I’m only two weeks into launching my fashion business — Tomorrow Sleepwear, travel-inspired pajamas that give back — and I’ve already made a ton of mistakes. I’m learning everything the hard way. Nothing terrible has happened, which is the good news. But I just wish things were easier!! That I had someone to tell me what to do.
In no particular order, here are the problems I’ve created for myself:
Forgetting to Buy a Printer
Yup. You read that right. Now, I bought a thermal printer for my mailing labels so I had that. But it hadn’t occurred to me that I would need to be able to print packing slips. So I drove to my mom’s and printed a bunch of stuff there before finally caving and buying a printer yesterday. I ended up paying about $75 more than I wanted for a printer though because there just aren’t a ton of printers in stock around town.
Forgetting I Live Next Door to the Post Office
I decided early on that I wanted to use UPS because it’s more reliable. But! For me to get to UPS, it’s about a 12 minute walk. Not bad, you say. But I live in Florida. No one walks in Florida. Today it was 92 degrees!! And I had to walk to/from UPS for the third day in a row. (And I’ve been going twice a day to stay on top of things.) This walk is not in the shade. Hot, hot asphalt. Train tracks. Stop signs that everyone ignores. I made a couple of trips and I was miserable. (Plus there’s never not been a line when I’ve arrived at the store.) And then I remembered…I live next to the post office. LOL. I could save time AND money. (Shipping USPS is about half the price of UPS.)
Not Reading the Instructions
Back to the printer. Yesterday, I bought the printer at 11:30 am and was home by 12 noon. I needed to set it up fast because I (erroneously, it turns out) though the UPS cutoff time was around 2:30 pm. Guys, I spent THREE HOURS setting up the printer. You know why?? For 90 minutes, I was working with the wrong driver. I have the 2750 model but I had downloaded the 2705 drivers. They sorta worked, but not really. I kept restarting everything over and over again. Then when I finally realized my mistake, I had to get everything working fast and then run to UPS and back because I had an event to attend at 4 pm. I took the world’s fastest cold shower but was still a hot sweaty mess by the time I arrived at the event.
Fat-Fingering my Address
I accidentally mistyped my address for UPS. So now they have a slightly incorrect one. Now I am in an eternal circle of hell with Shopify, trying to get it fixed. Shopify are usually really good at responding to things but they are ignoring my support emails!
Not Having a Plan Beyond Week Three
Next week is Week Three of my fashion startup. I have a plan for it. But after that, I have no plan. No plan is bad. I need sales. I am pretty sure I have exhausted my social media streams and my friends and family. (To be fair, I told myself to only plan out three weeks so I could measure my results and tweak as necessary. But I’m still scared.)
Not Organizing Lifestyle Photos
I have plenty of product photos. But I don’t have any lifestyle photos. Product photos aren’t great on Instagram. I need lifestyle photos. This will cost me a couple of grand that I don’t really have right now. I need to sell 25 more nightgowns to get out of the red. So…I need to find some influencers in South Florida who are willing to work in exchange for a nightgown.
Thinking Everyone Would Be as Excited about My Pajamas as I Am
To be fair, I set a very realistic sales goal for myself for May and I’ve already smashed it. BUT…I still thought that more people would be excited about my garments. I have to remember…people are busy, gas is expensive, and half the population sleeps naked (this is true!)…so my pajamas are just a fleeting thought for 50% of the female population. Also, with the terrible tragedy in Texas, this was not a good week to engage with consumers.
Thinking People Would Share My Giveaway
I’ve done two separate giveaways now. In each giveaway, participants have gotten more entries for referring friends and sharing to social media. During the 2nd giveaway, I even upped the ante and gave 20 extra entries for sharing to Twitter and 30 extra entries for referring friends. I thought for sure people would share my giveaway. I was wrong. According to the account team behind Viral Sweep, the app I used for my giveaways, this is not uncommon. What I should have done is more proactively ask certain friends to share the giveaway.
Still Not Sure about My Pricing
I made a super high-quality garment out of organic cotton in a factory that pays its workers a fair wage. So my manufacturing costs are not low. I’m also doing full color garments which you will notice most pajama manufacturers don’t do. $88 seems to be the going rate for a nightgown at my competitors so I’m in line with them right now during my launch. But I use organic cotton and a Fair Trade facility AND I give 10% back to charity. So really, my value proposition is higher. But is the consumer willing to shell out $120 for a nightgown? I’m not sure.
But! There are Some Bright Spots…
- My garments came out GREAT. Better than I imagined. I love them.
- At least I’m figuring out all this crap before October 1st. Did you know that pretty much 50% of pajamas are sold in the run-up to Christmas? So I need to have all the kinks out by then. (The second biggest time to buy pajamas is before Mother’s Day in the US but I missed that too.)
- I found an amazingly supportive community of creators in West Palm Beach who have been so helpful these past few weeks.
- My mother is very confident that I’ll be successful.
- I didn’t expect any strangers to buy my garments in the beginning and I’ve already made some stranger sales! That’s been exciting.
- I’ve heard from friends I haven’t heard from in years purely because I added them to my friends and family launch email. We should all be better at checking in with our people. It’s been really nice to hear from everyone.
What’s Next?
Next I gotta finetune the plan for Week 3 and then I have to figure out Week 4!! If you have any ideas, I am all ears.
