Starting A Clothing Brand Master Class | From The Ground Up

oh what the dude are people actually out there  like doing starting brands without any money yeah i guess i guess that's something  that we got to find out for sure me we're excited to sit down with you guys on this  starting a clothing brand from the ground up   master class we brought together some amazing  instructors that specialize in their respective   fields from sales marketing branding social media  and much more this videos are definitely one of   the first of its kind and we're excited to put  this together for you guys to truly help you   move your brand and business forward so if  you guys are a new visitor to this channel   make sure you hit that subscribe button right  now and turn on those post notifications to be   alerted of associated videos that are going to be  dropping right after this one and more importantly   we created a resource guide that you guys could  download and use which is also going to be located   in the descriptions down below so over the next  several minutes you guys will be able to scrub   through the chapters that are going to associate  to where you are so if a chapter doesn't seem like   it's something that you need to do right now it's  okay just go ahead and scrub over to the next one   and we've also created chapter marks which are  going to come up in the video and you guys can   easily navigate to where you need to be so you  guys can make the most of your time and efforts   as you're browsing youtube we appreciate  you guys for watching and let's get started   now the very first thing we need to establish is a  difference between having a business versus a side   hustle now over the last few years i've shared and  i've been i've been the person that started this   is like how to start a clothing line with less  than fifty dollars a lot of those videos were   definitely created to help you start and build  and create an income stream to help you start your   business but we never really covered the other  side of it and that's the reason why we need to   start with a business plan now a business plan  is going to be there it's going to be the thing   that's really going to help guide your direction  as well as your finances your marketing plan and   everything that's really involved with driving  and starting a business in past videos i've shared   information such as using a lean canvas business  model and that's a one pager which is essentially   going to help you dictate where your product  market will fit and kind of give you a really   brief overview on how you can start this business  and where you're going to be making money now even   though the lean canvas business model is a great  tool if you're just getting started if you're   truly wanting to grow this from a side hustle to a  full-time business you're gonna need to work on a   business plan and the business plan is essentially  broken up into different segments the very first   part of the business plan being the executive  summary now the executive summary is where i'd i'd   encourage you guys to start because sometimes it's  really daunting to create a 30 page business plan   on something that is that you're just starting  to work on so an executive summary is essentially   breaking down all of the important notes that  you need to truly start and grow this business   it could be about five pages and it touches on  the most important aspects such as the mission the   vision the purpose of the business the marketing  plan the sales strategy and the sales projections   now these are the things that you're going to  need in order to establish what your business is   who does it serve and more importantly how does it  make money and how much money should you be making   this year next year and the following year at the  very least it should be a three year projection   and the reason that you want to write this  executive summary is because you need to   have a starting point into how you're going  to be moving about your business or your brand   right you also need to identify who the audience  is for it so over the next several minutes   we're going to be diving into some of these  details but just keep these things in mind   now when it comes to actually showing you  guys how to write a business plan there's   a lot of videos out there and there's a lot of  pieces of information that we've included in the   ground up academy that'll guide you through  writing the business plan we also have some   templates in there that you guys can use that  are dedicated for apparel and manufacturing and   more the creative fields so you guys can download  those templates and start using them and writing   your plan so we give you guys essentially a  foundation to get started on so you don't have   to do it from scratch but in this video and the  purpose of this section is to help you really hone   in on the important things that you truly need  to think about as you begin writing this business   plan one of the key aspects to a business plan is  the mission statement now when i was first writing   a business plan in college i always thought  this was very fluff and high level stuff right   i never really thought that a mission statement  was that important but as i come to learn over the   years the mission statement is perhaps the most  crucial part of actually starting your business   it really sets the foundation in the road map for  how you're going to navigate it also communicates   with your team and your customers on how you do  business and the reason why you're in business   and more importantly it's going to guide you in  future directions and in future situations that   you may encounter you're always going to be using  your mission statement as a sounding board to new   ideas or opportunities or perhaps things that you  may be wondering if it's something that you should   do or definitely not be associated with so for  example the mission that we have here from the   ground up is that we bring clarity to business  and we help entrepreneurs build brands that   impact the world from the ground up now that's  essentially the mission that we have throughout   our content throughout the products the education  and everything that we do online it truly is the   guiding star of what we try to do and of course it  came with years of trying to develop that mission   statement it didn't come overnight but we started  with something now the mission statement is your   guiding star it's what you're going to be truly  reflecting on what opportunities or things you   should be doing as well as the ways that you're  going to communicate to your customers and to   your team now for us with from the ground up  our mission statement was that it was to bring   clarity to business and help entrepreneurs build  brands that impact the world from the ground up   and as we started working on a product drop  we knew that we needed it to be educational   as well as impactful in how we moved forward  with the products that we were going to create   it couldn't be something that was just done for  the sake of doing it it had to have a purpose   and a reason and because of that we knew that  the products that needed to be brought forward   were going to be things that brought clarity  to business to the life of an entrepreneur   and not only brought education but also motivation  and that's the reason why our product line still   relates to the mission as a company as a whole  the mission is still the guiding star to how we're   going to move forward even though we're going  to educate through a different medium which is   fashion and planners and things that are going to  help you on a day-to-day so you may be consuming   content right now on youtube or you may be a  part of our academy but now you're going to   have a physical product line and a thing that will  continue to remind you on a day to day basis why   it is that you're starting and doing what you're  doing another part of the business plan that's   going to be key for you to truly focus on and  think about is the goals that you're gonna set for   the next year two years and three years minimum  you heard that right guys you're gonna have to   plan for three years now now if you're watching  this chances are you're not you're not really a   planner but this business plan will get you into  the movement of starting to make plans and truly   looking at yourself on a month to month week by  week basis on how close you're getting to those   goals so for us as part of the ftgu merch line  we created goals that included over the next year   we want to be at 120 000 in revenue which would  break down to doing 10 000 in sales a month   the other part of the goal that we needed to have  is it needed to be a low touch option meaning it   couldn't be something that we were spending  a lot of time on but it had to be something   that was super impactful to our community it was  something that brought value that helped educate   them and more importantly move them forward so  we're not just creating a product line to just   go out there and print a bunch of slogans and  designs we're being very thoughtful into how we're   moving about this because we want it to be a low  touch option so we can focus on the person wearing   the products and then it's easy to kind of create  a one-year goal a one-year plan is something that   you can foresee because a year goes by really  fast right but when you start to you know expand   that into three years it could be a little bit  convoluted and it might not make as much sense   but as long as you stick to the mission into the  purpose of your brand you'll be able to work those   goals again so for us the three year goal is for  the brand to do over a million in revenue and more   importantly expand the product collections to drop  on a seasonal basis with an expanded product line   now that means that we're not only going to focus  on garments like t-shirts and planners but we're   going to expand into very specialized equipment  and products that entrepreneurs and business   owners need so that becomes our business plan  essentially i mean there's a lot of dif there's a   lot of different details in there in terms of the  marketing plan and things like that which we're   definitely going to be discussing throughout the  course of this video so you guys will have some   insight into how we're moving forward with our  brand and you'll be able to see us build it in   real time and if you become a customer of ours  you'll be able to see that journey firsthand   and truly get to experience what it is that  we're creating now to help you move the business   plan to fruition you're going to need a team but  before you start building a team it's going to be   key that you set structure to the processes  and the things involved with the operation   and more importantly identify the duties or  responsibilities within each role now if what   i just said is a little confusing to you let  me break it down a bit now the very first thing   before you start building a team is to identify  all the tasks associated with what it is that   you're doing now this means that to write down and  list every single thing that you work on every day   every week every month every quarter every year i  want you guys to be super detailed in this and the   reason that you want to do this is because you're  going to identify all of the tasks associated with   the business because the next thing that you want  to do is you want to start to categorize some of   these tasks so let's say you're going to launch  a product line you know that to launch a product   line you need to take photography right you need  to take photos you might do some videos you might   do some editing work on photoshop you might  work on some newsletters there's a lot of tasks   associated with launching a product line so what  you want to do is group every task into a role   so let's say that the product launch team is is a  role right and maybe it's somebody that has to be   creative you've identified that in order for you  to build and grow your company you need to step   aside from some of the very nuanced things such as  taking those photos editing those photos putting   out newsletters and maybe you're the designer  because that's your skill set and now you can be   focused on designing and that person that you hire  on can be focused on all of the things associated   with launching a product but you're going to do  this for everything associated with the business   from ordering supplies to ordering samples to  everything that's involved logistics shipping   literally every part of the business you want  to write down everything you're doing right now   and then you want to start to categorize  those groups bundle them into different roles   now the reason that you want to do this i'll  explain in a very short second but for right now   start there the next thing that you want to do is  you want to identify everything that you're doing   on a daily basis into three categories now what i  want you to do is take a piece of paper actually   can you give me a piece of paper cool a regular  sheet of paper right and you want to carry this   sheet of paper everywhere you go on a daily basis  now you're going to take a piece of paper you're   going to fold it into three columns on this left  side you're going to note down things i should not   be doing on the middle side you're going to note  down things that i could play a role in and on   this right side you're going to note down things i  should be focused on in order to grow the business   now that piece of paper you're going to carry  around in your back pocket and your backpack and   your tablet wherever you are you're going to carry  it everywhere you go and anytime you work on a   task you have to classify that task is this a task  that should be that you shouldn't be working on so   let's say you're sitting you just got an order  and now you're packaging it you're putting the   little packing slip you're checking the quality  of it before it goes out that is a task that you   should not be focused on it's an important task in  order for you to make the sale and get the money   but it's not a task that you should be doing so  you're going to write that on the left column   when it comes to the middle column  things that you could play a role in   these are going to be things that are going to  require your expertise but aren't necessarily   the things that you need to start from a to z now  this could be things like editing a photo right   photo editing maybe you have your brand style  kind of set and you have that artistic vision   but taking the photos themselves editing them  coordinating with models and doing all the work   associated with getting the photography for your  brand shouldn't be something that you should be   taking on yourself it could be something that  you play a role in because you're still leading   that direction and now on the right column is  going to be the things that you need to focus   on these are the things that are going to drive  your business and grow it now these are tasks   like if you're if you have a brand and you're a  designer that with a creative vision and every   design that you create people want to buy then  you should spend more time designing products   less time taking the photos and even don't no time  at all in actually packaging and shipping it out   so with this list and this three column fold i  want you to write down everything that you're   doing on a daily basis and truly identify  and categorize them in those positions by   doing that guys you're going to have clarity into  what it is that you truly need to be focused on   and which roles are going to be crucial to to  actually hiring on first and through that you'll   be able to identify which role the person will  fit in so if you know hey things that the middle   column things i can play a role in but still are  critical for the business growth maybe that column   gets a person hired on and then the things that  you should not be doing are is the most immediate   thing that you can easily hire on because it's  not something that's going to cost you much   it might be a virtual assistant or it might be  somebody that comes in part-time and just fulfills   those orders but you're no longer focusing on  doing those things all yourself now this is how   you're going to transition from