business tips - PART 1
To be a successful entrepreneur, you need to have a bat. Yes, just like the baseball bat, figuratively, so you can hit the ball flying. BAT stands for
- Business skills
- Attitude
- Technical skills
Business Skills
When I say business skills, it means everything that the business school teaches. Although, you may not need a formal business school education, it helps to know the basic teachings in business, which fortunately, can now be learned outside the school. Aside from formal schooling, you can learn from your past business ventures, whether successful or a failure. You can also learn from the internet, from so many published insights and experiences of successful and unsuccesful people. In this internet age, you don't need to experience it yourself to learn from it. Instead, learn from others' experiences. Learning more about the business principle and practices helps you calculate the risks involved and avoid unnecessary failure.
Be a reverse entrepreneur
More than 5 years ago, I coined the word Reverse Entrepreneur, which was the title of my website blog. I came to realize that the reason why so many small entrepreneurs failed is because they forgot this principle. Unsuccessful entrepreneur starts from the left. The successful entrepreneur starts from the right, that is why it is called Reverse Entrepreneurship.
More than 5 years ago, I coined the word Reverse Entrepreneur, which was the title of my website blog. I came to realize that the reason why so many small entrepreneurs failed is because they forgot this principle. Unsuccessful entrepreneur starts from the left. The successful entrepreneur starts from the right, that is why it is called Reverse Entrepreneurship.
The proliferation of business seminars focusing on low-capital-and-easy-to-produce products have resulted to so many start-up failures. Examples of these seminars include soap-making, candle-making, screen-printing, flower arrangement, and many others. As you can see, the focus of these business ventures is the low technology requirement as well as the low barrier to entry (meaning, anybody can join the industry without much capital). They are so easy to produce, such that the focus of the seminars is to show you that they are so easy and inexpensive to produce. That is the left side of the above diagram. What you will not learn is about the customers - what do they really need and how do you compete in the minds of the customer. Later, you will find out that learning how to produce the product is not the end of it. What makes the venture fail is the need of skills and big capital to spend for packaging, advertising, and distribution. They totally forgot about the big competition , which sprouted because anything that is easy to produce invites many competition. The seminar participant, who only have a few hundreds in his pocket is made to believe that if only he can learn to produce the product in small quantity, he will have a business and can be successful. That's a balooney!
The whole point here is that you should be deeply analytical and not believing anything at face value. Start with the customer analysis.
The whole point here is that you should be deeply analytical and not believing anything at face value. Start with the customer analysis.
How is reverse entrepreneurship applicable to customized sublimated sportswear
First, customization is a highly reverse business operation. Every order starts from the customer itself. No production can start without a firm customer need. Custom team uniforms are not something that you produce after a one-time market study and customer analysis and interaction, and then sell them. The customization market is a fully reverse operation. Interaction with the same customer continues all throughout the business life.
There is no doubt custom team wear business profitable. The question is why big brands like Nike, Adidas, Puma, and the rest, are not venturing into custom sublimation. I heard that there were attempts but not successful. They can do the production and packaging much better than the small companies. They can start from the left and do better because they have bigger capital. But why can they not be successful? The only reason I know is because the big companies are structured differently and doing a reverse business operation for every sale is a whole lot of logistical and control nightmare.
So, I believe, the customization market will remain a domain of the smaller and more flexible companies, with the help of TUS and freelance artists.
In the customization industry, sublimation technology offers the best alternative because it is much faster and economical to do in small batches. The traditional cut-and-sew team uniforms require longer turn-around.
There is no doubt custom team wear business profitable. The question is why big brands like Nike, Adidas, Puma, and the rest, are not venturing into custom sublimation. I heard that there were attempts but not successful. They can do the production and packaging much better than the small companies. They can start from the left and do better because they have bigger capital. But why can they not be successful? The only reason I know is because the big companies are structured differently and doing a reverse business operation for every sale is a whole lot of logistical and control nightmare.
So, I believe, the customization market will remain a domain of the smaller and more flexible companies, with the help of TUS and freelance artists.
In the customization industry, sublimation technology offers the best alternative because it is much faster and economical to do in small batches. The traditional cut-and-sew team uniforms require longer turn-around.
Who are the customers?
Let's start the discussion by doing a reverse analysis, starting from the right side - the customers. As a TUS, who are your ideal customers?
The ideal customers are teams and not individuals. In terms of needs, they are at the middle class or above. In terms of needs (referring to Maslows' Heirarchy of Needs diagram below), the customers's needs are usually at the middle and up. They have strong desire to belong to a specific group or organization. They are at the Belonging level and probably going up. They have passed the basic needs of Physiological and Safety.
Attitude
A successful TUS need to be patient, accomodating, and sensitive to customers feelings and needs. These traits are necessary because a TUS will be dealing with customers who sometimes don't know what design they prefer, Because your customers are a team with different preferences and style, as an artist and a TUS, you need to accept the fact that there will be annoying changes in design preferences along the way.
Technical Skills
The 2 basic technical skills pertain to graphic design and IT skills. Graphic design pertains to the ability to make team uniform design using the technology of sublimation and using software like Adobe Illustrator. Inexperienced sublimation team uniform artists can learn the basic from this link.
IT skills pertain to the ability to use the internet, the social media, and to make simple drag-and-click website. This digital skills will help the TUS promote his business and communicate with customers faster. There are free drag-and-click website accounts like weebly, wix, etc.
IT skills pertain to the ability to use the internet, the social media, and to make simple drag-and-click website. This digital skills will help the TUS promote his business and communicate with customers faster. There are free drag-and-click website accounts like weebly, wix, etc.
GLOBAL SPORTSWEAR MARKET EXCEEDS US$ 244 BILLION
Source: Euromonitor International Releases New Market Research for Sportswear Industry February 25, 2013 3:00 AM
According to Euromonitor International, the global sportswear industry exceeds US$244 Billion and expected to generate additional US$55 Billion in new sales by 2017
New sportswear market research from Euromonitor International covers 46 countries, each capturing trends and developments in performance, outdoor and sports-inspired clothing and footwear. Th s new research offers insight into key strategic and competitive issues within the athletic apparel industry.
Magdalena Kondej, Head of Apparel Research at Euromonitor explains: "The strong recovery of the global apparel market is on its way, with sales recording almost 6% value growth in 2012."
Sportswear is one of the most dynamic categories driving this solid performance with the largest gains recorded in North America and Asia Pacific.
"The increasing interest in fitness and athletics clearly shows that consumers are seeking to be healthier. We want to capture emerging trends to highlight new opportunities for sports apparel manufacturers," Kondej adds.
In 2012, the global sportswear market grew by more than 7.5% and exceeded US$244 billion. Valued at an estimated US$80 billion, the US market for sportswear is by far the largest globally, over three times higher in value than the second-ranked sportswear market China, according to Euromonitor International.
The four largest markets - the US, China, Japan and Brazil - collectively accounted for over half of total sportswear sales in value terms in 2012.
"Russia, Ukraine and Argentina are the star sportswear markets with the highest growth recorded in 2012," said Kondej. "Looking forward, sales in Russia are set to almost double in value by 2017 and the country is expected to overtake all Western European countries including Italy, the UK, France and Germany."
The 46 research markets include:
Western Europe: Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, United Kingdom
Eastern Europe: Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Russia, Ukraine
North America: Canada, USA
Latin America: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela
Middle East and Africa: Egypt, Israel, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, United Arab Emirates
Asia Pacific: China, Hong Kong (China), India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam
Australasia: Australia
