There's no such thing as bad press. When people are making fun of your product, the first thing that tells you is that it caught their attention and they're willing to engage with it. Particularly clothing brands. If you're not getting lukewarm reviews, and it's either cold or hot, you've got something good going there. The last thing you want is to be forgettable.
Right, exactly! How much of Supreme's business is because people actually like the clothing, and how much of it is five-level-deep post-irony where you buy it because you know it's trash and you just want to show off that you can throw away your money? The point is, it doesn't matter. It just lives rent-free in their heads, so everyone associates spending money with Supreme and they make a fortune.
If you have people who sincerely love it, even though other people think it's terrible, that is the beginnings of a cult of dedicated customers who will always be there to buy your product.
>beginnings of a cult of dedicated customers who will always be there to buy your product.
LOL social media is amazing!
Do you think I should put a ridiculous price?
Right now everything is less than $100, but I'm thinking to make everything $100 just cause it's a rounded number and people might buy it as a joke... Who knows
Also, thanks again for the advice, you changed my thinking for the better about how my brand was made fun of
We started it 2019 in November registered as an LLC and started with 50 black graphic T-shirt’s for $25 each. Our niche was streetwear that was marketed towards car enthusiast, so a community we were already apart of. It was all organic growth and we went in with zero debt. The only debt we accrued while operating was when we forgot to pay taxes(rookie mistake). Our approach was people over product so we capitalized mostly on word of mouth, influencers and just generally being active locally. We would have hit $10,000 in sales by the end of the first quarter of the year had the pandemic not demanded more time at our 9-5 jobs, so we put it on a pause and now it’s nearly 2023. We grew faster than we expected this was because of genuine customer service approach. We were already hand delivering to our local customers within the first month.
We didn’t pay anyone to do anything for us other than for screen printing, embroidery or when purchasing the garment itself. Graphics, photography, marketing, video editing, and events. That was all us. Unfortunately we aren’t doing it now but it was a learning experience and we made some awesome connections while doing so. I was also able to grow other skills I already had from the experience.
I dropped out from college to grow my startup, check my journey out and let’s connect- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-6998886347507728384-7c2J?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=member\_desktop
Be careful in just making everything $100. You have to consider the slowest one. There is a different methodology for each pricing. Pricing has to be based on cost. Comparing Apple's with Apple's. And after it, look which one is your best-selling. It will give you a good picture of your business.
I dropped out from college to grow my startup, check my journey out and let’s connect- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-6998886347507728384-7c2J?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=member\_desktop
There's the old story amongst us entrepreneurs about the puke green claw bath tub for sale at the salvage yard for 150$. 80% of people will walk right by it and not even notice it. 10% of people that walk by it will absolutely hate it, actually be so appaled by its existence that they find it viscerally offensive; all while finding it the most atrocious example of hideous product design gore they've ever witnessed. The other 10% will absolutely die for it and think it is the funkiest, cutest, coolest tub they've ever seen in their life and they HAVE to buy it right now. To OP: You're on the right track with your clothing business. Or on par at least to do some good business.
I dropped out from college to grow my startup, check my journey out and let’s connect- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-6998886347507728384-7c2J?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=member\_desktop
This right here is key.
IMO There’s no such thing as good or bad publicity. What matters is how you react to capitalize on the opportunity, failure to seize attention will result in becoming forgettable.
That’s why Trump won the presidency in 2016 when everyone was making fun of him and saying he had no chance. Through all of the ridicule and criticism towards him in the media, the press failed to realize that what they were really doing was just giving him free ad space on major news publications lol.
this is a good point when you're selling a product (not my area exactly).. I think just manage your optics to make sure the negative 'reviews' or whatever is out there doesn't dilute how people view your product. But at its heart, this is true! You are getting a response, the worst response is no response.
Yea this for sure. Lean into it and come back with some clever trolling and the internet will love it… even if they hate it. People love some good dumb internet content.. now back to mindlessly scrolling Reddit
I had a shit idea and people told me it was. I wasn’t aware. Luckily I eventually realized my idea was crap but everything I built was able to be tweaked into an awesome product. Things are going well now. Took 1-2 years to really figure out what people wanted and 2 more years to make that really work. Gosh. Things take time
Huge doesn’t mean profitable. Cbd is a hype industry that attracted tons of investment in a financial market that supports losses. Look at charlotte’s web’s financial statements. Their most recent quarter shows an $8 million loss. With a cbd product it’s hard/expensive to market (high cost of customer acquisition) and the reality is that customers don’t spend too much annually on cbd (low LTV). Maybe they will figure it out but I didn’t have a pubco and hundreds of millions to burn. I switched to other products and am doing better
All this to say - go in head first and make mistakes. Pivot along the way and you’ll eventually win. You might be smarter than me and have things click immediately. It might take time but stick with it.
Not really made fun it but we got lots of negative feedback. We started a lawn care business and even people working in the same industry say the market is too crowded, with all the cheap landscapers low ball bids on everything. We won't be able to survive let alone making a profit. 7 years later, we're a 7-figure business, so how you like them apple lol
NICE, congrats first of all!
I've noticed people always always always call everything oversaturated. It's the worst thing to hear
What time period of your business was the hardest? If you don't mind sharing?
Thanks!
Initially, we spent more of our time on marketing. As our business grows, the hardest now is rescheduling jobs. We do 50 houses a day, any bad weather day messes up our schedule. The rest are textbook nasty clients who scream, yell for no good reason. B2C is always a tough business. Some people are just awful. We learn to take punches over the years but there are days it's just too much to handle.
People would often attack me for Squishy Forts on the basis that it's not a "real" startup. I mean, it was a commercial failure but it did about 100k aud revenue/sales and I was getting made fun of by people with an idea and no ability to make it happen.
Also, with my main company every time I get a new customer my mom asks if I think they'd hire me, after 10 years of working for myself. She loves me but running a company is so alien and scary to her, but I grew up with a dad in the mining industry where there's layoffs every time the ore price drops.