a solopreneur  to an to a business owner and then you're going   to be able to focus on entrepreneurial things  that are going to continue to help you move your   brand and business forward equally important  before you hire your first person you should   really be thinking about setting structure to  the processes that you have for that position   and the first person that you hire may help you  in this process and that's going to be great   but either way you're going to need to create a  process and a structure to everything that you   do within your business so by taking the photos  from the packaging to the sales to whatever it   is you really need to start creating a structure  around it that you can hire somebody on and they   know what they're going to get themselves into on  the first day of work the last thing you want to   do is just bring somebody on and say hey i need  help with a bunch of different stuff and now   they're lost and they're wondering what their job  position is and it's not working out and you guys   just don't work out and it's because you didn't  identify what you really needed them to get done   because the fact of the matter is guys every  person that you hire on should only grow your   bottom line they shouldn't be draining from it  right so don't think of hiring an employee as   an investment that you're never going to see a  return on that employee should give you a return   it may not be in the first week two weeks month  two months three months and they start to really   play a bigger role within your company you'll see  that return on your investment come to fruition so   always think about hiring people as an investment  in your business because it's going to help you   create and generate more sales it's going to help  you create and generate relationships with your   customers and it's going to overall help you build  a team that you need to move the mission and the   business plan forward now once you've identified  the tasks that are needed and you start to bring   people on you'll see where their true strengths  and their weaknesses are so for us when it came   to launching the ftgu merch line we realized that  certain people had experience and the ability to   create the marketing and the collateral that we  needed the photography to the videography to the   messaging so we put them into positions that they  were going to excel at likewise you guys need to   be thinking about where are you going to fit the  person in once they start working so if they start   working with you and you see hey this person  is really good at this i should give them more   of those tasks versus trying to pile them onto  something that isn't going to be their natural   fit or where they really feel comfortable so  for us the way that we broke down our duties   or responsibilities within the ftgu merch line is  going to be the following one of the dors that we   had was marketing which included branding social  media emails campaign and the official rollout   the next part of the dor includes a product  design now this includes things like creating the   graphic what the themes collection and the  messaging is going to be as well as the artwork   placement the production of it the sampling and as  we dive into this process you guys will see how it   all came together the next part is logistics which  includes the website design which platforms to use   uh the inventory of it the skewing the  organization of how we're going to be moving   inventory between fulfillment centers all of this  are things that you need to think about because   that all happens behind the scenes as we start  selling the product which brings us into the sales   and in the sales part we had to really identify  price points seasonality trends packages that   we may create in order to move inventory all of  these are things that we're going to be diving   into in detail over the next few minutes we're  excited as you learn hands-on from the people   that were helping us do our own launch that have  helped us build this company and this business   that are mentors to us and more importantly  that we look up to because they really truly   specialize in these fields so we're excited  to get started let's jump right into this one if the business plan helps you set your  foundation for what it is you're going to   be doing the operations of the business is going  to be the meat and bones of how to get it done   so in this chapter we're going to be talking  about a couple of different things that are   going to help new entrepreneurs as well as  establish entrepreneurs truly help build and   grow their brand and we decided to break  it apart into two sections with the first   section really being about the accounting  and the basics of what you truly need   to help establish and keep track of your finances  as well as remain in good standing with the irs   and the different laws that are associated with  states and in the second part we're going to be   diving into the raising of capital as well  as operationally how are you going to sell   your products we begin by obtaining the business  license now the business license is going to be   obtainable through the state that you're operating  in so for us we're going to be getting it through   nevada you can also choose to get it in different  states depending on different tax purposes again   we're not certified to be able to give you any  legal advice in this video so we definitely   advise you to contact a tax attorney or  a lawyer to truly establish where your   business should be from but in our example and  in our case we establish our business in nevada   so to begin we're going to start off with a  business structure and the business structure   is going to be what you guys decide is best for  your business for your life for your tax situation   all of the advice that we give in this chapter is  not legal advice so make sure you guys contact an   attorney now the business structure is essentially  going to dictate how you're going to be formed in   your state meaning are you going to be an llc  are you a partnership are you a sole proprietor   all of these are questions that you're going to  need to decide once you figure out how you're   going to structure the business the next thing is  to get a business license and depending on which   state you go to a lot of times every state has a  government portal well you can do this on your own   by simply registering the type of business that  you mean to operate with now on the low starting   point if you're on a budget and if you're  just doing it yourself a sole proprietor is   definitely the lowest cost way to do it a lot of  times states offer the business license for free   now if you're an llc you're going to have to pay  an added fee because now you're a company and   of course the state wants to get their nice  cut of taxes on you but nonetheless choose   the best option that's for you once you get the  business license established the next part is to   register with the government and you're going to  do this through the irs website which is irs.gov   and right there you can register for your ein  number the ein number is essentially your business   social security number which is going to be used  in place of your personal social security number   when it comes to opening up business bank  accounts which leads us into the business   bank account option now this part is something  that a lot of entrepreneurs oftentimes make up   huge mistaken and i personally made a mistake  in when i first got started and that is in not   opening up a business account that's separate  from your personal finances now the reason for   this is gonna is gonna compile as we talk in this  conversation you'll know the importance of why you   should be doing this but the business bank account  is essentially going to be opened up under the   business formation the structure that you got the  business license that you got with the state as   well as the irs paperwork you received with those  two things you can open up a business bank account   and that business bank account is essentially  going to be opened up with a couple dollars   sometimes it's like a 50 100 minimum deposit  but i encourage you guys to get an account   under the business name and the reason for that  is because you want to have all your transactions   going through the business account versus putting  transactions in your personal on some credit cards   you don't want that because then it becomes super  complicated when it comes down to tax season which   we're going to be talking about a little in a  moment so make sure you open up a business bank   account under your business name which then  allows you to get a sales and use tax permit   now the sales and use tax permit is essentially  your reseller permit a lot of times when you   want to go buy wholesale people will ask  you for your sales and use tax permit   so make sure you register with your city or  your county wherever you're located google   your city sales tax permit and a lot of times  you want to make sure you're on the government   side and you'll be able to enter in the business  bank account information you you opened as well   as the ein numbers and your business license  and you can finally register for that sales   tax permit which will allow you to buy wholesale  from almost any company if all these steps sound a   little confusing or maybe it's a lot of work trust  me guys it's really not you just got to go through   each site and just fill in the boxes but there's  also resources such as legalzoom and rocket lawyer   which will help you through this process they do  have an added fee though so if you're on a budget   it's not that hard doing it on your own now that  you established a business legally as well as the   structure in your bank accounts the biggest thing  that entrepreneurs need to know if you're watching   this is the accounting portion of it because  as you sell products and as you move inventory   at the end of each year you have to report to  the irs what your profits and losses were and   if you're not accounting for it the right way out  the gate it's going to take you weeks hours a lot   of spent time trying to manage these things later  on so the biggest tip of advice that i mentioned   earlier is to have a business bank account and  to go one step further is to have two different   accounts in that bank account at a minimum you  want to have your operating account which is where   all of the inflows of your cash is going to go and  then you want to have a secondary checking account   which is going to be where you move the funds to  pay for taxes or to just have separate from the   operating account and the reason for that a lot  of times guys is as a business you can quickly get   scammed you lose a debit card something happens  and they put a freeze on the operating account   you don't want the freeze to happen to all of  your funds in your business account like then   you don't have access to it so you always want to  make sure you're moving funds between operating   to that secondary checking account and then paying  out your taxes or payroll from that secondary   bank account um so at the very minimum have two  checking accounts open with every bank account   an incoming and an outgoing checking account at  the very minimum so once you have those business   bank accounts established every transaction that  you do for the business has to go through those   accounts don't go using your personal debit  card or your visa credit card anymore you   want to put it all in the business especially  if you're an llc or you're incorporated as a   as a corporation you want everything to be  separated from your personal finances to the   business finances that way you have that corporate  protection that llcs and corporations have   so once you do that the next step is in truly  making sure that you're printing out every   monthly statement i know this is kind of kind  of redundant right but the secondary thing that   you want to do is make sure you're receiving e  statements all right don't get those paper ones   that you lose and then you have to scan later on  just get the e statements every month you want to   go into the bank account and you want to see your  statement see what the incoming outgoing expenses   were and then you want to save that into a google  drive now you want to organize the google drive   folders by year so if it's 2021 you do 2021  and then you organize each statement by month   so it'll be january february march april and so  on you want to upload the statements into the   corresponding month that way you're keeping all  of your business transactions in each month so   if you're just getting started at the end of the  year what's going to happen is you're going to   bring all of your statements to the accountant  and now that you've organized it by month you   simply print them out or just give them access  to those statements through the google drive   and now they can do your accounting a lot quicker  than you having to go back and provide them   all this information if you do it while you're  actively working the business it not only helps   you organize each statement into each month but  it allows you to truly reflect on the money that   you're bringing in and the money that is going  out so always make sure you're keeping an eye on   those bank statements and you're keeping an eye  on every transaction that's going in and out of   your business not only does this method keep you  in good standing with the irs it will also help   you consolidate those quarterly tax returns that  the wholesale license will require from you and in   addition to those statements you're also going to  need to have the inventory organized which we're   going to be speaking on more on the inventory  section but for now just make sure you're coming   into this practice where you guys are organizing  every statement into each month and then you   create a new folder for every receipt right so  every receipt that you have for the business as   a transaction that you did so if you bought some  supplies from a vendor in downtown l.a grab that   receipt scan it in upload it to the corresponding  months under the receipt folder and now you'll be   better protected when it comes to the any any  future audit that you may have you need to be   able to keep track of every single transaction  that you do in person as well as online and   using the cloud such as google drive is a great  place to start now some high level tax tips is   hire a bookkeeper and a personal accountant that's  going to be organizing and managing your business   the reason for this is because it takes a lot of  time to do all of the monthly reporting if you   have payroll once you start organizing and hiring  employees doing payroll submitting the taxes to   the state to the federal side takes a lot of time  so hand off the work but as long as you start with   this structure you'll easily be able to add them  to those folders and they could easily manage it   and at least you're in a good rhythm of what to  expect you know what's coming in you know what's   going out and you're that much more prepared for  what's to come it's also key that the accountant   at the very minimum provides you with a quarterly  statement of your performance of the business   what this means is like what is a true profit and  loss what's the balance sheet how are the cash   flows looking all of these statements are going  to be key for you to understand the true health   of your business just because you're making good  money doesn't mean that you're actually keeping it   or how does keeping that money get then reinvested  into growing the business a lot of this stuff are   things that you're going to have to be looking  at at an ongoing basis and at the very minimum   you should have a quarterly report that truly  breaks down where your business is right now   and where you're going to be heading into next  quarter if you don't make some changes by keeping   track of your finances on a monthly and quarterly  basis you'll also be able to make decisions on   how you can reinvest some of the profits so you  don't have to get taxed at the federal level   meaning if you have a profit of let's say 20  000 and a quarter and you know that it's going   to spill over into the new year eventually then  maybe you should consider purchasing some