Category - Tech

Are you a lover of fashion? Do you want to start your own fashion brand in 2023? There is lots of advice out there when it comes to starting a fashion brand. However, a lot of people can miss out on some crucial elements when it comes to the actual marketing of their fashion brand, and this means business owners miss out on a lot of customers. There are many different avenues to consider when it comes to starting your own fashion brand and marketing it, and incorporating some of these strategies when it comes to your marketing strategies can really kickstart your company. 

On-Point Branding

What sort of clothes do you sell, and who will be buying them? Your branding should reflect this closely to ensure that you’re going to be marketing to the right people. For example, if you’re selling women’s streetwear, your branding should reflect a modern young aesthetic that is in-tune with the general street-style look. Your website should also reflect your branding to encourage shoppers who visit your site to stay and look through your clothes. Your branding should be on-point in order to aid your marketing strategy. 

Social Media Marketing

Having a social media account to represent your company is one of the best ways you can encourage brand awareness amongst your target audience, particularly if your ideal demographic is younger people. Social media posts can allow you to communicate your branding much more effectively and reach a lot of people through social media. Having social media be an avenue in which customers can reach you can be a great way to increase communication with your core customer base. It is without a doubt one of the best ways you can market a fashion brand in 2023. 

Influencer Marketing

If the subculture of the clothes your brand sells has a lot of prominent influencers when it comes to that specific style, influencer marketing can be a great way to reach a targeted audience. As social media has become much more influential over people’s buying habits and personal style, bloggers and content creators have a lot of potential when it comes to marketing your company. A lot of them are more than happy to work with brands in order to promote their products on their social media platforms, which often have a lot of followers. It can be a great way to reach a younger audience, if that’s the demographic you are targeting. 

SEO

Search engine optimization can be a great way to make your company website rank higher on search engine results pages. It can be one of the best ways to attract organic traffic to your website and get a lot more people looking at your product line. SEO is incredibly diverse, and there are many different avenues that have worked well for a myriad of different fields. For example, Dental SEO has done really well in recent years. Finding an SEO strategy that works for your fashion brand can be a lot easier than you think. There are many prominent teachers on the internet that are talking about SEO, so you can do your research on it if you’re unfamiliar. 

Marketing your fashion brand could attract so many more customers to your website and clothes than without. It’s important to have a marketing strategy in place to really promote your clothing line. 

Possibly you were creating fashion designs since you were little, maybe you even created a couple of custom tees for you and your friends or are the star of the show when it came to Halloween costumes, no matter how you got into fashion, you are here now. Maybe you simply want a piece of the trillion-dollar pie that evolves around the fashion industry. Regardless of what makes you get out of bed in the morning, knowing how to start a fashion brand is extremely different from just wanting to start one. 

You could potentially create a fashion brand for under £5000 and at a really tight squeeze, maybe £1000, but this requires a lot of work and long days and nights. There are many fashion entrepreneurs out there that have done this and are smashing it now, so in this article, we will go through some helpful tips on how to start your own fashion brand. 

What Is A Brand? 

A successful brand is more than just your colours, logo and tone of voice, but it is selling a lifestyle, it’s aligning your business with your audience’s beliefs, values and goals for the future. Your brand is how you want your audience to perceive you, so you want to ensure your core values are aligned with your customers. This part can be tricky so hiring a design agency Leeds based or Manchester will ensure you have some of the best talents in the UK. 

Steps To Starting A Fashion Brand?

Create A Brand Business Plan

Fail to plan plan to fail, that’s the saying. And it couldn’t be more correct when starting any sort of business. Before diving into the bits that you want to do, you need to take some time to picture the end goal for your business. Is there anything you want to accomplish? Where do you want to sell your products? What stores should they be in? Who are your customers? Who are your competitors? Knowing all this information is vital for starting a clothing line as it will help you to guide you through the process and decision-making. It will also help you decide on your design branding and textiles. This business plan will also help you to get funding or expand when you get big enough. Your business plan is constantly evolving, so ensure you update it.

Here are some of the main factors to include in your business plan:

Executive Summary – Business name, mission, goals and values

Company Overview – Brief about your business what it does and its history

Products / Services Provided – What are you going to offer and how to make a profit

Marketing Strategies – detailed analysis of your customers, demographics, trends and customer segmentation. 

