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What is more profitable, starting a fashion brand or being

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a freelance fashion designer? I've done both, and

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I've interviewed hundreds of people who have done both. And the

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answer in my head is super obvious, but I get asked

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this question a lot. So I thought I'll talk about it here in the podcast.

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In this episode, I'm gonna share the differences between starting your own clothing line and

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freelancing in fashion. I will share which one is more

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profitable. And Spoiler alert, this is not a close race. One

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of them massively takes the cake. So if you wanna work for yourself

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in fashion and make money, This will help you figure out

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which fashion career to pursue. Let's get to it. If you want to work

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for yourself in fashion and make money, There is

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one way to do it. Now I know that having your own clothing line can

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feel like a dream. You come up with some ideas, you get the

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manufactured and you start selling. Like, really, how hard could it be? But

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the truth is that if you want to actually make money, Starting a clothing

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line is one of the least profitable things in fashion. In fact,

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you will likely end up losing money, lots of

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money. Here's the thing. Losing money was pretty much the

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number one topic that fashion brand guests on my

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podcast were bummed to admit. I have interviewed hundreds of

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people, and a lot of them are fashion brand found fashion brand found fashion

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brand found fashion brand found fashion brand founders,

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and they said, I'm losing so much money. It is the

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reality that a lot of fashion industry experts will not tell you.

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And the opposite of this is that what a lot of people don't know is

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that there's a much better way to work for yourself in fashion and make money.

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Now if you've been around for a while or you've tuned in before, you know

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that I'm probably talking about freelancing and fashion. And, no, I'm

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not talking about permalancing where you work for 1 brand full time as

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an exploited temp employee without benefits. That's kind of the worst.

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I'm talking about real freelancing where you're in control of your

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own business, you set your own schedule and rates, and you work

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wherever and whenever you want. That is

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how you work for yourself in fashion and make money. And I am

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talking about upwards of $100,000 plus a

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year while doing work that you love. Now I know this

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because I have done both. I had my own fashion brand, and I

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freelanced. And many of my students have had the same

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exact experiences. One of my students, she's a graduate of my fast program.

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Her name's Sophia. She shared her whole story on the SFF podcast.

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We'll link to that episode in the show notes, but it essentially went like this.

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Sophia spent 5 years building her lingerie brand.

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Finally, in year 4, she was barely able to pay

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herself minimum wage. That's a long time to work at something

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before you're barely making minimum wage. So she decided to start

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freelancing. And within 10 days of freelancing, she Had

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her 1st paying client. A few months later, she was earning a

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comfortable full time salary. Think about that. 5 years to

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barely pay herself minimum wage with her own fashion brand,

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yet only months to start earning a comfortable full time salary as a freelancer.

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Okay? Now listen, I know it's not all about the money. Right? Money is a

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very tangible, easy way to measure things. So let's look at from a high level

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the pros and cons to starting a fashion brand versus

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freelancing in fashion. So first, we'll go through the pros of starting a fashion brand

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or a clothing line. First, You technically when you are your

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own fashion brand owner, you have no boss and you are legitimately

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100% working for yourself. Right? It does give you ultimate freedom in

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some ways. You literally have no one to answer to. And in addition to

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that, you have a 100% creative control. With your own clothing line,

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You are the creative mastermind behind every single

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aspect from design concepts to production and branding.

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Your vision is intact, and you can fully express your

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artistic talents. So those are some of the pros to starting a clothing line. Now

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let's talk about some of the cons to starting a clothing line. First, It

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takes a tremendous amount of time. Launching a clothing line is

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a time consuming process, and it requires a lot of patience and

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a lot of perseverance. From the initial

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idea through manufacturing and distribution. It can take anywhere from 12

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to 18 months or even longer just to bring 1 design

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to market. K? So a lot of time to get started. Next,

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it takes a lot of money to start a clothing line. It is

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expensive AF. You will need to invest substantial capital into

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sourcing materials, production, marketing, distribution, etcetera. The

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total investment is looking like, 1,000, if not tens of

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1,000 of dollars just to get off the ground. Now

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we're looking at this. We're like, okay. Takes a lot of time. It takes a

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lot of money. And I'm gonna give you the kicker here. Your chances of success

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are extremely low. Now I don't have specific data on this, but I have

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interviewed hundreds of people. I have been in the industry for 15 years.

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I've talked to a lot of people. The chances of starting

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a successful fashion brand is very, very low. Our industry is

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extremely competitive and is very saturated with tons of people trying to start a brand.