pieces   of equipment for the business maybe it's a vehicle  maybe it's a down payment on a new location these   are all questions that you need to make before  the year ends because then you have a profit and   there's nothing that you can do about it and then  you have to pay taxes on that so either way you're   paying taxes throughout the entire year so why  not help reinvest those profits that you're making   into the business versus just giving it out to  the government for the sake of giving it to them   eventually it's going to go to them everything  goes back if you're doing your paperwork right   you're going to be paying your taxes regularly  this isn't any kind of scam that you're doing but   buying equipment reinvesting your profits into  growing the business is key especially as you're   just getting started now for those of you guys  that are watching and are saying okay i have   all this i've been doing this how do i grow my  brand the next part in growing is going to be   about having the right funding and the right cash  reserves to be able to invest into your growth   so i want to introduce you guys to kevin rayford  who's my personal mentor he has a business   background in management with hp and some amazing  companies as well as a graduate of the wharton   school of business so if you guys don't know  that's one of the most elite business schools   in the nation in the country perhaps the world so  this guy really knows what he's talking about when   it comes to financing capital investment and truly  working to build the finances to scale your brand   so i know you guys will take a lot  of resources away from him as well   as information so make sure you're ready  to take some notes and let's get into that   hello i'm kevin rayford professor of camera to  a lot of people my background is in finance and   marketing undergraduate degree university of  pennsylvania the wharton school and my graduate   work at university north carolina chapel hill  i also run nevada grow which is a venture fund   that helps small businesses grow in the state of  nevada i also work for the sba and help do small   business consulting and so basically what i'm here  to do is help you get acclimated and help you get   some information about what you want to do to grow  your business i've worked for some major companies   whole foods snapple johnson johnson hp all those  companies bought and sold companies or got bought   so the key thing is that hopefully what i tell you  be insightful and like i said that's my background   my most recent position was in silicon valley so  i'm going to give you a venture capital overview   from the silicon valley world so hopefully  that'll be helpful and please enjoy for those of you guys that are wondering how you  can get funding you want to make sure that you   have your financial paperwork in order you may  want to go to a local bank or you know even get   a credit card but before you do that make sure  that you understand how much money you have in   the bank how much money you can spend if you  don't have five thousand dollars in savings be   prepared to say hey this is how much money i have  but i'm really a hard worker and somebody's going   to work with you i mean there's a lot of banks  there's a lot of local lenders there's a lot of   small community development agencies that'll give  you funding and so don't worry about if you don't   have a lot of money we don't have a great a great  credit history people are going to work with you   they really want to give you the money they really  want to see you succeed so i would say you know   start getting a paperwork in order just knowing  what your fico score is knowing your your credit   situation knowing what bills you have upcoming  knowing how much time you can devote to maybe work   a part-time job but not you know losing the time  that you want to dedicate to your own personal job   so the key thing is if you're starting a company  right now look at your financial situation   be honest with yourself look at how much money you  have it's a thousand five thousand dollars that's   fine 500 hours that's fine but look at what you  have and then you can go to the bank and say here   here's my situation can somebody work with me and  yes the answer is always going to be yes but this   is what we need and so you'll be successful if  you have you know just 15 hours in your pocket   sometimes getting a nice little bank loan to  get you started even if it's with a credit card   if you're looking for a bank that'll work with you  first place you want to go to is a small business   administration sba.gov website there you'll see a  lot of lenders who pride themselves on being sba   lenders which is a small business administration  and they're going to work with you especially   if you're a young aspiring entrepreneur with  not a lot of experience and not a lot of money   those banks are here to help and  they will get funding from the sba   to really provide collateral so that way if you  might be a risky uh client it won't really impact   the bank all that much because the sba is going  to give them collateral to back up your loan and   so don't be ashamed to say hey i don't have a lot  of money i'm really trying to start my company i   really don't have that much experience but i'm a  hard worker and you can get some financing to at   least get you know your first order or your first  products and get them out there on the market   what i would always advise entrepreneurs before  you ask friends or family or anyone in your   circle for money is to have your expectations and  your visions laid out you know not just in your   head but on paper this is what i plan on selling  this is how much it cost me to make or sell this   product this is how long it takes me to sell this  product this is how much the product is going to   cost and this how much product is going to retail  for or if you're going to sell it online is the   price that customers are going to pay then let  them know what your margins are going to be this   is my profit now i got fixed costs i got to pay  back these fixed costs before i can pay you a dime   so here's what i'm going to say is  that i need a thousand dollars from you   i'll give you five thousand dollars at the end of  the year and then if they go okay that's fine then   you know you got a partner who's gonna support  you but be very specific be very quantitative   if you borrow ten thousand i'll give you twelve  thousand dollars back in nine months is that okay   have a handshake and put that in writing  but be very clear with what you're doing   what the timelines are going to be how much money  you need what you're going to use the money for   and when you're going to pay them back at least  that way if they agree to it you're fine and it's   cool if you can pay them back sooner or pay them  back even more that way when it's timeframe due to   your re-up they go wow you know this is worth it  i'm making you know a better return on you than i   am at a bank so people want to see be successful  that's what i remember be an optimist people want   to see you be successful and of course they want  their money back but the key thing is just go hard   keep grinding but be legit you know be upfront and  tell people where they're going to get their money   back how much they need from you and what you're  going to spend the money on and periodically   give them some updates or break them off a  little piece of your product you know here   here's the shirts that we're making here here's  two for you and your family and then they'll feel   great that you know trying to help them out so  i would always say be upfront with the dollars   and be upfront what you're doing and always  check in and you're going to be successful venture capital is very interesting  and so there's really no   short fast you know one-size-fits-all answer now  i'll give you some insight on venture capital   from silicon valley like i said before i used to  work in palo or shallow alto where money was never   an option so when you go to pitch your deal don't  worry about the money they have the money now the   challenge is going to be is they want to return  some venture capitalists they only see about a 1   out of 2 000 success rate 1 out of 2 000.  so be careful so they're going to want   a huge return on investment so if they give you  a million you know they're going to want you know   200 million they're gonna hopefully hope that you  get to be a billion dollar company and that's real   talk so the key thing is some people you know  they've got a one out of 25 rate of success so   they don't so they're not going to be pressing as  much sometimes about you know who knows maybe like   a one in 10 success rate of 10 so the key thing  is it all depends on which venture capital house   you're going to visit now that being the case  is know what your goals are be prepared to deal   with that now people who want this huge rate of  return they don't care what they invest in they're   totally agnostic they don't care whether it's a  brothel or a daycare center they want their money   and so going with that mentality so don't think  oh well if i tell this sad story about how   i met my husband at a dental office and you know  we saw these donuts and we have a donut shop and   we're going to call it after our first daughter's  name they don't want to hear that story they want   to hear how many donuts you can sell what that  turnaround rate's going to be what the profit's   going to be what their return invest is going  to be who's going to be a part of your team   and how you can make money off of those donuts so  you know it might be a touching story but leave   those at home the key thing is is that make sure  you can show that you're going to make a lot of   money for these people and that's what it's all  about sometimes they're very agnostic they just   want their return they want it as soon as possible  as much as possible but do your research some   venture capitalists you know they might have lower  rate rate term requirements some are extremely   high like i mentioned you know that they're going  to give you you know pretty clear deal sheets but   before you sign them make sure you're comfortable  with that before you end up signing your life away getting just your deal to be heard is a  challenge now i'm giving the silicon valley   background so getting your deal to be heard is  always going to be a challenge so if you send   an email it's not going to get read you know  99 chance it won't even get read so what you   want to do is you want to actually be knocking  on doors go to these mixers go to these events   venture capitalists are always at these events  you know digital mba those kind of activities   and so what you want to do is everybody you see  start chatting them up you don't know who's going   to be the admin you know who the venture capital  person is you know you can go on linkedin but you   still might not be able to match the face with  the profile so i sat on a lot of venture boards   and so people would ask me questions about kevin  what deals should i fund they wanted my background   being at hp and bing and tech so i would go to  these meetings and people ask me so kevin i see   your name tag what do you do and i would tell  them all the time i bag groceries at whole foods   and i go oh wow that's pretty cool how did you  get here well a buddy of mine invited me but   i'd love to hear your idea i hear you  have a good idea that you want to pitch   no no no that's okay we'll go ask somebody else  but really by doing that they just shut their door   on themselves because i want to hear your deal you  also make sure you're nice to everybody who you   run into so once you get into a venture capital  meeting or a networking event tell everybody about   your deal don't worry about somebody stealing  your idea no one's going to steal your idea   what they want to do is they want to see if you're  a cool person can they support you and can they   back you then they're going to give you their card  then you send an email if you just send an email   or just in a text message without any context  it's not going to get read but the key thing too   is that you want to make sure you meet a lot of  people get a lot of traction because people with   a lot of money even these vcs are sitting on top  of the presidents or the senior vice presidents   they want other people's opinions but it's always  going to be their main factor is that they're the   decision maker so make sure anybody can talk to  they can say you know hey i champion this person   or i'll vouch for this guy i vouch for this lady  i vouch for this couple that's what's going to be   huge because venture capital will see stanford  graduates every day pitching them ideas and so   this is in shallow out like i mentioned before now  you got students from berkeley harvard mit oxford   pitching him ideas every day so just being smart  is not going to do it just having that paper that   degree is not going to do it but show them that  you're very hard working and talk to everybody   you can get 100 people to say you know what  this idea is really cool and most importantly   i buy into this person so always make sure anybody  you run into you have a great idea especially   we're in a you know silicon valley or any place  where venture capital austin or you know over   in the boston area or research triangle talk to  everybody don't worry about people stealing ideas   they're not going to do that but put everything  on paper you know in in your desk but also to   have things in your mind and always have your  elevator pitch ready to pitch your idea and get   ready to make a lot of money it's always good to  have a good elevator pitch and what that's going   to incorporate is just this is my product this is  how much it's going to cost me there's how much i   can sell it for or my service would it cost me to  produce it but also too what's going to sell for   and how many units i can sell quickly and then you  want to go into the a little bit of the how and   the y at the very end but the main thing i would  say have eller pitch hey i've got these widgets   they cost me 20 cents to make i can sell them for  18 kids are going to buy them they're going to get   so lit it's going to be so hype wait till you see  what i'm doing and then it goes okay fine that's a   huge margin can i get in how do you do it or can  you show them the how and then i'm gonna go why   you because i'm the best i work hard i'm a grinder  i sleep three hours a day you know all that kind   of stuff i mean those people want to hear so give  them the others to tell them what it is what your   profit margin is going to be and why you're the  right person to bring that to fruition when it   comes to raising funding and financing just think  about the motives of people who you're pitching um   when i first started i was 21 years old and worked  for a big pharmaceutical company and we would have   in-house venture capital pitches because you only  have a certain amount of money to bring a drug to   market and so if you can only bring four drugs to  market you're really pitching the president inside   the company about what you should bring to market  now you got to see what his or her motives are for   that one year to see what you're gonna bring to  market so first of all company you might have one   drug that says you know what we can make a billion  dollars on this drug in five years well they may   say well you know that takes too long well this  one is only take two years and make it 300 million   dollars okay well that might be what they want or  this drug will really save the lives of children   you would hope they would say let's pick the one  that saves the lives of children regardless of   how much money it's going to make however that  might not be always the case so be very careful   understand the motive about who you're pitching  if they're old they may want their money sooner   if they're young and they want to you know start  you know sucking up their chick chips you know   racks on racks i guess they maybe say you know  what i don't mind if i get my money back in seven   years but be careful to decide who you're pitching  because whoever gonna pitch they've got different   motives and you know understand those motives  and if they're very philanthropic and they want   to care about animals or the