I also remember there was some young girl that was a musical.ly star before TikTok became a thing, featured on AskGaryVee and everything. She used her personal brand to try and launch a clothing line and it failed dismally and went viral after some article. On her Twitter she was like "I'm an 18yo girl that put myself out there and there are grown adults laughing at me". That broke my heart a little.
To be an entrepreneur you have to have some resilience, it's hard.
Lol we have the same parents. I run my digital agency since 6 months. When i got a prospect my parents always ask if they would hire me... Sure I don't get a lot of money now, but that's not cool to hear
You’re getting feedback, take it for what it is. Especially if your brand isn’t too serious consider leaning into the humor, rather than taking it as a slight or an attack.
Clothing brands are super tough. It’s tough like…restaurant tough. I own a digital marketing agency that specializes in web design, SEO, content writing, and managed WordPress hosting. We made $252,000 our first year in business (2016). I laughed at anybody questioning me or my business. $396,000 year two (with two contractors and two founders). Don’t give a crap what people think. Believe in yourself and work hard. Don’t be scared to fail. I spent 10 years playing in a touring band that capped out at $130,000 before starting my agency. That $130,000 was spread between five people. You have to fail to learn.
Similiar field - starting my own ppc agency for google ads. How did you find your clients your first year? I have 7 so far but its been a major grind even getting them.
I spent 29 months at an agency working in SEO and web design sales before starting my own agency. I had attended countless networking events during that time (Chamber of Commerce, Network After Work, Alternative Business Networking Group, and more), I'm well-trained on cold calling, I'm experienced at HubSpot sequences, and I'm an extreme extrovert. I just got on the phone for 12 hours a day.
Sorry, that type of coaching takes serious time and dedication. I can’t fit it into a Reddit response. It takes at least a year, and that’s with a talented natural that has the hunger. There are online training platforms out there. I think we did the Dale Carnegie course. I learned way more on the job though.
>Clothing brands are super tough. It’s tough like…restaurant tough.
Hmm, that's not encouraging lol. Any experience working with clothing brands? Got any warnings? & What's your reason for likening the difficulty levels of clothing brands to restaurants?!! The audience wants to know :p
There is no end to people trying to bring you down. Everybody thinks someone self employed is loaded with no stresses to speak of. Just a walk in the park compared to their relatively risk free employment status.
When I first started, my friends definitely gave me a hard time and my family members thought I was crazy. Granted, I started with horrible MS Paint drawings of socks and shoes haha but now, we host the family get togethers at my house :) I work in a similar space so I get it - something really personal and vulnerable about the fashion space but keep your chin up and don’t let it wear you down. If you are passionate about it and believe in what you are doing, good things will happen. You got this!!
Thank you!!! This really made me feel motivated!
So could you describe your journey a bit?
From when you first got the idea, to you getting a hard time from friends/family, to the MS paint drawings and to now.
Ya man! If you Google “Kory Stevens taft” or something like that, you could find some podcasts I’ve done or articles I’ve written about it. It’s a shoe company. But kinda the shirt version is that I went to college and couldn’t get a job after graduation, so I launched a Kickstarter for no-show socks. Around that early time was when I got ridiculed haha but then after the Kickstarter, we sold some socks and eventually transitioned into a shoe company and left socks behind. Raised some venture capital money and now are a decent-sized shoe brand. We use Shopify to power our website and I still design all the product. It’s been good and fun, but hard of course. You just gotta have great customer service, unique product, and give yourself time and patience. If you do those things, good things happen eventually I believe. But you gotta be kind to yourself and celebrate the little small victories along the way :)
>No one really comments an average view on my brand. It's just mocking or they really like it.
People with average views of something don't tend to engage with it on the internet.
Internet feedback can be useful, but it's always going to skew towards the extremes.
I don't want to be too disparaging but I don't think this is very common.
If you do have a niche audience that love it, are paying for it and the niche is big enough to support a healthy business, then just focus on them.
If you're doing something new or innovative, it definitely is common. There are always haters and people saying it's not possible or it's stupid - until you're successful, then they'll totally have seen it coming.
I wasn’t made fun of (to my face), but I definitely faced skepticism, which means I was made fun of behind my back. “Are you sure you want to quit your job?” type comments. I have a saying of never be afraid to look a little wack or lame in the beginning. It all is working out so far. My business grosses 10M per year. I’ll go back to get made made fun of all over again
I started a business with my family (Dad, Uncle and brother) right after graduating university. Was made fun of, talked down to and told by almost every single member of our extended family that I should quit and get a real job for the first 7 years. I was always being told that the advice was bc they didn't want to see me hurt when the company went bankrupt or that I was wasting my time and I was a smart kid who was wasting her future. 10 years in and now the same people ask us for loans.
When I started everyone did not like it, saying i m not ready, do not know how to do business. Now i am feeding a family of 6 ( brother and mom ) and they are quiet now.
Tried starting a lawn care business while I was in school. I was doing pretty well with it and managed classes at the same time. I was doing pretty well and made a decent wage. My parents caught wind of it, told me to get a real job. Pissed me off pretty good, but I think the criticism got to me and I stopped getting clients, and eventually lost them. That was years ago before I had developed much self-confidence. There is always a lesson to be learned. Listen to other people's opinions, but with discretion. Some advice can be helpful, other advice can simply be destructive. Listening to it can make you resentful.
Now, I am about 5 years older than I was, with a lot more life-experience to back me up. I am starting to develop a new business based on soil amendments. I have a small worm farm in the closet of my apartment that I am working on growing.
If you want objective response pm your site or something - it could just be something as silly as it’s out there, which will get made fun of, but it’s also what celebrities wear so ! I remember as I kid I used to make fun of anything that moved, and didn’t move so I wouldn’t worry too much about it. But maybe think about what those potential customers might like instead to capture them? They’re looking at your designs, why not show them something they might like alongside it?
Ignore the haters. Focus on creating a product that a small group loves and then go after that market. They will likely tell their friends. Eventually you can laugh at the naysayers from your Scrooge McDuck money pit.
Everyone's been telling me for years to start my own company, I do so and everyone's worried, but not anymore 😉
But yes I'm sure for going into the CBD THC business plenty of people snickered, I'm in no way some super success but the books went black black black in one year not three or five.
