Business Starter Pack
LCE’s foolproof beginners guide to starting your own lingerie, swimwear or activewear brand.
Starting your own company can be a daunting task, and many entrepreneurs that embark on the adventure with a dynamite idea can fall at the first few hurdles if they’re not prepared.
At London Contour Experts, we’ve been industry experts for over a decade and know the business like the back of our hands.
That’s why we’ve crafted a short guide to all the business basics so you can prepare for the journey ahead.
Before you’ve even packed your bags and said your goodbyes, you will need to have a business plan for your business venture.
A business plan is a document that contains a detailed plan of the strategy and methods for attaining goals and objectives that you have set yourself for your business.
WHY DO YOU NEED A BUSINESS PLAN?
This question is most commonly asked by young entrepreneurs who are usually creatives with amazing ideas but no business background. This is where you can plug us, London Contour Experts in, who can explain that you need a business plan for quite a few reasons. A business plan is most commonly used to gain investors or given to debt financing establishments to get an idea of how the money will be used and most importantly, what type of company and product they will be investing in. This is commonly accompanied by a pitch deck, an 11-15 slide presentation for you to do a quick pitch to investors. Lastly, a business plan is essential for you! Yes, you the entrepreneur! For you to have your concept, marketing plan, strategy, finance, etc. written down will make you carefully consider all the facets of your business.
SO LET’S GET TO THE POINT! WHAT IS IN THIS SO-CALLED BUSINESS PLAN AND WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT TO HAVE?
1) PRODUCT OR SERVICE DESCRIPTION
A description of the product or service you are offering is needed to create the context of the plan. Most importantly it gives the investors an idea of why your product or service will be successful. Here you will describe the problem in the market and the opportunity it provided your product or service to thrive.
2) OBJECTIVES: SHORT (1-2 YEARS), MEDIUM (3-5), LONG (6-9)
Objectives are necessary for yourself and your business to be held accountable in the future. This can also get you thinking about how long it will take to establish certain things such as charity partnerships, collaborations, and other product categories in your brand!
3) STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES, OPPORTUNITIES, & THREATS
This is important to identify as you need to know what your strengths are to take advantage of them, weaknesses to know how to offset them, opportunities to think about how to land them, and threats so you can think of a way to defend yourself against them.
4) COMPETITORS
Identify at least 3 key competitors you think would be good to help you position yourself in the market. How do you do this? Well, look at brands that offer a similar product you would like to launch or have at least a feature you want to incorporate in your collection, as well as share a similar price point to where you see yourself selling too.
5) THE 4 PS
Price, Product, Promotion, Place. These 4 P’s are often referred to as the marketing mix. These are the key elements involved in marketing a good or service, and they interact significantly with each other.
6) CUSTOMER PROFILE DESCRIPTION
This is important to define as this will help you get an idea of who you will be selling to! This will also help you with the 4Ps as it can help you understand how your clients will shop and the channels of distribution that will be the most efficient and revenue-generating.
7) FIRST YEAR FINANCIAL START-UP COSTS
Lastly, preparing yourself for the reality of how much it costs to set up your business is the best way to reduce risk and unwanted surprises in the future. Understanding how much investment it will take as well as when you will need to reinvest in the future can help you decide whether or not external means of investment are needed. Not number savvy? Or financially eloquent? Well, this is also where the mentorship scheme from LCE can be plugged in and we can do a 2-year financial forecast for you as well as deepen your business plan with sales, marketing strategies, and planning.
By completing these 7 sections, you already have a good starting point for a business plan! Also good news, all that thought and time has made you think more about your dream business concept realistically and we can get moving forwards with making it a reality! At LCE we can help you, have a look at how here:
WHAT MAKES A USP?
Any successful business has a Unique Selling Point
A USP is the aspect or feature of your company or product that differentiates you in your competitive market and why consumers would come to you and not others. This is where your thinking cap needs to be on tight, and start with a list of things that your brand will be doing well.
WHAT IS NOT A USP?
A USP is not a statement which can be applied to the competitive market or something that will change from one marketing campaign to another. Thus, being sustainable for example is not a USP. Being sustainable is almost, if not, an expectation to be in the market as the climate change issue is leaning heavily on fashion brands as they are the main contributor to pollution and waste.
If you haven’t done so already, look into the market and find what is already out there and mark your direct competitors.
This will allow you to list why what you are doing is different from what’s on the market already and help you determine if your product will realistically differentiate enough from what is already in the market.
To help get your brain juices going, here are four examples of brands and their USP:
DEAKIN & BLUE:
They provide unique sizing swimwear, where their swimwear can fit a variety of sizes due to do the way they were designed.
BLUE REIGN:
They provide a range of Lingerie that accommodate bigger cup sizes and cater to the kinkier tastes.
HUNZA G:
Sustainable swimwear made from a knitted lycra & elastane that can stretch to a large range of sizes.
KIINI:
They have swimwear that is extremely Unique in pattern and manufacturing.
SO, WHAT’S NEXT?
Have the idea but not the knowledge on how to start your business? That is where joining a Mentorship Program like the one at London Contour Experts can help. How can plugging in a business consultant help you? Well firstly, a mentor in the industry you want to break into can provide you with industry expertise and act as a plugin.
An industry insider as a mentor can also help keep you accountable when taking steps to achieve your business goals, as well as provide some educationally and expertise-backed suggestions on how to improve your overall business. But, that’s just the tip of the iceberg!
BRANDS OF TOMORROW
Finally, in September 2022 London Contour Experts launched our very exclusive Brands of Tomorrow programme. This scheme is only for the very best of the best entrepreneurs and requires a business plan or elevator pitch. Brands of Tomorrow is a curated programme designed to support the growth of an exclusive group of creative entrepreneurs embarking on the exhilarating journey to develop their thriving businesses in the bodywear space.
Through our Mentorship Pre-launch programme we have helped numerous niche brands build their business plans, providing 2-year financial projections inclusive of a sales strategy with an action plan to launch their delicious collections to a hungry market. Our efforts did not stop there. By expanding our talented marketing and graphic design team, we’re able to provide our clients with an entire brand bible, consisting of fully realised packaging design, website art direction, and colour palettes together with social content creation and management handled all in-house.
To find out more about Brands of Tomorrow, and be in with a chance of applying, sign up for our newsletter which you can do at the bottom of this page to gain access.
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