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Yesterday while covering the weekly wrap up of the better of the forum post. One of the topics was on Resources that can be used to regain funds on unsold merchandise.

So I promised you guys we would go a little deeper into the subject. Last night before going to sleep I brainstormed some ideas that you could use to rid of the unsold merchandise some will help you regain funds while the others might make you sleep better at night.

I also thought about what some of the big guys in the fashion industry do as opposed to the smaller independent brands.

These are all methods I have seen or done myself so they are all tried & tested!

Warehouse Sale

I know for sure this method has been used by many in the independent clothing industry. I’ve seen The Hundreds and even online retailers like Digital Gravel host warehouse sales where they clear out inventory of unsold merchandise from the season before.

Eddie Zaragoza of Naim Bran t-shirt company took the ultimate risk from what started as a joke and how consumers are so obsessed with namebrands. Well what started as a good laugh blossomed into a clothing venture, which he charged $14,000 to his personal credit for capital for equipment and initial startup.

The t-shirt brand is ran by him and his girlfriend Connie Ramos out of Tampa, FL sinch March 2007. With the money charged on his credit card they purchased a garment printer (which they plan to upgrade soon) and then open a chain of stores around the country is one of their near future goals.

As of now the t-shirt line has not broken even yet, but plans on hitting that special mark by years end.

Thinking about all the t-shirt brands that exist and the crowded marketplace NaimBrand says their focus is on giving other customers a great experience and showing them that they truly care and not all about just another dollar. They want to nurture and build relationships for the long haul and then the money will follow.

This is one of the more interesting topics I have seen in the forum in a while. By now you should already know what this is and it is the weekly recap on some of the more interesting topics in the Dobizo forums….which you should sign up for if you haven’t we are right at 800 members!

I liked this topic because it is truly something that we haven’t discussed in depth here on Dobizo and for that reason I will be dedicating a topic article to it later this week, but very soon.

Below are some of the other interesting topics that I stumbled upon while searching the How to start a clothing line from scratch forums. You have to be a member to read and respond so JOIN TODAY ITS FREE!

Resources That Can Be Used To Regain Funds On Unsold Merchandise or Stock

All Over Print

My Way Of Approaching (Interesting Story)

Marketing

How to Garner Press Coverage In Target Market Specific Magazines

Saint Grace?clothing was featured on one of the random online magazines I usually read Entrepreneur or CNN Money….it’s CNN Fortune. The interview and video spoke about his financing troubles from not planning ahead with the business and the expectation of so much growth to the tune of $4 million + a year. Mr. Thompson talked about how he didn’t, but should’ve wrote a business plan and he most likely would have avoided all the problems he is facing now with further?financing for?his apparel?venture.

Saint Grace clothing provides women’s clothing that is available on and off the web in some of the?better boutiques and department stores over 500+ so far. Their product ranges from skirts, dresses, tanks, shorts, halter tops,?twill trousers and cropped leggings. Saint Grace clothing makes for a solid line of better women’s apparel and with $4 million plus in sales their definitely doing something right. They will also be exhibiting at the Designer & Agents show that we spoke about earlier last week.

Popularity: 2% [?]

First off let me say the higher your ROI the better. The definition is pretty self-explanatory, but I wanted to dig?a little more into the term. If you have been reading this blog for awhile than you have definitely came across the term ROI or Return On Investment which is the profit or sales generated as a result of?a clothing company/individual investing capital. Simple definition is your return on invested money.

You do it everyday in a business you buy office supplies, pay for samples, flyers, and advertise…spending money, but how many actually calculate their return on investment…I do now. It has helped me save money in life and in my business. Think about all the things you purchase for your business that generally sit around and are never used, but even worse never earn you any money. Buy a book. It may not give you a return directly, but it will give you knowledge on the subject and indirectly if you put the information to work make your chances at success greater than they were before you read it. I noticed how so many people want to start a clothing business, but are very hesitant about investing in their future.

I woke up and not much was going on as far as fashion news or any interesting fashion facts or anything productive for starting a clothing line. So I decided since we have been receiving a surplus of new visitors I would do a recap of some of the more popular info packed articles on How to start a clothing line from scratch and everyone else can catch up on a great article they otherwise might have missed do to the amount of articles on this site over 400 and counting!. Enjoy.

