and I’m documenting it on Medium.
I started the day by going to the 50 meter, Olympic size pool next to my house. Every Saturday I’m there, at 9am sharp, right when it opens. I’m always the first one in. I have been, since I started this habit about 2 months ago. Swimming 50 meters, tumble turning and swimming another 50 meters is challenging and arduous. Especially with the pressure of veteran aquanauts swimming in the same lane. It wakes me up though. It gets me ready for the day to come. I badge in. Change. Swim my 15 laps (1.5kms). I badge out.
While I was swimming, I was reflecting on my new obsession: the ongoing creation of my future apparel brand. As I was fighting to settle into a proper breathing rhythm while swimming through, what seemed like, the endless aquatic lanes, I juggled around some potential names for my brand. I played around with my name. My initials. None of it seemed compatible with the vision I have in mind so I put the matter to rest until further notice.
I shifted to think about logos. As a street-casual brand, the logo is really important as it will adorned everywhere, including garments….especially garments. Some brands don’t use logos. They use their name as the logo, like Supreme for example. I like logos with meaning. I want mine to mean something. I thought about it long and hard. Unfortunately, nothing came of it. I’ll leave the unresolved matter for future me to resolve.
After about 45 minutes of swimming, I finished what I had set out to do. I accomplished the deed and racing to catch my breath. I got out of the pool to dry off as I slowly walked over to the locker room to take a shower and change into my clothes. As I stood in the shower pressing the button so that water would pour over me continuously, ridding myself of the chlorine that had latched onto my body, an idea came over me. I rushed home to capture the thought in order to immortalize it Medium.
Systems
If you think about it, every company revolves around a system. The system is made up sequential steps. The completion of each step gets the company closer to opening its cash registers wide open to newly earned cash. The system is what generates turnover which insures the company’s sustainability and survival over time.
Let’s zoom in on a rudimentary example for analysis: the lemonade stand. What follows are the steps that make up the lemonade stand’s turnover-generating system.
- Put up signs around your neighborhood a few days before to let people know about your stand.
- Go to the supermarket to buy lemons, sugar, cups and other necessary supplies (pitchers, ice, tablecloth, etc.)
- Calculate how much money you spent on supplies and how many cups you’ll need to sell in order to break even.
- Set your prices.
- Prepare and set up your stand.
- Hire some friends to go stand on the corner of nearby streets with signs pointing to the lemonade stand.
- Pour some lemonade and rake in the cash.
- Talk to clients, obtain their feedback, address complaints.
- Repeat steps 6 and 7 until the end of the day.
- Calculate profit (count total cash earned and subtract expenses). Set aside enough of it to buy tomorrow’s supplies and another part to reinvest in the company (new stand, better signs, more stands, etc.).
- Repeat.
I call them systems because every step is crucial to making it all work, just like a swiss watch. Every single component, regardless of size, in the mechanism has a defined purpose. Together, they tell the time as precisely as there are 26 letters in the alphabet.
Laying out a system is vital and very useful. It serves as guide. It makes the whole creation process seem less intimidating. It can tell you where you are in the process. It can help you identify weaknesses and redundancies too.
Without further ado, here is a first draft of the system that I will be implementing for my brand.
Note: the following system is contingent on my brand having an established name, logo, website, supplier(s) and hopefully, clients.
- Find inspiration and catalogue it (Pinterest board, walking around Paris, movies…inspiration can come from anywhere at anytime).
- Browse catalogues of blank tops (t-shirts, sweaters, hoodies, etc).
- Select a blank garment.
- Import photo of blank garment onto software for editing (Photoshop, Illustrator).
- Create design for selected garment.
- Export printable file of design (the file that will be used to print directly onto the garment).
- Export file of garment mock-up (the file that will be used as a product photo on the website).
- Compress all files and store neatly into organized files on computer.
- Upload garment mock-up on website.
- Create a new product on website.
- Write product content with SEO in mind (product description).
- Publish product.
- Order sample of product.
- After receiving sample, make content (photoshoots, videos, texts) for socials (Medium, TikTok, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest).
- Deploy marketing strategy (undefined as of now but can be working with influencers for example).
- Sell products.
- Create dialogue with community, address complaints/returns.
- Repeat.
Remember, this is a first draft of my system. It can change. It probably will change. For now, it’s a roadmap to what I believe will work best with regards to what I have in mind.
I want to reiterate the fact that before getting to this point, a lot of ‘startup’ steps have to be taken. I have to figure out a name and design a logo for my brand, create a website and find a supplier that will store, produce and ship my products.
If you’re enjoying the series, drop some claps. If you have some tips and tricks, write them in the comments. I appreciate you.
