Starting a Brand

[Bearcorp]

Hey all,

So a quick run down of me, ive been a member here for years, read all i can, "tried" to start all sorts of different ideas which really means never tried hard enough, before having a gap year at the ripe age of 30 and moving to London in 2014.

Late into my working holiday my fiance had an affair and everything went to chaos, got home at Xmas, and while trying to sort my life out had a proposition from my best mate.

He has a successful business in the construction industry (my background) and over the years we've spent alot of time discussing his business, including his online component, which despite my lack of experience i had an update knowledge of strategies thanks to this forum as well as bloggers ive followed.

So the proposal was for me to become partners with him in a business he'd started. Its in a niche we both have interest and knowledge in, and he has found a gap within the niche to grow a social media presence.

We have an instagram following of 6.5k and are starting our Facebook and Twitter pages, samples for some attire arrive this week and depending on interest will have an order placed within a fortnight. Clothing isnt our main goal for the brand, just a way to keep the label growing, but if theres enough interest we will invest in it.

We have done our research on competitors and believe we can get some traction from our clothing lines, but time will tell. As we enter fields we dont have experience in i hope to continue to gain information from this forum, so in return i hope i can offer some advice on things that have and havent worked for us.

At this stage i wont be revealing any information about our niche, there will come a point where we will be comfortable with it but not in its early stages. My partner knows im on this forum but isnt a member himself, maybe in time

At the moment i hope to help the wantrapenuers out there, like i was, because as they say a good plan todays better then a great plan tomorrow! Its exciting to be working on something i have an interest in and all going well we can create something of substance

I will continue to update this as new things happen so anyone reading feel free to ask quesations, and hopefully if i hit a road block i can find out some info from this great community

 

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[Mark Anthony Le]

Sorry to hear about the fiancé. How're you managing that?

 

[borntodominate]

in. Goodluck

 

[Envision]

Im doing the same in the fitness niche. keep it up! Ill be following the progress!

 

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[Bearcorp]

Sorry to hear about the fiancé. How're you managing that?

Yeah its been tough mate, had it happen to me before so its a bad blow, our travel debt was all in my name so since been home ive been ducking and weaving the banks trying to keep my head above water, thankfully i got my old slowlane job back so a responsible few months and i'll be back on track with finances

 

[Mark Anthony Le]

Yeah its been tough mate, had it happen to me before so its a bad blow, our travel debt was all in my name so since been home ive been ducking and weaving the banks trying to keep my head above water, thankfully i got my old slowlane job back so a responsible few months and i'll be back on track with finances

All under your name? Man....

I feel for you brother.

The best revenge is massive success.

 

[Bearcorp]

Update; samples arrived yesterday, we put a photo on the instagram not to advertise them for sale but just that we had them, we've received enquiries about them, mostly from people that want freebies! we have picked a price point on the medium to high end, we can come down if needed. we plan on running some giveaway campaigns in the next few days with the goal of growing our fan base, we aim to sell a few, keep one each, and give a few away.

we have a few followers, who are quite active in engaging on our page, that are very well known. so we're also considering making contact to see if they would be interested in wearing something of us.

on the down side we are waiting on 2 more lines of clothing which we expected early next week, we got an email yesterday that they wont be sent now until after the chinese new year, so early march. It doesnt impact us in a bad way as we havent discussed publicly these lines, just frustrating that it slows our progress. But its a good lesson for the future and something to keep in mind at this time of year!

 

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[Bearcorp]

Our samples sold well and have had alot of enquires about alternates to our product which we'd already considered, getting prices for larger orders, and still waiting on our other samples, have emailed them for a hurry up but they only have 1 line ready so we'll get them all at once.

social media is still growing consisently.

 

[Bearcorp]

Update: expanding our range of items, making a bigger order of our first product and getting a website made, followers still growing consistently.

We've been screwed around with the sample we have been waiting on, we've requested another prdouct instead as we think we're dealing with a middle man that doesnt manufacture what he says he does. been chasing more pricing from alternate manufacturers.

