The evergreen fashion industry where small smart entrepreneurs make big deals

A recent research shows that consumption in the fashion industry keeps on sky scrapping day by day. Both men and women are becoming so fashion-conscious and cities are getting trafficked with fashion stores in each corner of roads. Yet, France, Italy, UK, USA, and Japan remain to be the hubs of fashion haunters while Russia slowly moves on the luxury fashion brands. On the other hand India, South Africa, UAE, and Singapore silently keep on emerging themselves into this industry. Yes, we could feel the influence of this ‘fashion-mania’ in our day-to-day lives and yet, we know for sure that this trend would ever last till the world exists. Knowing this logic, many entrepreneurs have already invested their waves of creativity into this industry and have started enjoying the infinite opportunities surrounded among them. There is a common perception that ‘being fashion-conscious’ is the sick of affluent females and this industry is totally depended on their big wallets. As a habit, we always try to correlate the affluent market with some big brands such Marks and Spencer. However, the truth is that there is a huge opportunity for small entrepreneurs in this industry, and most of the affluent segments have become loyals of ‘hand-made’ and ‘home-made’ products from small entrepreneurs.

The psychology that works behind this logic is that an affluent female would always want something special, which cannot be purchased simply by a lady who sits next to her. So, this specialty is what has helped many small entrepreneurs in winning the hearts of affluent segments. Rebecca Minkoff co-founded a New York-based luxury handbags company has been an inspiring role model being so successful in this crowded industry by easily winning the hearts of affluent markets. Her mantra of success is in three phrases, which are; be unique, know your price point, listen and respond. Alison Beth shines as a star among the affluents in the New York. Her uniqueness and the efforts she put in investing in high quality is what drives her business towards such success path. “So initially, I was making every piece on my own and trying to come up with new concepts for the next season. I would become so excited to see the finished product that I couldn’t put my knitting needles down. Over time it became impossible for me to run a one woman show and I had to outsource the manufacturing. One person alone could not keep up with the volume and the orders. I still, however, do all of the designing and fabric selection, but I don’t always knit the prototypes. On certain occasions, when I see a particularly beautiful yarn or a strong inspiration comes to me, I still will pick up my knitting needles” she said in an interview.    

Hence, psychology psychology and  psychology is what drives this industry. On the other hand, we know people are becoming more conscious about the environment friendliness. People always love to buy from a brand that contributes a lot to corporate social responsibility. Again, when we talk about CSR, we always think that it is something to do with big brands, and yes, some big brands such MAS had realized this psychology long time ago and now they benchmark in this industry using this concept. MAS simply knew how to win the hearts and make business through a truly differentiated business model from their competitors. However, it doesn’t necessarily mean that these big brands are initiators of great concepts in the world. Only thing is that they have the capacity to implement great concepts into their businesses but at most times, small entrepreneurs initiate big concepts and the world doesn’t know this truth since they are small yet. Even before MAS started talking about CSR, small garment factories in countries such as Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand had realized the need of winning the hearts of their employees and their customers. 


The best example for this would be a small garment factory in Anamaduva a deep village in Sri Lanka has been achieving great results in the business due to the investments made in corporate social responsibly.  “We do practice CSR in different ways. For example, we supply breakfast to our employees since most of our labors are from really remote villages. But we get some vegetables and coconuts from their small gardens and it somewhat manages the firm’s costs and labors also getting a healthy breakfast. Also we have two doctors from Colombo and anytime if any employees feel not well, they can immediately consult the doctors for free of charge. In February, we sent six lady labors to Colombo and had taken responsibility of paying the cost of whole treatment for their eye treatment. Also we provide small houses for those who are really poor and from very remote areas. Our ‘Milking’ scheme is very interesting. Every day, we provide milk for our employees but they have to take care of the cows. So myself being proud to have employees who are really loyal to my factory and having a feeling of working with my family” said Mr. Bandula the Managing Director of Rainbow PVT LTD. 

Yes, small entrepreneurs are smart since they don’t think small..they think big and grow big in business. Big in a business does not necessarily denote the scale and yet, the best innovators in the world are small entrepreneurs. So let us be small in scale and be smart by thinking big.

By

Mathangie

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