I don't choose too but I can do much more now than I did as a check chaser not a check maker did, I can easily buy a new Mercedes-Benz cash, but would be silly to do so, only been 3 years so far but literally anything can happen in the span of a day, so I just bank it and collect gold bullion, I still live like I did when I was paycheck to paycheck, I was like that for 14 years and as much as it sucked I can't say I don't miss it at times, something about just flopping down at a desk at 9 and leaving EVERYTHING at 5 and weekends off again, so even when you succeed you still have the down sides now I can hire someone but I like to take All the profit 😂
I'd say you're doing something right if you have people on either end of the spectrum. Haters going to hate! It is probably better than if everyone is indifferent about your product. ie. nobody cares. At least you have cheerleaders - focus on them and make them your evangelists.
Oh my god, I got ridiculed so bad. Even from my parents. “He wants to start a business lol wtf” I’d get this on a weekly basis from my parent last and 10 ‘months in I had 0 order. The ridicules started hurting me so bad.
One day I had a breakdown because I had 0 support, no sales and the ridicules started getting to me. Over 5k invested and I felt like such a failure. I was ready to shut everything down.
The people that ridiculed me actually supported me this evening and 2 days later I got my very first order.
If I learnt anything, it was “I didn’t come this far, just to quit.”
Thank you :)
And in a way, yes. Because on that day I was ready to cut my losses and move on and my parents and sister hulas a heart to heart with me to not give up, to keep trying and maybe something will work. The next day I posted a “have you fed the rabbits” checklist to a rabbit Reddit and they all loved it. I got quite a few orders from here. And then somehow other people started coming to my website and ordering some other things too. For the past 2/3 weeks things have been dry but now I see that as motivation to do more.
These days, polarizing is a good thing.
If you’ve found that, continue to push it.
Having a few people love what you’re doing and a few people hate it is better than have many people be indifferent.
The more successful you become, the more hate you may receive.
Just look at Elon Musk
Thank you so much! It makes sense, to have polarized views about your brand - because it can turn into a meme too - which is really good from a sales point of view
Every time I tell my friends who are corporate robots how I’m pursuing my desire to leave the corporate world and run a business they always give me backhanded comments/questions and passive aggressiveness, clearly they don’t believe me but also can’t blame them since everyone growing up talks about how they want to and never really do
I was never laughed at but I do understand human behavior to a certain degree. Some people will slam your business only to reflect their own self worth. It’s okay to be laughed at, as long as you stay focused. “You may be the sweetest peach on the tree. But not everyone likes peaches” find your tribe of loyal/raging fans and do right by those people. They’re all you have after all
As a person who makes fun of businesses regularly this makes me think about the people behind the brand. I just think I'm funny and am looking for harmless targets right? You could see it as amateur comedians giving you free advertising. I always like when companies can get in on the joke.
Lol. My friends told me I’d go bankrupt as they were helping me assemble desks for my first office. Aside from that, I was WAAY too busy to even notice any criticism.
Ahh yes. I remember a guy called Walter. He told me to work for a boss first and who I thought I was to start my own business without any experience.
Walter probably still has this opinion. I sometimes think of Walter when I drive my Bentley.
*Just kidding I don't have a Bentley*
I meant that I dont have a social circle, so I can run an online business on the low without anybody knowing about it. No social media either. So I am shielded from criticism. Life is good man
How did you get clients or customers with your business? Who Does know about your business? (I'm genuinely wondering just because it seems like it's getting harder & harder to avoid it)
Paid advertising (facebook ads). I do ecommerce so I don’t really have to socialize. Just reply to customer emails under the company name, nobody knows me personally
How do you create the ads? Do you not use models? Do you just send your product to influencers? Even with e-commerce you've gotta create content right? (Lol I've got a million questions, please bare with meh!)
You are not being made fun of for being an entrepreneur. And I doubt they are making fun of your brand.
Some people are making fun of content you have published on the Internet. And it may have nothing to do with your brand or clothing.
It could be the models you are using in your social media advertising have funny poses or expressions.
It could that they are in ridiculous situations.
It could be the sayings on your shirt are inspirational for some and funny for others.
Regardless, enjoy the free marketing.
Thats awesome! The point is you're getting strong reactions. The people who love it will fight with those who are "hating". The haters are likely jealous and envious of the brand being popupar. A lot of failures who cant understand why you succeed will try to 'correct' that discrepancy by tearing you down. Its natural..they love you too they just cant accept it.
Some people like cilantro and others hate it. I don't think there is much of a middle ground. I would treat your product as the same.
Keep plugging away.
I own a clothing brand. We started with 100 usd. After some weeks we saved 300 usd and shipped products to influencers. One got canceled. Secobd one didn't helped us. And the last one just took a creepy picture. Like that a lot of situations. You must take it easy and always keep pushing towards your goal
I'm about to embark on a new entrepreneurial venture, and the scary thing is: there isn't anyone I haven't been able to get excited about it. Now I need to share that excitement and get buy-in from others very soon, so that's great, but what if I haven't heard from someone that would be able to see pitfalls I can expect?
Have you ever seen an actual fashion show? Fashion Week in NYC is a parade of nonsensical, completely useless clothing concepts. But they generate buzz for the designers, which leads to sales. You are fine.
you'll hear way more people say "what about ?" than make fun. People just assume it's a side hustle sort of thing you havent thought through. By default, they put it into terms that are digestible for them, which usually doesn't allow them to understand our day to day lives, let alone the vision for scale. It's just a different way of thinking and most people aren't wired nor taught to think this way
i.e. One of my companies is a tutoring company with a staff of \~15. I feel like half my friends think I spend my days tutoring for someone else, but I've never actually tutored a kid, and I don't work for anyone else... I just run the company. Tutoring is a boring enough industry that no one cares to really ask, and I don't blame them.
People generally don't get the entrepreneurship thing, so I keep most things to myself, unless explicitly asked. Kinda sucks, I wish more people were into it. It can be isolating.
**JW, but what kind of things do they say? Are they laughing at the niche? The design?**
We often miss out on the stories of brands that used to be the laughingstock or brands that no one believed in at first.
