An entrepreneur may be defined as a person who identifies an opportunity or new idea and develops it into a new venture or project.

The definition of a fashion entrepreneur can be described as someone whose primary work activities are that of operating within the fashion industry.

Success can only be achieved by addressing the underlying issues that merge the passion for fashion with practical business skills.

involve setting goals, writing the business plan and setting time aside for the marketing, promotion and selling of your fashion collection.

A step-by-step approach to developing concepts for commercialisation

1. Generating the idea for a product/service

The need for new product development within the fashion industry may come from a number of places. These could include but are not limited to:

• Awareness of a need or gap in the market


• A demand by the consumer for new or improved fashion

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if you are going to run a successful fashion label you also need to know about the business side of the industry (it is even said that setting up a fashion business requires 90 per cent business acumen and 10 per cent design capabilities).

setting up a fashion business requires 90 per cent business acumen and 10 per cent design capabilities

Starting any kind of business requires tenacity, endurance and dedication; setting up a fashion business, even small scale, is all the more challenging because it is such a complex and competitive industry.

3. Testing the concept

Where possible, it is important that you test out your concepts on your potential customers. It is essential you find out consumers’ response to the business idea/product/collection/service. Where necessary, this will create a route for further improvement of the product/service.