 

[Bearcorp]

We received an email from Spreesy about being able to sell direct through instagram via paypal. Has anyone heard of this or used it? We are going to do some research over the weekend as it will benefit us to sell this way and hold off on a website, ideally we would rather not roll one out for maybe 3-6 months as we have big plans for the website, but at this stage we need it to make selling our product easier, so Spreesy could be a perfect fill in option for us.

 

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[Wal-Mart Vendor]

When your ready go on Wal-Mart.com they are looking to increase sales to catch up with Amazon. Easy way to get exposure quick if you can supply. Good luck!

 

[Bearcorp]

Thanks I'll look into that, we have a strong following in the states, according to iconosquate 50% of followers, but shipping costs are killing us with overseas orders, we have a plan in place to tackle that in future but it will require our range to expand further to execute.

 

[Bearcorp]

Hey all, bit of an update and thought i'd share some thoughts from my journey so far.

Brand is growing, probably better then we expected but when we analysis where we are and whats possible the sky is the limit, managing the process and staying true to our core focus is the challenge. website will be launched next week, sales are now consistent and our range is expanding, and in the process of setting up overseas distributors. Letting our market tell us what they want and filling that need is the mindset we both have. in terms of expanding our range there are so many options that its hard to know the right direction but we both have the attitude of filling that need, whatever it may be.

Before the business started I would log on here every day, read everything, and do very little. mental masturbation. Since this has been going though any time i get to go online im either working in the business or on it. free time now is spent searching competitors, searching brands with the same angle as us but in different niches, anything to keep ahead of the pack.

make no mistake we arent profitable yet and realistically might not be for at the very least 3-4 months, so we havent 'made it' the only claim i make to having a business is when im chasing girls lol but we are building and growing, we have stacks of ideas for growing our online presence and currently have 3 month, 6 month and 12 month goals, all subject to change depending on how well things go.

6 months in and not one of our mates knows, we didnt want 'slowlane' friends dragging us down, so we have got to this point with zero expose from friends, but funnily enough quite a few follow our social media on their own accord, we dont follow or interact from our private accounts.

we havent even begun, and who knows we might hit a ceiling and find it wont go as far as we'd like, having a partner thats a mate isnt always recommended but i know personally he has experience in alot of the online activity we do, and hes a no nonsense go getter so i have no chance of not pulling my weight cos he'd hold me to task, we work well together so far and as we are both honest and upfront on our thoughts id like to hope it can stay that way.

thanks for reading and i'll try and interact a little more on here, everything i think and all the views i have on business come from reading this forum basically, so i do plan on giving back when im in a position to offer value. cheers all

 

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[CPisHere]

Where did you find your clothing manufacturer?

 

[Bearcorp]

We have clothing and other products, but alibaba, trial and error, negotiating, getting samples etc some were good some not so, its a minefield to get exactly what you want for the right price. Luckily we have sorted the wheat from the shaft so far but theres a long way to go, for 1 good supplier we've dealt with at least 6-7.

 

[Bearcorp]

Getting samples on new lines becomes slightly easier when you have buying power and direction, to start it is hard because you have an idea of what you want but thats it, now that our minimum order quantities are good we can say what we want, how we want it, and work with them, at the start it does feel when you ask for a sample with no idea how many items you want to buy that you end up with whatever they give you. we've cut ties already with some suppliers, theres so many out there that they have to satisfy us as well.

 

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[Bearcorp]

I QUIT THE SLOWLANE.

Its been a while. I haven't posted an update on this thread for 1 week short of 2 years. So whats happened? Anything?

If you want to read on, take 2 minutes to read my previous updates. I just did re-read it for the first time since I last posted on this thread, and I was blown away, by my own belief, vision, but also how much of what I originally discussed has stayed very accurate.

Last September I quit the Slowlane, and since then, along with my business partner, have run our company full time. And honestly, from my previous posts, not a lot has changed.
Social Media still growing. (well over half a million fans now, all organic)
Still negotiating with suppliers. (ordering thousands instead of a 10's now though)
More and more high profile people wear our brand. (seeing a famous name in our order list never gets old)

Going full time drove growth to the point that we busted out of our home office. We moved into a warehouse in January this year. After our last 2 years we know we need to be stocked up for Xmas and all of 2017 has been geared toward that.

