How to Leverage Your Talent to Create a Lasting Fashion Business

by Boaz David

Introduction HumanB

It was a drizzly cold New York day.

With exactly a thousand dollars and a single phone number in my pocket, I stepped off a cramped flight and into the city’s fashion industry.

Over twenty years have gone by, and I’m still here. In love with a business that combines creativity, ingenuity and a dash of pizazz that keeps me coming in every morning with a smile on my face.

For my entire life I've always been creating and doing things with clothes - that’s why I got into this industry.

I have used fashion to express my uniqueness and individuality, and as a teenager I started altering the new clothes that I bought  (much to my parent’s chagrin). I’ll never forget the look on my Mom’s face when I “fixed up” the new suit she bought me for a family wedding!   Later on I started to make my own outfits from scratch and realized that I have a creative knack for this.

It was so much fun and I couldn’t get enough of the kudos I got from my friends. That inevitably led me to go to fashion school and my journey around the world with a thousand bucks I’d scrounged from odd jobs and the phone number of a friend of a friend who worked in the garment district.

The only thing missing was a stop on Ellis Island! 

My goal?

To have my own fashion brand.

To see the models walking the catwalk adorned with Boaz’s creations!

Did I make it? 

Yes, I did. 

And along the way I’ve learned a lot about the realities of this industry and how it works.

So, if you’re reading this because you are feeling “the urge” to start your own fashion brand and travel down this road, you’re in the right place!

The purpose of this book is to guide you towards an objective very few designers achieve - merging creativity with profitability.

Not only do I want you to enjoy the feeling of seeing your creations become reality, but also to build a sustainable business along the way.

Ready?

Let’s get started.

For my entire life I've always been creating and doing things with clothes - that’s why I got into this industry.

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Table of

Contents

01 Define your niche

02 Define your USP

04 Costing and pricing your product correctly

05 Design with Production in Mind

06 Control your Development Budget

03 Create a Financial Plan

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07 The Importance of Keeping a Fashion Calendar

08 There’s No Need to Re-Invent the Wheel

09 Design the Production Process

10 Relationships, Relationships, Relationships

01. Define your niche Do you want your products to be featured at the bottom of a messy, unfolded heap at the back of the discount section of a Macy’s in Tulsa, Oklahoma?

If not, you must adequately define your niche.

In order to stand out you need to clearly define what you are offering and to whom.

Far too many designers skip this critical step or don’t pay enough attention to it.

They think that their creativity and their product should appeal to everyone.

And they’re flat out wrong.

This is the number one, most deadly mistake a new designer can make.

Please understand this: launching a fashion brand is launching a business.

As a small business focus is your best friend, and by focus I mean who are you focusing on!

Focusing on a specific niche will let you concentrate your resources and efforts on one group, rather than spreading yourself too thin. It will make your product easier to design, develop and produce. It will make your marketing more specific and will make the customer have a very clear idea of who you are and what you offer. That way, if they are the right customer they will buy!

To find your niche you will need to do a very thorough market research, study the competition and decide on how you’re going to position

yourself in the market. Once you have that done you should have a very clear vision of all of the other parts of your business like design, marketing, how and where to produce, how and where to sell etc.    Only this way will you be able to design a product that is a perfect match (all around) for your target niche.

Please, do not get this wrong.

Every brand speaks to a specific audience.

If you try to bite off more than you can chew, the only possible outcome is a very nasty mess.

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02. Define your USP (Unique Sales Proposition) You would like for your potential customers to take action, right?

You’d be pleased if they take out their wallets and purchase your products.

However, before that can happen, you must help them answer a simple fundamental question - WHY?

WHY should someone buy your product?

Even better - why should a specific person buy your product?

Your USP is what will make your brand stand out in this crowded industry and is the reason why a customer will buy your product instead of the competition's.

Every brand (or as a matter a fact every business in any industry) has a USP.