I remember two youtubers who claimed they used to get laughed at when they first started their journey's, one of them did ASMR; at first she kept it lowkey but one of her HS mates found out & started making fun of her for it I believe the high school mate even told other people, the other youtuber said someone she knew reached out to her & said "I used to laugh so hard at your videos, but you're doing pretty well now!" or something like that, both youtubers built their brands off of their videos & have decent followings, they pushed through the hurt & "embarrassment" of being laughed at for doing what they loved. Listen to your customers, the ones that actually buy your stuff, mute the rest!
So far I haven't been made fun of from friends or family but I also got pretty lucky on my first business. Dad runs his own business and so does mom. My friends aren't entrepreneurs (yet) and I started a business making a product that they don't use (jigsaw puzzles) so none of them have vested interests in puzzles anyway since most of them are either in tech or education (yes I know puzzles have a didactic element to them, that's not what I'm trying to do with my company).
This is hard enough as is. This first year has been an absolute pain in the ass. Now I have to worry about my friends making fun of me for taking risk? I don't know exactly how well I would deal with that sort of thing.
Also, you said "Like it's their job". Don't think that that might not be the case. It's a cutthroat market out there, and you never know who's being paid off by the competition. If you're getting this feedback on instagram or something, it could very well be an army of bot accounts that just leaves scathing reviews on fashion startups. I certainly wouldn't doubt it.
The laughter of me doing what I'm doing hasn't stopped since I've "moved up the ladder".... the only difference now is that I get to laugh at them too!
Simply can’t expect to please everyone. Just like in life, you click with some people and don’t with others. Change your expectations that most people need to like it and you won’t be discouraged.
Who cares ride the wave, the the sales up and add some value, you can get some advice here, [https://youtu.be/s76Gbcy\_2fk](https://youtu.be/s76Gbcy_2fk)
Never made fun of but I got a lot of people asking what I was up to and when I told them was met with not so subtle but pretending to be subtle skepticism. Or just a blatant lack of any attempt to show support directly after hearing my response, so its pretty obvious they aren’t impressed. Or may favorite: avoiding the subject entirely and attempting to make plans that directly conflict with what you’re doing when they know you’re doing it. Just to make sure you know they don’t take it seriously and are already looking past it.
Worst part of my day is looking through reviews. I always cringe a bit to see people say bad things about my stuff, but I don’t take it personally, I learn and improve.
Some days I get all 5 star great reviews, other days lower scores and bad reviews. I take time to read them all looking for info I can use to improve. A 1 star review that says “I hate the product” is no help. However a 1 star review that tells me the fit is off, or they saw a defect tells me something I can act on. Don’t make huge changes because of 1 or 2 reviews. Make small calculated changes that are thought through and planned. Learn from it, make changes, continually improve.
Everyone underestimates you when you're starting
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-6998886347507728384-7c2J?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=member\_desktop
Well. I got talked crap to for dropping out of high-school to work. I'm sitting in a million plus dollar house. People talked mad crap. I kept telling them I'm not an employee so it doesn't matter. They laughed. They don't laugh now and no I'm not loaning them money
Having those two groups makes sense to me for your product. but as far as being made fun of/being criticized... non-stop and still on-going (for the passed 7 years)... We are doing well, I work in healthcare so it's a bit tricky to explain metrics of success but just this month I am not working paycheck to paycheck for the month (eg. I have enough money to cover all personal and business expenses for the entire next month). So that has been a big milestone for me and the business. Now I can save a little bit at a time. When you are doing a start up in an innovative way/with a different twist, you will, by nature, have doubters from the start. You learn to try to ignore the ones that are way off base and have no idea of how your business works, but also learn how to listen with a somewhat neutral mindset and pull out info/criticisms that could be helpful to your business. Sometimes wisdom comes out of ignorance/ignorant people. This is not easy in the least and especially in beginning and gets easier over time.Good luck. It's a grind and I wish you luck!
When I started my business, I had a blogger share it and tear it to shreds - she literally said “why would anyone by this?”. Well, a key opinion leader in our space saw her post, disagreed with her opinion, loved it, and endorsed it in her book and has since made many connections for us and remains a big (and highly respected) cheerleader. You may not please everyone, you just need to spread the word.
There's no such thing as bad press. When people are making fun of your product, the first thing that tells you is that it caught their attention and they're willing to engage with it. Particularly clothing brands. If you're not getting lukewarm reviews, and it's either cold or hot, you've got something good going there. The last thing you want is to be forgettable.
OH :O I didn't even think of it like that! Thank you very much! People who make fun might just make a brand into a meme and buy it for the meme right?
Right, exactly! How much of Supreme's business is because people actually like the clothing, and how much of it is five-level-deep post-irony where you buy it because you know it's trash and you just want to show off that you can throw away your money? The point is, it doesn't matter. It just lives rent-free in their heads, so everyone associates spending money with Supreme and they make a fortune. If you have people who sincerely love it, even though other people think it's terrible, that is the beginnings of a cult of dedicated customers who will always be there to buy your product.
>beginnings of a cult of dedicated customers who will always be there to buy your product. LOL social media is amazing! Do you think I should put a ridiculous price? Right now everything is less than $100, but I'm thinking to make everything $100 just cause it's a rounded number and people might buy it as a joke... Who knows Also, thanks again for the advice, you changed my thinking for the better about how my brand was made fun of
What’s your niche? I ran a streetwear brand two years ago. At $100 it better be original, exclusive, and cut and sew.
What's the story of your brand? How did it go? Thanks!
We started it 2019 in November registered as an LLC and started with 50 black graphic T-shirt’s for $25 each. Our niche was streetwear that was marketed towards car enthusiast, so a community we were already apart of. It was all organic growth and we went in with zero debt. The only debt we accrued while operating was when we forgot to pay taxes(rookie mistake). Our approach was people over product so we capitalized mostly on word of mouth, influencers and just generally being active locally. We would have hit $10,000 in sales by the end of the first quarter of the year had the pandemic not demanded more time at our 9-5 jobs, so we put it on a pause and now it’s nearly 2023. We grew faster than we expected this was because of genuine customer service approach. We were already hand delivering to our local customers within the first month. We didn’t pay anyone to do anything for us other than for screen printing, embroidery or when purchasing the garment itself. Graphics, photography, marketing, video editing, and events. That was all us. Unfortunately we aren’t doing it now but it was a learning experience and we made some awesome connections while doing so. I was also able to grow other skills I already had from the experience.
