Just curious on any past merging among any of the small startups that network on this board.
Has anyone ever thought about combining forces with another potential small company on the rise?
Any coalitions ever take off that worked out?....any problem partnership issues?
Just curious because we deal with potential partnerships all the time....but it just always seems too risky in losing control....I think mainly because we're strictly a creative group....and the partnerships we are pursued by are mainly slick sales minded individuals.
I would be happy in merging ideas and trying something with someone else but not to create a legal partnership. I was thinking of doing that when I started my new business but partnerships don't always work out and their very difficult when they break up. I was really going to do it because I needed the additional cash. I am eventually going to do embroidery also but the machines are at least 8-10 grand. I decided to start with heat press and a little screen printing. My dream is to come up with the next "Element", "Hurley", "Liquid Force", "Quick Silver", or "Volcom". Most of these were small startups by individuals or partnerships that have propelled into multinational markets. Just about every teen or twenty something you see out there has several of these shirts, shorts, or hoodies. Oh, I forgot about Abercrombie, Fox, Roxy, etc. Sorry for the long post. It's Friday and getting a little case of T.G.I.G.
I see you're in Milwaukee as well! Good to see Mil-town represented....
Just one comment on your discussion of partnerships: You say you've thought about partnering but that you guys are a strictly creative group and have only been pursued by "slick" sales guys....
I guess I must be missing something when I continually hear sales people/departments being referred to as "slick" or other seamingly derogatory terms. It seems to me that in this business, as in any other, the sales and marketing folks are certainly just as vital as the creative. In fact I can argue that the sales/marketing are even more important as evidenced in the many cases throughout the annals of history that an inferior product/service was made successful by sales/marketing in spite of the quality of the product. Conversely, a superior product can sit on shelves forever without good sales/marketing folks....
You are correct to a point in that regard my friend! I was just trying to point out the importance of that part of the business. Unless some of us are just doing this for fun, it still a business and we have to SELL (and market)product...
well, i sort of have a merger going on. i meant the very talented graphic designer, gil, as a result of needing a graphic designer. since he is a member of the board, i had already seen some of his work. but after i gave him some ideas and direction and he came up with an awesome design! as a matter of fact, i just put in an order for the first run of shirts yesterday!
and we enjoyed working together so much that we are working on a joint project based on my ideas and his designs. we will open a fulfillment store just for this project, hopefully in time for xmas sales, and split the proceeds.
is this the kind of merger you are talking about? folks working together who met each other on the forum?
I agree the marketing is an equal part of the business.....but maybe slightly less....because moving blank apparel is a totally different sell, than moving decorated apparel. Which is what we are doing.
Seeing as we are a higher end creative group....we try to present ourselves as such....and we just seem to attract sales people who want a major piece of the cash output, but fail to realize it's our product & art that is really selling.
The biggest problems weve come accross are sales percentages, with many sales agencies not really doing as much actual selling, as they are customer service.
A good salesperson in my view "a slick person" can sell anything to anyone....but in the same sense -could also sell themselves to our group.....thus leaving a dilema of trust....are they selling now?...or are they being straight forward?....
We have a great sales team now who are also creative minded....I think that's the key - to find a happy medium.
What price range does someone like that charge per design? In a previous life, a friend of mine that is an airbrush artis was charging $80 and up for a color design. Just curious because I have some designs in my head that I know I wouldn't be able to translate onto paper and ultimately onto a shirt.
You could spend a lot of money on a design that looks really cool and you sell a few shirts and then you could spend 15 minutes and do a cool phrase and sell thousands.
Last edited by Rodney; October 27th, 2006 at 01:40 PM.
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Years ago many companies started looking at some of the best "do'ers" that had the type of personality that would work in sales, and put them out on the front lines to do the selling. They had the knowledge of the product and could help support the product after the sale. I had an engineer friend that worked for a company that took a personality test and ended up going from the engineering group to sales.
Any Mergers ever happen here? 
