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I thought I might use my spare time to create a new brand and see if it can be successful, I mean, how hard can it be to become the next Gucci or Armani?
With the focus on brand rather than having to create a genuine 'new thing' it seems fairly straightforward but maybe you lot can tell ne different.
1) Find some money and register a company
2) Choose a brand name and copyright it ~£1,000 for the UK or £30,000 worldwide(ish)
3) Find a supplier to make the product with your brand name/theme/ethos
4) Set up a website to sell stuff
5) Make the world think your brand is the coolest/most exclusive/most desirable
6) Take the orders and get your suppliers to ship to the customers
7) Sit back and count the cash
For the sake of this discussion I will pick 'handbags, luggage and travel accessories' as the product range. There are loads of high quality and relatively niche producers and the products, once taken to a reasonably standard are all going to do the basic task so it just becomes about the brand.
A quick bit of man maths says £30K copyright, £10K set up for website and supplier agreements etc plus £10K miscellaneous means it is a £50,000 gamble. 80% profit on product seems average for this kind of stuff so assuming a 70:30 split between £500 and £1000 products puts me in profit after 100 items.
Yes, time and marketing costs need adding in but that can be done with small high impact things focussed on specific groups relatively cheaply.
A) Anyone tried this?
B) Anyone going to tell me what I actually need to do?
C) Anyone going to suggest where this masterplan may fall down?
Put the beer down...
Close the laptop..
Have a nice sleep...
Realise this is daft in the morning.
No thanks necessary...
DrP
RIP
Barnd.com is available…
Maybe start a trouser company...
[i]Put the beer down…[/i]
The worrying thing is I quite drinking last year 🙂
you forgot "how much to stage an "event" with a series of models in bejewelled arseless chaps, carrying your handbags ?"
(asking for a ferind)
Supreme idea 👌
Where are you getting the £30k figure from.
Via google - How much does it cost to copyright a name in the UK"
"Fill in a paper application form to apply by post. It costs £200 to apply for one class, plus £50 for each additional "
Also -
"You can not register a trademark for free. However,you can establish something known as a "common law trademark" for free, simply by opening for business. The benefit of relying on common law trademark rights is that it's free, and you don't need to do any specific work filling out forms, etc"
I've sold one of my RoboCock™ t-shirts so I'm off to a start.
I was the purchaser mind you, but still.
[i]Where are you getting the £30k figure from.[/i] - That was a small issue but...
...I have a solution [i]you can establish something known as a “common law trademark” for free, simply by opening for business[/i]
It’s just like the apprentice but with your cash at stake
I’ll get biscuits
Don't bother with actual physical handbags, just mint some pixelated handbags digitally as NFTs, just make sure to hire artisan coders instead of artisan hand bag makers. Call the brand 6ucc1 or 9ucc1 or something.
those numbers feel way out to me. I wouldn't think 10k would get you much of a website and you haven't even started on the cost of influencers yet unless you are going to try and do it yourself. if you aren't going to put the effort into a unique product then you are going to have to put the effort into the marketing.
Matt Jones has made one with Helfare.
Seems to be doing quite well, but then he's rad on a bike and is his own built in influencer.
Are you rad on a bike?
Are you the next William Storey?
Easy.
Get the timing right, and after this mini-budget...
On the plus side the 45% tax rate is being abolished for the highest earners
Joking aside, what you describe is exactly how Gymshark came into being.
Worked out pretty well for Ben Francis as it’s now worth billions.
1) Find some money and register a company
2) Choose a brand name and copyright it ~£1,000 for the UK or £30,000 worldwide(ish)
3) Find a supplier to make the product with your brand name/theme/ethos
4) Set up a website to sell stuff
5) Make the world think your brand is the coolest/most exclusive/most desirable
6) Take the orders and get your suppliers to ship to the customers
7) Sit back and count the cash
Several of your points turn out to be redundant. You only need #2, #4, and #7.
https://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/unhappy-sick-bicycles-customers-beware/
WorldClassAccident™ power tools?
"No other power tool has fewer safety features. WorldClassAccident™ tools will maim, injure and kill faster than any other tool on the market. Injuries guaranteed or your money back" ?
You could sponsor Reg Prescott's DIY show
Look up Vaabs it is my niece and her boyfriends Co, started with T shirts and is now doing pretty well, they aren't a pair of dreamers that can't spell though.
