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One of the exciting things about starting any business it that you get to be your own boss. What many entrepreneurs fail to realize is all the responsibility and decision making that comes with the territory.

Many of the decisions you make as a clothing line owner should be well thought out plans and are executed in a timely manner, but that’s not always the case. In between all the paper work, trade shows and the fast paced life as a fashion designer turned business owner thinking and planning are not always an option. That’s what I’m here to talk about today. How to make the best “clutch” business decision possible. Clutch as in being or occurring in a tense or critical situation.

First I want to tell you about an important business decision I had to make in the earliest stage of starting my clothing line. It was in the second season of the year and I was awaiting the arrival of my samples for the summer/back to school trade show season at the Americas Mart in Atlanta, Georgia. Well they arrived and they looked good, but not great and I felt like something was missing. So I spoke with my partners about how we could give our shirts a more distinctive look to brand each garment. We came up with the idea of giving each shirt a embroidered patch on the upper back (right below the neck line). Our brand was about superior quality and royalty. We knew the trade show wasn’t until a month. My next step was to find out what would be the turnaround time on getting the embroidered patch sewn on the back of the production order. Needless to say we were on a tight schedule, but our clothing manufacturer assured us that they could have our garments finished and shipped back to us before the Americas mart show. Now let’s get straight to the point they gave me a call one day at work (Papa Johns) yes I was a pizza boy. They informed me that the shirts wouldn’t be finished in time. (I had already changed and agreed to picking them up myself to give more time!) At this point we had no shirts or patches at my office (my apartment) with the trade show a day away. I had to make many decisions in a short amount of time.

So firstly I calmed down, because I was furious at the thought that they guaranteed their services and the only excuse they had was “Time quotes are estimated and never guaranteed” WTF!. So I headed an hour out of my way to pick up the unfinished shirts. Anyway I still wanted some kind of way to let the buyers know about the patches and their significance to each garment. We decided we would design a digital mock up of the shirt with the patches on the back and display them on our laptop, also with printouts. While we were at the trade show we would tell a little about the clothing line and show the digital mock up and tell them that the shirts ship with the patch sewn on the back as a signature of the garments authentication. Many of the buyers loved the idea and needless to say it was a great clutch decision, considering I had less than a days time. This was just a good turn out…days were not always this sunny. If you’ve been with us long enough you have read many post on how starting a clothing line can be a pain in the ass!

When I had to make the decision some of the first steps I took was to calm down.

• Calm down. You must do this first, because in most cases when your back is against the wall you are usually going to be angry. This is a quick decision so thinking straight is a necessity.
• Process the information at hand. Think about what has happen already and what you must do to get the results you want.
• Confide in your partners or a mentor. Just remember you have a short amount of time.
• Go with your gut. Don’t spend too much time wondering what if? Because in most cases it’s either all or nothing. I could’ve have done nothing, but then I could either have went to the trade show with nothing (stupid) or just not have attended and took it as a loss, because most of the time the fee is non-refundable.
• You make a decision…yeah I know genius right, but it is definitely the most important step you must come to a decision and stick with it. You will not always come out on top, but at least you know you made decision and you have to live with it.

Hopefully this will help you with making split second decisions in the future, while starting your clothing line.

What steps do you take when making quick decisions in your clothing business? Tell us about some of your decisions.

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