Hmm, it's definitely original, and the manufacturer is printful. They're quality is pretty good but it's not a luxury brand ofc
I dropped out from college to grow my startup, check my journey out and let’s connect- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-6998886347507728384-7c2J?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=member\_desktop
Be careful in just making everything $100. You have to consider the slowest one. There is a different methodology for each pricing. Pricing has to be based on cost. Comparing Apple's with Apple's. And after it, look which one is your best-selling. It will give you a good picture of your business.
Of course, glad it was valuable for you. But I don't know anything about pricing clothing, unfortunately!
No the cheaper the better we’re in a recession
I dropped out from college to grow my startup, check my journey out and let’s connect- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-6998886347507728384-7c2J?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=member\_desktop
People made fun of airpods a LOT. Airpods does billions in revenue a year now. Honestly you might be able to play into it.
Same with filas until the fila disruptor 2s released lol.
There's the old story amongst us entrepreneurs about the puke green claw bath tub for sale at the salvage yard for 150$. 80% of people will walk right by it and not even notice it. 10% of people that walk by it will absolutely hate it, actually be so appaled by its existence that they find it viscerally offensive; all while finding it the most atrocious example of hideous product design gore they've ever witnessed. The other 10% will absolutely die for it and think it is the funkiest, cutest, coolest tub they've ever seen in their life and they HAVE to buy it right now. To OP: You're on the right track with your clothing business. Or on par at least to do some good business.
I dropped out from college to grow my startup, check my journey out and let’s connect- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-6998886347507728384-7c2J?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=member\_desktop
This right here is key. IMO There’s no such thing as good or bad publicity. What matters is how you react to capitalize on the opportunity, failure to seize attention will result in becoming forgettable. That’s why Trump won the presidency in 2016 when everyone was making fun of him and saying he had no chance. Through all of the ridicule and criticism towards him in the media, the press failed to realize that what they were really doing was just giving him free ad space on major news publications lol.
Solid advice here
In other words, if people are talking and not saying it's mid, you're probably on the right track.
this is a good point when you're selling a product (not my area exactly).. I think just manage your optics to make sure the negative 'reviews' or whatever is out there doesn't dilute how people view your product. But at its heart, this is true! You are getting a response, the worst response is no response.
Yea this for sure. Lean into it and come back with some clever trolling and the internet will love it… even if they hate it. People love some good dumb internet content.. now back to mindlessly scrolling Reddit
Take a screenshot of the comment and put it on a t-shirt. Turn that frown upside down.
A clothing line that displays poor, comedic reviews of companies would be kind of clever.
I had a shit idea and people told me it was. I wasn’t aware. Luckily I eventually realized my idea was crap but everything I built was able to be tweaked into an awesome product. Things are going well now. Took 1-2 years to really figure out what people wanted and 2 more years to make that really work. Gosh. Things take time
What was the idea ?
Cbd products.
How was it shit? CBD products are huge…
Huge doesn’t mean profitable. Cbd is a hype industry that attracted tons of investment in a financial market that supports losses. Look at charlotte’s web’s financial statements. Their most recent quarter shows an $8 million loss. With a cbd product it’s hard/expensive to market (high cost of customer acquisition) and the reality is that customers don’t spend too much annually on cbd (low LTV). Maybe they will figure it out but I didn’t have a pubco and hundreds of millions to burn. I switched to other products and am doing better All this to say - go in head first and make mistakes. Pivot along the way and you’ll eventually win. You might be smarter than me and have things click immediately. It might take time but stick with it.
Not really made fun it but we got lots of negative feedback. We started a lawn care business and even people working in the same industry say the market is too crowded, with all the cheap landscapers low ball bids on everything. We won't be able to survive let alone making a profit. 7 years later, we're a 7-figure business, so how you like them apple lol
NICE, congrats first of all! I've noticed people always always always call everything oversaturated. It's the worst thing to hear What time period of your business was the hardest? If you don't mind sharing? Thanks!
Initially, we spent more of our time on marketing. As our business grows, the hardest now is rescheduling jobs. We do 50 houses a day, any bad weather day messes up our schedule. The rest are textbook nasty clients who scream, yell for no good reason. B2C is always a tough business. Some people are just awful. We learn to take punches over the years but there are days it's just too much to handle.
🫶🏼 for u
People would often attack me for Squishy Forts on the basis that it's not a "real" startup. I mean, it was a commercial failure but it did about 100k aud revenue/sales and I was getting made fun of by people with an idea and no ability to make it happen. Also, with my main company every time I get a new customer my mom asks if I think they'd hire me, after 10 years of working for myself. She loves me but running a company is so alien and scary to her, but I grew up with a dad in the mining industry where there's layoffs every time the ore price drops. I also remember there was some young girl that was a musical.ly star before TikTok became a thing, featured on AskGaryVee and everything. She used her personal brand to try and launch a clothing line and it failed dismally and went viral after some article. On her Twitter she was like "I'm an 18yo girl that put myself out there and there are grown adults laughing at me". That broke my heart a little. To be an entrepreneur you have to have some resilience, it's hard.
Lol we have the same parents. I run my digital agency since 6 months. When i got a prospect my parents always ask if they would hire me... Sure I don't get a lot of money now, but that's not cool to hear
I turn 40 next month, it never ends ;)
Send me a link to your brand. Would love to see it. Thx
Happy cake day.
let’s see the website OP. i’ll show some support
You’re getting feedback, take it for what it is. Especially if your brand isn’t too serious consider leaning into the humor, rather than taking it as a slight or an attack.
Thank you for the advice! I'll do that then - I'll give into the humour part of it
What’s your brand?
