Hi guys! So, if you have seen my TikTok, I have recently suffered a pretty big setback. Ya see, I have primarily trying to run my shop via Print on Demand, as this is the way to do it with the lowest startup costs. However, I had a really cute idea for a skirt line, however, I wanted it to be pretty specific. It would be for the spring, showcasing the fun and bright colors of fruit. I was super excited for this, but the skirts that I wanted were pretty specific. I wanted something pretty well structure, mini, and A-line. I was thinking something kinda preppy, definitely with some Blair Waldorf inspo. SO. I went to a ton of different POD supplier sites, and as you all know, the setup of using POD is you are often pretty limited to the articles of clothing. I found quite a few tennis skirts, but really nothing that was what I wanted. Until, I stumbled upon Yoycol. It all looked great, prices were marvelous, they had a wonderful selection, and they did all over printing.
So I spent a ton of time, uploaded my designs, and ordered a few samples. They took quite some time to come in and all this time I hadn’t continued much on the marketing or other products because I wanted to make sure they looked okay. My goal is to get this line out on the first week of March, but I want plenty of time to generate hype for it, meaning time was cutting pretty close. So. Yesterday (January 25, 2024), my samples came in. They were horrible. Both types of skirts I got were either way too big or see through. They were a horribly cheap, flimsy material. They were cheaply sewn where I felt like they would fall apart. Essentially, it was nothing that I would want my brand name on.
Now, this did teach me the importance of ordering samples, and, a few of the products were pretty good. This showed me the importance of ordering each product before pushing it to your storefront. I would be mortified if these skirts had gone out. It also taught me how important it is to recover from a supplier setback in a timely fashion.
So I panicked. This was the only site I had found that had it, I don’t have the startup capital to do a proper supplier contract, because of the high MOQ’s, and I was just really down. This was my first piece as a true designer anddd it was failing.
Then I got off my butt and realized how I’m going to power through. I’ve never sewn before. I don’t own a sewing machine. I can hand stitch a button or two, but that’s it. But, turns out my local library, meaning yours probably does too, has a creator station where they have sewing machines for use free of charge.
So. I hopped on to the University of Youtube. Found how to make the pattern I want, and I learned how to do it. Honestly I am so happy for this failure, because now I am about to get complete control over my products.
Then I realized something else, if magic happens and I get a million orders, how on Earth am I going to create all these. Due to the funding issue above, I really don’t want to pre-make a ton of inventory in case I don’t get any sales. So let me introduce the beauty of pre-sale. So. Once I get the initial skirt finalized, I will guerilla market the living daylights out of it and see what kind of interest I get. I can then use this to increase pre-order sales which will fund a proportional amount of products to have on hand for launch day.
Now. I do have to decrease my imagination a tad. I wanted to have about 18 different options, 3 for each fruit, and now I highly doubt that will be possible. I will also have to preorder the fabric ahead of time, or stencil it, which may change the printed look that I wanted. Either way, it will be a learning experience, and something way better than giving up or accepting less than quality product.
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