1. Top 100 Mistakes Clothing Lines Make
2. Fashion Trade Show Preparation: Know what to do Before, During, and After it’s done
3. 3 tips?to increasing repeat store orders and sell through for your clothing brand
4. The Designer Entrepreneur vs. The Business Entrepreneur
5. Career Suicide: Top 5 Ways To Sabotage Your Own Clothing Business
6. Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of The Most In Depth Step By Step Guide To Starting A Clothing Line For Fashion Designers (Part 4 Coming Soon)

Investigative Consultantsof Lawndale, California is hired by most of the leading premium denim companies to crack down on these denim trading bootleggers. Some of the companies under their umbrella include Rock & Republic, 7 for all Mankind, Citizens of Humanity, and Joe’s Jeans.

Chief investigator of operations Kris Buckner a retired LAPD sheriff handles most of the investigating and has closed down or crashed everything from small time vendors, to knockoff denim parties to websites who buy and sell counterfeit products of his designer jeans?clients.

Even with services like the above the apparel counterfeiting trade shows no sign of slowing down with businesses losing as much as $200 to $250 billion dollars a year on bootleg or counterfeit goods sold by small time retailers or websites. If you’re ever in need of their services contact them through there website.

What do you intend to do about bootleggers or counterfeiters of your clothing brand or is it only a big problem on a large scale and wouldn’t affect your clothing business as just one brand?

Domestically produced men’s and boy’s apparel prices are on the rise up from last month. A seasonal adjust in garment?wholesale?prices from last year are up o.3% even with?a decline in fabric cost. The increase in apparel production cost is due to a rise in energy and increased competition for domestic producers from abroad manufacturers in low cost countries including China. The only way for them to keep business running profitably and stay competitive?is to?cover their?rise in energy?cost by increasing production cost, which in return inflates cost to the end user (Clothing companies) causing an increase in our wholesale prices.?

Popularity: 1% [?]

If you’re not familiar with J Brand…like me, then let me tell you a little about them. It is a women’s line of blue jeans who?supposedly pioneered the skinny-leg?jean concept.?

Now J?Brand is being sued by it’s own Private Investors?Colin Dyne and Todd Kay?who loaned the popular?jeans line $130,000 two years ago?and is now taking them to court with the intentions of taking 40% ownership of the company. Dyne and Kay head a private investment firm named Forte Venture Partners, which loaned J brand the $130,000 at 5 percent interest to be repaid by June 2005.

Even with the initial success of the J brand, which appeared in numerous fashion magazines from their early?debut in Ron Herman’s to wide spread press?coverage. They never repaid the loan and the agreement was that if the loan was still unpaid by said date that Colin and Todd could convert the loan into a 40% equity ownership in the company.

This post was inspired by a message I was going to bring across in the article Career Suicide: Top 5 ways to sabotage your own clothing line, but thought it was a better fit for its on article so that I could go more in depth with multiple areas I wanted to touch on.

The title is referring to the two types of entrepreneurs entering the apparel industry and seeing the business from each of their perspectives. Your probably wondering what the hell does this have to do with sabotaging your clothing line…Well give me a chance!

From the designer entrepreneur point of view is where the fault is created. Many designers including myself at one point expected to succeed off of?their designs alone and how they have a certain mindset that their talent alone will make their clothing business a success. In the fashion business natural talent will only take you so far and being business savvy will get you ahead of the rest. If you ever read any decent business book on fashion you will notice that most talk about how the business of fashion is 90% business and 10%design/fashion talent. I believe it a 100%, because their is a lot of mess out their that is flying off of the racks due to creative marketing and good product placement. You can have a book full of the most original, creative, unique designs, but if you don’t know how to market?and sell your garments your going nowhere fast.

As we all know with any business there is a huge learning curve…especially in the fashion industry. It’s a whole new world of designs, patterns, construction, manufacturing, printing and everything that goes into producing a clothing line and running?a successful?business.

Bottom line is you will make mistakes and?there will be?consequences. Some will be more of a burden than others and that’s why you were lead here to learn about our experiences and mistakes to hopefully avoid them at any cost especially the ones that could potentially put you out of business. These tips will help you avoid some of the mistakes that I have made personally or seen affect other fashion businesses bottom line some are common sense, but I still see many people new to the fashion industry not avoiding them,?which could possibly be their downfall.

Becoming a?charity instead of a business. (Giving away more clothing than your selling)

Continuing from Part 1, and Part 2 of the series.

If you’re going Full-time into the fashion industry ask yourself?do you have enough money to live off of until your clothing company becomes profitable and can sustain your current?life style? If part-time have you?calculated how much money you will need to earn and where you can cutback in cost?in order to provide for yourself until your