This can be one or more of the following: your price, your service, your fit, the selection of products, personal customization, social message or any other kind of solution to a problem that a customer is looking to solve.

Some examples for a USP are: Theory, the contemporary fashion brand started out by focusing on offering great fitted and comfortable stretch pants for the working woman. Since then they have developed into a global brand, but still are known for their pants.

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“Your USP is what will make your brand stand out in this crowded industry and is the reason why a customer will buy your product instead of the competition’s."

Bonobos, the men’s clothing brand started with one product, a pair of pants with a curved waistband, a medium rise and a tailored thigh that fit better and eliminated “khaki diaper butt. It offered a solution for guys who didn’t like the existing khaki pants that were in the market. The brand grew from there to be a full clothing line.

From outside the industry, consider T-Mobile, “the uncarrier.” They identified the frustration that most consumers feel when dealing with their cell phone company and set out to eliminate these friction points. They simplified plans. They eliminated roaming fees. They separated the cost of the phone from the cost of service. While doing so, they have clearly positioned themselves in a highly competitive market.

All of these companies had ONE unique proposition for their customer. It was very clear for them what the product should be, which helped define their business model and made the message very clear for the potential customer.

So, before you take another step, sit down and think about your target customer. What problems is he or she facing? What is the clear proposition that you’re going to make? How is this proposition unique to what you do? 

In the end, everything will be simpler if you can clearly define WHY your customer needs to purchase your products.

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03. Create a Financial Plan

Let’s make one point painfully clear.

Numbers play an integral role in a business’ survival.

I have personally witnessed many fashion companies that have failed even though they were commercial successes.

How is this possible? Easy. Poor financial planning.

You see, making the sale is important but far from sufficient.

Screw up the nuts and bolts of your business and you will go under - no matter how popular your products may be.

That’s why having a financial plan is so important.

Whether you decide to a create a complete business plan or not, make sure to at least have a solid financial plan. 9 out of 10 fashion brand fail, and the main reason is poor financial planning!

Most designers focus on the creative side, it is their strength, it’s what they know how to do best. It’s fun, sexy and drives personal satisfaction.

However, far too frequently designers are scared of the financial side of their businesses.

But unless you want this to be a hobby you MUST treat it like a business.

And as a business the bottom line is important and the numbers do matter.

The fashion industry is a unique industry in that each business develops and produces products from scratch. As a fashion entrepreneur you are responsible for sponsoring the complete cycle of making the product by yourself long before you get paid for it.

This cycle can take on average 6-9 months (in your first season probably 12), which means that you need to sponsor the business out of pocket for all this time. It is a very long period and can get

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to be very, very expensive, not to mention that you never know what and how much you will actually sell.

The reason why 90% of new fashion brands fail is because they didn’t do their homework and were not prepared financially for the long haul before going to market.

Your financial plan should cover your start-up costs, cost sheets for your products, your break-even point, and most importantly a cash flow overview for at least 2 years.

You must estimate the expenses you’re going to have and prepare accordingly.

Want to know what’s far worse than seeing your first season flop?

It’s going under before you even get to put the product on the market.

Nothing is worse for me than talking to a talented designer who set out on an adventure too early, without preparation and ended up saddled with debt and a tarnished reputation.

Please, please save yourself this drama.

Reach out to a proven expert and prepare a solid financial plan.

Now that you’ve read this advice you no longer have an excuse. If you look the other way and pretend this doesn’t apply to you, then it’s on you and you can’t say you weren’t warned.

I know these are harsh words, but they must be said.

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04. Costing and pricing your product correctly A major step in your business is pricing your fashion products right to make sure you are turning a profit.

Often this can be tricky especially as a start-up.

Your production volume will most likely be low which will drive your production costs up, yet you will need to stay within a specific price point to remain competitive in your market.

How do you go about it?

To begin with you will need to decide about your business and selling model: are you going to sell direct to customer only, wholesale only or both?

