1. Introduction: - my name is, - you know, - be a Bedford, - and I will be your guide through how to create an accessory line from conception to - production and everything in between. - Some of you can be designers that have been doing it for a little while. - But you need those little pointers. - The little help. - I've been in the industry for a really long time. - I've made a bunch of mistakes on my own, - and I walked other companies through the mistakes that they've made. - Hence me being a consultant with the company, - mixing management. - So I've done a lot for wholesale companies in Manhattan teaching them how to trend forecast - and build a line from what they already have. - How to expand on your best sellers. - Everything you need to know to be successful and to have people come back to you. - That's what you want. - You want repeat business. - Even if you're business toe business is your business toe customer want people? - We're gonna come back because you have a trust writing product and you have prices that you - know that meet what they need. - So thank you for taking this journey with us. - It's an open forum. - Feel free to drop questions below. - You know, - talk to each other. - We're gonna introduce ourselves so we know where we are, - and we'll take it from there. 2. Design Classifications: - and Rebecca. - Now that we've introduced ourselves high, - it's lovely to meet all of you. - Now that we know a little bit about ourselves, - let's get into it and get into some of the work. - What kind of designer are you? - Me. - Personally, - I'm a fashion trend designer for mass market. - So I've done for showrooms that supply jewelry to Forever 21 BB Candies for Kohl's Wal Mart - Target. - Our pastel Black House white Market lane, - Brian Ashley, - Stewart. - Blah, - blah, - blah. - Mandy's Rainbow yada, - yada, - yada, - torrid boom, - boom, - boom. - All of that time stores. - So that's what I'm used to. - I'm used to coming in a little after the trend, - but after the trade, - meaning that I still have to estimate the trends up to 18 months in advance. - So my job is awesome and it's great and I love it, - and that's where I'm comfortable. - I did also do a small classic trendline, - which is in a couple of boutiques under my label Accessory remix, - and that is what I consider my classic line. - So now it's time to decide what your life is gonna be. - You can have more than one. - You don't have to be pigeonholed in any kind of way where you're like, - I'm only gonna do fashion now. - Split it up. - Have fun, - you know, - do whatever you want, - but you do need to decide. - What do you do? - Do you just make pretty stuff? - Yes. - You're going to hear me say, - make pretty stuff a lot. - Do you know why? - Because some people just make pretty stuff, - and that's it. - And that's fine. - But if you want to take this seriously as a business, - you have to do more than make pretty stuff. - So let's get into what you are. - Do you make your own samples? - Are you a jewelry designer that draws? - Do you Photoshopped do? - Cad? - Are you a bench jeweler? - Do you, - Sauder? - Do you set stones? - Do you know metal composition and processes? - Have you had to have ever had to pour it and get like, - What are you gonna bay? - Are you gonna sell budget jewelry on the lower side or you're gonna do high and jewelry? - Are you gonna do fine jewelry? - Let's get into the real meat of things and decide this right now, - but it's gonna be very important for a next section. - which is a fashion cycle and where you fit in the cycle. - So think about that. - Look at the deliverables in which your project is for what kind of designer are you? 4. Trend Part 2: Who's Your Market: - we are still talking trends. - So I'm going to get into the five main groups of trend that there are a season. - There's not just one trend. - See, - trend after trend, - left and right. - But there are basically five groups of girls that you designed for if you design. - You know, - Junior, - if you design missy, - they're still five. - The girls, - they just go from little so high. - I'm using the main groups of girls. - You have your girly girl and your girly girl section. - That's where you will have your pinks and yourself colors and your pasts tales and your - charm bracelets and your flowers of that trend you're doing. - And that's what I think goes in girl ago. - To you have the grunge girl. - The grunge girl is rare. - Your rough platt is you have your crest, - you have your spikes. - You have that kind of look. - Grunge can easily be mixed with the preppy girl which I will get into. - I'll get into her now. - Three is your preppy girl. - Your preppy girl is very exactly that a prepper girl. - She goes from every girl. - So probably adult. - Then you have your boho chic girl. - That is more of your earthy girl. - That's where you would put your woods and your shells and your earth tones. - Ukraine's your browns, - your winter grains. - All of that will be in your boho girl. - You have your contemporary girl which is considered your classic girl contemporary girl She - likes