Company Profile:
The Finest Accessories (TFA), a five year old privately-held luxury hair accessory products company with clients such as Macy’s, Bloomingdales and Nordstrom.
Situation:
CEO Laurie Erickson had previously owned a hair products company when she sold it and after a period of time, this self-proclaimed “chronic entrepreneur” started a hair accessories product based on the idea of authentic, French-manufactured hair “ornaments.”
Issue:
Without funding or established contacts, Erickson had to create manufacturing partnerships that extended beyond a vendor relationship.
Value-basis at TFA:
Laurie and her designers created unique designs using Italian, French and other ethnic fabrics and incorporated these into hair clips. Setting fashion trends would prove easy, but not the manufacturing process. To realize her product vision, Erickson had to create a custom manufacturing process and provide this to her manufacturing partners.
Partnership strategy:
Erickson would deliver her orders as well as her processes to the manufacturing partner in return for exclusivity and first right of refusal for potential competitive clients.
Partnership formed:
Joint development and manufacturing with eight Oyannax, France based manufacturing companies. It is considered “joint development” in addition to manufacturing because TFA “introduced them to new ways of creating products that had never been done in the last 500 years of business,” she explained. This requires continual adjustment with each new accessory design.
Risk factor:
Low, but now without exceptions. Many companies have been in the same family for generations, and work on oral contracts which require a lot of trust. But one manufacturing company took on a TFA competitor and were going to use TFA’s proprietary manufacturing process. After that, Erickson reacted by telling them “that the market is very small and if you lie to me I’ll pull my business.” She backed this up by asking for an audit which showed the revenue from her business as opposed to the other firms. “It was clear that as a percentage, my business was growing faster and at a more consistent rate than anyone else.” Ultimately, “this proved more of an incentive to maintain a partnership with me than any contract.”
Initial investment:
Several thousand dollars for the plane tickets.
Partnership return on investment:
Millions of dollars in time to market advantage.
Words of advice:
“Don’t badger your manufacturing partner on price. If you operate on a basis of fairness, everyone walks away satisfied. Fighting for a percentage of a penny is worth less than having my calls answered, my faxes returned and my order being manufactured in a crunch.”
Partnership Success Story: a High Fashion Entrepreneur Goes Global - To learn more about this author, visit Sarah Gerdes's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
 |
Related Articles |
|
 What The Media Wants
|
| |
The media wants stories, not products, not services, they want good interesting stories. So, give them what they want.
|
|
The Risk Factor In Small Business Partnerships
|
| |
In my small business workshop, I always advise people not to enter a business partnership, but to establish a company structure if they want to go into business with anyone else.
|
|
African fashion features on Fashion Television
|
| |
The always insightful program Fashion Television has two exciting podcasts on African fashion posted online.
|
|
Partnerships: The Small Business Secret Weapon
|
| |
Partnerships – Why do You Need Them?
By Sarah Gerdes, Business Marketing Group, Inc.
Whether you are a two-person firm or part of a global 50 organization, creating the right partnership is vital to successfully g...
|
|
I Am Iman, Fashion Legend
|
| |
Supermodel IMAN needs no introduction. There's simply been so much written about her background, model career and marriage to Rock star/Musician David Bowie it would be repeating it heare would be redundant.IMAN has...
|
 |
Related Businesses - Evan Elite Authors |
|
Leanne Hoagland Smith
Are your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales success or one of the many who have failed to change? So what are you doing to change those results? Let’s be honest, with companies moving globally and at lightening speeds, the traditional business solutions are outdated and dead. My approach moves your business out of its comfort zone and secures your competitive advantage now. If you are seeking to increase sales, build customer loyalty, create a culture of great attitudes or just achieve some sleep filled nights, then we should talk because my clients have experienced exactly those types of results. Learn more about customer loyalty at http://www.processspecialist.com/customer-loyalty.htm Give me a call at 219.759.5601 for a free strategy session. P.S. If you are seeking a motivational speaker, sales trainer or small business expert that will leave your audience smiling and remembering, please feel free to contact me at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland Smith's Website |
The Evan Elite Authors program is currently in beta phase. For details please contact us.
|
|
|
Sarah Gerdes
(Visit Sarah's Website)
Sarah Gerdes is recognized as one of the
leading partnership experts by Fortune,
Inc. Magazine has represented governments,
F50 firms and small businesses in
forty-five industries. Learn her secrets
to jump-starting revenue here.
|
|
|
|
![[Get Copyright Permissions]](http://license.icopyright.net/images/icopy-w.gif){kind=small}
