I’ve honestly lost count of the number of emails I’ve received that start with this statement and I agree, it is not an easy process and is something I still struggle with myself.
However, what I also know is that finding your production partner will depend greatly on you.
An awfully large number of designers that contact me either don't know what they want or have unrealistic expectations of their chosen manufacturer - or both!
So what do you need?
1. A clear understanding of your target market and your price points. Please! Please! Please! Give this a lot of consideration, if you think you are going to take down Prada with a Primarni product you are going to be disappointed and neither will producing a high end product to sell at a price low enough to make Boo Hoo quake work either.
!!Your product, your price point and your market need to relate to one another!!
2. A clear (and honest) understanding of your budget, this will dictate your production capacity; how many lines you can produce, how many sizes and quantities of each.
3. Know what services that you're looking for, do you need help with the initial designs or just fabric sourcing, do you need product development or just production?
4. If your product development was done elsewhere be sure you have everything you need for your factory or studio. Tech packs, patterns, fabrics and trims, labels and samples, we can’t book in a production slot and then have a delay whilst waiting on a missing element because you need to…..
5. …….Be clear and realistic about your timeline, when do you need to be completed by? But even then be realistic…particularly if you are dealing with a small factory or studio. Things happen, delays occur – you are not perfect and neither are we. A couple of months ago I had a machine break down, it was out of action for just 2 days but the result was 4 projects were delayed and we ended up 6 weeks behind schedule, made worse by the fact 1 brand had scheduled a pre-release the day after completion was due! Not only had I already advised against this but they went ahead anyway and didn’t tell me resulting in a lot of unnecessary stress all around. Ideally you want delivery a season before your intended launch or at least a good few weeks.
Need help producing your products? Funnily enough it's what we do! www.sugarreefconsulting.co.uk