Workshops for up-and-coming designers.

Do you want to be in control of your businesses finances?

Do you want to be able to take good business decisions based on sound information?

Do you want to feel more in control of your production?

Fashion Enter is running a series of four practical workshops to help you get your business in good shape from a financial and production point of view held at Fashion Enter’s Workshop and Factory in North London.

Aimed at new and emerging fashion designers who are either just starting out or even experienced designers who just want to be more business savvy and improve the efficiency and profitability of their business.

These workshops are designed to be practical – giving you real industrial tools of the trade to help you manage your business as well as an understanding of the principles behind them.

During the workshops you will have the opportunity to apply your new-found knowledge through a cross section of industry based exercises. You will also get the chance to discuss your own particular needs both during the workshops and in one-to-one surgeries immediately after.

Each Workshop will run for 5 hours starting at 9.30 a.m. One-to-one surgeries will be held at the end of each workshop and you can pre book a unique surgery prior to workshop commencing.

The workshops will be delivered by our new Specialist Advisor, Nigel Rust (see profile on Fashion Capital website: Industry/Specialist Advisors). 

Location: The Workshop, Vale Road, London , N4  1TG

Dates: 18^th Nov, 25^th Nov, 2^nd Dec, 9^th Dec 2010.

Price: £50 per delegate per workshop.

How to Book: pre book by emailing jenni@fashion-enter.com

Workshop 1.  18^th Nov 2010.

Title: How Much Are You Really Making?

Topics:

1. Introduction to Profit/Loss –How many garments do you have to sell before you start making money? How do you know if your prices are going to cover all your costs? Why wait until the end of the year to find out from your accountant just how successful you were this season? A simple Profit/Loss account is the starting point to answering these questions and helping you manage your business well.
2. Recording your sales and purchases – Simple, practical, ways to record your income and expenditure that don’t take up a lot of time but do keep you in control.
3. How to treat stock – How to value fabrics, trimmings and finished garments.
4. VAT – Do you need to be VAT registered? Would it pay to be VAT registered?
5. Cash Flow – How would your business be affected if one of your customers was late paying you?  Are you sure you will be able to pay for your garments when they are ready? This section will introduce a simple cash flow tool to help you plan ahead.

Workshop 2. 25^th Nov 2010.

Title: How Rich Are You Going To Be?

Topics:

1. Forecasting/Budgeting – Why bother to forecast? Tips on how to forecast and how to make good use of a variable forecast.
2. Costing/Pricing – How to pitch your price. Are you going to recover your costs?
3. Break Even Point – How much do you need to sell to start making money? How much money will you make as your sales increase? How will your pricing decision affect the answer to these questions? This section will give you an easy-to-use method of working this out – a tool that will be very useful in helping you take sound business decisions.
4. More about Cash Flow – Making sure you get paid on time.

Workshop 3. 2^nd Dec 2010

Title: Getting the Most Out of Your Manufacturer

Topics:

1. Finding suitable manufacturers - Where to look. Creating a short list.
2. Selecting a manufacturer – What to look out for. Check list of requirements. The importance of a relationship. Sampling v Production.
3. Developing the relationship – developing mutual trust
4. UK v Overseas – the pros and cons
5. Communications – How to get your spec across. Delivery expectations. Quality. Progress chasing. What the manufacturer needs from you.
6. Production planning – What you need to do to keep the manufacturer on track.

Workshop 4. 9^th Dec 2010

Title: Making It Happen

Topics:

1. Objectives – Know where you are now and where you want to be.
2. Action Plans – Pulling together all the strands of what you need to do to get to where you want to be, with an emphasis on actions and timelines. Product development/Sales & marketing/PR/Production/Financials/Cash Flow. This section will also give you the chance to develop your own action plan.
3. Gantt Charts – an amazingly straight forward and simple tool to help you achieve your goals and keep you on target.
4. Driving the business forward - Monitoring, reviewing, revising. Staying one step ahead.
5. Review of previous material – a brief revision of what we have learnt over the four workshops.