This ‘blindness’ is not intentional, it’s a result of excitement and fearless ambition and can result in sometimes obvious oversights in your business plan or investor pitch.

So whether you are looking for investment, or just out on your own and looking to build a credible business, here are some nuggets of advise, from personal experience, that you should ask yourself.

Will you cause disruption in the market?

Is your idea already out there? Does your product already exist? If it does, is there enough of a point of difference in what you are offering? Do you have a unique twist on the product? Are you providing a service that doesn’t exist? Or of it does exist, will yours be better?

Is your idea scalable?

If you are manufacturing, are you limited on order size or can you scale up as the business grows? If you are selling, are you able to grow your sales team at a fast enough rate? Do you have the tools in place to manage this sudden growth if your idea becomes an instant hit on social media?

Who’s the competition?

Have you done your due diligence on the competition? Do you know your market? Do you know where you sit in price? Is there any competition? Be honest, there is nearly always someone else doing the same thing and this is a good thing. It means the market is already prepped for it. You don’t have to be the first, but you can be the best.

Are you superhero?

Do you have all the skills needed to bring this product to market? Are you a one man show? Are you the creative, the financial and the tech wizkid that will bring the world to it’s knees or are you just one cog in the machine? If you are the solo entrepreneur, do you have support in all the other areas to launch or do you need to hire? Be honest with capabilities. Know your strengths and do not be afraid to job-out a skill set, it could save your business.

Are you detail obsessed?

Have you looked at every aspect of your product, the manufacturing, the supply chain, the distribution, the sales, the marketing and the design? Have you thought about a realistic timescale for all this to fall into place? Do you know exactly how long each aspect takes and how much it will cost? Have you thought about how you will survive financially for the first year bearing in mind that most of your contractors and manufacturers will have payment terms which are more than 30days. These are hard questions but they are necessary.

So ask yourself these questions, line up the answers you have and find answers to those you don’t and you will have that air of confidence that will carry you through the launch of your product.

My book, Blue is the new Black is a how to guide for the fashion industry. My consultancy co-lab54, finds product development solutions for fashion companies large and small.

Looking back, I seem to have spent most of my career applying for jobs that were just a little out of my league, and in some cases, I got them. How did I feel? Terrified!

Terrified that I would get discovered as a fraud and then thrown out on my ear. But it never happened because I spent a many hours learning the job on the spot so that I wouldn’t get discovered and thrown into fashion exile.

Here’s the story of when I oversold a little too far:

Around 16 years ago, I applied for a job in apparel production based in Amsterdam. I had never done apparel production before, I had no clue where to start and I had never visited Amsterdam. With my previous experience being mainly in buying and retail where I had worked with garments but never measured or constructed them, I felt it necessary to embellish my experience a ‘little’ in order to stand a chance of getting the job offer. In my naivety it didn’t even cross my mind that when I was offered the position, I would find myself a little out of my depth in some or, in reality, most areas of the role.

On the first day in the job, after having landed in a new country two hours earlier with my life in three suitcases I, along with the other sourcing assistants had to measure the collection to start the production process. It was only at that point that I started to panic. I was in a new country and in a new job that I had no clue about.

With tape measure in hand, the reality of my overselling kicked in. I had never measured a garment before. Feeling the blood rush to my head in panic, I casually observed my colleague starting to measure. Leaning across I asked:

“ So, you measure the chest like that… right, yes – I do the same”

“ And the shoulders, yes, ok, same as well”

And so it went, stage after stage she measured, I copied and memorised.

The nervous panic slowly subsided; I quickly studied the measuring technique and slowly worked my way through the collection. As the weeks and months progressed, I took notes, I learnt quickly, I used my initiative and I asked questions, lots of questions. But they didn’t find out until I left the company of my initial inexperience.  I did confessed all but after my two years there, they laughed (some more nervously than others). It was a bold move, but luckily it paid off.

From then on, when applying for a job, I made a point to always understand the role before I applied for it. I may not have been able to do everything, but at least I had an understanding of, or basic level skill at, most of the tasks.

My overselling of myself in that role was irresponsible of me,  and could have been a financial disaster for the collection and the company, but I followed through on the job, worked above and beyond to make up for any knowledge shortfall and had a great experience.