This decision will determine your mark-up. For example if you decide to sell wholesale you will need to make sure that 1. you are giving enough room

in your wholesale prices for the retailers to make their mark up - otherwise they will not buy your product and 2. if you decide to sell both direct to customer and wholesale, then the retail prices on both should be similar. In other words, you can’t sell your products on your website cheaper than what the retailers will retail it for. Otherwise they

will not buy your product.

Once your sales model has been determined, my suggestion would be to create an estimated cost sheet prior to designing the product.

Why?

Because this will give you an idea of what kind of costs you will be able to afford and will help you then choose what type of materials and design details you afford to incorporate into your product.

When talking with startup fashion designers, I recommend they create 2 versions of costs for each product, one version that will reflect a low minimum for production and the other to reflect higher volume.

For example, a cost for producing 50 units and a cost for producing 150 units.

This way you will have a realistic view of what your margins will be when producing a small number of units (which will most likely be the case when starting out), and how it improves once you are producing higher volume.

The question then is which of these two scenarios should you base your pricing on?

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In reality your first few seasons are going to be about setting up your business, opening doors, testing out your concept, building a buzz for your brand, gathering feedback etc.

It is not about making money.   Read that statement again.

In your first couple of seasons it’s really not about making money.

To be frank with you don't expect to make any money during your first 2-3 years.

Therefore, based on my personal experience, the best course of action is to price your product based on a higher (yet reasonable) production volume while making sure that when producing lower volumes you are still above water and not loosing money. Try to make a slight profit although not as much as you’d like.

To help you figure this part out look at the gross margins part on your cost sheets.

Gross margins measure the profit of your fashion product in %.

It tracks your business growth and indicates the profitability of your product / business. 

For example: when selling wholesale your goal is to have anywhere between 50-60% margins (it depends on the product, market, volume etc.) but in reality when starting out in your first seasons you will most likely have only about 30-40%.

Again, your objective when pricing your product is to have enough margins when you start but make sure that when your production volumes grow the margins are where you need them to be.

Finally, be sure that your retail prices are in line with your market and competition.

If you price yourself out of the market then either you need to reconsider your niche or your designs.

Remember, a fashion business that is inherently unprofitable is just an expensive hobby!

MONTHLY ISSUE #04 // MARCH 2020

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05. Design with Production in MindIn the end you have to put a product in your customers’ hands.

Your fashion brand must create, from nothing, a complete product that satisfies your customer’s needs and desires.

As a manufacturer of a new product from scratch you have many components to consider and coordinate for production. In addition, as a small business you have limited resources    That means that when it comes to production you need to keep things clear, smooth and easy.

The most common mistake I see with young designers is that they design their products without considering how it will be produced in bulk!

Making a sample is great but if you can't get the same result in production, or if it becomes too costly or time consuming to get it done, then the product is not right!

Most designers focus on how to get their samples to look perfect, and they just assume that in production the factory will figure it out....

Want to know the truth?

“Figuring it out" at that point might put you out of business!

What many designers don't know is that the key for smooth, easy and quality production is to design with production in mind.

You must think about and plan for production while the product is being designed.

Here are a few examples to consider:   * Fabric and trim choices - choose materials that will fit your price point, test them to make sure they are sewn easily and nicely. Use fabrics that are right for the product and the fit and use them the way they are supposed to be used rather than forcing them to do something they are not meant to. When choosing to mix different fabrics on one product make sure they can be easily sewn together.

* Garment construction and finishing  - Think about how the product will be cut and sewn, run the process in your head and make sure it can be done easily in bulk.  Eliminate the amount of hand work, choose stitches and finishing that are right for the fabrics and the price point. If using special stitches make sure the machinery is accessible to you. If you are not sure about the details consult your pattern maker and sewing contractor. They are experts and will help you avoid costly mistakes.