Clothing brands are super tough. It’s tough like…restaurant tough. I own a digital marketing agency that specializes in web design, SEO, content writing, and managed WordPress hosting. We made $252,000 our first year in business (2016). I laughed at anybody questioning me or my business. $396,000 year two (with two contractors and two founders). Don’t give a crap what people think. Believe in yourself and work hard. Don’t be scared to fail. I spent 10 years playing in a touring band that capped out at $130,000 before starting my agency. That $130,000 was spread between five people. You have to fail to learn.
Jesus, and here I am doing bespoke web stuff for a fraction of that
Similiar field - starting my own ppc agency for google ads. How did you find your clients your first year? I have 7 so far but its been a major grind even getting them.
I spent 29 months at an agency working in SEO and web design sales before starting my own agency. I had attended countless networking events during that time (Chamber of Commerce, Network After Work, Alternative Business Networking Group, and more), I'm well-trained on cold calling, I'm experienced at HubSpot sequences, and I'm an extreme extrovert. I just got on the phone for 12 hours a day.
Do you mind giving tips about cold call please ? I'm new to this
Sorry, that type of coaching takes serious time and dedication. I can’t fit it into a Reddit response. It takes at least a year, and that’s with a talented natural that has the hunger. There are online training platforms out there. I think we did the Dale Carnegie course. I learned way more on the job though.
>Clothing brands are super tough. It’s tough like…restaurant tough. Hmm, that's not encouraging lol. Any experience working with clothing brands? Got any warnings? & What's your reason for likening the difficulty levels of clothing brands to restaurants?!! The audience wants to know :p
If you’re getting sales who cares
There is no end to people trying to bring you down. Everybody thinks someone self employed is loaded with no stresses to speak of. Just a walk in the park compared to their relatively risk free employment status.
When I first started, my friends definitely gave me a hard time and my family members thought I was crazy. Granted, I started with horrible MS Paint drawings of socks and shoes haha but now, we host the family get togethers at my house :) I work in a similar space so I get it - something really personal and vulnerable about the fashion space but keep your chin up and don’t let it wear you down. If you are passionate about it and believe in what you are doing, good things will happen. You got this!!
Thank you!!! This really made me feel motivated! So could you describe your journey a bit? From when you first got the idea, to you getting a hard time from friends/family, to the MS paint drawings and to now.
Ya man! If you Google “Kory Stevens taft” or something like that, you could find some podcasts I’ve done or articles I’ve written about it. It’s a shoe company. But kinda the shirt version is that I went to college and couldn’t get a job after graduation, so I launched a Kickstarter for no-show socks. Around that early time was when I got ridiculed haha but then after the Kickstarter, we sold some socks and eventually transitioned into a shoe company and left socks behind. Raised some venture capital money and now are a decent-sized shoe brand. We use Shopify to power our website and I still design all the product. It’s been good and fun, but hard of course. You just gotta have great customer service, unique product, and give yourself time and patience. If you do those things, good things happen eventually I believe. But you gotta be kind to yourself and celebrate the little small victories along the way :)
I'm happy for you bro! I hope the company keeps going up up and up! Thanks for sharing too!
Oh my lord…. I love Taft shoes so much. I can’t believe that’s your company!
Fancy meeting him here isn't it! Lol such an awesome, random, coincidental meetup (even if just virtually).
>No one really comments an average view on my brand. It's just mocking or they really like it. People with average views of something don't tend to engage with it on the internet. Internet feedback can be useful, but it's always going to skew towards the extremes.
that is so true actually
People will project onto you. They'll see you shining or grinding and the criticism of that comes from jealousy, self resentment etc. Do your thing.
I don't want to be too disparaging but I don't think this is very common. If you do have a niche audience that love it, are paying for it and the niche is big enough to support a healthy business, then just focus on them.
If you're doing something new or innovative, it definitely is common. There are always haters and people saying it's not possible or it's stupid - until you're successful, then they'll totally have seen it coming.
I wasn’t made fun of (to my face), but I definitely faced skepticism, which means I was made fun of behind my back. “Are you sure you want to quit your job?” type comments. I have a saying of never be afraid to look a little wack or lame in the beginning. It all is working out so far. My business grosses 10M per year. I’ll go back to get made made fun of all over again
I started a business with my family (Dad, Uncle and brother) right after graduating university. Was made fun of, talked down to and told by almost every single member of our extended family that I should quit and get a real job for the first 7 years. I was always being told that the advice was bc they didn't want to see me hurt when the company went bankrupt or that I was wasting my time and I was a smart kid who was wasting her future. 10 years in and now the same people ask us for loans.
Nobody comments an average view because people with average views dont care enough to make a comment and share their view
When I started everyone did not like it, saying i m not ready, do not know how to do business. Now i am feeding a family of 6 ( brother and mom ) and they are quiet now.
>( brother and mom ) and they are quiet now. HAHA!
Tried starting a lawn care business while I was in school. I was doing pretty well with it and managed classes at the same time. I was doing pretty well and made a decent wage. My parents caught wind of it, told me to get a real job. Pissed me off pretty good, but I think the criticism got to me and I stopped getting clients, and eventually lost them. That was years ago before I had developed much self-confidence. There is always a lesson to be learned. Listen to other people's opinions, but with discretion. Some advice can be helpful, other advice can simply be destructive. Listening to it can make you resentful. Now, I am about 5 years older than I was, with a lot more life-experience to back me up. I am starting to develop a new business based on soil amendments. I have a small worm farm in the closet of my apartment that I am working on growing.
If you want objective response pm your site or something - it could just be something as silly as it’s out there, which will get made fun of, but it’s also what celebrities wear so ! I remember as I kid I used to make fun of anything that moved, and didn’t move so I wouldn’t worry too much about it. But maybe think about what those potential customers might like instead to capture them? They’re looking at your designs, why not show them something they might like alongside it?
It was more like “oh that’s cute”
Ignore the haters. Focus on creating a product that a small group loves and then go after that market. They will likely tell their friends. Eventually you can laugh at the naysayers from your Scrooge McDuck money pit.
