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Although Matt only started his business less than two years ago, he's learned a *ton* about how to deal with manufacturers overseas and one tough lesson about trademarking his unique skiwear brand.
Here Matt chats with us about where he came up with the idea for his business and the questions he's hoping to tackle next.
Name: Matt Martin
Business: Retro Mountain Skiwear
Started: November 2014
Where did you come up with the idea for starting your business?
I spotted a gap in the market back when I was in college. I went on a ski trip and I noticed a lot of people wearing vintage ‘80s one-piece ski suits. I tried to find one for myself, but I couldn’t get one anywhere. Tons of my friends said they’d had the same experience. I thought it would be a great idea to make them easily available and of a much higher quality than the original versions.
The idea was always in the back of my mind, but I didn’t act on it until I finished college. Then I thought, "Well, nobody else has done it yet, so maybe I should!"
I only had anecdotal evidence of demand up until this point, so I used Google AdWords to see what people were searching for online. And boy was I glad I did — I learned that people were searching for vintage skiwear online, so I decided to go for it.
I knew what I wanted the suits to look like, but my degree in mechanical engineering hadn’t equipped me with enough fashion expertise to design them all by myself! I found James, a freelance fashion designer, and he came on board to help with the more technical aspects – sizing, fabrics, technical ratings and so on.
I decided to work with him because he immediately made me feel like he was really invested in the project the very first time we spoke. One of the hard things about setting up a business alone is not having someone to bounce ideas off of. I knew I’d have that with James.
The next step was to set up a website. I wasn’t sure how to go about doing this, and the first company I went to quoted me $19,000 — more than my entire design budget!
Initially, I had to settle. I found a company that designed a basic site for me using a WordPress template for only $800. It wasn’t mind-blowing, but it did the job.
I was a bit disheartened by that first big quote, but later I did a search online and I found a site called DesignCrowd. You post your project and other freelancers and businesses pitch you for the work. A company in India got in touch and said they’d do it for $980. I agreed, and I was glad I did — eight weeks later I had a great site.
What is the biggest mistake you made early on?
I’m not sure it was a mistake exactly (it was more of an oversight), but it resulted in me flying out to Shanghai to resolve it.
My initial stock order was for 300 suits in six different designs — three male and three female. I’d booked a spot at a skiing trade show, but there was a last-minute problem with the shipping. Our manufacturer is based in Shanghai and I thought I’d done all my research and completed the paperwork I needed to in order to get them here.
Unfortunately, I’d missed one very important number — the Economic Operator Registration and Identification (EORI) number.
Suddenly, the suits couldn’t be shipped to me.
It was a few days before the big show, which I’d invested a lot of time and money in. I couldn’t do it without the samples, so I flew out to Shanghai to pick up a few of each and fly them home. While I was there, I noticed a design fault with the hoods of the women’s suits. The seamstress worked overnight to correct them and she delivered 18 suits to me — one of each design in every size — at 5:50am the next day, just ten minutes before I needed to leave.
We did the show with the 18 samples and I directed people to the website to buy them. Because of the on-going problems with my manufacturer, we had to tell them that they’d be available “soon.” It was a shame to lose some sales that way, but once the shop was up and running and the stock was in, I was definitely happy with the sales we made.
Who was your first customer?
I was expecting my audience to be young professionals, so my first sale was a bit of a surprise!
It was at the ski show and I only had my sample stock. It was nearing the end of the weekend when a guy in his 60s wearing cowboy boots and a cowboy hat came over to my stall. He was going skiing in Colorado and said he wanted to buy a suit from me.
I explained that they were only samples, but he wouldn’t take no for an answer! He insisted on buying one of the samples at full price.
It was an amazing moment. My family was there to help me out in the stall, so everyone was there to see my very first sale. I wanted to take the money and frame it, but an early-stage company needs every dollar it can get!
What has been the biggest surprise so far since starting your own business?
It's been a surprise to learn how easy it is to let things run away with themselves. For example, getting our logo and name trademarked was harder than I thought it would be. It sounds simple, but it wasn’t.
I hired a lawyer who was recommended to me by my uncle. The lawyer ran into trouble because of a law that says your company name can’t be too descriptive of the products. For example, you can't call a swim shorts company "Swim Shorts." I wasn’t selling "retro mountains," so I couldn’t see the issue!
I’d paid the lawyer $3,000 and got nowhere, so when a friend offered me a few minutes with an expert at the legal company he worked for, I jumped at the chance.
He advised me that it’s not actually necessary to have a lawyer at this stage — once the name and logo are in the system for consideration, it’s a relatively simple process. Rather than pay out another $1,500 to this lawyer who wasn’t getting anywhere, I decided to go it alone.
The appeal consisted of a phone call to discuss my case — and I won! I think the lawyer I hired originally saw that I was inexperienced and took my money. I’m glad I went it alone in the end.
What would you like to learn today from a network of other small business owners and self-employed professionals?
I’d like to learn about dealing with expansion. We’re not scaling rapidly, but we’re growing all the time and there’s a lot I need to prepare for.
What stories can the community here share with me about scaling my business as we grow? What should I plan for? How do I get my finances in order so that I don’t run into trouble?
How do I go about hiring people? What’s a good-sized team to work with? What are the lesser-known intricacies involved in growing a brand?
Can you help Matt out with answering any of these big questions as he continues to grow his company and his brand?
Share *your* story with us below! :-)