* Design details - choose to spend on either fabrics or labor - not both. When using expensive fabrics keep the silhouette and the design details simple to offset the cost, and when your style requires more fabric or more labor choose a cheaper fabric. This way, the overall cost of your product will probably be easier to control.

* Materials -  Try to keep your selection of fabrics and trims narrow, especially when starting out. This will help you save unnecessary costs and time during production. Remember, less is more!

* Narrow and deep - In your first seasons choose to keep your product selection narrow (less styles) and deep (offering more than one color), rather than offering more styles. This will save you the expenses of both development and production. Don’t forget that your first season is to gauge the market acceptance of your products. Obviously, not every product will be a roaring success, but your goal is to receive the feedback you need to make your next season even better.

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06. Control your Development Budget Can you save money by getting a good deal on paperclips?

Sure, of course you can.

However, I doubt that it will have a significant impact on your business success!

That’s why you need to be especially careful with controlling the costs of developing your first season. As a fashion startup this will undoubtedly

be your largest investment and that’s why it must be your most carefully budgeted.

During this process it becomes very tempting to keep changing designs and details, adding more styles etc. It’s all too easy to fall into the trap of adding “one more thing” or making “one last change”. This is especially true as you approach your market launch.

Believe me, I’ve lived this too many times.

The problem is that these changes and additions (especially when are made last minute) can become quite expensive. Without realizing it, they can get out of hand and add up very quickly.

I have seen many brands who in the last week or two of their development process spent as much

as they did in all the previous months. Why? Mainly due to implosive decisions resulting from last minute changes.

To avoid that follow these simple steps:      1. Create a development budget prior to starting (and add to it a healthy financial cushion to give yourself some room to operate)      2. Develop your styles in smaller steps, start with a few main items first this way you will get a better idea about the fit and the design direction

so if you need to change any of those it is still doable. 3. Once you’ve gotten the basics down, then expand out your collection. 

By working in an organized and structured manner, you will hopefully avoid unhappy surprises.

Nothing is more stressful than seeing your up against a hard deadline and your pieces just aren’t fitting together.

The closer you get to your launch the more you should be dedicated to sales, marketing and creating buzz. If you’re slaving away making changes to the designs that’s not going to be possible.

“You need to be especially careful with controlling the costs of developing your first season.”

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07. The Importance of Keeping a Fashion Calendar Time flies when you’re having fun.

And it flies supersonic when you’re caught with your pants down!

One of the biggest pitfalls for designers is staying on schedule and making their deliveries on time.

It’s a struggle to design, produce, ship and sell on time, especially for designers who are learning how the fashion calendar works.  The industry has standard dates that are predetermined for designers to follow as guidelines -- learn them or prepare for dealing with too much stress:

Fabric shows – when the season’s fabrics become available Trade/Sales shows – when the current season collection is presented to stores Store delivery dates – when stores accept orders 

Designers who end up with late product either DO NOT stick to

their calendars or are setting their calendars up incorrectly.

Quite simply, how you organize your time before and in between these industry dates can make or break your business.

It’s easy to get caught up in the design process, forget about Chinese New Year and mill closings, or find out that the trim you want is out of stock and needs 6 weeks for delivery. Argh!

This is where a TIA – Time in Action— calendar plays a critical role.

You can build your calendar by marking key industry dates and then working backwards from your final due date keeping these guidelines in mind.

By working backwards from the end date, you will stay organized and keep realistic goals for sample making and production.

Please be sure to leave yourself some wiggle room.

Let me share with you a secret.

Things will go wrong.

That’s the nature of business and even more so in an industry this complicated.

You must allow for unexpected circumstances or you’ll go crazy.

I recommend you buy a nice big wall calendar and you hang ALL 12 MONTHS up on a wall.

This way you can easily visualize the upcoming deadlines you’re facing. As each month goes by take down the calendar and put up the same month for next year.

This way, you’ll never be caught by surprise!

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08. There’s No Need to Re-Invent the Wheel  Wow! You made it!

You launched your first season… and survived!