So with that experience in mind, here are my tips:

• Overselling your capabilities can have financial implications so never stray too far from your skill set.
• Think on your feet, watch and learn from the experts.
• Don’t be afraid to ask questions.
• Take notes and learn from them.
• Never make the same mistake twice.

For more information on the industry and about measuring read my book: Blue is the New Black

Below I give a prime example of one of these sweeteners from my past.

Many years ago at the start of the 90’s, I worked for a men’s retailer in the UK as a buyers assistant on the accessory team. Jokes, directed my way, many times included:

I was “big in men’s socks” or I was ‘finding an opening in men’s underwear’. Both funny, and both accurate.

My buyer at the time was a very strong-willed Scottish lady, fantastic to work with but scary at the same time due to her volcanic temper. She held nothing back when it came to swearing and to get on the wrong side of her was quite frankly foolish. She missed nothing, had an amazing eye for detail, and was very giving when it came to responsibilities in the job. As such, I received a great training in buying and merchandising from her.  She still, however, scared the living life out of me.

During my 1-year stint on that department, one of the projects she worked on was to create a plastic hanger upon which displayed pairs of socks. Specifically it allowed a tiered ladder effect, which displayed a 3 and 5 pack perfectly, whilst keeping the socks flat and in line. This helped for the shop floor display and also meant that all the colours of the pack could be seen at once without the customer having to flip through a lumpy pack to determine the option.

This sock ladder was her baby. It took months to design and even longer to develop, but the vision of the coloured socks, water falling with such ease and refinement was the motor that drove the process. So much so, that I discovered that this ladder and its vast array of colour combinations was this buyers sweetener to the extent that even the briefest of glimpses, led to a Scottish coo of excitement and a proclamation of love towards the article and its contents.

I picked up on this ‘cooing’ at an early stage and kept the board both close at hand and updated with new shades ready in preparation for the crisis de jour (short shipment of briefs or delivery extensions for ties were commonplace explosions).

For several weeks, the effect of ‘The board’ was quite amazing…… a hushed silence was requested….. The board surveyed and the proclamation of joy and love was made across the department on the functionality of the hanger and the aesthetic pleasure of the socks. Each time, after calm was restored, the board was gently removed and the day continued.

Of course, this particular sweetener didn’t last forever. She found me out and she also found it funny (which was lucky), but it still worked for what I needed which was to distract away from the negative, if only for a second, to focus on the positive.

Delivery delays, short shipments, late fabrics and floods in factories are always going to happen, but shouting and screaming won’t change the fact.  Even now, I make a point of always having a sweetener close by, even if it’s just for myself to step back from the crap and focus on the good.

It works, it helps and it reminds us all, especially our leaders that it’s not just about the one thing that is bad, it’s about the 10 things which are good. Which in this case, was in fact 6 things, 1 hanger, 5 pairs of socks.

Co-lab54 is my consultancy

For more industry tips and stories check out my book:  Blue is the New Black.

The creation, design, development and production of a collection involve the generation, sharing and distribution of a huge amount of information. The information flow from the start of the development process to the end of production is a crucial element for the successful internal workings of the brand and for the external relationships with the factories, trim suppliers and customers.

Tips:

• In development and production you need to manage the flow of information. If you don’t consider yourself organized or able to multi task, choose a different area of the business.
• Writing up technical information needs to be clear and precise. Never make assumptions that the factory understands; check and double-check everything until they are clear.
• As the development matrix is the hub for the style information, keep it updated and without error, as it will reduce problems at a later stage. This is your responsibility.
• If you are using more than one factory, be careful when sending the matrix to them. Filter the sheet so that only the information relevant to that factory goes out.
• If more than one person uses the planning sheets and you are concerned about other people changing details without your knowledge, password protect it so only you can change details.

For more information on the Information flow or other aspects of building a fashion collection, check out Blue is The New Black

Susie / Co-lab54.com

I think it’s fair to say that to be good at fashion development or production you need to be organized. Some people use paper, some use apps like Trello and Evernote but whatever the method, using some form of ‘list’ or organizational tool is essential practice with the number of aspects that need to be juggled within a project. But list making is not just about being organized; it’s also about helping to maintain a focused and motivated outlook in the task ahead so that you see progress as it happens.  For me, these points are key and these are what I’ll be giving you tips on in this post.

