BESPOKE TAILORS SUFFERED THIS YEAR O! Looking back on the lockdown that occurred early this year as a result of covid-19 outbreak ... ... it's so PAINFUL to hear the STORIES of FINANCIAL HARDSHIPS experienced by many fashion designers ... ... particularly those whose main stream of income was bespoke tailoring. Parties ended, owanbes vanished, churches closed, and every form of event was banned. Painful, really. . On a WhatsApp group I belong, we had a conversation along this line and I shared my thoughts on why some fashion designers prospered and some didn't. I'd like to share them with you. Below. ? Lemme let you in on a little secret. THE REASON SOME FASHION DESIGNERS THRIVED AND OTHERS SUFFERED WAS MAINLY THE INFO THEY GOT ACCESS TO ON HOW TO SURVIVE DURING THE LOCKDOWN. You know I'm a business coach, right? I have two coaching programs called FashionSix Basic and Pro. At the start of April 2020 I held some special classes for my members and told them how to diversify during the lockdown. I told them to reach out to their customers in organisations where facemasks were badly needed. Or those customers that had connections to such organisations. I told them to offer partnerships with these folks in order to get contracts. I told them to sell their facemasks in packages not units. I told them not to do the facemask business beyond May by which time the bandwagon effect would have kicked in. Those who applied these and other ideas shared by me and members of the coaching communities hit it big. I have it on record Abimbola O, made N2m in one month. A lady made N1.5m in one month. Several others did more than half a million naira. All during lockdown. And because they got info appropriate to their situation. From their coach. My point is, what you know matters. AS YOU HEAD INTO 2021, WHAT YOU KNOW MATTERS. You can book a strategy session with me to discuss the way forward for your business. Chat me up on WhatsApp 09052137213.

Hello ?, quick one. Can you make time Thursday morning for a 1 hour class on the topic in this poster? Perhaps you will gain clarity of purpose and be confidently take your ready to wear dream by the horn. Thursday 31st Dec 2020. Time is 10:00am. Venue is Laoye Curtis facebook page. Cheers Laoye Curtis

LET'S TALK ABOUT FASHION RETAILING AND THE OPPORTUNITIES YOU CAN TAP INTO Fashion retailing is best for those fashion designers who love to create great designs but hate to sit down and sew. It is also great for anyone who loves fashion and enjoys dressing to show off as well as prefers to sell than manufacture. Boutiques are into fashion retailing, for example. As a #fashionretailer, you can build an #e-commerce website where you show case the designs of other designers. How it works is that you agree a wholesale price for the clothing you want to list on your site, then add your own profit margin. You may not even start with a website. You can start with WhatsApp #catalogue on your WhatsApp #business app. Just cut deals with #fashiondesigners who love to sew but don't know how to sell. Market on their behalf and serve as the middle man. There is more. But this is meant to be an eye opener. I'd be talking about clothing line next. Perhaps you are thinking of how to start your clothing line on a budget (aka little capital) you might wanna check out this post ? https://selar.co/fvde or send a WhatsApp message to +2349052137213. Season's greeting. Laoye Curtis Your Ready to Wear Business Coach

If you are thinking of how to start your ready to wear clothing line with little capital, why not check out this link ? https://selar.co/fvde Or chat me up k WhatsApp +2349052137213. Laoye Curtis here, helping you make your ready to wear dreams a reality.

What It Takes To Start A Ready to Wear Business Many people think ready to wear business means making ready made clothes to sell. It is more than that. Ready to wear as a business falls into 3 major categories. These are: 1. Fashion retailing 2. Clothing line 3. Bulk garment production Each of these are ready to wear businesses. . #Fashion retailing means you buy and resell clothing made by other designers. Or you could buy them at wholesale price complete with labels of the designers. In this case you only attach paper tags of your brand name to identify them as purchased from your store. PEP, Mango, Mr Price, Grey Velvet, The5kShop does this. As you can see, #fashionretailing is a big space on its own. Unfortunately it isn't being maximised in Nigeria. Perhaps you can leverage it. Clothing line on the other hand means you launch a brand that makes ready made clothing for a particular target audience, and build a reputable fashion brand out of it. Versace, Vuitton, Givenchy, Gucci, Ralph Lauren and so on fit into this category. . A #clothing line doesn't make only garments. Clothing includes #shoes and fashion accessories to complement garments made. Hence, it's safe to say that you can be a shoe maker and have a ready to wear shoe line ?. You can even have a clothing line for #accessories only. Do not box yourself into thinking clothing line is restricted to garment production only. . Finally, bulk garment production is a form of ready to wear business in which you serve as the production hub for fashion designers who want to start a clothing line but do not want to sew. As a bulk garment producer, fashion designers bring their collections to you to mass produce. This is a space that needs filling big time in Nigeria at the moment. If you are very good at managing #tailors and leading a production team, you should consider starting a bulk garment production firm. Those who manufacture uniforms also fall into the bulk garment production space. This means that you are into bulk garment production when you receive contracts to make #uniforms be it school uniforms, security uniforms, choir robes, tee-shirt, and so on.