Now, take a big breath and avoid the huge trap that you’re about to fall into.

So many new brands and designers try to redesign their entire collection from scratch every season.

Look, this is a sure recipe for quickly burning through all of your financial backing.

There is absolutely no need for a brand to spend the time and money on completely new styles every season.

In fact, your goal is going to be to find these one (or hopefully more) items that will be your bread and butter for years to come.

These are the items that will build your brand and will have your customers coming back to get more of  every season! Why disappoint them?

Let’s think about two separate groups of customers: those that purchased from you last season and those that haven’t yet purchased.

A customer who likes your product enough to have made a purchase will almost certainly tell a friend about it. This is not only the best marketing you can get, but it’s free! Also, next time they go shopping they will make sure to look at your line first.

That’s why if you radically change your line, you’re risking losing both them and their friends. More so, since developing a new product is very costly and time consuming, when you repeat certain styles you are able to financially cash in on your development investment over a longer time period.

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One other advantage is in production, your sewing factory would love to get recuts of the same product, it makes their life and yours easier since they know how to make it already and the quality will just get better. 

Now let’s think about the customers who didn’t discover your brand. 

Do you really think EVERYONE saw your products?

Of course not.

That means there are still tons of potential customers out there waiting to cross paths with you.

If you already know a product works, then why deprive them of this opportunity?

Many designers often tell me, "I don't want to be boring and offer the same things every season."

My answer to that is that you shouldn't offer all the same styles every season. Instead, when you have one or more styles that are selling well and customers are repeating take notice that you’ve struck gold!   Some brands take years to find a winning product, so you want to keep those on the line, while you can slightly reinvent them

and repackage them by offering them in different colors, fabrics from previous seasons, update slight design details to match the latest trend etc.

The idea is to compliment these bread and butter items with some new styles so the collection as a whole still looks fresh and up to date.

Listen. Look at every big brand and I promise you that you will see that it was built around 1 or 2 items.

The above brands I mentioned are great examples: Theory with their women's pants and Bonobos with their men's pants, but even bigger brands do the same.  Consider Ralph Lauren with it's $85 polo shirt. This is the most associated product with the brand and the best selling product out of it's nearly $7.5 billion annual sales.

Believe me, when you’re making billions in sales you’ll have the resources to experiment and mix things up even more.

Meanwhile, concentrate on getting your fundamentals down pat.

This will also keep you focused on your chosen niche.

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09. Design the Production Process Producing a fashion product is a complex process.

Whether you are making a tee shirt or an evening gown, there are many steps and components that will need to come together to create an awesome product that can than be produced in bulk in the most effective and affordable way.

I have been developing and producing new fashion products of all kinds for over 20 years and I can firmly say that it is not a process that you can improvise as you go.

In order to do this right you will need to plan ahead and design the product cycle ahead of time --especially when producing domestically.

The whole process needs to be done in reverse.

Start with two key facts: when you need to deliver your products and how much they should cost.

These data points will help you decide what components you should use, where they should come from and where they can be produced. Are you going overseas, down the block or a few miles away?

Next, you’ll need to consider logistics.

Here you will need to map out the order of the different production steps and plan how each of the components will get from one stage to the next in the most effective way. You’ll need to coordinate the time line between each stage and make sure that you've allocated enough to complete the job and get it to the next step in the process.  

“Start with two key facts: when you need to deliver your products and how much they should cost.”

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Once you figure this out, you’ll need to think of how can you track everything so there are no miscommunications and misunderstandings between the different vendors and make sure nothing gets lost in the process.

Here is an example: Your are getting fabric from Italy which will be shipped to the cutting room in NY where it will be cut and then some sections of the product will be sent to be embroidered in an embroidery place in Los Angeles, while the rest of the parts are sent to the sewing factory in New Jersey.

Sounds like a simple cycle, right? 

You'd be surprised how opportunities there are for things to go wrong in that one short paragraph.