2 guys I used to work with started Majority audio, the other part of what they do can help you build a successful Amazon store. They had contacts in electronics buying beforehand.
3) Find a supplier to make the product with your brand name/theme/ethos
Are you missing a step of designing, prototyping, market testing and then producing this 'thing'? Or is the plan to phone up a manufacturer and ask them to them them to 'make one of those things you make' and stick the world 'Barnd' on it?
Take the orders and get your suppliers to ship to the customers
Are you expecting the manufacturer to make one thing every time your customer clicks 'Buy'?
Your buyer will typically expect the thing they click on to appear on their doorstep in the next 48 hours, even with something like printed tshirts its a stretch to hit that turnaround on a just in time basis and the results aren't as good a properly tooled-for screen printed shirts
What typically happens is the company 'Barnd' who's created a cool following for their stuff has had to take a chance of buying enough of the stuff their manufacturer makes to fill a container with a lead time of several months a not not neccesarly firm production date.. They then need to create 10 times the buzz to get that stuff sold and get their money back as quickly as they can as whatever inventory thats sitting around is both dead money and costing money to store. If theres so much buzz it alll sells out you then have buzz, but no stock and a long lead time to get so more - your manufacturer isn't 'your' manufacturer, them might be busy doing something else you you maybe have to then find someone else to make your next batch of stuff and try and ensure its still authentically looks and feels like something of yours and keep that buzz going while the months pass.
Watching Brant's work on here when new On One bikes were in the pipe line helped reveal the workings - discounts on preorders and a lot of buzz while the bike/frame is in the queue to be manufactured with the aim of getting as much of batch sold as soon as its made to get the capital back
In homage your first 'Barnd' product could be the 'Barnt'
I have helped someone take a container load of their branded bags to the tip after they'd been paying to store them for 10 years.
Judging by all the messages I get on Instagram I get for my business, it’s easy:
First page on Google
Appoint an influencer
Post a few viral vids on social
Rake in the 💷💶💰
If you’re selling t-shirts, making say £5 profit/unit and looking to be comfortably off at £100k/year then that’s 20,000/sales/annum. Average e-commerce website conversion rate of 2%, so you need to attract 1,000,000 potential buying customers/year or 2,800 visitors/day, and based on a 1% conversion between search results and click-throughs that’s just just over 250,000 visitors/day…
Yes, time and marketing costs need adding in but that can be done with small high impact things focussed on specific groups relatively cheaply.
TBH I’d have thought this was the really expensive part, you need the marketing to sell your brand.
TBH I preferred the good old days when people put effort into making stuff that then became a desirable brand as it had redeeming qualities engineered into it to set it aside from the competition.
As opposed to getting stuff from sweatshops abroad and marketing the hell out of it.
I’d say it’s much harder than you think, usually business owners don’t pay themselves a wage for a while. It’s an interesting thread to follow but as soon as you start growing surely the supplier admin costs of product logistics goes higher, you’d want a v keen eye on all figures to make sure you’re not being fleeced.
As people have said, unless you have some great design ideas you likely need to be that brand, get people loving it and build the hype then test the water… expensive if it doesn’t take off though
Good luck!
Joking aside, what you describe is exactly how Gymshark came into being.
They also were some of the first to realise the value of influencers and run with it.
TBH I’m currently watching a new brand enter the market with £180 bib shorts and wondering who buys this stuff,would you honestly spend that on an unknown or just buy Castelli.
Coming soon. A range of TJ branded tat including replicas of the infamous "randomiser" route planner guaranteed to turn you 40 mile flat route into a 60 mile route with lots of climbing, an animatronic whimpering dog and a range of trolls
Look at Superdry.
I actually thought they made really decent waterproof clothes for a while.
But no, its Vietnamese finest cotton tee shirts with a snazy logo and a grossly inflated ( for what it is) price tag.
As ypu grow it must get easier, overhead per unit drop, import costs drop pro rata.brexshit wont be a help though.
Watch some qvc for ideas, websites can be built up as you go, some of the templates are ok. Look at etsy too.
Aren’t they in decline,I used to like the Bath shop, but that disappeared.
They had an insane amount of stuff thou,and don’t forget you have to have designs in multiple sizes and not everything sales so those xs could end up in the reduced or recycling bin.
Matt Jones has made one with Helfare.
Helfare? Don't know if it's a font issue, but I glanced at that and thought it must be something to do with riding on benefits.