environment then lead  with that pitch but do your research and find out   who you're pitching because not everybody cares  about you know a long-term investment some people   want their money tomorrow some people don't want  their money for years upon years and some people   they care about the environment they care about  kids they care about animals and so they may be   like hey i want to invest in you because i  like what you're doing so always understand   the motivation behind who you're pitching and  whether they're going to want to fund you so   what i want you guys to understand is that when  you start a business do something that's going to   break a mold or break a paradigm and so you always  hear about the time you know supply and demand   and so there's a little chart that shows you know  dollars and quantity and so what makes it simple   isn't very simple and so it's pretty obvious that  um nine times out of ten the higher the price is   the lower the product gets bought and so that's  why you know this is a demand curve right there   that's a d and if you're selling something the  higher you can charge the more you actually want   to make however equilibrium people say it's always  right here where supply meets demand but what i   would encourage you to do is think outside the  box you've got a company like uh supreme right   sometimes for them it's the opposite the  higher they charge the more people demand   their product so think about something that you  think can make your demand curve surprisingly   be upward sloping and that's only where i would  encourage people you guys can do it with tick-tock   put things out there charge a higher price and  you might be able to sell more of that quantity   so for a lot of luxury products or even it could  be a beverage i mean think about if you're going   to go get a beverage remember beverages are not  food they're fashion so people want to see what   you're drinking and i live in las vegas so people  want to say okay wow if this bottle is priced at   40 and i don't want that was it 400 now now you  got me thinking so a lot of beverages a lot of   clothing items people really want to pay more so  the higher you charge sometimes the higher your   demand so think about creating a real big critical  massive who wants your product who are buying into   what you're doing and then surprisingly i don't  care if it's plants or rugs or couches if you   charge more people are going to want it because  they believe that it's special it's more luxury   and you know the quantities are limited so i  would look for things where you can say hey   i'm going to put some solid branding behind it do  a cool tick-tock video get a couple influencers   and be an influencer yourself and charge a decent  price and make a lot of money because really   you don't need to cut your prices because people  want to pay if they feel that's worth the product   for the product a lot of times people watch  shows like shark tank and i wonder where these   valuations come from or what they're going to  do with yourself or you know should i take this   motivation and take the money what are their  motivations always consider what you're worth   and what your company's worth now the key thing is  that go in with a lot of uh self-esteem going very   positive going very energetic i mean the saying  is true if you ask for money you're going to get   advice if you ask for advice then you'll get the  money so the key thing is if you think you've got   a million dollar company or a million dollar  idea right and so the sharks are gonna see that   and they're gonna say okay i'll give you a hundred  thousand dollars for 10 of your company now what   you want to say immediately is okay so you  know the math they know you know the math   a hundred thousand dollars is ten percent of a  million dollar company however there's always   room to negotiate try to tell them you know what  this is a two million dollar company it's a four   million dollar company and that's easy number to  do because if you say two million dollar company   they owe you what two hundred thousand dollars  and you're going to tell them you know what   i might say you know what i want more control over  my company so you give me a thousand dollars it's   really a two million dollar company that's gonna  get you five percent of my companies i'll give   you ten percent but you said i know what i said  but just coming on the stage and getting ready to   blow up i know i can get more so keep up something  simple for that kind of math but hundred thousand   dollars means it's a million dollar company and  hundred thousand dollars get you ten percent that   company a hundred thousand dollars gives you  five percent of a two million dollar company   and two hundred thousand dollars gives you  ten percent of a two million dollar company   if um you wanna start low and just get a a feel  for how the math works so for example if i know   i've got ten thousand dollars and i'm going  to have sales of a hundred thousand dollars   but i know that in order for me to hit these  sales i need additional funding so that can buy my   products then i may ask for another ten thousand  dollars and whoever gives me ten thousand dollars   now they would own ten percent of my company if  it's valued at a hundred thousand dollars and what   i'll do is i'll often remember get offered them  a perk so if they give you ten thousand dollars   you might say okay i'll  give you uh your money back   but also two you own ten percent of my company  you're giving them back their original investment   and the only ten percent of your company and you  might even wanna give them you know an item or uh   some clothing garments if it's a clothing company  just so they want to keep in doing your re-up   because the key thing is you want three to four  layers of financing you don't want us to go once   and be done you want to keep growing so people  get in in the beginning they're going to get more   then your company gets bigger a hundred thousand  dollars might only get somebody one percent of   your company so the key thing is that make  sure you have your rio but the early people   are going to want a large amount of your company  because they're coming in as first stage investors   so if i were to look at your uh early financing  and just to keep it pretty simple if you've got   a hundred thousand dollar company and you just  know you need to raise ten thousand dollars so   ten thousand dollars get somebody tempers in your  company okay now you've already been able to use   that money you've actually sold your product  and so a year later your company is worth five   hundred thousand dollars people are like wow  this company's blowing up so now somebody says   you know what i want a part of your company how  much do you want i want 10 of your company well   10 percent of your company from that perspective  it's not going to be the same you know apples to   apples so 10 percent of you know 500 50 000 would  get you 10 of the company and so the key thing is   you want to make sure people who you know come  in later but also too you may want to charge a   premium so with that case saying you know what  i want a longer payback period because we're   trying to go to a million dollar company or a 200  company so if you give me fifty thousand dollars   that might take you know four or five years to  get paid back and then you'll still get that   part of the company but you won't get your money  back as soon as you wanted to before because now   we're trying to grow our company exponentially  and people in the late stages they know that it   might be an ipo coming down the road and so  an ipo initial public offering which means   they're going to get really paid could be selling  stock that'll come later they're willing to wait   five to seven years now for that payback period  for the 50 000 example to get 10 of a 500 000   company they're going to look at what they could  have spent that money on so the key thing is the   longer the payback period the more you better  be able to deliver because if i'm getting 50 000   i could buy a car with that right now and get  instant satisfaction so the key thing is that   the more money people give you the more they're  going to want that money back sooner however   if you show that you're going to be more certain  giving them back that money then it makes it a   little bit easier but i would say right now if  you're going to start a company and you know you   really do believe that you have a million dollar  idea then i would start asking people for okay the   first series i'm going to take only people who  are going to give me a hundred thousand dollars   okay and i'm gonna take maybe two or three of  those then the next time for the re-up i'm going   to say people only give me 200 thousand dollars i  mean they make two or three of those and then the   key thing is that you're not running a ponzi  scheme so you wanna make sure people get the   money back and you're doing those sales the policy  scheme is of course taking money from one group   investors then paying people back in the future  by getting money from future investors and that's   something you don't want to do because that you  know you can catch a case over that right bernie   may now but the key thing is is that you know rest  in peace burning man i don't be talking bad about   the debt it's just a matter of yeah be careful  when it comes to kind of situations because   upon him gets in trouble but the key thing is is  that if you want to get early investors start with   you know something like pretty small you get a  million dollar company i would start off with   100 000 investors maybe two or three of those just  to cover your risk if you can now the challenge is   um if you don't have enough money you might have  to seek other sources but i would start off with   people give a hundred thousand dollars that way  they just get ten percent of that of your company   don't do more than three or four because you  still want to own at least 50 of your company   or hopefully six percent of your company and that  way you know you still control your company you   still are spreading out the risk and not having  to lose all your upfront investment the one thing   i would like to just share with you and i just you  know always bring in seasonality and so whenever i   look at a good business plan i think all the time  you know give me your seasonality and so go well   nah i just take my yearly sales and divide it  by 12 months you're going to get a no every   single time always factor in seasonality january  through december right and so if you're going to   be selling snow cones right low in january peak in  the summer time and then down in december i don't   care for selling paper towels to schools well if  they prepare thousands of schools then i would   think that in the months where school is going  to be in i'll be selling more more paper towels   right so that'll be you know when i get down to  august september october right and then you know   they might trickle down and then when school  gets out in may or june you know i won't be   selling any paperwork but the thing i'm saying is  that every business has seasonality so don't ever   come say well no my business is totally i divided  by 12. even if you're in banking or doing taxes   you're going to have seasonality whether  they appear early like during tax time   or always make sure you build some seasonality  into your business and be prepared to deal with   the having money at certain times and having  to invest money in your company different times when it comes to your cash flow always make sure  you have enough cash on hand to take advantage   of situations in my background hp i remember i'm  dating myself but i remember when um dvd burners   were first of all to get put into computers and cd  burners and so i'm like telling our factory buy as   many as we possibly can or hp buy every single one  on a planet who is not going to want a computer   that can burn dvds and burn cds and so we're just  finding everything we can but fortunately hp had   the money to do that so when you come to your  company don't go bare bones if you get a deal   take it so i would always say at least three  or four months before you need your money   start stocking your chips because you're gonna  find somebody who's gonna offer you a great deal   and so basically you're gonna have your money  here and then the deal's not gonna come to here   but make sure you can bridge that gap with the  cash you have on hand and take advantage of that   and then something that's not going to expire or  you know it's not going to spoil always have money   to be able to buy that when it comes to technology  or or a great product you know it's going to sell   maybe four or five months down the road buy as  many as you can and then people who are your   competitors make them buy from you but there's  always a chance to always stack your chips up try   to have at least four or five months of money on  hand to take advantage of some great deals if you   enjoyed this kind of discussion i would reach out  to me or my team at nvgrow.org that's nvgrow.org or feel free to go to your local small  business administration and they have   people who think the same way also too you can  go to sba.gov now what i want to leave you with   is this always make sure you're being true to  yourself the money is going to come it's not that   hard there's still money out there there's still  a lot of great opportunities to take advantage   of just make sure that you know you are who you  are if you're gangsta be gangsta if you're not   don't but the key thing is that people are going  to see that you're legitimate you're hard working   stay on your grind and there's money out there  and i would always encourage you to keep on trying   don't give up don't take no for an answer  and don't expect success the very first time   all the top film producers have made bad movies  in their first three rounds but then they go   and win academy awards so don't think that's  going to come overnight but keep on going hard   you're going to be awesome i'm in  your corner please stay in touch now if you're looking to raise a round of funding  to help launch your brand just make sure that   you're looking into the business plan and you're  truly laying out how the money is going to be used   investors want to know how they're going to  get a return on their investment so it's key   that you truly consider that portion now you may  not know but raising a round of funding may take   longer than you think there's a lot of pitching  there's a lot of people going back and forth as to   why it wouldn't work now the best way to attract  investors or anyone else that you want to be a   part of your business is to show that you have  a proof of concept now proof of concept is   essentially proving the idea that you have and  it doesn't have to take thousands of dollars to   show that one of the easiest and low-cost way  to do it is to actually start an online store   now when it came to us launching the ftgu merch  that included the planner the stationery and all   the other products that we have we really had two  options and the team was torn about which option   to go to now the first option that you have is  to do a low-cost online store with a version   of wordpress and essentially wordpress is one of  the largest online platforms for e-commerce stores   a lot of different websites when it came to the  lowest cost option using wordpress is definitely   the way to go now wordpress is a online website  building platform that's not just for e-commerce   it actually allows you to build almost any kind of  website that you can imagine and most websites are   really built on this platform but when it comes  to creating an e-commerce store on wordpress it   could be a little tricky to navigate which is  where a service provider such as hostinger is   a great option and solution for this now hosting  or partnered with us on this video to help raise   awareness of their offering and one of the key  things that i really like about hostinger is the   fact that they have an easy to use dashboard now  with that dashboard you're easily able to plug   in wordpress and all the associated apps to help  you launch an online store now without a platform   like hostinger it definitely becomes something  where you have to