For example, the cutting room didn't cut the right number of units, and the embroidery shop had the wrong placement for the embroidery and the sewing factory didn't have all the embroidered parts shipped back to them while those that were shipped directly were wrong but the factory didn't know that and kept sewing...

and you only found out about it all a day prior to shipping, which means you will not have enough time to fix it, you'll miss your shipping window and the store will cancel the order!

To avoid a nightmare situation like that, you will need to create check points in specific stages of the process along with clear and professional forms that will leave no room for anyone involved to guess what should be done.   Think about businesses like McDonalds or franchises like Subway. They all have thousands of locations

around the world yet the experience and the product feels and tastes the same in all of them. The reason is that they designed a process that leaves no room for interpretations and ensures that, if  followed, the end result will be as expected.

This is how your production cycle should work. Think about the process, confirm with all the vendors that are involved what they need to get you the results that you require. Build a production calendar with additional time as a cushion, in case things get delayed or go wrong. Try to foresee possible issues ahead of time so you can address them that before you push go.

Once you initiate the production any of these issues will not only take time and money to fix, but can cost you your business.   This is one aspect of your business that if you are not familiar with or experienced enough to plan, I would highly recommend you outsource it.

Having a professional plan to run your production will save you many sleepless nights and in the end will save you money and hardship.

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10. Relationships, Relationships, Relationships First things first.

Nobody ever said this was going to be easy.

Starting a new business, especially a fashion brand, requires putting in motion a whole gamut of moving pieces. 

That’s why your “who” is so important.

One of the biggest assets a fashion business owner can have at this stage is a strong, supportive network of suppliers, experienced service providers and a supporting retailer who will be willing to work with a new business.

But how do you get a fabric supplier, a factory, a sales rep or a retailer to support and invest time in your new business when you really don’t have much of a business yet?

The answer is simple.   It’s been my philosophy from day one no matter what business I was in: look to build long term relationship with them!

How can you do it, you ask?

Here’s the secret.

All the time I hear designers complain that this vendor or that contractor didn't want to work with them.   However, most often when I ask why, they answer "because I'm a new business."

If that were the case, why then do some startups still get fabric suppliers, factories and retailers to work with them?

Most likely because these companies saw a business opportunity with a company or an individual that they felt like working with.

Yes, there are vendors and retailers who choose not to work with new brands but not all are like that.

In fact, most smaller businesses are very interested in other start-ups and new brands.

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Their chance of landing a contract with a big brand is slim, so they are always on the lookout for a new brand with promising potential that they can grow with.

So, here’s the secret.

You need to convince the suppliers, factories and retail partners that working with you is good for them.

Look, EVERY successful business relies on other businesses. That’s why the relationship must be a WIN WIN for both sides.

For example, for a sewing contractor working with a start-up brand means low minimums, a lot of investment in time to figure out the construction details, answering questions

(many which are not even related to their service) and simply educating the designer.

This is very time consuming and the immediate return on investment is small.

On the other hand, if they see that you've done your homework and have coordinated your production cycle, thinking through the different steps and are willing to be flexible in order to make their life easier, they’ll probably continue the conversation.

So, pay attention and listen and learn about what their needs are. Being more flexible on your payment terms can be a huge plus. Factories pay weekly labor so often getting paid quickly is worth more than getting paid more. Or be more flexible on your production schedule (maybe they can work on your production in between seasons when their work is slow).

Can you leverage an industry connection you may have and refer them to other brands? Make them understand that you are looking to cultivate a long term relationship rather than just come for a one off and than disappear into the night. If they see that as you grow your business can become valuable for them, they will be more willing to work with you. Yes, they will still need to put more effort and time into your business since you are a start-up, but they are getting something in return as well.

Do this right and they will chase your business!

The same goes for other vendors and retailers as well. 

Once these doors are opened for you, it is very important you will continue to nourish them. 