Now, I think it’s also fair to say that being organized doesn’t always come naturally to people and for me it was the same. It’s something that has taken me years to manage and I have learnt the hard way by forgetting things or by just feeling overwhelmed by workloads.

Here is how I learned to love a list:

Around 20 years ago, I went to a time management course paid for by my then employer. It was one of those two day set ups in a beige, characterless conference room of a London Hotel filled with eager folk, pens and papers to the ready, waiting to soak up those all essential words of wisdom by some guy called Frits. I remember his name, randomly enough because usually Fritz is with a ‘z’ but he announced himself as ‘Frits–with-an-s’. This course was 20 years ago, strange what you remember: ‘Frits-with-an-s’.

Without going into a minute by minute run down of the course, what he taught us was to break things down stage by stage into bite size pieces, a piece of advise which I give to teams even now. His route was starting with a monthly schedule and dividing it first weekly, then daily,then hourly. What this does is make tasks or events more manageable which is crucial when faced with something big like planning a wedding or a product launch.

For me, the first time that this method of planning really kicked in, I was working at a new brand, which was setting up from scratch in its development and production department. What this meant was that I needed to hire a team, build a sourcing strategy (find factories), create internal processes, and build the information flow documentation (decide who did what). Quite a complex set of tasks and not something I had actually done before. So how did I start? Being old school and preferring to use a pen and paper (don’t judge) I took each section and divided it so that it was broken down into the smallest of detail:

Sourcing Strategy:

Product groups / Countries of manufacture / buying office / agent / factories /Contact person / email address

Team:

Departments / Positions / / Salary / Job Specs / Recruitment agents / Adverts

Internal Process:

Key Documents / Format / Templates

Once I had listed all these in a ‘waterfall list’ (items trickling down in size) I found it easier and less daunting to  attack each point and I was able to cross things off the list giving me a sense of accomplishment and  progression. If my list had been simply: ’ Set up the whole development and production structure for a large  international fashion brand’ I would have probably quit after 3 hours and taken up basket weaving instead. As  it was, I worked through the detailed list striking things off it, reviewing and updating the list daily and weekly.  I’m not saying that this set up was easy or things went according to plan, but by having a detailed plan of  action and by reviewing and updating it on a regular basis, I was able to make progress and slowly build the  department.

This takes me to another point: Reviewing and updating your list on a regular basis is a good thing and is essential for progression.

While working through a project, large or small, work or personal, you will notice that tasks and deadlines will change on a regular basis. This is not because you are not managing the list efficiently, it’s the just the nature of the beast. You are working with external forces (in development: factories and fabric mills, for a wedding, cake makers and florists) that also have their own lists and priorities, which may not match yours. Because of this, be prepared to update and review your list on a regular basis, changing priorities and adding new tasks. This process is a positive thing as there is nothing more satisfying that starting a new list and seeing how much has been crossed off the old one, or at least I think so.

Overtime, maybe your list will get smaller as you strike things through, or maybe it will stay the same length but will have different tasks on it because of a different project. But what should stay consistent is the way you approach it.

Here are my key tips on learning to love a list.

–       Break the task down into bite size pieces, from large to small (don’t be afraid of adding detail to make it easier)

–       Literally strike things through when they are done so that you see the progress.

–       Accept that things will change and that you can’t control everything.

–       Review and update on a regular basis.

Susie Breuer runs the consultancy Co-Lab54.

For more Industry related tips check out the book Blue is The New Black.

Without fabric there would be no garment. You could have the best design in the world, but without fabric it can’t be realized. Making a judgment call on which fabrics to use and for which garment is a skill, and it is one that can be learnt through experience in the workplace. For example, look at the clothes in your wardrobe. Take a cotton shirt and imagine what it would be like in a heavy wool fabric. Take a silk dress and imagine it in denim. Both the dress and shirt would still be wearable, but would probably be suitable for different occasions. Understanding which fabric is used for what style and why, is part of the skill of the developer.

