How to prepare to start a fashion business-Step 3

Visits

As you're probably aware, travel is considerably cheaper if you book in advance. Therefore, it pays to organise any travel as early as you can to minimise the cost, which is especially important for businesses that are on a budget. So where might you want to travel to for your startup?
 

• Trade shows are a really important part of running a business + as they are usually only every 6 months, you need to plan ahead to make sure that you don't miss an important event. There's a huge amount of different shows that you can attend; there's a variety of locations + some fairs are tailored to fabrics, some for manufacturing + others for wholesale buyers (where you might want to sell your collection). Start researching events as soon as you can to make sure that you go to the one that's most relevant to your business. 

• Seminars - many trade shows have great seminars,  but there's also independent ones of varying scale. For instance, you might want to go to a presentation on trends, or if your interested in things like sustainability or textile technology, there's events on for that as well.

• Networking events - throughout the year there's a lot of large + small netweorking events happening within the industry + it's always good to go to some if you can. Not only for the opportunity to make contacts, but also to keep your finger on the pulse + keep up to date with what's happening in the industry. 

   

Tip - for any events that you go to, do research in advance. For trade shows, as they are usually huge it's a good idea to map out who you want to see prior to the visit. For semiars + networking events, try to learn about any speakers or important guests so that you don't embarass yourself by asking who they are. Also be prepared to make a good impression, so try to have some background knowledge on the topic being discussed.

step4