was one of the best tailors of my country. My family used to earn a lot with their craft. And when they lost their main client, they lost everything.

They dedicated their entire lives to Beauty. I could still hear the sound of their breathing with the gentle sound of the needle stitching into the fabric. And I still can see the feeling of injustice in their look, as they showed their handmade pieces to the wrong client or ended up selling our property and transforming my grandfather’s once prestigious atelier into a little grocery shop to make both ends meet…
Once I started helping brands fund their projects, I was almost sad to see how easy it could be to raise the money, once the business plan was made.
 
Purify your creative vision. Align your collections and your strategy to your vision.
Can you imagine if you could make your inner world a reality? Be bold and mesmerize your customers. Create…

Because as I told Forbes Afrique Magazine in the edition of May 2016, a Fashion Designer who can’t create…It’s depriving the world from beauty and pure emotions.
So find out how you can go from a dream to a fundable business.
Happy productive week!
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From a dream to a fundable business

Find more tools to help you through your fashion business plan, with the number one FXF guide. “The Fashion Business Plan” by Bako Rambini is available on Amazon.

button Fashion BP
Book cover - The Fashion Business Plan
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CASH & FUNDING: When To Make Your Financial Estimates?

A model walks the runway during the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show at
Source: Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show – Laurent Jean Philippe – Creative Commons

Hi Guys,
Today’s post is going to  be short. After talking with a few fashion designer clients, I thought I would write about the timing when to start making your financial estimates.
Making your financial projections is the last step to carry out in your business plan. To stack all odds in your favor, you need to go through three steps before that.
alignment
Your chances to raise capital are as big as your ability to align those three elements: your vision, your design and your strategy.

What is your vision as a designer? 
Since your vision is the main element that will truly make the difference and be the basis of the whole concept, you need to clarify your vision first. Who are you as a fashion designer? What is your brand identity?
Is your design in line with your vision? 
Have a critical look at your collection. Have you found the adequate balance between madness and more basic pieces? Does the overall result perfectly reflect your vision?
Have you adjusted your strategy to express your vision? 

Your strategy should be a translation of your ideal world. Who is your ideal customer? Do you know how to reach them? In your ideal world, how should your product be showcased? Where would you sell your product? How would a boutique look like? How would you communicate and interact with your customers?
 
In the end, look at the big picture. Does it look cohesive?
If yes, then you have reached alignment. You can now start calculating how much you will need to implement all that and make your financial estimates.
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Find more tools to help you through your fashion business plan, with the number one FXF guide. “The Fashion Business Plan” by Bako Rambini is available on Amazon.
button Fashion BP
Book cover - The Fashion Business Plan
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To receive more cash & funding articles and fashion designer tools, follow us

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CASH & FUNDING: 11 facts about funding a fashion brand

funding 101

Source: GettyImages – Getty Images Entertainment – Stuart C. Wilson

Hi all,
Today’s cash & funding resource comes from a lecture on the basics of startup financing given by Nina Faulhaber at the London College of Fashion.
We picked this content because firstly it answers all the questions a fashion designer might ask (Do I have to raise funding? why actually raise funding? how? where? what happens then?…). Secondly it provides comprehensive answers and accurate insights about the funding process of fashion businesses. So here are the key topics discussed in the document:

  1. The possible sources of capital
  2. When to look for funding?
  3. Who to appeal to at which development stage?
  4. What are the impacts of each type of investment for the fashion designers?
  5. What are the interests at stake for the investors?
  6. What happens concretely once the deal is on?
  7. How to approach investors?
  8. What are the key elements to highlight to impress an investor?
  9. How to do a deal?
  10. How to present the pitch?
  11. What happens once you get the cash? What to spend it on?

Enjoy!
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