kind of piece things around and   try to find where you're going to host a wordpress  platform how it integrates to wordpress how you're   going to get woocommerce installed there's a lot  of logistics when launching an e-commerce store on   wordpress that may not be as easy to the beginner  but hostinger definitely makes it a lot easier   now best of all a lot of their hosting plans  start at just three dollars a month and since we   collaborated with them on this video by using john  at checkout or using the links in the description   down below you guys will be able to get a plan  for the low low so make sure you guys go check   that out it's definitely going to help those that  are on a budget to prove that proof of concept   now the other option that we have to launching  an ecommerce store is an out-of-the-box solution   what this means is a platform that has everything  all in one where you don't have to integrate   third-party platforms to build your website on  it just comes all included and for this we're   looking into big commerce and bigcommerce  is an out-of-the-box solution that truly   allows you to not just start but scale your brand  internationally and they do this by not having any   third-party merchant processing fees now this is a  big deal when it comes to you selling in different   markets that may not have simple service providers  you might have to plug into other country service   providers bigcommerce doesn't charge any  transaction fees on that another good reason   we're considering bigcommerce is their ability to  connect to third-party platforms such as walmart   amazon etsy instagram facebook they literally  connect to almost any platform to help you   distribute your products really easily since  bigcommerce partnered with us on this video   by using the links in the description down below  you guys will be able to get a 30 day free trial   no risk you guys can test it out for yourself to  see if it's a really good fit between you and your   brand but nonetheless selecting an online service  provider an online platform to help put your   products up online and start selling it is going  to be the key to actually getting investors or   just moving your brand forward don't get stuck on  not having the funds to actually launch the brand   launch the product online go out and sell it  which really leads us into the marketing process my name is jason hill i'm 22 years  old i'm the founder of mentality   and one of the owners yeah so what is mentality  that's that's one of the hardest questions we   usually have to answer just because we've got  so many avenues we could go towards you know   yesterday john was talking about building a sports  complex you know with full basketball courts   pickleball indoor turf for soccer and football  so and then right now our i guess our our main   backbone right now is our clothing but i mean  we've not only sold but sold out neon signs   banners necklaces so there's lots of different  avenues we could go but i guess the main constant   is the sentence on our instagram bio which  is a culture of ambition one of our biggest   differences between other clothing brands is 70 of  our marketing is organic from instagram so 70 is   instagram 30 is probably paid ads with facebook  tick tock pinterest just paid ads in general so   yeah that's that stems from us building the  instagram page the past three years um got   100 000 followers is when we launched our first  drop and then we just continued building from   there and now here we are two years later almost 2  million followers building an audience in general   is one of the most important things you could  probably do for your business before mentality   i actually started a clothing brand and it failed  within three or four months and that was due to   lack of audience and lack of creating an actual  brand image and i think just learning from that   is where i started using the aesthetics more  and building a brand identity and that's how   everyone just relates to mentalities with  the message and the branding and aesthetics   if i were to start a clothing brand um today  i would definitely go into tik tok or youtube   um me personally from my experience i was  on youtube trying to grow my channel i went   onto instagram this was back in 2017-2018  and i just realized quickly how fast and   organic uh the algorithm for instagram was and  today it's basically tick-tock doing that so   yeah if i were to start today definitely be  tick-tock or youtube the key to growth i would say   is uh building a brand identity and understanding  what audience you're trying to target for example   mentality is was at the start i was just posting  football content basketball content and then we   started branching out to more sports and just  general quotes in general such as business and   entrepreneurs so mentality is more of an athlete's  page and then it just started growing organically   and more business-minded people entrepreneurs  started following and then uh the other side of   things float um it's more a la of a laid-back page  so i was targeting female audiences for that and   that page is i'd say 60 to 70 female and mentality  is a total opposite which is 80 20 80 mail so   just understanding what audience you're trying to  target and what type of content you need to create   that audience some challenges we faced growing  on instagram was that definitely once you hit   the 500 000 to 700 000 follower range you can't  really grow through i'd say uh paid shout outs or   just shout outs in general by then depending on  your niche but definitely for us just posting   these regular quotes we just started growing  through reshares so by then hopefully you would   build a pretty high quality audience who engages  well with your post and they would just re-share   your posts on their stories and  it would organically just create   a little tribe of like-minded people so  that's what happened with mentality and   that's what we're trying to do with float as  well you definitely want to build an audience   before you start selling a product that's that  was one of the first mistakes i made creating   my first clothing brand it was actually a  drop shipping brand so i just wanted to test   the audience that only had about 30 000 followers  at the time and yeah it failed pretty big and then   after that after that failed i spent about  a year building the audience to 100 000   followers and that's when mentality came about  our personal experience growing mentality we we   used paid shout outs we used products sending  products out to our friends who own big pages   as well as athletes and then another thing  that drives a lot of engagement is giveaways   so those three things right there is basically the  whole basis of our growth so definitely figure out   the right content to use for your shout outs start  small 20 30 shout outs figure out what works best   and scale it up just like you would with paid ads  for your products one of the most important things   we do in mentality is leveraging our content to  create and not only create but hype up and market   our products um we'll we'll post a quote or of  some piece of content that goes viral and we'll   test that out put it on clothing mock-up or a  bracelet we'll pull it on our instagram page   and usually if it's 70 to 90 percent of a yes  on the poll we will release that product so   it's probably one of the easiest most cost  efficient ways of testing a product is just   if you have an audience pull it so how we try to  i guess go viral with our some of our posts is   we just have so much volume with our post i'll  post it on twitter if it does well on twitter   we'll know it'll do well on instagram and just for  example our latest drop hard work and god's work   that quote done very well on twitter so we posted  it on instagram it got over 100 000 likes and by   then we decided to mock it up on a product figure  out if our audience wanted it and it done well and   we sold out in minutes and some sizes on that  drop at the start of mentality we were just   posting most of our feed was actually picture  content pictures and videos probably within a   six month time frame we've just looked through  our feed and we could see that engagement was   at least 20 to 30 percent higher on text posts  only just quotes if you look at her feed from i'd   say 2018 or 2019 to now it's a totally different  feed it's a lot darker just black text post   and that was due to us experimenting figuring  out what the audience likes more so we that's   what that's the route we took and with the  audience building the audience we've built   it's been so it's such a wide array of  interest from our audience and just such a   high quality audience we've built that we can  we can stray away from clothing if we wanted to   and i mean like i said earlier we've sold out  jewelry we've sold out neon signs and then now   we're thinking of opening up a gym here in las  vegas for extra you know streams with mentality so   it's all about just creating such a high quality  audience where you're not stuck in one little   box or one little niche of products to sell  if you scroll through your feed on instagram   you'll just see how generic most pages you  follow are and that's definitely one of the   things that has crafted our just crazy belief  with our audience we're posting just different   content we're posting different messages that  most people don't hear on a daily basis and   with that audience that we've built we've just  received thousands of messages a month just from   a 12 year old you know in an abusive household or  a 30 year old battling cancer so it's definitely   just a wider range of different people just  following for that same message a culture of   ambition for example we spend a lot of money in  growing our audience and helping our audience   just i guess manifest our messages a lot easier  we've we've spent at least a hundred thousand   dollars if not more on our tax club which sends  out billions of messages a month to we have over   130 140 000 people on our text message list so  it's a lot of putting money in but understanding   that the money you're putting into your audience  will resonate 10x with your revenues if you guys   want to follow us you can follow us on instagram  at mentality my instagram is triumphed and our   youtube link is in the description below um if i  have one piece of advice it would definitely be to   just chase your passion as long as you believe  in your vision just keep going i had seven other   businesses that failed before mentality and i had  dropped out of college twice so just keep going   what's up you guys my name is roxanne roncal i'm  a creative strategist specializing in branding   and digital marketing i'm also the co-founder  of proper worldwide at proper worldwide we help   crystallize our clients vision and we also help  them tell compelling and meaningful stories on and   offline today we're going to talk about social  media marketing specifically how to ideate for   your campaigns and how to strategize for your  rollouts so let's talk about campaign ideation   i have one guiding principle with all the  campaign and social media marketing that i do   and that is to think connection over promotion  social media was designed to be social   but after a while it ended up  becoming an avenue of free marketing   so that's what it became an endless scroll of  billboards for businesses so how can we cut   through the noise this is why i believe it's  really important to seek to connect with your   audience before you decide to promote so again  to cut through the noise you want to create   content that connects and is also interactive  and create content that sparks conversations for example with ftg's first collection one of  the key messages is you get what you focus on   a very simple social media campaign that  they can ride off with this key message   is to you know every monday maybe they put a  sticker question on their story that says what are   we focusing on or maybe if you're in their discord  channel and you want to start conversations within   your community it could be a thing that you do  every monday to check in with your community   what are we focusing on this week so that not only  underscores the ideas that are weaved into the   product and its collection it starts conversations  and keeps you connected to your community   in a more meaningful way another key part to  ideating content for your social media campaigns   is to think of content categories we touched  on this in one of the live master classes with   ftgu but let's talk about it again the next thing  you want to do when you're ideating campaigns   for social media is to define content categories  for your brands content categories are basically   buckets of content that you post but think of them  as topics of discussion so maybe like i said every   monday you run a poll or you ask a question to  your community that would be a content category   asking questions to our community then maybe every  wednesday you can do a stories run of again polls   because polls are hot on social media creating  content categories also make sure that you are not   just posting when you have something to release or  when you have a drop coming up because like i said   connection over promotion a few examples of  creating content categories would be like   mondays you ask your community a question  wednesday maybe you do an instagram stories   run where it's the latest in fashion and you  can do poles that are hot or not copper drop   it sucks it any of those and then maybe  every friday you do a spotlight on   someone's fit or an outfit grid if people are  doing still doing outfit grids i'm not really sure   but these are ways that you can post on social  media outside of collection dropping this   friday because like i said it doesn't it's very  self-serving and we need to bring the social back   into social media so the next thing we're going to  talk about is roll out this is where the strategy   comes into play so like i said you don't want  to just post when you have something to promote   you want to decide on posting frequencies you  want to decide on what channels you'll be on and   i think as entrepreneurs we are wearing many hats  and sometimes we may be strapped for resources   so when i'm thinking posting frequency you  want to be realistic think if you can only   post once a week post once a week make sure it's  a fire ass post if you can do three times a week   that's great too another thing you want to think  about is what channels do i need to be on maybe   you don't need to be on tick tock maybe facebook  truly doesn't make sense for your demographic   it's really important that you are already in a  flow of posting consistently and strategically   before you have a drop so that you can collect  data and really know what works for my audience   what what content are they drawn to etc okay now  let's talk about the rollout two things you really   want to think about here is your posting frequency  and what channels you'll be on as entrepreneurs   we're already doing so many things fulfilling so  many roles wearing so many hats so you want to be   realistic with what you're able to do with the  resources you have if realistically you can   only post once a week then post once a week if  you can do three times a week that's great too   this is also great to have a maintenance posting  flow to have before you ramp up and start posting   more when you have releases because you don't  want to all of a sudden be posting a lot when   you have drops because you're basically posting  to a cold audience which is no bueno again it   will all be a test you need to actually post  on these channels to truly find out where   your engagement is where your community is most  active on what truly converts and gets a response   so you might find that you get way more sales when  you do an email campaign every week versus doing   a tick tock every week so when it comes to your  posting strategy and the channels that you're on   just be realistic with your resources and the  time you can actually put into these things to   make them great and understand that everything's  a test and you'll want to have this data before   any sort of drop one important thing to consider  in your social media rollout are hashtags   hashtags is basically the social media's seo now  when you're