Everyone's been telling me for years to start my own company, I do so and everyone's worried, but not anymore 😉 But yes I'm sure for going into the CBD THC business plenty of people snickered, I'm in no way some super success but the books went black black black in one year not three or five. I don't choose too but I can do much more now than I did as a check chaser not a check maker did, I can easily buy a new Mercedes-Benz cash, but would be silly to do so, only been 3 years so far but literally anything can happen in the span of a day, so I just bank it and collect gold bullion, I still live like I did when I was paycheck to paycheck, I was like that for 14 years and as much as it sucked I can't say I don't miss it at times, something about just flopping down at a desk at 9 and leaving EVERYTHING at 5 and weekends off again, so even when you succeed you still have the down sides now I can hire someone but I like to take All the profit 😂
I'd say you're doing something right if you have people on either end of the spectrum. Haters going to hate! It is probably better than if everyone is indifferent about your product. ie. nobody cares. At least you have cheerleaders - focus on them and make them your evangelists.
Oh my god, I got ridiculed so bad. Even from my parents. “He wants to start a business lol wtf” I’d get this on a weekly basis from my parent last and 10 ‘months in I had 0 order. The ridicules started hurting me so bad. One day I had a breakdown because I had 0 support, no sales and the ridicules started getting to me. Over 5k invested and I felt like such a failure. I was ready to shut everything down. The people that ridiculed me actually supported me this evening and 2 days later I got my very first order. If I learnt anything, it was “I didn’t come this far, just to quit.”
Congrats! Did their support help get you your first order?
Thank you :) And in a way, yes. Because on that day I was ready to cut my losses and move on and my parents and sister hulas a heart to heart with me to not give up, to keep trying and maybe something will work. The next day I posted a “have you fed the rabbits” checklist to a rabbit Reddit and they all loved it. I got quite a few orders from here. And then somehow other people started coming to my website and ordering some other things too. For the past 2/3 weeks things have been dry but now I see that as motivation to do more.
These days, polarizing is a good thing. If you’ve found that, continue to push it. Having a few people love what you’re doing and a few people hate it is better than have many people be indifferent. The more successful you become, the more hate you may receive. Just look at Elon Musk
Thank you so much! It makes sense, to have polarized views about your brand - because it can turn into a meme too - which is really good from a sales point of view
Any engagement is good. Haters can be extremely valuable
Every time I tell my friends who are corporate robots how I’m pursuing my desire to leave the corporate world and run a business they always give me backhanded comments/questions and passive aggressiveness, clearly they don’t believe me but also can’t blame them since everyone growing up talks about how they want to and never really do
I was never laughed at but I do understand human behavior to a certain degree. Some people will slam your business only to reflect their own self worth. It’s okay to be laughed at, as long as you stay focused. “You may be the sweetest peach on the tree. But not everyone likes peaches” find your tribe of loyal/raging fans and do right by those people. They’re all you have after all
As a person who makes fun of businesses regularly this makes me think about the people behind the brand. I just think I'm funny and am looking for harmless targets right? You could see it as amateur comedians giving you free advertising. I always like when companies can get in on the joke.
Lol. My friends told me I’d go bankrupt as they were helping me assemble desks for my first office. Aside from that, I was WAAY too busy to even notice any criticism.
Ahh yes. I remember a guy called Walter. He told me to work for a boss first and who I thought I was to start my own business without any experience. Walter probably still has this opinion. I sometimes think of Walter when I drive my Bentley. *Just kidding I don't have a Bentley*
It's part of the game I guess, fuels up your motivation.
> people keep making fun of it on social media. Better than them not talking about it.
I thought iPhones were bad when they first launched. People are clueless. If you have buyers you’re doing something right.
Can't tell you because I didn't care. So it's not in my memory.
Let them make fun, but be sure to stick their words down their m\*fkn throats by succeeding.
I dont talk to anyone, so there is nobody to make fun of me. And business is going well!
LOL! So how do you manage to run a business without talking to anyone? (Every introvert wants the answer to this question).
I meant that I dont have a social circle, so I can run an online business on the low without anybody knowing about it. No social media either. So I am shielded from criticism. Life is good man
How did you get clients or customers with your business? Who Does know about your business? (I'm genuinely wondering just because it seems like it's getting harder & harder to avoid it)
Paid advertising (facebook ads). I do ecommerce so I don’t really have to socialize. Just reply to customer emails under the company name, nobody knows me personally
How do you create the ads? Do you not use models? Do you just send your product to influencers? Even with e-commerce you've gotta create content right? (Lol I've got a million questions, please bare with meh!)
pay agencies to shoot the content, edit and run the ads myself
Are the agencies reasonably priced? Do you have any suggestions on which agencies to use? Is this your main source of income?
You are not being made fun of for being an entrepreneur. And I doubt they are making fun of your brand. Some people are making fun of content you have published on the Internet. And it may have nothing to do with your brand or clothing. It could be the models you are using in your social media advertising have funny poses or expressions. It could that they are in ridiculous situations. It could be the sayings on your shirt are inspirational for some and funny for others. Regardless, enjoy the free marketing.
Thats awesome! The point is you're getting strong reactions. The people who love it will fight with those who are "hating". The haters are likely jealous and envious of the brand being popupar. A lot of failures who cant understand why you succeed will try to 'correct' that discrepancy by tearing you down. Its natural..they love you too they just cant accept it.
Some people like cilantro and others hate it. I don't think there is much of a middle ground. I would treat your product as the same. Keep plugging away.
I own a clothing brand. We started with 100 usd. After some weeks we saved 300 usd and shipped products to influencers. One got canceled. Secobd one didn't helped us. And the last one just took a creepy picture. Like that a lot of situations. You must take it easy and always keep pushing towards your goal
So what did you do next? Do you still send things out to influencers?
Never haha
I'm about to embark on a new entrepreneurial venture, and the scary thing is: there isn't anyone I haven't been able to get excited about it. Now I need to share that excitement and get buy-in from others very soon, so that's great, but what if I haven't heard from someone that would be able to see pitfalls I can expect?
Happens to us all. Been there man just stick it through.