Sales Strategy – How are you going to sell your clothes? What channels will be used? How will pricing affect sales?

Competitive Analysis – describe your competitors. Direct and indirect.

Production Plan – a timeline for production, marketing and sales of your clothing. 

Operation Plan – Who will take care of different areas of business? Describe the daily work and who does what.

Financial Analysis and Projections – analyse your budget, how much you need for the initial investment, and how will you use the investment. 

Develop Your Fashion Branding

For your fashion brand to be successful, you will need to determine how your clothing brand is going to stand out against your competitors. It is crucial to understand that the most successful clothing lines will niche to a specific market where they will be in demand. For example, if you are selling baby clothes and products, then you may go down the route of sustainable baby clothes. 

Here are some tips on what to consider when developing a fashion brand:

Niche – Specific and detailed explanation defining your niche market. Who are you aligning your clothing to? Who is it going to appeal to in the larger market?

Design – How are you going to make your clothes look great? What patterns, materials, fits and colours are being used?

Quality – What quality assurance checks are you doing? 

Brand – How are you going to market and package your brand?

When thinking about these factors, it is essential to remain focused on differentiating yourself apart from your competitors. The fashion industry is extremely saturated so you need to stand out. 

Begin Fashion Design and Development 

This is the fun part, this is where you are going to start showing your creative flare. Now you have developed your brand and niche market, it is now time to start designing your new line of clothing. As with any first meeting, first impressions count. This is your sole opportunity to create anything that you feel your customers are going to aspire to wear. This is also your opportunity for you to create something that your customers are going to remember, so maybe one bold and brash design will appeal to other markets. 

As much as it is fun creating designs, it is also important to understand that you have a budget, and it’s hard to make it in this industry if the cost of your production is eating away at your profits. Always think of the cost of production, it will help to develop good business habits as you grow. 

Start by creating sketches for your line and then out of them all, decide which ones you are going to make a reality. If you are doing print on demand, all you need to determine is the designs, but if not, you need to determine materials, patterns, fit, texture and any other features your clothing has.  Other factors to consider include:

• Sleeve length
• Neckline
• The shape of the item 
• Lengths
• Pleats
• Types of stitches

Mix and match all of these factors and see what works best. There are a lot of apps out there for design, but we prefer the good old fashion pencil and paper. If you already have the fabrics, try a dress dummy and fashion pieces yourself. 

Follow these first steps and this is going to ensure that you have a great start for your new business venture. If you continue to struggle to create a fashion brand, speaking to other brands and collaborating is another great idea.

Are you thinking about trading bitcoin? If so, it’s hard to figure out whether the world’s largest cryptocurrency is currently witnessing a true rise in value or is the victim of bubble pricing. Bubble price rises happen for reasons other than appreciation in value, and they eventually burst. So, anyone who intends to add BTC to their portfolio, either as a long-term investment, a swing trade, or a speculative play should review the key points about the father of cryptos in order to make a more informed decision. Here are the most relevant points for making that all-important determination.

Review the Past Year

The undulations of BTC’s price throughout the COVID pandemic provide important information about the cryptocurrency’s inherent stability. When the pandemic hit, just about every security and crypto took a temporary dive in value. But, as people got use to the lockdown and slowing of the global economy, general price levels began to rise.

However, for people who enjoy trading the price volatility, BTC was a prime candidate. From October 2020, value of the alt-coin began rising quickly, hitting a series of historic highs along the way and reaching above the $60,000 mark by April 2021. Since then, prices have fallen back to their January 2021 levels between $30,000 and $40,000. That one-year window argues against BTC being in a bubble. Apparently, there was a change of perception about the crypto shortly after the pandemic hit, with millions of people viewing it as a safe haven investment, akin to gold.

Compare BTC to Gold

Many long-term and short-term traders and investors now look at the big picture and accept the fact that cryptocurrencies are one way to protect portfolios from the volatility and uncertainty of the traditional securities markets. Oddly, the major financial media outlets rarely refer to gold and other precious metals as being in a price bubble, even though they behaved pretty much the same way bitcoin did from early 2020 until today. It’s not a direct correlation, but the charts of BTC and gold both reveal a safe haven effect since March of 2020. There was a major dip, and the people rallied to buy for several months in a row. Of course, there was an inevitable correction for both, but there’s still debate whether either asset is in a bubble.

