10 Important Lessons I've Learned running my Fashion Brand: Part 1
2024 marks 10 years of being founder & CEO of Alala and BOY have I learned a LOT
Hi fashion founder crew!
Hope everyone is having a wonderful week.
Today is my birthday and I’m in a bit of a reflective mood. Alala also turned 10 this year, so I thought I would share 10 big lessons I’ve learned in the decade (insane!!) of starting, running and scaling my brand - hopefully they will be insightful and helpful for you as you work towards that $1MM!
As my birthday gift to you, my 10 lessons are open for everyone to read. I’ve broken it into three parts, that I’ll send out over the next 2 weeks, since I do have a lot to say (as always)!
I’ll include a few bonus lessons at the end for my paid subscribers as a very big THANK YOU and token of GRATITUDE to you for supporting my Substack. Love you guys.
And if you’d like to give me a gift for my birthday, I would absolutely LOVE if you could share this Substack with a friend who might enjoy it. Muchas Gracias!
Ok without further ado, let’s go!
Lesson 1: Cash is King
Cash is the oxygen of your business. You’ve probably heard this before but if you’ve been in a cash crunch, then you know how true this is, and how gutturally painful it is when you don’t have money to do all the things: pay bills, invest in growth, buy inventory etc.
For me, I will ALWAYS choose getting cash over an alternative, within reason of course.
If I had the choice between:
selling inventory at a lower price to turn it into cash today
keeping inventory another season to try to sell it at full price because they’re timeless styles
I will always pick option 1. Why? Coz tomorrow is not always guaranteed in this business. You can’t predict the future, and you need to turn your inventory quickly - especially in the fashion business, where trends come and go, and that shade of purple is not going to be color du jour next season.
So, forget holding on to a few more margin points, I’m almost always in the camp of turning inventory as quickly as possible.
Of course, you can’t be on sale all the time. You still need to preserve your brand equity and avoid training customers to wait for your sales, but there are ways around it being so public facing, for example, selling off-price or sample sale retailers.
Lesson 2: Trust your Gut - You Ultimately know Best
The more I progressed in my entrepreneurial journey, the more I realized that I always had the best instincts for my business. When I was younger, I was taught to listen to my parents, teachers, bosses. Why? Because they were older than me, which meant they knew more than me. What a bunch of bull that is!
I have found that when I trust my gut on decisions, they usually lead to the best outcome. And the times where I’ve ignored my intuition and listened to something I heard on a podcast, or even a trusted advisor, I find myself in a position that is less than ideal. This has sharpened through time and experience, for sure.
That doesn’t mean I’m always right, or that I never listen to anyone else. I think it’s critical to always be open to learning when you’re an entrepreneur. We are pushing the boundaries, and there are a lot of things to be learned from those who have come before us.
On that note, I wholly agree with Codie (see below) on WHO you should listen to. Please please don’t fall for all the social media gurus who claim to help you make an additional $50K in 5 days. If they haven’t achieved the thing you want to and have the receipts to prove it, don’t fall for slick marketing and empty promises.
I hope you already know this, since you’re here with me, but it is great advice.
Lesson 3: Don’t be afraid to show up
One of my biggest regrets when I started Alala in 2014 was my reluctance to show up on social media. To be honest, I didn’t love myself back then as much as I do now. And that’s not to say that I’m better now, but that I accept myself more now then I did 10 years ago.
I didn’t feel like I fit in - I didn’t look like the tall, thin, white, beautiful female founders that were being glorified on websites and magazines. I should have known that my unique-ness could be a positive and not a negative in building Alala as a brand.
I also thought back then that you had to do everything “by the book”, the way the bigger brands were doing things, that we had to look professional as a company. I thought I could let the product speak for itself. Which is true, but the industry was CHANGING so much, and still today.
What I know now to be true: People buy from people.
In an industry that is as competitive as fashion, having an edge of people relating to you, your vision and mission for your brand is a huge PLUS. That’s not to say that you need to become an influencer with 1M followers, although it helps.
I’m saying to build in touchpoints where you connect with your customers as a founder and leader. At Alala, I write a monthly Founders letter to our email list, to set the tone for the month ahead. I show up consistently on our social media channels to introduce new products, or share behind the scenes. It’s fun and it fosters a sense of connection and community, which, indirectly leads to sales.
Lesson 4: Try Often, Fail Fast
You’ve heard the term Analysis Paralysis? It’s a real affliction I’m afraid!
Founders NEED to move quickly and fail fast. This is one of my huge beliefs and mantras that I run my business by. Momentum is a very under-rated advantage, especially in fashion, when again, you can be IN one minute and OUT the next. We need to strike while the iron is hot.
What does this mean?
Instead of taking weeks to run a financial model, trying to predict how X or Y will impact your business; set up a test and run it quickly and cheaply if you can. You’ll learn a lot more this way and have actual proof of whether you should invest more. And you won’t have wasted a ton of time or money thinking about it.
Also, it avoids us having to commit to long contracts with partners, and get stuck paying for something that is not moving our business forward. Of course you can’t do this with everything but we do try to start most new partnerships this way.
Here's one example of how I use this concept. I find it especially useful in testing new marketing partners:
Someone reaches out about a new technology or marketing channel to try.
We get on a call and learn more about it, and decide internally whether we are interested or not.
If we are, we build a quick down and dirty model to make sure the numbers make sense.
We go back to the potential partner, and we propose a test. Usually 30-60 days.
We negotiate an easy cancel, maybe 15-30 days notice depending on the length of the test.
We negotiate a test budget, something less than $5K ideally. If we can do a percentage on sales, EVEN BETTER. That way our incentives are all aligned properly.
We set it up and we’re off to the races. We have weekly touchbases with the partner to check if we’re performing, and at the end of the test period we evaluate results and decide to move ahead or not.
The point of the test is just that. TEST. There’s no guarantee that it will be successful or not. But that’s just it. You want to try often and fail fast. That way you learn the lessons, and you will have that experience under your belt for next time. It’s something that’s served us well, and there have been programs that have surprised us both good and bad. Some of which we’ve continued to run for months and years after our first tests!
I hope these lessons were helpful for you. They are things I’ve learned through a lot of trial and error, emphasis on error lol.
If you’re finding this content useful, I would absolutely appreciate you sending this to a friend who might need some support growing their brand. Or consider upgrading to a paid subscription so you can get all the content and ask me questions specific to you and your brand in the comments!!!
Till next time, have an incredible, wonderful, profitable week!!!! Lets go out and make some money!!!!