for clean medals. - She likes shiny silver. - She likes Hamid tight. - She likes it simple. - She wants to be able to transition from day tonight in the same studs Your contemporary - girl We love you Then you have your bright, - bold girl You're bright, - bold girl is where your bright, - brightest color story would be Think about your neon colors Think about your shocking blue - and your violet violent purple That is the bright, - bold girl So consider these 56 groups When you're designing, - you don't have toe Limit yourself toe one. - Of course you can do a trend for each one. - I would love it. - I'm like, - you know, - a softie for that kind of stuff. - So you have to decide your demographic and who your customer it is your customer always - gonna be the girly girl. - If it always gonna be the Grinch girl, - is it always gonna be the boho chic, - Miss, - Is it always gonna be the contemporary girl? - Is it always gonna be the bright, - bold girl? - Or is it gonna be a combination? - Because you can have, - um, - a perfect blend girl, - You can have a boho chic bright girl. - She might like her, - her woods dyed fuchsia or bright orange. - So I think about all of these things. - I know it's a lot. - You'll get through it when you're doing your trains. 5. Budget: - Now that we've talked about other stuff, - let's talk money, - Mullah, - How much do you have to start with? - Do you have a budget? - You need a budget. - Do you have a business plan? - You need a business plan. - I know fashion seems like, - Well, - I'm just gonna make pretty things, - but there's definitely more to it than making pretty things. - If you have a business plan and these things in order, - you don't know where your start up money can come from. - It can come from your family can come from your friends because they know that you're - serious. - When you sat down and took the time to write a business plan, - my favorite place to do business plans is live plan dot com. - Super easy. - Before I knew it, - my business plan was 40 pages long. - Everything was covered my chart to already done. - Keep in mind. - I previously did my research, - so that was a lot of time that I saved. - But live plan dot com is the best start that you could have to go with your business plan. - When I started accessory remix, - I had some start up money for supplies, - but I didn't really want to spend it on supplies. - I wanted to do other things, - like Oh, - eat. - You know, - make sure I had a roof over my head, - that sort of thing. - So I asked my mom for her bag of old joy because as women, - we keep a bag of old crap broken crack that we're never gonna wear again. - We're always will. - One day, - maybe. - I don't know. - I wonder Fact, - you make this gearing into a neck and hold you Let me see. - It's not going to get done. - So I took the bite of jewelry and I remixed it into, - ah, - personalized line for her. - And that went on to friends, - family, - etcetera, - etcetera. - I started doing workshops and people would come and bring me their stuff, - and I remix it. - It was an amazing start because you get to work with all different sorts of material. - So if this is an option for you, - you might want to consider that as a start. - If you have no, - you know, - start up costs. - But keep in mind you're doing your budget. - You need to cover everything. - How much you're going to spend on supplies, - how much you're going to spend on marketing your medical brisk small businesses. - We don't have insurance. - What if something goes wrong? - What? - You're overhead costs your rent packaging. - What you gonna do? - Are you gonna have a physical location? - Are you only going to do it online? - If you are gonna sell online, - what sale site are you gonna use or you're gonna use repay dot com. - That's free. - Are you gonna have a big cartel? - Are you gonna toss out a lot of money to have a website built? - Now is the time to sit down and consider all of these things and create a budget that's - perfect for you and the funds that you have marketing. - There's ways around it with instagram and Twitter and all of these amazing things that make - the fashion cycle speed up tremendously and make everything it you know so much faster. - You have to decide if marketing is someplace where you really want to spend money. - Do you need a whole show room by yourself? - I doubt it. - There are shared showroom was actually gonna put your stuff in. - You can showcase online. - You can do a free portfolio. - There are a lot of options and right now is when you determine how much you're going to - spend on these things each month and after each month told it to a year because that is all - going to get factored into one of our next sections, - which is costing so now. - But you're working on your budget. - Leave your questions below as usual, - and I will get back to you super fast. 6. Costing: How to Price Your Product: - we've talked Trend. - We've talked budget. - We've developed products. - Now it's time to get into costing. - How are you going, - Toe price? - Your freshly made pretty things. - Are you gonna sell