Clothing

Company or Client – Miss La Mode
Trading activity – Fashion retailer

What?

At the final stage of Launching a female clothing range.

How?

  • Spotted growing niche market for modest women clothing in early 2005 when the market was at its early stage.
  • Discussed ideas with few friends, one of  whom wanted to take on the risk and made substantial investment in SE Asia. After experiencing commercial instability their factory had to be moved to Egypt. Always advised them as a financial adviser as to where they were going wrong.
  • In early 2010 got together with a group of female fashion designers and setup an working group to come out with unique designs those were suitable for the particular market.
  • In mid 2011 the designers finalised their designs and produced their samples. A total of 10 designers were taken on board who are assisting to launch the business. An agreement was reached with the designer to pay them a royalty on selling their design under Miss La Mode brand.
  • I have partnered with one of the most dedicated designer to come and join me in the business.
  • Extensive market research was carried out to quantity the growth potential and  to asses the competition. The result were extra ordinary. While the market was crowded by too many small retailers, there were very few who really understood the market. The ones those had UK design base were charging premium price making themselves uncompetitive.
  • Based on the market research data and manufacturing cost in SE Asia, have prepared a financial model.
  • It was obvious from the research that going online is certainly the right approach in phase 1.
  • To limit the exposure to SE Asian commercial volatility, have decided to have a limited manufacturing base in the UK mainly assisted by the designers themselves. This ensured that the initial investment exposure is kept to a manageable level also initial products had a lot of TLC.
  • Have formed the legal entity and finished all branding material. Have also deployed Google Apps, Joomla, WordPress and Opencart to get the best out of all open source.
  • Discussed with an old client who is a leading material provider to UK fashion industry and fabric supply chain is secured from the Far East.
  • Interviewed over 10 people in SE Asia and selected a candidate who is prepared to invest his own money to setup the factory in SE Asia as the market over their is growing faster then anywhere else. It was agreed that a subsidiary of Miss La Mode will be setup in SE Asia where he will have 25% stake. The whole operation will be controlled from the UK via cloud.
  • Prepared the full business plan and fully setup the cloud system and handed over to my partner to launch the brand.