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It can be really difficult to stand out and gained recognition.

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To compound all of this, profitability is really, really low. If

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you are lucky enough to gain some momentum with sales, you can. It happens.

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Right? You're still going to have to reinvest a significant portion of

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that back into the business to sustain growth. It

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can take years to become profitable if you ever even do.

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And then beyond all of this, when you're running a fashion brand,

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a clothing line, You have a tremendous amount of

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business responsibilities. You're not only responsible for the creative aspects,

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which is actually gonna be, like, 10 or 20% of the workload. You're

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more responsible for customer service, marketing, sales,

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promotion, product development, etcetera, and you're really looking at about

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10 to 20% of your time on, like, the fun design stuff with

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about 80, 90% of your time on the business side of things. Okay? So that

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is the reality of starting a fashion brand. Again, I know this because I had

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my own brand, and I know this because I have talked to and interviewed hundreds

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of people in the fashion industry. So let's look at the opposite side of the

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table, which is freelancing in fashion. The pros of freelancing in

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fashion. First of all, it is quick to get started. Freelancing and fashion,

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you can hit the ground running. I have people who've come to some of my

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training events. I have people who've listened to the podcast or watched on YouTube,

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and literally within a week or 2

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have landed their 1st, 2nd, maybe even 3rd paying client.

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You can get started, like, today. Alright? Beyond

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that is minimal start up costs. Unlike starting a clothing brand,

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which requires a lot of capital to get started, You might be

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looking at an Adobe Illustrator subscription, which runs, like, $20.

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Excel, you can get Excel for $7 a month, or maybe you can even

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use Google Sheets to do it for free. You can begin

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offering services for very, very little a month. We're looking at,

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like, less than $30 a month. That is nothing compared to what it starts to

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cost what it costs to start a clothing brand. And then all this, you can

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get started fast. It doesn't cost a lot of money. And then 3rd, you have

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a higher chance of success. Again, now I don't have data on this. Okay? So

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this is a little bit of hearsay, a little bit of me going with my

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gut, knowing what I know from my personal experience, from teaching

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hundreds of fashion freelance fashion designers how to succeed, from

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interviewing hundreds of people on the podcast and and on YouTube here.

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You have a much higher chance of success as a freelance

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fashion designer or TDPD, what have you, than launching a clothing line.

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Okay? Beyond that, The profitability

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is enormous. Okay? As a freelancer, the majority of the earnings

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go right back into your pocket. Okay? You can charge

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competitive rates. You can keep a very high percentage of the rates that

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you're charging. Unlike a fashion brand, you're not continually reinvesting

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that money back into the business. K? As you tend to grow

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as a freelancer, You have the same software and the same overhead and

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your profit just gets higher and higher. And then last, you're gonna be

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really selective about your work work opportunities. Freelancing empowers you to

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choose projects that you're most passionate about. You can align with

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brand work with brands that align with your personal vision

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and ethos, and you get to be very particular about the type of work that

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you do. K? Now then, of course, there are some cons to freelancing

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in fashion. Right? 1st is client expectations, and

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I won't lie that in a way a freelance client can start to

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feel a little bit like a boss. Right? So you need to

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adapt and work creatively within the brand vision while delivering

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the expected outcomes so you don't get

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the freedom that you might get with your own fashion brand. You still are reporting

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to someone. Right? You still have someone else that you're liable to. And you

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also coming with that same type of idea of a little bit of a

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boss situation. You do get somewhat limited creative control. Right?

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You can choose the brands that you work with. You can choose the projects that

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you work with, but you obviously still have to design

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and build into that brand's requirements.

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K? So listen. If your goal is to work for yourself in fashion

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and make money. Freelancing is how you do

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it. Okay? I know that starting a clothing line has the allure

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of complete creative control and autonomy and

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building out this brand that you will likely be very proud of.

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I'm not here to tell you not to do it, but I'm here to tell

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you to know what you're getting into from a

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financial perspective, from a time investment perspective and

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chances of success perspective. These are the realities.

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Okay? By freelancing in fashion, you Get to work for yourself in

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fashion. You get to make money. You get freedom in your day. You're not tied

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to a desk, and you also get the financial rewards while doing

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work that you love with brands that you're passionate about. So I would

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love to help you to succeed. Keep listening to the podcast. Keep

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watching here on YouTube. You got this. You're doing great.