Prince Ali Ababwa: Muse advice.

[Gorski]

I've been pretty adamant about observing the 4hww blog and message boards from a safe distance, but decided what the heck, I've read it twice, I'm trying to jump start a muse, put some pants on and ask the people who understand the efforts and aims.

After visiting Spain and Morocco last year, I discovered a certain garment style and dove into the opportunity of bringing it back to the US. To bring it to market, I've taken on an unorthodox method of engineering a fictitious (DBA) and mysterious international designer/merchant who travels the world bringing back certain garments (so far this just concerns clothing) to share with people who may never have such opportunity for other-worldly discoveries. So far, my efforts are focusing on one niche style much like the French sailor shirts in the 4hww.

As simple as I'd like to follow the model example of the French Sailor Shirts in the book, it doesn't appear as simple. I discovered my supplier on Alibaba.com (Luckily they haven't had buyers in the US yet) and I fear the public's similar easy access to the same supplier will somehow hinder some legitimacy to the story I want to anchor my muse on. Namely re-branding the products under my new designer name though any internet junky could easily access the products if they looked hard enough. Has anyone had concerns or faced issues such as this with brand image and perhaps non-exclusive distribution agreements? Has anyone ever established exclusive rights to a product with a company outside of the US? (Especially when you're an army of one with only my two snakes and a cat who make up the board of directors?)

Last (for today), mind you I'm no fashion designer, I don't plan on such a career (I really the enjoy importing part), but I've had to learn the process of personal branding, labeling clothing (A Philosophy and Economics major learning to sew? Yea that's right), stock photo taking, learning textile law, creating a mysterious fashion merchant and a story behind the product to deliver a unique customer experience...etc. Bottom line, I'm doing this solo. The component I've had trouble discovering is the fulfillment process so I can remove myself for better automation. I will do the first 50 orders by myself as suggested by Tim, so I can learn the process and gather customer info/questions/feedback to enhance an eventual website and prepare for automation. However, has anyone ever had experience with garment fulfillment? (luckily the garment is one "size fits most")

Can anyone please offer me critical but constructive criticism about issues I haven't mentioned above. I may have addressed them, but perhaps not explicitly to save on writing a book here. It seems like when attempting the my muse, sometimes the people close to me who I speak to about it aren't kicking me in the rear hard enough about addressing critical issues. I welcome it please!

Kindest Regards,

Bryce

[seth121]

The only problem you may have with non-exclusive distribution agreements is that a supplier will not hold the contract unless you are buying in huge bulk where a large percentage of his revenue is coming from you. But more than likely you will not have to worry about someone else stealing your brand image unless you become quite well known. But for the most part you should be fine in this case. Generally someone won't try to out brand you unless they know publicly how much business you are doing. So it's best in the beginning not to put too much emphasis on that part until later on and you gain some traction.

As for the garment full fillments are your suppliers from China. If so I would be cautious and they generally don't do a letter of credit so you would have to pay up front. Another thing to have in mind is that frabric may change in size when it's exported or depending on where it's being made. Material stretches or shrinks going from cold to hot or hot to cold or very humid places. Keep that in mind.

But I since the data would be hard to acquire for your particular niche I would ask around and see if there are people interested in this type of product, but a major problem may come when you start marketing it online. Your model would kind of have to really persuade the client to purchase your product which will cost a bit more money on PPC and exclusive PR marketing or guest posting on others sites.

What are you trying to do with the frabic.

[Gorski]

Greetings.

Hey Seth thanks for your time posting a reply. Highly appreciated. I will definitely keep your advice at hand when it comes to brand image and distribution agreements for the time being.

Incidentally, my supplier is from New Delhi, India and the garments themselves are manufactured in Jaipur, Rajathstan. I've been lucky to have found a very cordial small company that's been accommodating and easy to work/communicate with. I haven't needed to establish any sort of credit with them as of yet. I've only had a sample order placed and received (I'm currently not prepared for bulk).

The materials range from 100% cotton, cotton with silk paneling, Rayon, and Viscose. I've just recently considered the impact of climate on altering the garments, so it was indeed important that you mentioned it. I'll look into further. The material isn't really fabric in the sense of sheets or rolls. Rather they are pants (a particular style at that). They also sent along a couple dresses and skirts for kicks as well (I figure I'd see what kind of reaction I can get from them, perhaps they'll prove as popular).

I've had considerable interest from friends, family, and curious strangers thus far asking where they can get theirs (pants). However, I feel pinned because I wouldn't be capturing information on WHO these people are,or WHAT their usual buying habits focus on so that I can better orient my marketing.
Indeed testing online is going to prove an interesting challenge and so far I haven't found any print magazines quite suitable for their placement. However, I'm really trying to hold back their introduction before the muse is truly prepared (even an ebay store for starts, a feedback loop for customer info, etc) to release the flood gates for testing. (Is this advisable?)

Thanks again. Feel free to put on serious pressure concerning issues with muse start-ups as I feel it can only help me further.

Bryce

[Gorski]

(I also recall in the book Tim suggesting not to purchase anything up through the testing phase...Though it didn't cost me an arm and a leg, I found that the images of the stock photos provided by the manufacturer were lacking...lets say...the quality the units actually possess and the quality I'm trying to demonstrate. So even though I'm having to put in a little more work with photography, I felt I'd be sacrificing the image I'm trying to portray and also joining the ranks of what little competition there is.)