Tips:

• The subject of fabrics is huge. There is always something new to learn. Read the industry press to keep up-to-date on fabric price concerns or new developments.
• Learn the basics on fabric types and construction, as this will give you a good grounding.
• Fabric mills and agents love to talk about fabrics. For them it is their passion and for you this is a free education. Listen and learn, as their knowledge comes from years of experience.
• When I meet with a fabric supplier the first things I ask are; what is the fabric weight, weave and composition? How much is it? What are the minimums? What is the lead time? This is a good starting point for any fabric appointment.
• Understand how colour works with fabric. Not every colour will work with every fabric type.

For more information of the concept or other aspects of building a fashion collection, check out Blue is The New Black

Susie / Co-lab54.com

At the time, I was working as a product developer for a large clothing brand which produced near Bangalore and for this trip I was due to travel with my designer to hand over a new package of styles which would later be sampled. We arrived in India at around 1 am and once through customs and baggage reclaim made it to the hotel around 3am,  tired and in desperate need of a shower.

Upon checking in we received the message from our factory contact that instead of being collected at 9 am the next day for a 10am flight to the factory, we would instead be picked up at 6am for a seven hour car journey instead (apparently due to bad weather and a delayed flight). So with the prospect of three hours sleep and another epic journey ahead, we went to our rooms to ‘settle in’ for the night.

My bathroom was less than basic with a bucket and hose for a shower whilst in the bedroom itself I discovered a broken fan instead of  the aircon, but water is water and if you lie still and don’t move, you don’t get hot. This was my tactic for the three hours before the pick up.

6am came round and a bleary eyed designer met me outside with bags and what looked like a beaten up VW Golf and a 13 year old standing next to it with car keys.

The designer, being six feet tall, took the back seat to stretch out whilst I sat in the passenger seat next to our driver, the child. My seat was an interesting arrangement with the seatbelt stuck at my shoulder and the position of the back support stuck at 70 degrees. So leaning forward and gripping both the dashboard and door handle, to steady myself, we set off on the trip to the factory.

One hour into the journey, the young driver reached into the glove compartment and took out a tape. He gesticulated that he should put it into the cassette player, to which I nodded. After a whirring and a click, the enthusiastic voices of the Backstreet Boys came blaring out in broken stereo waking up the designer and causing him to smash his head on the roof of the car.

Nice! I said, we’ll have a sing along!. The designer declined whilst the driver stared blankly at me. I was on my own.

After a full run though of the tape, I had been brought up to date with the back catalogue of this talented US teen group and I felt it time to perhaps have a snooze. Trying to support my head to avoid lolling ( thanks to the angle of the seat), I found myself drifting in and out to the same song on the tape.

How could this be? Was I dreaming ? Had I actually been asleep? No, it wasn’t a dream and Yes, I had been asleep!

What transpired was that this was the only tape we had in the car, and it was on loop…for the next  7 hours. The initial joy of a sing along to A.J, Howie and friends was now less of a ‘joy’ and more of a joke, and a bad one at that.

For the rest of the journey, I continued to drift in and out of sleep, waking to hear “I Want it That Way’ and wishing I could only make such demands on the musical choice or at least, the angle of the seat.

But both, alas,  were fixed and I had no choice but to learn each and every song, making a mental note to myself that, in future, I will pack my own musical arrangement that would carry me through at least a 7 hour journey.

I still work in Fashion but now run Co-lab54, a consultancy set up to assist companies large and small with product development solutions.

My book, Blue is The New Black was published last year and is available online.

What I found, certainly for the tips and the true stories was that with the exception of a few, most of what I learnt could be relayed outside of the fashion industry. For example:

– Don’t be too proud to take advise

– Respect local cultures

– Keeping your cool when face to face with an icon,

and,

– Never date a co-worker.

So I decided that over the next few months, I would take these tips and stories one step further and compile a ‘blog-a-logue’ of sound bites and snippets which I have discovered along the way which I think could be useful to pass onto fashion industry peeps, or just those who want to have a laugh at my misfortune or occasional case, glory. Some of the tips will help you get organised in your job, some will help you get ahead and some will make you attack a problem from a different angle. All, I hope, will be useful in some way.

But for now that’s it. This mini-postage was just an intro before I launch weekly into an avalanche of pearls of fashion wisdom and wall kicking mistakes that never happen twice.