using hashtags you want to keep in   mind to use a variety of hashtags and i'm talking  variety in terms of its popularity and scale   for example you want to use a very general  hashtag like streetwear cut and sew   and then you also want to use very specific  hashtags maybe brand specific hashtags or   hashtags that are very specific to that post  such as las vegas fashion tokyo street style   hashtag how to clean garments another thing about  hashtags is you don't want to od on hashtags   you don't want to put i know the limit  on instagram specifically is 30 hashtags   you don't want to use up all of that  because uh to the algorithm it looks very   it looks very spammy and like you're a bot so  the reach on that actually might suffer lastly   you want to have groups of hashtags on rotation  you don't always want to use the same one again   the algorithm will mark this as super spammy and  body so make sure that you are switching out your   hashtags okay y'all that's all i have to cover  as far as social media ideation and rollout if   there's one thing i want you to leave with today  is to remember that social media should be social   so before you go and promote i drop  this or this shit's coming out tomorrow   think about how you want to start conversations  before you sell someone on anything now there's a lot that goes into marketing from  the pre-campaign rollouts to the execution of   what you're gonna do now the key here is to make  sure you guys do your research in order to set the   right direction and make the most of your efforts  knowing who your target audience is is going to   help you in deciding what products you should  launch in the market which brings us into the   next chapter and that is in the product design now  when it comes to launching a clothing brand the   last thing you need to be focused on is creating  a cut and sew garment for your designs you don't   want to have to create something from scratch that  could be readily accessible off the shelf with a   blank so blank t-shirts are essentially products  that you can re-label and reuse for your own brand   and about 99 to 100 of brands start in this way  it's very rare that brands start by actually   cutting and sewing their own blanks it is possible  now especially with technology and the integration   of other third-party sourcing platforms but for  the most part guys don't jump into that until   you're really ready to dive into those details so  in order to make your life a lot easier make sure   that you're selecting blanks that are going to be  of quality and truly represent your brand so when   it came down to selecting the blank for our brand  we had to choose a blank that was form-fitting and   allowed our design to truly shine for our audience  now when it comes to you guys selecting blanks   there's a lot of different options available a  lot of which the screen printers will have on   hand if you're going to go with a bulk order if  you're going with a print on demand option then   that's something that you also have to select as  you're importing your store some of the blanks   that you should consider using is bella canvas for  their fashion for style and their staple 3001 t   there was other options that we were looking  into such as lane seven that had more of   sweaters and heavy weight style of products but  since the drop was more for a t-shirt collection   we had to go more with the t-shirt blank brands  and there's a lot more other resources available   in our academy and that we've also included in  the pdf description down below which you guys   could sign up for and receive for free but for the  most part make sure you choose a blank that truly   resonates with your audience you don't want to go  with somebody just because somebody tells you to   you really want to choose something that's going  to really help sell the product and the design and   the idea forward which really brings us into the  designing process of your product line after you   choose a blank or or you've identified some blanks  that you can use for your brand the next part   isn't really designing for that canvas and with  that we have the man mike leisure coming on this   next part of the segment which is going to break  down why we created the designs that we created   and hopefully it helps inspire you create designs  that are meaningful and thoughtful for your brand hey what's up i'm mike leisure i'm  an artist and i'm an art director   and in the past i've worked with fashion brands  from footwear to even skate street and men's   contemporary and you might recognize me from  some of jonathan's videos on ftgu as well as   the proper worldwide videos on our channel where  we talk about branding and digital marketing today   we're going to talk about graphic design and how  to improve them and really lay into the details to   make your collections better and then take those  same elements and move them to your marketing   so graphic design why is it important and what  makes it good i think the issue here is that   we have people starting brands who don't know  enough about graphic design and then we also   have other graphic designers who may have  gone to school for this or learned online   when you look at it as a whole it's so vast  you can design for posters you can design for   clothing you can also design digitally and create  any kind of content you want to but when you start   to put them onto clothes i think that there's a  disconnect between what people would wear or how   you want to express yourself with that clothing  and then the actual design itself for instance   if you design into a square but you're trying  to put that on a t-shirt do i want to wear a   t-shirt that has a giant square on it probably  not so as we move through graphic design we want   to be able to translate that same language onto  something wearable i think a lot of times when we   start designing we forget about the references and  inspiration that goes into these a lot of times we   pull from ideas that are abstract and then to make  them understandable or pull references that truly   accentuate the design itself as opposed to just  pulling random things like deciding uh what type   to use or what textures to use what colors and i  think we all have that specific thing that we like   and then we need to be able to figure out the  most concise and clear way to explain that and   then make that make sense as a whole to solve  all these issues i think what needs to happen is   as you start building your brand and you're  working that into your collections mood boards are   so important with mood boards you're able to pull  the references pull your ideas and group them into   one place and then already see it come together  and then make them cohesive and then you're able   to work back to this mood board and pull ideas  from there and then mix them together in a way   that actually makes sense and as you're working  on the mood boards it's so important to really   dive into the details of this it's easy to go  on to instagram and build yourself a board go to   pinterest and pull some things that you liked or  go to another brand even and start stealing ideas   from them but as you do this i think you need  to look into the details of everything that's   happening so why did they choose that typeface  look into the artists that they did like maybe   you see a collection and they did something on  basquiat or it's like a snoopy collaboration   look into the year that it was made look into  the artists behind that specific uh piece of art   like why did they pick that person and it might  have been something like we're doing something   super los angeles and they're pulling only los  angeles artists and if you start to notice those   details you'll be able to create in a way that's  so much more elevated for yourself because you're   diving deep into the details something that's  super shallow might just be like i like comics   and then you start doing color halftones and  you start doing like badaboom in the typeface   and you're like that's comics but if you truly  dive into what it was and how the print was being   made at the time you can actually start to say  maybe i can work that into the silk screen and   how it's in different layers and all those  little ideas that you start to unfold and   unlayer will then allow you to build in such  a creative and fun way potentially mixing   new mediums with old mediums and just creating  something somewhat original because nothing is but   finding those good references will create  something i think you'll be truly proud of   other than just knocking out something that you  saw i think the other thing to look at too is   creativity sparks in the most random ways at  the most random times and you might not always   start with a mood board maybe you've already  designed three or four things that you like   and then sometimes it's about working backwards  and then figuring out how that collection makes   sense you might scrap one or two of your designs  that maybe you had 10 of but some of these make   sense and some of them don't i think it's having  the clarity and being able to look at all the   designs and then put them into something that is  uh understandable and being like rigid with that   actually saying this makes sense not just because  i like it but because it fits in the collection   as a whole another thing is with how accessible  everything is now everyone's able to download   illustrator or photoshop and it's easy for  you to actually go on and create something you   could probably do it in an app there's probably  templates out there for you to go in and plug your   own brand name into and maybe get a nice graphic  going but some people have the natural talent for   that or have the eye for that and sometimes you  actually may be able to build that as well and   you might get better in the next five years in the  next decade to be able to design for yourself but   in the meantime if you aren't potentially getting  someone else to do it for you will actually be   worth your money a lot of times it's about  understanding what you want and then being able to   communicate that to someone to create for you and  when someone is able to come in and bring a whole   new set of ideas and expertise into your ideas  themselves i think they can take your collection   to the next level but it's very important as you  select somebody to understand their art style   and pick someone based off their strengths  and how that will complement your collection   if you're really into doing something clean and  minimal but you find a artist who's really into   crazy textures and a bunch of other crazy things  that doesn't fit it's probably not going to be   worth your money because you're trying to speak  these two different languages that are going to be   crossed up and kind of uh convoluted so definitely  do your research on people that you hire look into   their past work look into what they like doing  and other times too is trying to get someone to   do something that they don't like doing doesn't  always turn out the best some people are able to   design in that way that you ask them but it's not  their forte or their like favorite thing to do so   the energy they bring into it and the ideas  might not be the same as somebody who loves   that who like let's say you're working with clean  lines and and something that's very um precise   and uh minimal there's a specific designer out  there in the world who loves that they eat breathe   sleep that they dress like that they live in an  apartment that's like that their furniture was   actually picked for that reason and so  that transfers into the design itself   so i think a lot of times with anything really  whether you're picking a photographer or a   designer it's about picking people who live the  lifestyle you want to encapsulate into your brand   when you're outsourcing to another graphic  designer or somebody that you need to communicate   with to get your vision together it's very  important to be clear and concise but the thing is   you don't want to be over detailed where you're  limiting people's parameters you want to allow   them to be creative because you pick this person  because you trust them to execute your vision but   at the same time all the stuff that you've worked  on up until this point can be used to communicate   the storyboards that you have the mood boards all  your references can be used in a conversation with   them and that's the other really important point  is to actually have a face-to-face conversation   that could be through zoom or whatever but  hearing someone tell you your idea back to you   in the way that they it makes sense to  them actually brings so much clarity to   the entire project as opposed to someone just  saying yeah i got you so be clear be concise   use your references and pick someone you trust so  with ftgu's first merchandise drop what i did was   i came with my own ideas i was reached out to  like hey can you design this for us and i thought   it was an interesting project and i was honored to  come through and help out with the ideas that were   being created at the time i just feel like  fpg was in such a monumental growth stage   that i was like i want to be a part of this and of  course when i came in i had my own ideas but then   jonathan and the guys he brought their own  ideas and it's like how do we join these   together in a way that makes sense i was able  to put together some mood boards for the ideas   that i had and then i looked at their ideas and  then meshed them together what i was thinking was   the youtube videos the education that's coming out  i wanted it to be kind of analog and then i wanted   to bring in that kind of crt like uh chromatic  aberration which tied in perfectly to the brand   colors for the typography i ended up using the  brand uh typefaces that we actually have in the   brand deck just to keep everything in line with  the brand itself it being the first collection so   the challenge for me was when they brought their  ideas to me is that it was for a different market   a different demographic that i normally wouldn't  design for but i was familiar with it and then   they had this idea with this wall of course having  these inspirational words and lines and different   quotes so i was trying to take that and mesh those  with my ideas and i was having a hard time because   it was like where do we go with all of this  and then what makes sense to put on a shirt   it's like inspirational quotes are cool you see  them online but it's like would you wear that as a   shirt so out of the 20 or 30 that i had i was able  to narrow down to uh you get what you focus on and   tomorrow's never guaranteed this collection itself  was specifically to come out uh was slated to   come out with the planner so then when we started  thinking about the shirt and the planner together   why do these make sense you get what you focus  on is literally you focusing on what you have   that day what you have that going on that year  and everything that you're planning for tomorrow's   never guaranteed just means that yeah tomorrow  might not be there but if you don't plan for it   at all it could all go to so you might as well  go with your best foot forward as people say   and really plan for your future as i mentioned  before picking someone you trust is only one of   the boxes to check of course we trust each other  we wanted to work on this project together but   the other thing is that i design for a different  demographic and i work with completely different   markets but we do share this common ground and i  was able to find ideas and things that made sense   the merchandise was one aspect of it but the other  part was designing for this planner when i thought   about the planner i thought about building  i thought about architecture i thought about   foundation i thought about from the ground up  itself and what does that mean and then taking   those brand characteristics such as architectural  things directional and kind of having a clear   vision that's why i was able to choose the uh  inspirational quotes that actually made sense   to the entire project and those being you get what  you focus on and tomorrow's never guaranteed and   then being able to take those ideas and translate  them into graphic design that made sense together   so kind of on the nose but that you get what you  focus