Join us today, 22nd December, 2020 at 7:00pm WAT, as I join as renowned speakers and stakeholders within the different spheres of influence in the #fashion industry, to share and discuss what they're most passionate about and further proffer solutions to the challenges identified in the fashion industry. Venue: ZOOM Evening session here: http://bit.ly/SWFS2020E For more enquiries call us on: Mrs Atinuke Smith – +234 (0) 8161163395 Mr Ayo Alex Alao – +234 (0) 7031740649

Breaking News! Our Ready to Wear Masterclass holds today at 7:00pm WAT! In this masterclass I will showing participants how to scale from bespoke tailoring to ready to wear and what it takes to start a ready to wear business as a/an 1. 9 to 5 worker 2. Self employed fashion designer with little capital 3. Established fashion entrepreneur with funds . If this is for you, hurry and register to be part of it. Here is the link ? https://sendfox.com/lp/1k64g4 . See you there! Cheers Laoye Curtis

It's not everyday you get a Christmas dress delivered to your doorstep as a GIFT! But when you do, it calls for celebration. What's more? When you keep getting Christmas dresses every year for the past 3 years from the same person/brand, what do you do? YOU CELEBRATE THAT PERSON/BRAND AND ACT AS THEIR GOODWILL AMBASSADOR! That's what you do. So here is me, my bae and my daughter, Michelle celebrating ROLICLES by Morolake Famodile for the beautiful Christmas dresses you've been adorning her. And the latest addition, the ball gown dress you made for our newest baby, Omolayo Nicole, blew us away! Guys check out the pics will ya. Ain't they beautiful masterpieces? Rolicles just got two new brand ambassadors in Michelle and baby Nicole. Where the photoshoots at? We move ? In case you are wondering who Rolicles is, it's the brand name of Morolake Famodile, one of my staunchest business-students-turned-business-coach. Her brand has carved a powerful niche in children's wear. And she has other flourishing fashion businesses too. I promised to talk about this as my way of appreciating her. Help me celebrate her please. Her Instagram page is worth a visit at https://www.instagram.com/rolicles or @rolicles You can even check out her catalogue at https://wa.me/c/2347038880882 In this life, be a source of blessing and you will never lack. Rolicles you will never lack. Michelle and Nicole are your latest brand ambassador. Me n my bae are your brand noisemakers ? Cheers Laoye Curtis

4 Days to Go! Our ready to wear masterclass is around the block. So get ready. As part of the activities leading up to the D-day, I have released a video on my YouTube channel titled, "What Type of Ready to Wear Business Should I Start?" In this video you will learn about the three major types of ready to wear business you can start and what each entails. With this you will be able to make informed decision about the direction to take with your ready to wear aspirations. Here is the link to the video: https://youtu.be/M1Y1zwUoXEs When you're done watching, let me know what kind of ready to wear business you can start in the comments. ? - About the Masterclass - It's a webinar - Facebook live on Friday 18 December 2020. At 7:00pm. Venue to be communicated in our WhatsApp groups for those who have registered. Register here to participate: https://sendfox.com/lp/1k64g4 Or send me a WhatsApp message on +2349095859489 to get the video link and access to the group. Good morning everyone. Laoye Curtis here.

Recently I had a strategy session with a fashion designer who had an opportunity to raise funds for her ready to wear business but had to provide a budget to her sponsor. A close relation of hers had been prompting her to scale her business to ready to wear, and even shared ideas with her. But he needed a budget before he can release the funds. So we had the strategy session on phone. . I outlined a checklist for her budget planning. Would you like to know? It's a rough sketch I'm sharing. If you want a more detailed version, you can book a strategy session with me. . This is the rough budget checklist we came up with: 1. Cost of production per outfit in her first collection multiplied by the number of outfits she plans to manufacture in her first collection. Already fabric and sewing cost is figured in. 2. Advertising budget for 2 to 3 months 3. Cost of photoshoots and graphics 4. Cost of sample/prototypes of her collection. There are some other costs not included because they are not relevant to her specific need. This means that your own budgeting needs for your ready to wear business may differ. . Hope you have learned something from this. Perhaps you need help with your ready to wear business ideas. Perhaps you have no clue how to start and grow a successful ready to wear business. Perhaps you may have lost a lot of money in your first try. Or second. Perhaps you need help with selling and marketing your ready to wear business. Whatever it is, you should consider this ? Attend my FREE webinar on ready to wear business coming up, Friday 18 December 2020. I have 3 WhatsApp groups already, full of people who want to learn how to turn their frustrations to celebration with respect to their #readytowear dreams. Here is the link to register: https://sendfox.com/lp/1k64g4 Or send me a WhatsApp message on this line, +2349095859489. Have a blast! Laoye Curtis On a mission to raise fashion entrepreneurs with profitable readytowear brands