US is our biggest market and we have a meeting with our accountant next week to decide if we pull the trigger now on a US fulfilment centre, or wait until Jan next year. We've learnt that Xmas is huge for us, and that Jan is dead from suppliers in China due to new year holidays etc. so managing the transition is important, we have over 250 SKU's now (will be 500 by Xmas) so its a juggling act.

Next?

Expansion Expansion Expansion.

We (I say we a lot because my business partner is one of my best mates, and we talk to each other more than anyone else) have never stopped expanding. Social media, products, theres always room to grow, and who wants to sit still? The challenge is deciding the right lanes. Every single day someone wants to work with us, from household brands to start ups just like we were.

Personally? Well... my last update mentioned how the only people that I told I had a business were dates Well not long after my last post on this thread I met my partner, she's been an entrepenuer now for 8 years, and without knowing it she's a fastlaner! I ordered Unscripted a few weeks ago and bought her the hardcopy of Fastlane Millionaire at the same time (I read it on kindle years ago), don't be surprised if she's not a member on here soon

And I'm typing all this at 10:30pm on a Saturday night, now that we have a 4 month old son, no one got time for clubbing and boozing! And I wouldn't have it any other way. After bathing my beautiful little boy I needed to do some work, that was 3 hours ago, literally how long its taken me to write this!

So back to work for me, ill be around the place, I'll try and make an update more regularly, its hard because I deal with copycats every single day so I cant reveal what I do, in time that will change, ask away if you have any questions, thanks for reading

 

[MarekvBeek]

Just amazing to read.

Look at where you were just 2 years ago. And now...

What a difference.

Oh, and congratulations with your wife and son

 

[Bearcorp]

Just amazing to read.

Look at where you were just 2 years ago. And now...

What a difference.

Oh, and congratulations with your wife and son

Thank you I appreciate that, not my wife yet, one day no doubt haha

 

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[CPisHere]

500 SKU's for a single brand? With both clothing and other items? I'm having a hard time understanding that one...

 

[Bearcorp]

500 SKU's for a single brand? With both clothing and other items? I'm having a hard time understanding that one...

The numbers build up pretty quick when you have a few different logos, colour options, style options, size options. I spoke with another brand in my niche recently who has over 1000. 500's only an estimate, the less the better logistically but it all depends on what sells, we'll know more as the months progress.

 

[CPisHere]

The numbers build up pretty quick when you have a few different logos, colour options, style options, size options. I spoke with another brand in my niche recently who has over 1000. 500's only an estimate, the less the better logistically but it all depends on what sells, we'll know more as the months progress.

Ah, I wasn't thinking of different colors/sizes as different SKU's. That makes more sense.

 

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[Bearcorp]

Hi all, MJ's 6 year thread got me thinking about my last update on this, lo and behold it's a bit over 6 years so time for a brief update.

At the time of that last update, renting a small apartment, no staff, no car, and our first little shoebox warehouse. We out grew that, and now have 2 600m2 sites in Australia. USA fulfilment, well what a story that's been but the short is we had a site doing 3PL with 50% of our stock, slowly we've reduced that as they outgrew the space they had with their own business, and have now started from scratch with a new fulfilment centre. So 2024 let's see if we can't get up and running properly back in the USA.

Had a daughter join our son so the 4 of us now, we rented another house for a few years before buying our family home early last year. And planning to finally get married next year. And I have a car now, no more riding my bike to work although I'm preparing this summer to do just that for health and fitness purposes.

As well as the 2 sites we have 15 staff from full time to part time, still sell all around the world, was quite the barrier with COVID but thankfully the USA didn't close borders to us and we could keep sending orders, albeit a lot slower and unpredictable with expected delivery times.

I packed some orders in the warehouse today as the crew were unloading a container, but it's basically been the first Black Friday I haven't been stressed and down there morning and night, starting to get the systems and staff in place to make it an enjoyable period rather than a stressful/successful one.

It's been a crazy 6 years really, lawsuits, (I think I saw on here once that you haven't been in business if you haven't been sued!) international travel, domestic travel, COVID, I wouldn't swap it for anything, bring on the next 6 and beyond!