Is Volatility Inherently Evil?

For some investors and short-term trading enthusiasts, volatility is not such a bad thing. Nearly every security, even the blue-chips, undergoes a period of rapid rises and falls in value. The same is true for nearly every cryptocurrency in existence, especially the smaller ones. BTC is the largest, best-known, most capitalized crypto in existence. The long view of its behavior, since its introduction in 2009, has been like a roller coaster, with one significant difference in that the BTC roller coaster always ends up higher than it began. There are some massive dips, drops, rises, and climbs between new highs, but so far, the most popular cryptocurrency of all time has held its value and defied categorization as a bubble asset.

SEO is a constantly changing industry and with companies doing more technical due diligence and wanting fast results, the SEO industry needs to keep adapting to keep their business or clients happy. Here’s a look at some changes to expect this year:

More Speed

A few years ago a big Google update was to prioritise faster websites in the rankings, this was solely to improve the user experience and make webmasters wearier of cramming data into pages. Within this time there have been several ways to improve speed and as websites adapt, so will Google. It’ll likely be a subtle update, but Google will continue to push the boundaries with prioritising faster running websites. I’ve found improving a website’s speed is one of the best ways to optimise a website especially by reducing image size.

Backtracking 

In January Google announced that websites will no longer be able to have multiple positions on the SERP’s meaning if you rank for a keyword in a featured snippet, you’ll lose your organic ranking below it. However, this hasn’t been the most thought out update as it’s been proven by multiple websites that clicks are dramatically down with losing the organic position. While having a featured snippet position is good (with it being at the top of the page) clicks aren’t guaranteed as answers are also displayed on the SERPs.

Web Development

There has been a lot of chatter in the SEO industry about how much the user experience of a website is vital to creating longer website visits, and the fact is that a lot of websites cut corners when it comes to the backend of their domain. It’s difficult to decipher how Google would go about this, but websites overloaded with unnecessary code, bad formatting and navigation as well as sites that aren’t developed to mobile correctly, these will likely be strong indicators for Google.

An update like this should hopefully encourage more webmasters to rethink anything they’ve neglected and begin focusing on improving their user experience for both Google and their traffic.

COVID-19

The announcement from the pandemic declaration from the World Health Organisation has created an influx of searches in most industries. With lockdowns, stores closing and users with plenty of health questions, Google’s average search levels have massively increased. But once normality is restored will this lead to a Google update? Most likely. Google may encourage more websites to display their health procedures in place to give users peace of mind, especially in the e-commerce and health sectors.

As I mentioned these are logical theories based on releases from Google and their previous habits. It’s always worth keeping up to date with the latest updates and any announcements so you can be ready for any big changes. The great thing about the above predictions is that if you do decide to execute them, there’ no harm they can do, but only enhance your website and the UX that it offers.

It’s no secret that the world is in a health crisis when it comes to climate change. The issue of climate change is expected to increase the number of deaths excessively by 2050, affecting many countries across the globe. Governments and local authorities are exploring many methods to decrease these harmful levels of pollution, particularly by taking advantage of technology. Here are 5 cities that are using technology to help reduce the issue of climate change.

1. Hamburg

Hamburg is considered an important port in Germany where many cruise liners and ships stop off during trade and visits. Unfortunately, when the ships are travelling to the city they burn fuels which contribute to the air quality in the environment. Because of this, officials in the government have been wanting to reduce the pollution caused by the shipsA smart solution that’s been introduced Hamburg is ‘shore connection’, an initiative introduced from Siemens which allows the ships to turn generators off while they’re waiting in the port but attract energy from the mainland.

2. Glasgow

Internet of Things (IoT) is a technology that has been introduced in recent years and Glasgow have adopted this to reduce air pollution. Sensing the City is a project that is helping the city to reduce emissions and improve the air quality. 

Is uses an IoT sensor node to help monitor the air quality in the city through mobile technology. This is an alternative compared to Glasgow’s current sensing stations that are considered high-costing, but they work hand-in-hand to provide accurate data for the city. It can consider outlays from cars on the road, industrial ventilation systems in commercial buildings, the pollution given off from construction projects and more.

3. Oakland

Oakland are using Google cars that have sensors attached to them to help map air pollution. They were introduced to the streets back in 2015 and drive over 400 miles to provide an adequate sample size to test with.

