Modish Biz Tips

Retail: Brick by Brick- Marketing and Sales

The focus of the next section of the business plan, in our Business Plan Challenge, is Marketing and Sales. We’re sure that all of the smart Modish BIZtips readers know the difference between marketing and sales, but just to make sure everything is clear, lets do a quick review.

Marketing is building relationships and letting people know what your business does. Sales, on the other hand, are the result of your customer seeing your business’ marketing information, and ultimately paying you money!

This section of the business plan addresses both of these areas: how you are going to attract customers to your business and how you are going to deliver the sale.

Product or Service Information

• Product or Service Description: Describe in detail what your business will be selling or what service you will be offering. This should be quite specific.


• Differentiation: What makes your product or service different than others currently available (examine your competition to make this section easier to answer)


• Pricing Strategy: There are three ways to compete in any market – speed of delivery, quality of product and price of product. Your pricing strategy will be a combination of two of these items, but not all three. You can have a high quality product that is quickly delivered, but it will cost a lot of money (you’re not competing on price). Or, your product will be inexpensive and delivered quickly, but the quality will not be recognized. For your strategy, choose a combination of these items that will be a strong position against the competition.

Target Market

Selling your work in stores- Wholesale & Consignment Basics, Part 1

{photo of Little Otsu, a shop in San Francisco- from a past Modish shop tour}

Selling your work wholesale or on consignment is often the next step for independent artists and designers- it can help you expand your business and sell more and it's pretty cool walking into your favorite little boutique to see your items sitting on the shelf next to all the other pretty things. So, where to begin? 

First, let's start with consignment: (wholesale info is here!)

To sell your goods on consignment means that you get paid by the shop only upon the sale of your items- essentially, you retain ownership of your items until they sell, the store does not buy them outright. This is often the easiest way to get your products into a store and is a good first step if you're just starting out.

Consignment is beneficial for shop owners and designers alike: it allows shop owners to fill their shops with items at no upfront cost to them and lets them test out the saleability of your goods to their customers. For you, it's beneficial as you retain a higher % of the sales price on your items than you would selling via wholesale (or, you should!) while also testing our your saleability in different markets, and getting exposure in retail shops.

You pay the shop a commission on the sale of your items, as they are working to help market, display and sell your items in the best way possible.

The Consignment Agreement:

When you enter into a consignment relationship with either an online or brick and mortar shop, you need to make sure you receive a consignment agreement from the shop. This should outline:

Marais: A study in awesomely effective marketing

I just came across this remarkable example of how to use video on your site to effectively draw in your customers and had to share it with you!

From Daily Candy this morning I stumbled upon Marais, a new start-up shoe company run by a bunch of awesome, down to earth, versatile and smart women. And how do I know that about them? Because I "met" them on their site through photos and videos.

Not only are their shoes fantastic enough for me to want to buy them anyway (key to successful business #1: have a good product! :) but their marketing efforts really seal the deal:

• The entire site is infused with their personality- when you first head there, you're led directly to a page that introduces all the women involved in the company. Click on their pics, and you see an about page on each of them that integrates photos and video- you can see them and hear them and get a sense of who they are.
• The about pages also link to the girls' individual favorite shoes from their line so if you identify with the style of one of the girls, you can click right over and see (and purchase!) the shoes they like best.
• The whole "Marais world" section is really brilliant- it creates an ideal "world" of what it's like to live in their shoes. It depicts the lifestyle who they see as their target customers, allowing us to relate to them all the more. This awesome "A Day with Marais" video gives a glimpse into what the girls behind Marais are like and also what their target customers are like. It shows them having fun hula-hooping, picnicing in the park, walking along trails and running around taking pictures, all the while wearing their line of shoes, of course. They make you want to be part of their world. Plus, the video let's you see the shoes "in action" so to speak and makes them appear to be super comfy and perfect for everyday life.

Obviously I'm exactly the customer they're targeting- a fashionable 20-something who likes cute, but comfortable shoes and can't spend a fortune on them. And let me tell you, their marketing worked on me. I checked out every shoe, thought of which colors would look best with which outfits hanging in my closet... I didn't purchase today, no, but that doesn't matter. I'm affected, they're in my head and bookmarked- I'm going to remember their site and I'm very likely going to buy from them in the future. That's what you want your marketing to do too.

I think they are a great example of really effective marketing and branding- they create a presence in a real way and look, it got them on Daily Candy! Check out their site for ideas of how to incorporate video and more of your personality into your own website, so you can connect with your customers even better.

Wholesaling Insider- An interview with Jess LC

{photo of Meet Me at Mikes shop- from an old Modish shop tour}

This week we'll be talking about selling your work via wholesale and consignment. We're going a little backwards, starting with an interview on wholesale today, back to wholesale basics tomorrow and then onto consignment stuff Thursday, but we do things to the beat of our own drum around here, right?

So, to start us off, we have an interview with wholesale pro, Jessica Constable of Jess LC jewelry. She's sold her jewelry in over 150 shops and boutiques over the last 9 years and has been working on her jewelry line in Chicago full time since 2007. Today she's here to offer us a little insider info about successful wholesaling!

I know you've been selling your jewelry since you were just 15! How did you get started selling your jewelry wholesale to shops?

When I started it was really pretty simple. I would walk in the store and start a friendly conversation with the sales staff. I would also mention that I designed jewelry and would like to meet the buyer or owner of the store. If they were receptive to the pieces of jewelry I was wearing or to a few samples I brought, they would usually have an impromptu appointment then, or they would set a date for me to show them the full line. It was pretty easy to tell whether the owner was interested in my pieces or not in the first five minutes.

Another thing I did in the beginning was consignment - where the store split the retail price with me 50-50, and I only got paid once the jewelry sold. Any unsold merchandise was later returned to me. Now I have sales reps who sell my line for me and I pay them commission.

If a designer wants to approach a shop about carrying their work, what are the proper steps to take?

Live web-panel on starting your own business- tomorrow!

Coming up soon... an interview with Jess LC about the wholesale biz!

But first, I just wanted to let you know about this live web-panel discussion happening tomorrow about starting your own business. Discussing live will be the man behind Duct Tape Marketing, the CEO of SCORE, founder of Palo Alto Software & author of Startupnation. They believe it's one of the best times in history to start a business- should be a good conversation. I just registered for the session (yep, it's free!). Maybe I'll "see" you there! :)

Take a pause. Be present. Breathe.

{cute gocco print by Argyle Whale}

I suggest we all take a moment on this lovely day to just slow down a bit. Be still. Be mindful. Be present.

I think all too often our minds are consumed with the past (all those things we didn't do, should have done, could've done better) and the future (all the to-dos, plans, schedules, things we still need to get done.) But while our brains are busy being consumed with thoughts, our bodies are here in the present moment, doing all they can do to keep up with the tasks that our over-active minds put upon them.

And yes, goals and lists and plans are good, otherwise it'd be nearly impossible to get anything done. But it's also good to pause and reset every once in awhile.

Think of your brain like a computer: it needs to shutdown sometimes to clear out its RAM (the energy and space it takes to run all the windows that are open, all the applications running, everything going on in the background, etc.) so it can focus better on the task at hand. It can get overwhelmed, overheated by trying to access and organize and process all the data that it's constantly inundated with. And often, all it takes to get your computer running more efficiently, is just to turn it off for a bit. For 5 minutes, 15 minutes...

So I suggest we take a moment to turn our brains "off" too. Shut them down. We need a moment to catch up with ourselves. To stop the in and outflow of data. A moment to just be, here in the present moment.

If you're up for hitting the reset button on your brain, continue on for a super easy guided meditation that you can do sitting right there at your desk.