I often think all I need to do is write a number one hit single and I'll be rich
Lalala
Di dumb did dumb
Love ya baby
Yeah yeah
Baby baby
One billion pounds please
I've not done it but having the technical skills to put everything together, I've thought about it. The reality is that you'll be competing against thousands of other brands that you've never even heard of, who have been slogging away at it for years, many barely scraping a living.
You can put a website together and nobody is going to see it. You might be on page 100 of the search listings. The amount of money even the smaller household names spend to stay on the first page is eye watering, it can run into millions, monthly...
Not saying it can't be done, but marketing is key. Everything else is worthless if nobody knows about it, and for many companies marketing is their biggest spend.
C) Anyone going to suggest where this masterplan may fall down?
5) Make the world think your brand is the coolest/most exclusive/most desirable
Can't be that hard, any Joe Bloggs could do it 😉
Matt Jones has made one with Helfare.
Despite being aware of Matt Jones and having seen a bit of his YT content, until you mentioned his clothing brand on this thread I was utterly unaware of it, so that's got to be pretty poor influencing.
and it sort of feels like he just misspelled "Hellfire", these millennials love a Stranger Things reference now don't they...
TBH I reckon you could make a small sum from a Brand called ‘barnd’ WCA, just saying it out loud sends me all west country, you've got the not so interesting back story with the whole "I was typing the word 'brand' while pissed one evening" angle, people love those sort of mundane tales from the internet.
No need for influencers or any marketing, play the whole 'only cool people know' angle.
Plan white T-shirt with 'barnd' on the front in whichever font you favour, charge £48.93 a shirt, only sell it in a "medium" (which is actually a 'small') and package each one with a little card that says:
"100% of profits from this sale will go to my local boozer, by purchasing it you have proven yourself a bit of a witless ****"...
The Nathan Barley set will love it.
Obviously WCA branded first aid kits. Personal ones to thread onto a bumbag or handbag and bigger ones for workshops. Kayak off of 'ere could be your first influencer.
Thank me later.
Good luck.
I started a small brand a few years ago, spent a decent amount of money on the logo, had the same design company come up with a name, I paid a few hundred quid to get the brand name trademarked and got the thing off the ground in a very small way. I am risk averse and didn't want to invest any more money so I sold the brand/small business. It turned out that was the most valuable part of the company and meant I got my investment money back.
My experience was that having a good brand name which was trademarked meant I actually had something to sell. I learnt about the importance of trademarking the brand on a free course for start-ups.
It seems like you've gone full South Park Underpants Gnomes:
[img] 
?format=jpg&width=300[/img]
MrsRNP (and I) did it. Long story short - we knew a jewelry designer in SE France and started bringing her stuff to the UK. Jumped in our Transit and drove round France and Spain looking for other manufacturers/artisans who didn't have UK presence. Opened and ran a shop/distribution for 8 years then sold it.
We knew we wouldn't stand out online/SM so dragged ourselves out to as many festival's/trade shows/fashion shows etc as possible. That Transit van earned its keep.
MrsRNP had a few years out whilst she helped rebrand/developed a local museum but has started again in the luxury leather goods market.
Creating a Brand and making Money from it? Why yes, and yes.
For more info I will happily sell you tickets to an entertaining and highly informative event (with buffet included) held at the local holiday inn/travelodge where I reveal the secrets of my incredible business success and brainwash you intoallow you a unique, once in a lifetime opportunity to invest in my next amazing business venture so bring your chequebook.
Please note that there may be a pre-entry security check to see if you are a member of the local constabulary or an undercover journalist.
I’m going to say what WCA is describing is a non starter
No one of going to buy off the shelf generic made in the Far East luggage with a logo they have never heard of on it. Well not for more than they can buy it off Amazon or eBay etc.
Gym Shark started making things themselves. I’m sure they design products
I think people are quite savvy now about looking at something and realising that it’s something they’ve seen else where and why that is
I don’t think you need huge design input. But you need some
TBH I reckon you could make a small sum from a Brand called ‘barnd’ WCA, just saying it out loud sends me all west country, you’ve got the not so interesting back story with the whole “I was typing the word ‘brand’ while pissed one evening” angle, people love those sort of mundane tales from the internet.
That is a very good point, a lot of people on here would probably buy "world class accident" T shirts, maybe you have been building your brand awareness without even realising it.