business to business? - Meaning wholesale. - Are you gonna sail business to consumer meaning retail? - You're gonna sell online and you're gonna have trunk shows. - All of this goes into your pricing of your guts. - So for wholesale, - the formula is the production and supplies. - Production supplies is all in one multiplied by 1.5 to 2.5, - depending on the size of your order. - If you have a smaller order, - you can go with 2.5. - If you have a large order, - you could go with 1.5. - So let's say we have a change bracelet. - First cost. - $5. - So five times 2.5 this fall. - 50. - It doesn't stop there. - Make sure you add in your packaging or shipping. - You're carting all of that stuff. - So let's add $3 on top of the 12. - 50. - So now we're at 15. - 50. - You should sell in dozens, - so let's multiply that by 12 and we get $186 for a dozen of your goods. - So on the retail side, - it's a lot larger, - like spectrum, - because your same $5 hinge bracelet can go for 80 hours in a store in the first instance - for whole. - So you might wanna have a suggested retail off. - Um, - let's say $45 if they're paying 15 for it, - they want to be able to multiply that by three to get their profit and all of the good - stuff that they need to get in there. - So the same $5 bracelet will have a suggested retail off $45 wholesale, - right? - Not that same. - $45 should be your suggestion when you are pricing for retail as well, - and I will show you how to get there. - So say that same $5 now it's gonna be $5 just for supplies, - because that's how much it's costing you because it's a lot smaller water. - So now you have to pay yourself in there. - If you take that five and do 2.5, - as in the wholesale example and get the 12 50 gets what happened? - You did not pay yourself. - You did it. - You have to make sure you always pay yourself carousel people. - So let's start with a kind of low rate. - We'll go with $20 an hour for you to pay yourself. - So this hinge bracelet takes you 30 minutes to make right. - So that'll be $10 right? - 20 divided by 32 $10. - You get it, - You get it. - I get it. - Could, - you know, - sometimes does a little, - but I'm so now you have the same $5 plus the $10 in time it took you. - So that's 15. - Now you're gonna take that 15 and multiply it by three. - And guess what you get to you get to the same $45 so you can make something and sell it - retail for $45 because you're making a couple. - And isn't that funny how it's the same $45 in store. - I know. - You also have to add packaging and shipping it all of that good stuff. - It's up to you. - You're gonna charge your customer for shipping if you're gonna take the shipping cost - yourself. - But all in all, - if that is how you do it and you want to do it for a dozen for a small store. - Then you can still sell it to them for $45 apiece, - and they can market up from there or, - you know, - do whatever they wish. - That would be 5 76 a dozen. - So if you sell 12 of your pieces at $45 then you will make 5 76 If you sell the same 12 - wholesale, - you'll only make 1 86 But it's a lot less work on you because all of that time all that man - power it takes to make those 12 you don't have to nap. - So now that we had a little briefing and costing, - it's time for you to cost your line. - I know, - I know, - I know. - We've gone to the product development. - You've gone back to see how much the supplies are. - Now it's time to price it and get as close to the right price is possible. 8. How to sell: What's your perfect pitch?: - Now that we have our line sheets, - we have our look books. - You are one step closer. - Look at how fast that waas now, - like you know, - I hope you're feeling ready. - So now it's time for your sales pitch. - So when you're dealing with boutiques, - you can cold call, - you know, - find out who the buyer is. - It's not as far did you think it is to get by information you can call. - You can email you can linked in. - You can ask around. - You can walk into these smaller stores and just say hi. - You know, - I'm a designer. - I have a serious business and I would love to be able to sit down and show someone my - designs and this discuss how we can do business together and I can have my line in your - store. - For larger companies, - you can roll up. - I don't know how that's going to do at the security. - That's what you know. - Try it. - It works for some people. - So now in your sales pitch, - you need to be very concise. - You need to know who the customer is and the price points. - Don't pitch to a store that you're like Ah, - $1000 higher than And don't pitch to a store that you're $1000 lower than know who your - customer is and know their customer because hopefully it should be the same person. - So don't really chat up so much about you. - Make it more about them and how you can assist them in making more money. - Because when it comes down to it, - it's all about money. - It's all about dollars and cents. - Keep it short, - Keep it sweet. - Keep it very concise. - Most importantly, - follow up after you Some years cheats, - it's okay to follow up, - you know, - in