on has focus on the back and it's kind of   blurred out and you actually read the thing i want  you to read which is you get what you focus on and   with the tomorrow's never guaranteed there's a lot  of static and well static communicated in a way   of multiple graphics layered on top of each other  and not actual static in the grainy noisy kind of   uh manner it's these clashing colors and graphics  but then the one thing that you want to see is   clear tomorrow's never guaranteed and so taking  all of that and wrapping it up together with   the planner i felt like made a lot of sense  because you have these ideas that back up why you   would use a planner as well as something that you  could actually wear that doesn't feel corny and i   think being able to wear something that's almost  like a mantra reminds you every morning when you   put that shirt on when you pick up that planner  why this all makes sense together who are you as   a person and why does this work with my life and  that's kind of the direction i was trying to take   with it as i was designing and since this was the  first merch drop and collection that's coming out   for ftgu i didn't want to go too far as to  alienate people but i did try to push it as   hard as i could so i introduced some colors and  introduced some interesting graphic elements but   we're going to keep it very simple and inviting  for people to wear for if you want to go to   school if you actually just want to go to work  that day and wear something slightly casual or   just wear it out i think these are all occasions  that allow for this to happen without being like   uh could i wear this is someone to question me  about this at work you know what i mean we're   not throwing curse words in there we're not  doing crazy hentai prints or nothing like that i think really making sure that everything  made sense but we weren't going too far   with the graphic with the tomorrow's never  guarantee shirt as i was saying we we have that   chromatic aberration and the static happening  right i looked at it and i just thought analog   i thought tv and then it made me think of the  matrix and then i just thought boom flip that into   a cube and it's like this matrix sort of vibe and  it's like going into a different world and that   kind of like how in the matrix is not real  but at the same time you do control your own   like somewhat destiny depending on which angle  you want to watch that video but the matrix itself   allows you to create something in that whether  you're talking about the movie or mathematically   and this being your own world and creating that  made so much sense to the entire collection   as i was creating this i thought about where  i wanted the graphics to be because i assume   that it's not just a summer shirt and you could  also wear this in the winter if you wanted or   potentially late spring throw on a jacket and  i love that when you do center graphics and you   have them small enough they can still be read  through the jacket i also put some hits on the   sleeve because i thought you know sometimes people  are looking at you from the side sometimes looking   from the back and so you're able to see what brand  it is but it's not so large that it's in your face   and annoying from different angles of the shirt  i wanted people to be able to recognize what the   brand was but at the same time we have the actual  word mark and logo on the back but on the side   you can read out the full thing that says from  the ground up and again it's about wearing mantras   and things that you believe in and for someone  else to kind of have a conversation started say   what does that mean and then you can actually  explain your clothes to people and it further   like engulfs you into the culture itself to be  able to speak on why you wear the clothes that   you do and why you believe in what's on that shirt  as opposed to just picking up whatever shirt you   found at the mall and having that meaning in  that placement and allowing you to work that   into your own outfits is such a powerful thing  that we leave in the hands of the consumer and i   think it's beautiful what people can do with the  clothes after it leaves our warehouses after it   leaves the the manufacturers and when it's taken  into your own home and how you express yourself   through these different placements for instance i  love that this vest is here and has its own things   but i love that there's there's graphics here  down the sleeve and i think it's really meant   for people who like to wear vests i could be wrong  but i think that each one of these placements was   thought out and they actually understand the  demographic of the people that are going to   be wearing this and so with us i really wanted  them to make sense and we actually got into it   about the size of the graphics as well which is  very interesting as i mentioned i designed for a   different demographic and i wanted them to be very  small because i love small graphics i love very   minimal things but as we talked about it as a team  we actually had people who worked in retail and   are actually a part of that demographic who would  actually wear this shirt and they were explaining   how the graphics being bigger actually made more  sense to that wearer so then we actually opted for   larger graphics and i mean not much maybe like 150  200 larger and it made sense and it still works   and i'm glad that we were able to come to a  consensus there and create something that is cool   and wearable i'm glad we're able to have this  conversation because we came to a consensus   that really made sense for the brand and i think  that's such a crucial part to the creative process   and i think that's what it's really about coming  together and getting your ideas to make sense as   you work through the creative process and you  have all your graphics and you've already set   them on your shirts and you pulled them from  your mood boards bank fees because you can   actually use them for the marketing process as  well in your campaigns and put them in banners   and put them into the email drips that you  create to actually speak to your customers   and then show them the how the graphics work  and intertwine with the clothes themselves now once we got the graphic designs from mike  we had to decide on the printing method that   we were going to go to actually launch this  collection now since we knew that we were   creating a foundation kit and based on our  research we knew that we had to bundle it   up with a variety of different products at a  certain price point we realized that the best   way to do that was going to be through going with  screen printing now with screen printing it also   allowed us to keep the colors consistent as well  as the placement and the overall design aesthetic   very consistent across all the garments that  we printed on we knew that we had to ship it   out on time in order for it to get to people's  homes for the holiday season now other methods   that we were also looking into at the time was  using a pleak for their print on demand services   the one thing about using print on demand that  you do need to know though is that you have to   have everything available and tested and sampled  ahead of time and for that reason we're going to   be using print on demand more for limited edition  drops and things that we're going to carry off   the website so anything that we're going to  have in stock we're going to always want to   have in stock to control our inventory and our  logistics and the overall customer experience   but we will be using print on demand for things  that are very limited in styles or perhaps things   that we're testing out before we go do a bulk  run now another option that we're going to be   leveraging with the limited edition drops is going  to be heat transfers and for this we're using   super color heat transfers and we're going to be  applying them to certain garments and collection   drops that are going to definitely be a limited  edition one-of-a-kind type of products so when   it comes to the printing options you have various  available to you guys make sure you choose the one   that's going to resonate with your brand as well  as with the budget that you have for this launch   don't just go with screen printing because it'll  reduce your prices and you have a higher margin   if you don't know if that's going to sell or  don't just choose print on demand for the sake   of choosing it because you think that that's going  to be the thing that people want always make sure   that you're looking into the reasons why you're  selecting what you're selecting the budget that   you have available and more importantly the output  of quality that's going to come so make sure   you're working with quality suppliers apliiq is a  great resource supercolor is an amazing resource   when it comes to heat transfers and just make  sure you select a quality screen print supplier   in your area that is able to turn designs around  for you in order to hit the production prices as   well as the timelines that you have in mind  now that you have your product design figured   out the next part of the process is to make sure  that you're not losing any money and that means   that you're keeping track of your inventory  now when it came to the ftgu merch launch   we created an inventory process to help us keep  track of what units we were receiving as well   as what stock was going to be available for the  launch we knew moving forward that we're going to   be giving out some inventory to certain people  to seed them to help spread the word of mouth   but that also means that we need to keep track of  everything that we have on hand when it comes to   the day of selling and the promotions that we're  going to be launching so it's important that you   create an inventory process for your brand and  this means ensuring that whatever materials or   products that you're bringing in from a supplier  is accounted for as soon as you receive it last   thing you want to do is receive a box say it's  okay leave it to the side and then not verify   if you actually got the units that the printer  or that the supplier said that they sent you you   always want to make sure that you're very detailed  with the invoices that you're receiving as well as   the the product list of the categories that are in  each box take the time to count the sizes if it's   50 smalls make sure there's 50 smalls there  if it's 20 large make sure there's 20 large   sometimes slip ups can happen and the supplier may  send you more of an extra size or maybe they just   relabeled it wrong and the whole time you did have  the right skus but you need to figure out what   is happening as soon as you receive it mistakes  can always be made guys this is this is a human   process so you always want to make sure that  you're catching those errors before it comes to   you selling and finding out that you don't have a  certain size or style so make sure you're focusing   on that as soon as you're receiving inventory  in addition to that you also want to make sure   that you create a sku number for every product  category so if you have a sku number consider   applying it to at the very minimum where you're  going to be placing it on a shelf or in a box   but you also want to consider possibly labeling  that on the outside of the packaging or on the   hang tag that will allow you to keep track of the  skus and if you're moving it through logistics you   can essentially keep track of it on the back end  as well and lastly you want to consider the use of   barcodes for all your products now when it comes  to barcodes depending on where you want to sell   you want to get the barcodes that are certified  for that platform so the most important and   probably the biggest platform there is is amazon  so if you're thinking about distributing your   products on amazon make sure that you get amazon  upc verified barcodes these are available to buy   through certain websites and we've included a list  of suppliers in our academy if you're interested   in learning more about distributing products on  amazon so just make sure that you guys consider   those barcodes consider sku numbers for all of  your product categories and and item numbers   and make sure that you're doing a proper audit  of all your inventory as it's received this is   going to help you make money by not losing money  so inventorying is key once you start selling   you need to be able to ship out so the very  minimal things that you need to have available   in order to ship on your own are things like a  tape gun a dymo label some poly bags and boxes   now the reason that you want to have these items  is because if somebody buys one item then you can   do it in a poly bag if they buy multiple then you  can add it to a box so when it came to our ftgu   merch launch we knew that we had a foundation  kit and a box was going to be the best way to   ship it out so we sourced for boxes and we did a  custom printing on a box that allowed us to put a   planner a shirt a hat a pen and a couple of custom  items that are limited to that foundation kit   so for us it was important to get a box packaging  that allowed them to open it up and get an   experience of what it meant to be part of the from  the ground up for you this may not mean getting a   custom box it may just be getting a custom mailer  and if you can't get a custom poly mailer then at   the very minimum get a postcard and the postcard  should include information about what your brand   stands for what it represents and what the mission  of it is the idea is to get somebody involved   emotionally into your brand in order for them  to become a repeat customer but more importantly   spread the message of what you're trying to do  and when it comes to shipping products as long   as you have the business legitimized to the steps  that we discussed at the beginning of this video   you're able to register with any shipping carrier  and that way you're able to select the lowest cost   option for the products that people are buying off  your store now when it comes to selling products   online one of the biggest issues that you're  going to encounter are lost packages when this   happens you either have to reship a product to  the customer or refund them on their order and   either option is a lose for you as a business  owner especially if you're doing sales and   promotions around certain holidays or certain  brands or collections that you're launching   so with this in mind i'm proud to be a  spokesperson for ups capital and it's in   sure shield shipping insurance products and sure  show coverage protects your shipments against loss   and damage including porch piracy and they offer  coverage for all parcel and freight carriers you   can either download the app directly on their  shopify store or you can sign up for a policy on   their website so if you're moving heavy inventory  from one supplier to another by ensuring freight   coverage you're able to protect that investment so  insure shield is a great tool and option for every   e-commerce brand and the best part about it all is  that they offer shipping coverage at a lower rate   than what carriers traditionally offer so it's a  really cool feature that's a no-brainer once you   look at the rates as they truly protect your brand  and the investment in the time and energy that   you'd spend if something gets lost as we discuss  it's key for you to have an inventory process in   order to scale your brand the last thing you want  to be doing is focusing on all the tedious tasks   like shipping products out or losing a package  you should really be focusing on the marketing   and the sales and joining us on this part of  the master class is the ghazi who has a heavy   background in retail and sales get ready to  take some notes so you can move some inventory   hey what's up guys my name is agazi and i'm here  to talk to you guys about sales i have over 15   years of selling merch for various retailers such  as g-star vans john barbados just to name a few   i also have a non-profit clothing brand by the  name of tylv clothing that has been successful   in creating awareness and generating money for  the people in need integrai to me sales is truly   like an art form that many people don't think  about until the manufacturing of the merchandise   is complete but the sales process starts from the  design