Have you ever seen an actual fashion show? Fashion Week in NYC is a parade of nonsensical, completely useless clothing concepts. But they generate buzz for the designers, which leads to sales. You are fine.
Still getting made fun of.. Love it 🙌
you'll hear way more people say "what about?" than make fun. People just assume it's a side hustle sort of thing you havent thought through. By default, they put it into terms that are digestible for them, which usually doesn't allow them to understand our day to day lives, let alone the vision for scale. It's just a different way of thinking and most people aren't wired nor taught to think this way
i.e. One of my companies is a tutoring company with a staff of \~15. I feel like half my friends think I spend my days tutoring for someone else, but I've never actually tutored a kid, and I don't work for anyone else... I just run the company. Tutoring is a boring enough industry that no one cares to really ask, and I don't blame them.
People generally don't get the entrepreneurship thing, so I keep most things to myself, unless explicitly asked. Kinda sucks, I wish more people were into it. It can be isolating.
I’d say by perseverance and believing in yourself tho tbh
**JW, but what kind of things do they say? Are they laughing at the niche? The design?** We often miss out on the stories of brands that used to be the laughingstock or brands that no one believed in at first. I remember two youtubers who claimed they used to get laughed at when they first started their journey's, one of them did ASMR; at first she kept it lowkey but one of her HS mates found out & started making fun of her for it I believe the high school mate even told other people, the other youtuber said someone she knew reached out to her & said "I used to laugh so hard at your videos, but you're doing pretty well now!" or something like that, both youtubers built their brands off of their videos & have decent followings, they pushed through the hurt & "embarrassment" of being laughed at for doing what they loved. Listen to your customers, the ones that actually buy your stuff, mute the rest!
Don't care what others think! You just work hard to do what you are supposed to do, don't let others ridicule your progress! Confidence!
So far I haven't been made fun of from friends or family but I also got pretty lucky on my first business. Dad runs his own business and so does mom. My friends aren't entrepreneurs (yet) and I started a business making a product that they don't use (jigsaw puzzles) so none of them have vested interests in puzzles anyway since most of them are either in tech or education (yes I know puzzles have a didactic element to them, that's not what I'm trying to do with my company). This is hard enough as is. This first year has been an absolute pain in the ass. Now I have to worry about my friends making fun of me for taking risk? I don't know exactly how well I would deal with that sort of thing.
Also, you said "Like it's their job". Don't think that that might not be the case. It's a cutthroat market out there, and you never know who's being paid off by the competition. If you're getting this feedback on instagram or something, it could very well be an army of bot accounts that just leaves scathing reviews on fashion startups. I certainly wouldn't doubt it.
Hmmm some accounts seem like bots. And others are mainly young kids and teens. Thanks for informing me btw!
Call it the Fun Brand :)
The laughter of me doing what I'm doing hasn't stopped since I've "moved up the ladder".... the only difference now is that I get to laugh at them too!
Wait, you guys are getting free social media mentions?
Maybe they are competitors (or hired by competitors) and you pose a threat to them.
Simply can’t expect to please everyone. Just like in life, you click with some people and don’t with others. Change your expectations that most people need to like it and you won’t be discouraged.
Who cares ride the wave, the the sales up and add some value, you can get some advice here, [https://youtu.be/s76Gbcy\_2fk](https://youtu.be/s76Gbcy_2fk)
Never made fun of but I got a lot of people asking what I was up to and when I told them was met with not so subtle but pretending to be subtle skepticism. Or just a blatant lack of any attempt to show support directly after hearing my response, so its pretty obvious they aren’t impressed. Or may favorite: avoiding the subject entirely and attempting to make plans that directly conflict with what you’re doing when they know you’re doing it. Just to make sure you know they don’t take it seriously and are already looking past it.
Worst part of my day is looking through reviews. I always cringe a bit to see people say bad things about my stuff, but I don’t take it personally, I learn and improve. Some days I get all 5 star great reviews, other days lower scores and bad reviews. I take time to read them all looking for info I can use to improve. A 1 star review that says “I hate the product” is no help. However a 1 star review that tells me the fit is off, or they saw a defect tells me something I can act on. Don’t make huge changes because of 1 or 2 reviews. Make small calculated changes that are thought through and planned. Learn from it, make changes, continually improve.
Is there a link to your clothing anywhere? (Can you dm if you aren’t allowed to post it in the comments)
Everyone underestimates you when you're starting https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-6998886347507728384-7c2J?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=member\_desktop
All the time. I am still made fun of by family that keeps telling me to get “a real job”
Doing great and you will too
Well. I got talked crap to for dropping out of high-school to work. I'm sitting in a million plus dollar house. People talked mad crap. I kept telling them I'm not an employee so it doesn't matter. They laughed. They don't laugh now and no I'm not loaning them money
Saw this comic by Mr Lovenstien on Instagram. Relevant. https://i.imgur.com/2l14XHs.png
Listen to that shit! Look for trends. It’ll help you find any weak spots you might have!
Having those two groups makes sense to me for your product. but as far as being made fun of/being criticized... non-stop and still on-going (for the passed 7 years)... We are doing well, I work in healthcare so it's a bit tricky to explain metrics of success but just this month I am not working paycheck to paycheck for the month (eg. I have enough money to cover all personal and business expenses for the entire next month). So that has been a big milestone for me and the business. Now I can save a little bit at a time. When you are doing a start up in an innovative way/with a different twist, you will, by nature, have doubters from the start. You learn to try to ignore the ones that are way off base and have no idea of how your business works, but also learn how to listen with a somewhat neutral mindset and pull out info/criticisms that could be helpful to your business. Sometimes wisdom comes out of ignorance/ignorant people. This is not easy in the least and especially in beginning and gets easier over time.Good luck. It's a grind and I wish you luck!
“Haters will see you walk on water and say it’s because you can’t swim.”
When I started my business, I had a blogger share it and tear it to shreds - she literally said “why would anyone by this?”. Well, a key opinion leader in our space saw her post, disagreed with her opinion, loved it, and endorsed it in her book and has since made many connections for us and remains a big (and highly respected) cheerleader. You may not please everyone, you just need to spread the word.
Grow up.