So until next time,  I will leave you with this comment from an industry professional. A man who has been in the industry for 30+ years and has built international brands from the ground up. Sure he can be high maintenance but with his background, he’s allowed to be.

“Fashion is an industry built on emotion”

Remember that!

All tips, interviews and some of the stories can already be found in Blue is the New Black.

Tara St James of StudyNY released her Anti_fashion calendar earlier this year at Redress Raleigh Conference in North Carolina to a hail of appreciation by the small business crowd. Her calendar compares the traditional design, development, sales and production periods of a 6 month structure to the ‘Anti’ version which allows for monthly drops of seasonally specific capsules to hit the stores. T-shirts in summer and sweaters in winter. Ground breaking huh? She designs monthly, she sells monthly and she produces monthly. This not only gives a regular cash flow and clothes when they are needed, but also allows for regular work for the manufacturers rather than peaks and slumps in production lines.

This method of structured design and production is great for small businesses, its great for manufacturers, it’s great for the public and it’s something I talk about a lot in the lectures i give within the industry. So why isn’t it adopted by more brands?

Well, to my surprise, it might just be. Tamara Mellon, ex Jimmy Choo, announced earlier last week that she was launching her own fashion label which would sell clothes in the seasonal months that they should be worn in. For this high-profile individual to flip the traditional fashion calendar on its head takes some guts and a huge risk. Customers will love it for sure but from inside the industry, I’m curious about the stages of how this can be achieved when it comes to concept, colours and fabrics.

For instance, the concept of the collection would, i guess, still be set ahead of time, but colours and fabrics  will be selected from previous and current season to allow for seasonal relevance (fabric mills produce 6 months in advance to show new designs). When it comes to the design side, would she connect directly with her customer base to assess their likes, dislikes, wants or desires or would this be pre planned and fixed? So, on this point alone, it’s interesting to see whether her collection is designed and produced 6 months in advance and then just delivered monthly or whether it is designed, produced and delivered monthly so being able to respond to the customers. There is a very big difference behind the scenes.

But of course the PR of her doing something, potentially, so radical against the norm is a great way to launch a new brand, or sell her new book whichever is first. Regardless, it’s about time someone recognised the need for a more sustainable approach, however luxurious her line will be.

Susie

Co-lab54

Blue is the New Black

This group is part of the Meetup formula that so many cities have….. looking through the list of events is pretty funny to be honest but at least they cover every demographic, age and interest, so no complaints. For sure there is a blog post on this in the making.

One that popped up in my inbox this week was SF Bay Area Biz Cafes.

The guy who’s organising it, Stephen Gordon, starts with an interesting quote “In the Future Everything Will Be A Coffee Shop”. His prediction is that in the future, everything will revolve around coffee. Universities will become coffee shops with online lectures, book stores will be e-book areas with an espresso on the side and offices will become more social zones for work and meetings.

Now this I like for the several reasons:

Firstly, I am a big coffee fan, I like it black, dash of hot water, large sugar… 2 of these in the morning and I’m good to go so to have everything as a coffee shop is a good start for me. But his view is that eventually the coffee shop will take over as a social space for more than just a beverage. What do we think about this?

If we think about the work environment, how much more effective would this be if it was more social in its set up? As a freelancer and a ‘work from home’ person I need to have social interaction from time to time otherwise I am liable to go nuts, and those communal work zones are just to formulaic and contrived for my liking. They are kited out as a social space with free (weak) coffee and a photocopier all for the price of 50e/$ a week……Um, I personally don’t buy it. And lets face it, as a freelancer I can’t afford to ‘buy this’.

However, to go to a coffee shop (a place that sells coffee and not an Amsterdam ‘Coffeeshop’) with a separate space out back to work, brainstorm or meet is ideal. Regular custom for the owners and a less contrived space for workers. For me, it’s a winner! I know this is not a new concept as many coffee zones are already providing this but how will this grow and how quickly? I suppose it depends on the location and the need – just thinking out loud.  I have no idea how the university option would work but you have to imagine that with rising tuition costs, there will have to be a more practical and social solution in the future…

I don’t know, makes you think though. Well it does me.