of the product goes into the marketing of   the merch as well as the different ways of selling  your merch whether it's in person or digital sales   with ftgu merch my first focus is what key  performance indicators are we going to track   to help measure the success of sales most clothing  brands fail because they just track the overall   profit although measuring the profit is a huge  aspect there are other kpis that will help ensure   the overall success of your brand the first kpi  i wanted to talk about is conversion probably   the most important kpi you must track digital  conversion is usually tracked for you where   websites take the traffic and divide it by  the number of transactions this percentage   helps you determine what conversion is so let me  give you guys an example to kind of make sure you   guys understand it in a better form so if you  have 10 people visit your site and five people   end up purchasing um your products then your  conversion rate is 50 most successful clothing   brands have a conversion rate between 5 to 10  percent so that's something that i think you   guys should be shooting for now the next kpi would  be called upt also known as units per transaction   this is key to understanding if the product  selections that you are choosing are able to   work together for us at the ftgu merch launch  we are selling the foundation pack that comes   with a planner a pen also an ftgu hat that you  see me wearing right now and a shirt this helps   us with the overall transaction amount it's  always more money when people buy a bundle   of product versus one shirt now last but not  least the last kpi that we're focusing on is ads   average dollar sale which helps you understand the  amount of money making per transaction this will   help you understand how to push more high price  points that in turn will make you more money so   these three kpis are kpis that we personally are  focusing on to ensure the success of our launch   now if you have gotten to a point where you've  identified the kpis that you're looking for   ensure that you are attaching goals make sure  those goals are smart goals so that you are   able to track the success and you know why your  brand is being successful and that's one of the   biggest thing when it comes to sales is the  analytics piece so before we dive in a little   bit deeper into how we're going to achieve those  goals that you set for your kpis let's talk about   some key tips that every brand needs within  their sales first tip i want to talk about is   price point for us the ftg merged we really looked  at where we would label our brand is it going to   be a cost-effective brand a high-end or luxury you  know nobody will pay cheesecake factory prices for   mcdonald's food and services let's be real with  ourselves now the product quality the design and   merchandising must align with the price point  you're pricing for your merch for ftgu merch   we looked at our audience and truly understood  what they deemed reasonable to pay for the merch   but wait later i will definitely touch on how  the gift of gab can dictate price point as well   now the second tip i really want  to give you guys is profit margin   a good rule of thumb is start high and end  low nobody wants to see something that's 50   one week and then it goes up to 100 the next  week if things are not selling at the price point   that you initially have set you can always do a  promotional sale that will bring down the price   to your desired price and then your consumers will  actually value that because they feel like they're   getting a deal everybody loves sales right and  then the last key tip is managing your expenses   make sure you are calculating your expenses  something that you should be thinking about is   time versus cost versus impact this will be super  key for you guys if it makes more sense to do less   work and get less profit because you just don't  have the time the money so make sure you just   do print on demand that might be the best choice  for you the decision is not a decision that is   set in stone as you grow your brand should be  focused on how to increase your profit margins   and that sometimes will be by changing the way you  manufacture your products so with the fcg merch we   truly understood our audience and also understood  that our designs were minimum with minimum colors   so screen printing is the choice we went with  so we would have an increase in profit margins   now i really want to dive into the different forms  of sales so with your clothing brand there's going   to be digital sales versus in-person sales now  to talk about digital sales digital sales is   e-commerce social media anything  you're going to be doing online something that you got to focus  on is promotions and holidays   make sure you really map out your calendar  with holidays and events because these   things are things that consumers are already  accustomed to expecting sales and they are   already accustomed to shopping on those days so  these holidays will not only bring you traffic   but this is the best time to really  capitalize on those penny pinchers   another great way to increase your kpis is by  bundling the bundle method is super strategic   and it's a game changer this will help you get  rid of the items that might not be selling as much   and you're able to piggyback on the items that  are hot sellers so make sure you're leveraging   the bundle deal last but not least is your website  this is the form of product shots merchandising of   the product and then the overall layout of your  website you have to pay attention to the kpis if   your kpis are not reflecting what you imagined  yourselves to be then there might be something   wrong with your website so maybe changing out the  layout maybe it could be the products the designs   the the question that you have to ask yourself is  why and what can i do to change this pay attention   to your kpis if your kpis are not doing well  then you must change something on your website   for example say your conversion is low this might  mean your product shots or your designs are not   converting the traffic into buyers you must ask  yourself like why and what can i do to change that   so the next topic we're talking about is  in-person sales most entrepreneurs want   their clothing brands to be something easy not  really time consuming this is great for those   who are using this as a side hustle but one  of the biggest opportunities with sales is   in-person sales one of the most common and popular  ways would be a pop-up shop you just pop up this   will allow you to do event selling alongside  other vendors you gain some of their traffic and   it also gives you an opportunity to really engage  with your customers it allows your customers to   touch to fill the product and also to give you  feedback on what their likes and dislikes are   so another aspect that might be a little bit  difficult um and a lot of a lot of brand owners   do not truly think of this as being a way of  really selling their products it now does kind   of marginalize your profit and makes it a little  bit smaller but getting products into stores   so to get products in stores is a little bit  more difficult but by getting products in   stores it will help align your brand and product  alongside brands that are already solidified   best way is to target local shops that are  either wanting to support local brands or   have more of boutique style specialized niche  stores that's definitely a tip that you will   be successful so now i'm sure for those of you  that are extroverts or have experience in sales   this would probably be like literally a piece of  cake for you guys right but what if you're not a   people person what if you really don't like people  or maybe this is your first time selling anything   let me help you and run down quickly what the fgu  sales process is that will turn any looker into a   buyer literally guaranteed the first portion  of this fcgu sales process is the engagement   number one ask organic questions just have a  normal conversation find out where they're from   what they like to do what interests them these  things are going to be super important for you   to listen and retain information because we're  definitely going to use this later on so the next   part of the process is going to be introducing  product make sure you introduce the product   because if you just have an uh an engagement in a  conversation you're just talking to somebody just   to talk to them if you don't introduce the product  you're really missing an opportunity to showcase   what you have to offer to that person so allow the  customer to hold a product provide them product   knowledge such as where was this shirt made  what what is the messaging for the design like   why is it important to you anything that  you feel like differentiates your brand from   other brands make sure you communicate that to  your consumer so the next part of this process   a lot of brand owners are unfamiliar with  this which is called validating the items so   how you validate the items is super important  and it's going to be a way to strategically   ensure that your consumer understands that the  product that they're looking at is something that   they truly need that fits into their life so for  example using the questions from the engagement   that you offered in the beginning so let me give  you an example if you ask them where are they from   and they told you they're from canada and then you  ask a follow-up question like how's the weather   like out there and they say oh it's extremely  cold now if they have a sweater in their hands   the validation statement should be hey i'm sure  you will get good use of this sweater in canada   where you mentioned how cold it was that's a great  way of validating the product that's already in   their hand and in their minds they're going to  think like man he's right i should purchase this   sweater not because it's only a cool design not  because of where they made the product from but   also it's functional for my life now the next  topic is going to be a topic that is extremely awkward for some of you guys let's just say right  so the next topic that we're going to talk about   is probably the most challenging portion of the  sales process which is called asking for the cell   but asking for the cell is clearly just about  confidence and how you're asking for the cell   the technique i love using the most is option  closing example what size do you wear the minute   they tell you a large you grab that large you put  the large in their hand and then you're closing   the cell the next one i love to use is cash or  credit either they're paying in cash or their   pain and credit that gives you the ability to  really close the sale down and it it provides   you less of a pushy way of saying hey do you  want to buy this so keep that in mind option   closing now the last but most important thing is  gaining their information whether it be an email   contact phone number something that you're  able to reach back out to them and have them   purchase more products chances of them taking  your products home and loving it and showcasing   it to their friends and family is going to be  a high one but they need to know where they can   either reach you at or where you can reach them  at for the next sales promotion or next launch once again congratulations for getting this far  this is an accomplishment that most people do   not get to experience in their life so by you  just taking action and following the steps in   this master class you're better off and better  positioned to succeed now this also means that   it's an opportunity to reflect you should be  taking this moment of launching to reflect   on the wins that you had and the losses and  learning opportunities that you can do to improve   by truly reflecting on those two things you're  able to do more of what allows you to win and do   less of what was causing you to lose the only way  for you to grow is to continue to learn and for   this reason we created the ground up academy which  allows you to be surrounded by entrepreneurs who   are from different walks of life from different  parts of the world who are all creating unique   product lines it's been amazing to work with  entrepreneurs on there it's amazing to connect   with people like you over this video so if you're  considering on joining make sure you use the links   in the description down below to get started  and now we circle back to the question that   was really answered at the beginning of this video  and that's is it possible to start a clothing line   with zero dollars and to that reason i say it is  but at the same time is it really are you really   going to be able to make the most of it with no  money you can use print-on-demand options to get   started and if you're not taking and using the  steps that we shared throughout this video it's   not going to be something that's going to sustain  you or going to be something that grows with you   you'll quickly fizzle out of any kind of  efforts or passion that you had towards it   because you don't take the time to establish  the different aspects that we discussed here   and if you don't take the time to establish the  different aspects throughout this master class   it's going to be easy for you to lose focus and  lose sight of what it is that you're building   it's very easy to get distracted with  new things that come up on a daily basis   so if you're truly dedicated to wanting to start  a brand make sure you stay consistent and focused   and more importantly on mission as that really  connects it all and for that reason we created   the from the ground up planning system which is a  life and business planner it's not just one aspect   of it where you're prioritizing all the tasks  that you need to get your business stuff done   it's also how does it integrate into your everyday  life entrepreneurship is one of the most difficult   roads that you can take as a human being it will  continue to challenge you throughout your entire   life there's never a dull moment and for that  reason there's no way that a planner can only   be for business for this reason we created a  planner that truly connects your personal life   your business life and the passions that  you want to accomplish in your life into a   12-month planner it allows you to have clarity and  focus on what it is that you want to accomplish   through clarity questionnaires it then allows you  to map out a three-year vision a one-year goal   a monthly goals and weekly and daily strategies  that you need to take in order to accomplish it   all from the ground up it truly is a blueprint  for life that i know that is going to be helpful   to the people that are using it i've been  using it for a few years now it's not the   version that we have now though so more recently  we started beta testing it we got some amazing   amazing feedback from people and they all  want the planner so we're excited to launch   this it's going to be part of the foundation kit  which you guys can also get through the links in   the description down below or by visiting  our website ftgu.store or from the ground   up dot io where we have additional resources and  suppliers that we mentioned throughout this video   so we truly hope that you guys appreciated  all this information if you're a new visitor   to this channel and you're watching all the way  to the end we really appreciate you that means   that you're going to be going far over the next  few months and i hope that you remain in contact   with us through our instagram as well as through  our community groups our discord and everything   else that we have available in the academy and we  look forward to seeing you guys in the next video

Channel: John Santos

Views: 54,782

Keywords: starting a clothing brand master class from the ground up, starting a clothing line, master class, masterclass john santos, john santos master class, how to start a clothing line master class, master course, clothing brand master course, masterclass, clothing brand masterclass, how to start a clothing line, how to start a clothing brand, how to start a clothing brand with no money, how to start a clothing line in 2021, startig a clothing brand step by step guide, fashion brand

Id: BmDw07F2jpI

Length: 116min 54sec (7014 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 30 2021