a week or two with a call. - Hey, - you know, - I just wanted to make sure you got my sheets If you didn't like it. - Is there anything that you think that I could do to improve buyers? - Love that people love it. - People love when your opinion matters to them. - So even if they weren't considering your mind in the beginning, - since you reached out and ask if there's something that you could do that they can suggest - for you to improve, - that might be your in. - That might be your shot for them. - Is that You know we love the piece, - but it was the wrong colors. - It could be as simple as that. - Maybe if you re tolerate weaken, - do a test run and that's what you want. - You want to start building that relationship with your buyers and build upon that - relationship because buyers buy from people that they know buyers don't wanna buy from a - stranger that makes once again pretty things. - So now I think that you're ready to read your pitches. - Give me a little sample of what your pitch is gonna be. - Precise Price customer. - Make sure all that is in there Not so much about you, - The whole cell world. - You don't really care. - Press links, - celebrities. - All that stuff is great, - but we leave thinking dollar and cent. - So we need to go with what is going to make us dollars and cents. - So now work on your pitch and pop it in 10. Product Shots: - So now it's time to do your product shots. - Not everyone has a big budget for a photographer to get professional product shots, - So here are a few you know, - tips and tricks that you can use if you have a high resolution scanner. - Or you can line a box with some white paper and pop that over it because you know the lid - is not gonna close because the jewelry is kind of thick and that allows a background off - all white. - So when your item gets scanned, - it's nice and smooth. - It minimizes the amount of former shopping you have to do, - or you can do like I did, - and just up to make a complete lightbox, - super easy white tissue paper. - Or, - you know, - a thinner white paper and a box, - and you could make a perfect light box that takes amazing pictures that you can photo shop - and send over to. - The buyers. - Also use scenery that's around you. - If you have wood floors that looks amazing and pictures, - you can hang airings on a branch, - you can put them on a gold trick. - You can do whatever you want, - so now let's take some product shots and get them ready for our line sheets, - and I look book 11. Line Sheets/ LookBook: - Now that you've created your pretty thing, - it's time to sell. - We've priced it right, - so let's get into line sheets on your line sheet. - You should definitely have the name of your company. - The item number, - your price that we just now worked so hard on. - What components and parts are used to make your item, - your delivery date and your minimums. - Give the buyer as much information on this one sheet of paper that you attend. - If you want to have multiple styles on a page, - that's fine. - I prefer my lion sheets to be individual, - but again, - when you're in wholesale and you get into all of these pieces that it adds up really quick - , - you could end up with 100 lines sheets at once. - So you want to make it easy. - You want to make the file small enough that when they get to somebody's email box, - they don't get spammed that they'll actually be able to open them and see your pretty - things And, - of course, - place orders based on the minimums and the delivery date. - So now create line sheets for your items 12. Deliveries : - So we're working on our delivery dates. - How long is it going to take you to produce the item that you are promising these people? - This needs to go on your line sheets. - So say that you're showing for August market. - When do you think that you should be delivering for organs? - Market we discussed is full holiday, - that sort of thing. - So for August, - your target should be in October so that September October 2 months give yourself 2 to 3 - months when you're dealing with large wholesale. - If you're dealing with smaller boutiques, - you can give yourself 30 days. - You want to make sure that you have time to get the items produced that you have time for - your approval. - Don't forget the first set of production is not necessarily going to be the samples that - make it. - The measurements can be off, - the sizes can be off, - the color can be off. - The plating can be off. - There are a lot of things that can happen, - especially in your first round of production. - So you want to make sure you give yourself enough time. - Give yourself enough time because cancellations are really life and you don't want to be on - the other end of a cancellation. - Believe you. - Me? - You want to make sure that your eyes are dotted and your T's are crossed. - So now you're gonna work on your comfortable delivery dates. - You know where you're getting your stuff made. - You know what it's gonna cost by now. - You should know how long it's gonna take. - So come up with your delivery dates that you're gonna insert into your line sheet.