It helped to discover different pollution levels in the city, with some areas having major differences even though they were only one block apart. The findings provided evidence that high levels of air pollution are situated in their area and arguments can be made against further industrial projects being introduced.

4. Beijing

Innovative ideas are never far in the spotlight with Beijing and another has been introduced to reduce the issues of climate change and air pollution. It’s evident from cloud of smog that currently covers the overhead of the city.

The smog-free tower was designed by Dutch designer Daan Roosegaarde. The idea of the tower is to suck in harmful particles that hover in the air and replace it with clean filtered air around the city. It’s estimated that it cleans around 30,000 cubic meters of air every hour, using minimal energy.

5. Manchester

Plans have been put in place by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) and the Low-Emission Strategy (LES) to make a positive impact with climate change. The project is called the Greater Manchester Climate Change Strategy and Implementation Plan which will look to reduce emissions by 2020, and make Manchester carbon neutral by 2040.

The UK government has already announced for the banning of gas and diesel cars by 2040 with the initiative to adopt hybrid and electric cars in the future. The project is known as the Road to Zero project with the goal of having cleaner air in cities.

Every new year brings with it a flurry of predictions and goals for the 12 months ahead across many industries. Real estate is no exception. The past few years have been turbulent in the property sector, largely due to the uncertainty due to Brexit. Fewer overseas investors are interested in snapping up property in the UK without knowing how well the economy will recover.

Similarly, property management companies are changing their style to suit the long-term renters and changing building regulations. In fact, it’s forecasted that the built-to-rent system will be in the spotlight, along with home improvements and a focus on health and safety.

Here’s a look at those predictions in more detail:

The Built-To-Rent System

The built-to-rent system has been in talks since 2017. It’s a system that attracted £2.4bn in investment for purpose-built blocks of rental homes. For tenants, it’s set to offer a more streamlined renting experience with the personalised, superior quality style property management Manchester and other main cities are famed for. They’re tailored towards “hard-working professionals” with a monthly rent price-tag to match. These private rental communities are, on average, 11% more expensive than other rental properties in their area.

Property management will be forced to give the same care and attention to residential properties as they already do to commercial property management. This is because the calibre of the new BTR homes is much higher, offering tenants a new standard of renting. Many developments include amenities such as gyms, cinema rooms, communal lounges and gardens. Residents will no longer stand for below-par property management in response to the premium prices.

2019 is set to be the year where the built-to-rent system truly takes off in areas up and down the country. It’s also great for investors who have been put-off by Brexit, offering them a more secure scheme to be a part of. It’s anticipated that property buyers from the USA, France, Canada and Spain will be entering the UK property market as a result of the system. Additionally, because the built-to-rent scheme has the potential to fulfil the demand for homes and improve conditions for renters, many have backed it as an efficient way to solve the UK housing crisis.

Improving, Not Moving

Homeowners are taking advantage of easy credit, meaning that they can install a new kitchen or extension for virtually nothing if they manage their borrowings right. Building on your existing home has always been an appealing factor to property owners, adding a great deal of value to the house. Whether it’s a simple conservatory, loft conversion or full scale extension, home improvements could be the way forward for many. Many believe that because of Brexit, home owners will be less inclined to move house or upscale this year, meaning that renovations may prove to be even more popular.

It’s also great news for property management companies or landlords, who are presented with opportunities to potentially expand their property by a number of rooms or even another floor. Home owner’s not wanting to budge also makes it difficult for young professionals to enter the property ladder – which is there the aforementioned built-to-rent may come into play. More young people are inclined to rent than consider moving into a house, a trend which is predicted to continue this year.

Health and Safety

After the Grenfell Tower tragedy in the UK, the aspect of health and safety has been raised as a matter of upmost importance for every property management company. In 2017 and 2018, we saw a call for action in removing unsafe cladding from buildings. The Grenfell Tower property management company claimed the blame lied with Kensington & Chelsea council. Council’s up and down the country were forced to re-evaluate their current practices in regulation over construction and property management companies. In 2019, it’s expected that health and safety will be stepped up a notch to meet the high standards now in place. For property managers, this may mean spending more money per property than they did previously.

