sTARTING a
bUSINESS
in fASHION

In this first lesson, we’ll address what are the major challenges when starting a fashion business. As the fashion industry is a very capital-intensive industry, a founder will need to take into account all of the expenses that creating a brand entails. With no intent to discourage viewers, in this first installment we’ll clarify what entrepreneurship entails, in order to identify possible strategies to overcome unforgiving odds.

Businesses can be either product-oriented or market-oriented. If you are willing to understand what customers are looking for, then there are ways to gauge the market before committing to production. In this class, we’ll address what can be considered a 5-step strategy to building a community and a persuasive online presence with the intent of identifying niches in the market that may provide useful and profitable.

In this class, we’ll discuss how to put your business ideas on paper. First, by creating a viable business model and testing out all of the assumptions it entails. Developing your business model will be useful to clarify how your firm creates value, but also how cost and revenues are structured.  We can then start putting numbers on paper by developing a business plan. We’ll discuss how to structure your business plan, and what elements are the most significant for your potential investors.

In the last class of this course, we’re going to look into how you can fund your company and how you can attract investment through private equity. Looking for funding can be very distracting from actually building your company, and this is why it’s important to realise what fundraising entails. We’ll discuss also other types of financing such as bootstrapping, debt and angel investors.