A business interaction must make sense for both parties in order to last. The above points can help you get in the door but building strong, lasting relationships requires consistent effort and willingness, season after season.

Just like growing a plant, if you water it, it will grow.

Treat your vendors and retailers as partners and always look to make it a win-win situation.

This will assure that you always have the best partners on your side.

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* Bonus Material Starting and running a sustainable business is no small feat.

Many things can go wrong and bring disaster, while it takes a sum of many things going right to bring success.

Having said that, I’d like to share with you some insights I’ve learned over the course of my career.

Build a strong support system.

Being an entrepreneur is stressful.

When you’ve had a bad day or feel a bit down, we turn to the people who closest to us to help us get through a rough patch. Family, friends, life partners etc.

It is no different when it's your business!

Surround yourself with good people, both on a personal and professional level, and make sure they are people that you trust. Find people who’s opinions you value with whom you enjoy spending time.

You need people who don’t have any secret interests in being your “friend” and who will be objective, supportive, and honest at all times.

Think of them as your vitamin supplement.

And don’t forget to be there for them when they need you!  

Work on your business, not in your business.

Admittedly I’m still struggling with this one!

I always thought I could be a one man show. This lead me to be involved in every little detail in my business. Not only did this discouraged my employees, but it also took a huge toll on me.

Fortunately, I realized that this was keeping me from scaling up my business.

Spending too much time with internal tasks in the business is one of the biggest mistakes owners make.

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As the founder of your business, more than anyone else, you hold the vision for the business.

That’s why your first goal should be to focus on promoting your vision and building a strong platform to execute it.

Ideally you will create a scalable business which will free you from working in it. Block a daily or weekly time where you will only work ON the business -- setting up collaborations, organizing the business, thinking of new ventures, ideas etc. If you can't hire full time employees, then outsource some of the work to other companies. This is even more beneficial for you as you will have experienced professionals working in your business guiding and helping you, instead of you trying to figure it all out on your own.

Embrace the entrepreneur in you. 

As a business owner you must be mentally prepared to live with uncertainty and fear while pushing through obstacles for years on end.

Every successful entrepreneur will tell you that before they wrote their success stories they suffered through numerous unsuccessful tales. Bill Gates watched his first company crumble, Milton Hershey started 3 candy companies before Hershey’s, Walt Disney was told he lacked creativity and was forced to close his first animation company, and the list goes on.

The ability to control fears and detach yourself from the outcome is what sets successful entrepreneurs apart from other business owners. They are visionaries who have the ability to turn the most trivial condition into an exceptional opportunity and are in their best when dealing with the unknown. As a creative person, you are the only one who holds the vision for your brand but you are also the one who holds the responsibility for the business.

When the business is doing well it's the best feeling in the world, but when the business is struggling it can be hard.   I heard it said that entrepreneurial personality is not something that can be taught in school, however I believe that it can be encouraged, practiced and improved.

If you've started or are thinking of starting your own business this probably means that somewhere inside, you too have entrepreneurial

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skills.

All you need now is to train and strengthen those muscles, just as athletes train their muscles to perform better.

Train yourself to embrace uncertainty and challenges and accept the ebb and flow that comes with the territory.   Small steps are the fastest way to complete a journey 

As my parting shot I’d like to share a nugget of wisdom that has proven worthy for many years. 

When you’re starting a new project or business, try to keep things in perspective.

You do not need to, in fact shouldn’t, try to reach your goals in one giant leap.

Instead, plot out small steady steps that progress towards the objective.

It may not sound as enticing as the the breakneck paces we hear about in the silicon valley stories, but the truth is that great businesses are built by entrepreneurs who understand that getting the details right is fundamental.

Is having an awesome product design important? 

Sure.

But if left to choose, I’d much rather have a good product with a solid team and a well formulated plan.

Good luck with your business and let me know if there’s any way I can help you reach your goals!

Yours,

Boaz

HumanB

Questions? Get in touch.

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