Starting a brand from scratch is difficult. There are hundreds of things founders need to keep in mind in the crucial early days of a brand’s life.
For Gabrielle Union and Larry Sims, co-founders of the hair-care brand Flawless by Gabrielle Union, the most difficult thing was keeping their product in stock. In the first months or even years of a brand’s life, too much success can actually be a bad thing.
“You don’t have endless money,” Union said, speaking at the Glossy Beauty Pop event in Los Angeles on March 13. “If you’re selling wholesale, you might have a 25,000 order minimum with the retailer for each SKU. And if you sell out of the SKUs, you need to buy more to make sure you’re not sold out too long, but maybe you haven’t been paid yet for that first 25,000. Now you need to spend more money to make sure you’re not sold out for too long.”
Union said retailers are supposed to pay for orders within 90 days but indicated that that rule was commonly ignored, a claim that drew calls of agreement from the crowd at the London West Hollywood hotel where the event was being held.
See below for the full discussion, and click here for more highlights from the conversation.
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