Small is great pt 1

At LeftCo, we truly understand small. From cofounding a company of 3 that was acquired by a company of 150 that was acquired by a company of 7,000 to leading the launch of the European subsidiary of a multinational retailer as part of a team of 2 which we grew to 10 and then merged into a team of 200 in the course of 18 months, we’ve seen and been small. All these experiences have helped hone realizations on the relative pros and cons of being small and what it takes to grow while you’re small. Some lessons learned:

a) Small organizations accelerate more quickly

Small organizations don’t (or should not) suffer from inertia. Large organizations with many people (often less motivated people too) and many layers cannot communicate or act as fast as small organizations. It takes time to make a decision — for the decision to be worthwhile, it needs to be a bigger decision — risks need to be assessed — and when a decision is undertaken, the scale of the goal is so much larger that it requires much greater coordination. Simply put, a small organization can get from A to B a lot quicker than a big organization.

How to make this work to your advantage?

Small organizations should pursue small, attainable goals in sprints. Use your size to your advantage and move to your next logical position quickly and decisively.

b) Small organizations can take better risks

We’ve been talking to a lot of small fashion designers — it’s what we do. And as we reach out to people, a recurring theme is failure. From our experience, it’s probably fair to estimate that 90% of designer businesses are dead within 2 years of foundation (we’ll share an accurate figure as soon as we’ve collated one from our own data). There are lots of reasons to this but THE BIGGEST is that designers are taking the wrong type of risk. Small designers on a shoestring budget, with limited retail options, with often nothing more than a lot of guts and talent and very little money try to put together a collection. Maybe just a capsule collection but often a “collection.” Most designers seem to do this because they’ve been trained this way and because it’s how the big folks do it. In short, it’s not a good idea and it defeats the strength of being small.

If you’re a startup designer thinking of putting together a collection, STOP. Don’t stop designing but do stop working on a collection. Chances are that process will knock you out of the game in 24 months (or less). This is something we will write about in a lot more detail and it is probably an idea that will receive a lot of resistance but, the data speaks for itself — if you’re not incredibly well hooked up, don’t do a collection until you’ve the customers to support it.

Most big organizations have to take big risks and, while they should have better risk management processes, they typically have to bet bigger than the small guys. There are exceptions here and those exceptions form a good template for small organizations in fashion.

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Part 2 to come shortly

hello world

In tried and trusted internet convention, we launch with “hello world” and we welcome you to the LeftCo blog. We will wax sporadic on topics as far-reaching as pricing methods, fabric-sourcing, marketing and whatever else is occupying our time at that time. Over time, we hope we say something that strikes a chord with you, that you find useful or upon which you can improve — whenever any of those happen, be sure to contact us.

Thanks.
Eoin