A Year of Change for the Better

The year ahead is certainly looking busy for changing property management practices. Not only will commercial property management be revisited, but it may be that residential property is also managed to the same degree. This has been long overdue, with more needing to be done about exploitative estate agents, unfair agency fees and improved safety checks.

Furthermore, it will be interesting to see whether the proposed built-to-rent system is able to alleviate some of the concerns the UK government has about the housing crisis. As with all predictions, it’s yet to be seen whether any come into fruition over the course of 2019. The only thing certain is that it will be an unprecedented year for the housing market thanks to Brexit.

For many of us, car rental is not interesting until we go on vacation. As soon as you have planned your trip, you start thinking about how and where to rent a car. Regardless of whether you need to pick up car rental in Ames IA, or Los Angeles, it will be a great way to travel throughout the United States.

Unfortunately, we often spend too much time and money when searching for the car that we don’t actually need at all. Do you want to find out how not to overpay on car rental and make your trip budget? Then the following tips will help you to greatly save on car rental in the USA…

1. Don’t book a rental car through a travel agency.

(photo by Sandra Mello)

How do travel agencies make money? Everything is very simple. They earn on commissions that are got from customers. The rule is: the higher the price of the voucher – the greater the profit of the agency. Any travel agency wants to earn as much as possible, so you are often imposed such additional services, as buying a ticket, excursions and car rental. With car rental, they also tend to make a profit. In fact, you need only a few minutes to book a rental car. What’s more, you can order a certain car that you want to drive in the country of upcoming stay.

2. Book your car as early as possible

Similarly to air tickets, the closer the date for which you need a car, the more expensive car rental. The biggest increase in the cost of car rental can occur shortly before such holidays as Christmas. The fact is that at such dates the demand for rental cars is very high and the companies that provide rental vehicles are not averse to making money on this, raising prices for services. Indeed, despite the increase in prices, people will still rent cars for any money.

Therefore, booking a car in advance will save you money and provide an opportunity for a greater choice of cars.

3. Compare offers of different companies

Comparing different car rental deals is a great way to find a company that offers the best rental prices. So, check out several car hire providers at once in order to visually compare their conditions and select the best company, or just use a special car rental aggregator. When choosing a service provider, pay attention to the following items: no booking fee and no payment for canceling a reservation.

Also, don’t forget to clarify where you need to pick up the vehicle. The most convenient way is to choose a company that has the opportunity to provide you a car at the airport, railway station or at the hotel.

4. Check out different pick up locations

Do you know that car hire at the airport is much more expensive than the service of the same company in city? This is due to the fact that car rental agency pays a lot of money to the airport for parking, and various additional fees. Therefore, the cost of services at the airport is much more expensive.

(photo by Steven Brandist)

In addition, the company sets a higher rental rate, because of the convenience for the client. Of course, if you order a car for one or two days, the difference may not be significant between the company working at the airport and the same company offering services in the city.

However, if you plan to rent a car for a week or a longer period, the overpayment can be significant. So, before booking a car at the airport, compare the prices of different providers and locations. It’s possible to order a much cheaper car in the city, even with the condition of delivery of the vehicle to the airport.

5. Don’t forget to refuel the car

Some car hire providers can charge a higher fee if you return your car with not a full tank of gasoline. Therefore, before dropping off the vehicle, don’t forget to fill the tank at the nearest gas station. In some companies, in the case of not filling the full fuel tank, you will be charged twice as much as the gasoline price in the region of your stay.

Of course, take a check at the gas station, so that in case of a dispute about the amount of fuel you can prove that you have fulfilled all the conditions of the contract.

6. Consider an economy car

You don’t have to take a car that consumes a lot of fuel. If it makes no difference to you by what car to travel on vacation, then rent a compact or economy car. As a result, you can save money.

Of course, the Mercedes S-Class looks impressive and you will certainly feel comfortable in it, but if you don’t need such a model, then this is a great way to save some money. By the way, you can spend it on other pleasures on vacation.

7. Pay attention to insurance

(photo by RarotongaAirport CarHire)

Car insurance terms may vary depending on the state, but in general, almost all rental cars have damage insurance called CDW. Specify the size of the liability limit for damage in the event that you become the cause of the accident. It’s necessary that the minimum liability limit was not less than $1000-2000 dollars. Otherwise, even for a minor scratch in an accident, you can pay a lot of money. You can also buy extended insurance of your liability to third parties, but its price will be little higher.