How to Get Out of Your Own Way and Think Bigger!
I have a theory. You can disagree if you like, but I believe that once you are a business owner you are automatically a control freak who sometimes gets in your own way. Even if you were not one before you started your biz, it’s a new side of you. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, but it’s a characteristic we all have. Afterall, it’s your own name, time, and investments on the line. You have to make it work!
Sure, it is vital to understand at least the basic parts of your business. It’s your duty to understand how things can affect you. Everyone needs some basic bookkeeping and accounting knowledge. For people like you who run a fashion focused business, it’s important to understand the basics behind things you may outsource like sketch artists, pattern grading, how markers function, CAD design, etc.
Getting in your own way as a fashion business owner is not something reserved only for startups. Nope, it happens at all levels. I once had a boss that ran her own successful business and had her fingers in all aspects. There was delegation, but when she got nervous about the business she grabbed tightly to anything that she possibly could to make her feel more in control of the situation. She would go as far as making the pattern makers watch her fix their pattern and insist that only she could add ⅛” to a collar point the right way. It was a tough situation for everyone involved and definitely not something that I want for you.
When you are in charge of the big picture you steer the ship and set the tone for your growth. But oftentimes one doesn’t realize they are in their own way until it’s too late.
Today I want to share with you an exercise that I do for myself on a regular basis where I zoom out and review how I can be getting in my own way. I’m all about the big picture, and I know you are too, so I want to share with you the questions that I ask myself, and follow up with action steps so you can help yourself to get out of your own way.
Are you stuck in patterns that are not serving you?
This is potentially a very big category and it could look different for a lot of people. Maybe you:
Have been only selling at local art fairs and it’s a huge drag, not glamorous and not your clientele.
Instead, starting looking into wholesale or if you are not yet ready to give up the fairs, maybe someone can sit in for you while you do the work you need to do.
You keep putting off building a website and hiring a photographer to really get your work out there.
Building a website is no big deal these days. You can do it over the weekend. Start with Shopify or Squarespace and it’s so easy! Set a photo budget and post your needs on a local FB page.
Dealing with a manufacturer who does crappy work but you don’t want to speak up for fear of them kicking you out.
Oh heck yeah, you have to say something! Good factories will work with you. If they don’t want to work with you then time to move on. Your product is your reputation.
You are trying to do all the business tasks, run a home and raise kids, and deal with aging parents.
Maybe it’s time to hire help for your business, whether it be a VA, a pattern maker, a graphic designer. It can be work to onboard a person, but once you have it figured out then you’ll be glad you did.
One of the scariest situations that I’ve witnessed so many times in the fashion industry is many businesses focus on only one stream of revenue. They have one store, or one major client that has been their bread and butter for years. They got comfortable and were not interested in looking further. But when the economy shifted so did the business that they relied upon. I’ve seen businesses that were doing millions of dollars go belly up when a revenue stream was cut off. This is why it’s important to always think bigger no matter where you are in business.
Don’t be afraid to change for the better. Even if it’s earth shifting and a massive overhaul, if it will be better for your business in the long run then you have to do it. Courage my friend!
Do you need to change your point of view?
Can we just all agree that there is absolutely nothing worse than receiving business advice from people who don’t know your business and are not even in any business themselves? There is this fine line where you want advice, but just not by anyone you know. Your guru has to be out there, right?
Unfortunately I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s totally on us to figure things out and what this means is that we have to do some rethinking. Are there things you are missing or overlooking?
You’ve been trying to get into wholesale, but it’s not going well. You aren’t getting much exposure.
Maybe it’s time to shift to a direct to customer business model.
You are really not connecting with your manufacturer. They don’t seem to get you, or care.
Maybe it’s time to ask them what you can do to make things better for them so they can improve issues.
Your customers keep returning your products saying they don’t fit. You have been grading your own patterns and testing the fit on friends and family.
Maybe it’s time to hire a pattern grader that will review your size standards, offer solutions and apply a grading that is proven to work.
I warn you, if you work with me, if something is being done in an inefficient or incorrect way I’ll definitely be speaking up. Ongoing issues need to be resolved. Case in point- I worked with a designer who didn’t want bust darts. Nope, never. They were ugly. However, each time we had to send garments to the customer for fit approval, they kept pinning out fabric at the armhole and saying the front was hiking. Now, anyone who knows anything about patterns knows that if there is no shaping for the bust these issues will persist. There are tiny cheats to get around this and make it work for someone with an A cup, but it never really is successful. The tech designers were insistent that fit would not be approved until this was resolved. Garment after garment, fit after fit, was rejected and finally the designer gave in. And guess what? First fits were approved. Production schedule started to move again, and customers loved the fit. From here on out, bust shaping was designed into everything whether it be princess seams, French darts, side seam darts, etc.. It was like a lightbulb went off and fixed so many aspects of the business at once.
I think challenging your own point of view is the most challenging of all the steps. We are so invested in our own ideas, values and processes that it’s a hard shift to make. This may be one that you need to think about for a while, but it’s the only way to resolve your struggles.
Can you do things differently?
When you first start out it’s up to you to figure out how the flow of your work will go. Maybe you come home from work and make your patterns. But if you are years into your business and your workflow still looks like that, you are probably not growing. It’s super important to always be thinking about processes and how they can be tweaked for better productivity:
You are spending so much money on your fabric. It’s a pretty common type, but it’s narrow so you use a lot more. You really like your fabric supplier and don’t want to change.
Fabric really does make the product, but if you can make a minor shift early on in your business, it will be better for the long run. Wider fabric will let you cut more garments and lower cost will be better for your overhead.
You’ve worked with a pattern maker before, but it didn’t work out. No one will ever understand you so it’s up to you.
Relationships take time and sometimes you have to work with a few duds before you find the right person to help you out.
Your orders are getting bigger and you are still cutting garments one by one.
It’s time for a marker!
You don’t know what you don’t know, right? Just be open to new ideas. Visit trade shows, talk with colleagues, ask questions. Find out what others are doing and you’ll learn a whole lot by listening.
Are you focused on the wrong things?
It’s big picture time, and we all know that so many, many details go into each and every garment. One day you can be focused on matching zipper colors, choosing thread color, the next day it can be about the fit and maybe that zipper needs to change based on your fitting, or paperwork and PO’s. There are so many rabbit holes that you can go down that it’s easy to lose sight of the big picture.
Details are what will set you apart from your competition, but it’s also something that you can easily get hung up on.
You are worried about the pattern being 100% perfect and measuring to spec down to ⅛”.
Well, I hate to tell you that your perfect pattern will never be perfect as a garment because things happen during cutting and sewing that make those ⅛’ negligible.
You are trimming off any stray threads from your samples and hand sewing any tiny imperfections before your photoshoot instead of sleeping.
Relax and let Photoshop do the work if necessary and truthfully no one will ever look at your garment with the same eye for flaws as you do.
You are racking up airline miles traveling all around the world to find the right manufacturer for your product.
Instead ask each factory to make a sample you will pay for and review who did it best and who you connect better with.
This is your gentle reminder that done is better than perfect. I hope this has given you food for thought and you are seeing your business in a new light that leads you to more opportunities.