Fashion Business Surgery
Fashion Bytes X GFM
The follow-up is where the value lands
You came. You asked. You took notes. Then you went home and slept on it - and that is when the real questions started to arrive. This page is for those questions.
Get the follow-up assessmentEvery event has three parts.
Most people only attend one
Seminar, webinar, workshop, masterclass, surgery - the shape is always the same. Preparation, attendance, follow-up. The middle one is the only part most people show up for, and on its own it is the least valuable of the three.
01 BEFORE
Arrive with intent
Send your questions in advance. Decide what you want to walk out with. Someone who arrives with three written questions gets three answers. Someone who arrives to listen gets a nice morning.
02 DURING
Ask against a number
Questions tied to a measurable goal get specific answers. Questions with no number attached get generic ones - and a generic answer is rarely the most useful thing in the room.
03 AFTER
Come back once you have slept on it
This is the part that gets skipped, and it is the most important. If the organiser does not run a follow-up, run one internally. Without it you are at risk of buying the shiny object rather than fixing the business.
What to do when you do not have a goal yet
Most founders have a goal for the business. Far fewer have one for marketing, or for wholesale, or for cash. That is completely normal, and it is not a reason to stay quiet in the room.
When you have no number, ask this instead.
"Based on my context, what are the three options you would recommend I consider as a goal for marketing?"
That single question does two jobs at once. It gets you three usable starting points instead of one opinion - and it lets you assess the quality of the person answering. Someone who gives you three genuinely different options with the trade-offs stated is worth listening to. Someone who gives you one answer dressed up as three is not.
Then you choose the one that fits you, and you go deeper into that one. The choice stays with you. It always should.
Without questions, the doctor cannot diagnose
People call us Doctor Fashion, and the metaphor holds all the way through. A diagnosis made on thin information produces a prescription that looks sensible and does very little. The deeper the questions go, the better the diagnosis - and the better the long term solution, rather than a nice idea that fades by Friday.
Execution beats the big plan. But you cannot execute against a diagnosis nobody had enough information to make.
Rate each area. Then write the question
Go through the list below and mark each area red, orange or green. Then, for anything that is not green, write the actual question you would put to us. Not the topic - the question.
Red - this is a problem right now. It is costing me money, time or sleep.
Orange - it works, but not well, and I cannot honestly tell whether it is fine or quietly failing.
Green - this is running properly. Leave it alone.
Orange is the one to watch. It is the state that looks acceptable from the outside and costs the most over a season.
Structure and set-up
- Company structure and set-up
- Project management
- Cash management
- Recruitment, onboarding
Routes to market
- Wholesale
- Retail
- Online
- Bespoke
- Events
Growth and representation
- Sales and marketing
- Agents, distributors
- Negotiation
- Sales admin: Minimum order value and terms
Money
- Funding
- Being investor ready
- Pricing and margin
- Dashboard
- Performance
You and the business
- Building your brand as a founder
- Building the brand as a team, so it does not all sit on you
- Downtime, and what you do with it
Then the important bit
For every red and every orange, write the one question you would ask. Bring your top two or three to the follow-up. That is the whole exercise.
Download the follow-up assessment
One page. Fifteen areas. Three colours, and a blank line for your question. It takes about ten minutes, and it is worth doing before you decide what you want from the follow-up session.
There is also an article on this in the newsletter, going deeper into why the follow-up matters more than the event itself. Worth reading alongside.
Download the assessmentBeyond the 1-hour follow-up after the FahionBytes X GFM surgery,
what does the next step look like for you
There is no single right format. Tell us which of these fits how you work, and we will build it around that.
One to one
A private session on your business only. Best when your questions are specific to your numbers, and you would rather not ask them in a room.
Group webinar
Sixty to ninety minutes online, open questions, everyone hears everyone else's. The quickest way to find out your problem is not unique. We also offer digital workshops from 3 hours to 3 days.
Workshop in London
Half a day in the room, on one subject, with work done rather than discussed. You leave with something built, not something noted. We also offer live workshops from 1 to 5 days.
Masterclass or seminar
One subject taken to depth, with a defined outcome. Right when the topic is big enough to deserve its own session.
Preferred clients topics: wholesale 360, export, retail 360, people management, leadership, buying and merchanising, project management ...
Tell us when you are free
Online 1-hour follow-up surgery
Send us two or three days and times that work over the coming weeks, along with your top questions. Once we have everyone's availability we will fix the date and put it in the diary.
surgery@globalfashionmanagement.com | WhatsApp +44 7951 198 769
www.globalfashionmanagement.com
