Fashion Business Owner Musings: Opportunity vs Opportunist

I know there’s some concern right now about selling.

There’s a global pandemic happening and you’re wondering if it makes you a monster to sell your products.

“People are struggling to put food on the table.”

“People are losing their jobs.”

“People are sick.”

I hear you. I debated about whether to open up The Designer Membership, but ultimately decided that designers need help right now, and I can help. So I will.

Here’s the thing, we need you.

The world needs you.

We need business to keep going.

Because when we come out on the other side of this, we need there to be commerce. We need there to be small businesses thriving and working and employing people.

You have a fashion business selling a product. Before the pandemic, you believed that your product would make people feel happy, beautiful, confident, strong, or powerful, right?

Don’t you want to still make them feel that way?

Don’t you want to give them something to look forward to? Something to enjoy?

I know some people are saying that to sell right now is opportunistic.

But I don’t believe that.

Here’s a distinction I want you to consider:

Acting on opportunity means you see a way to thrive in a situation but you would not do anything to compromise your ethics or morals or to hurt anyone.

Being an opportunist means you’ll toss out all the ethics and morals and do whatever it takes, no matter who it hurts to get what you want.

See how those are so completely different?

Yes, the manner in which you sell right now is different– the message needs to change, the delivery needs to change. But the act of selling does not need to come to a stop.

If you want to keep your fashion business, if you want to thrive at a time when so many are allowing fear to take the lead, then you need to sell.

So if this is something you’ve been struggling with, I’m telling you it’s OK. It’s good to sell right now.

Take some time to think through your message, consider how people are feeling right now, have empathy, show up for them, and sell.

Lots of love and encouragement,

Nicole Giordano

Nicole is the founder of StartUp FASHION, an online resource and community supporting for independent designers around the world with building their businesses. A deep love for the craft of fashion paired with an adamant belief that success is defined by the individual, led her to found StartUp FASHION, where she helps independent designers and makers screw the traditional fashion business rules, create their own paths, and build businesses they truly love. More than anything else, she’s in the business of encouragement and works every day to remind makers and designers that they have something special to offer the world and that they can, in fact, do this thing!