A tidy sum?

Poor marketing management is not a problem restricted only to new designers starting out in the fashion game. Even those who own established textile, clothing and footwear businesses often fall into the trap of either not allocating enough funding to promote their company or pouring good money after bad in an attempt to get wider brand recognition.

So concerned is the New South Wales state government about the problem it recently made funding available through the Department of State and Regional Development's (DSRD) 'Stepping up' program to help meet the participant costs for those taking part in a think tank program aimed at helping TCF companies grow their business.

Dubbed Fashion Collective the program, run by Australian Fashion Partners and which launches across NSW later this month and Victoria and Queensland in August, offers designers, importers, retailers and wholesalers premium marketing assistance from a host of selected experts.

The program also offers individual mentoring sessions as well as access to quarterly workshops with TCF professionals from non-competing market space to help participants gain from the experience of others.

DSRD Industry senior manager Paul Judge says programs such as Fashion Collective assist companies to not only learn from each other but also to broaden their perspective and generate new ideas.

"Such companies often need to supplement their technical, design-based skills with business management skills, in such areas as marketing, ecommerce, export, supply chain management, production processes, transport and logistics, distribution and agency arrangements, pricing strategies and so on.

"While the various fashion design colleges have made good progress in including such aspects in their training courses, there is no substitute for hard-nosed, commercial advise from those who have been there, done that."

Judge says that in order to be eligible for financial assistance in attending such programs, participating businesses must be based in New South Wales and demonstrate a commitment to growing their firms. They must also have an annual sales turnover of at least $200,000 and employ at least one person other than the business owner.

Lastly firms need to demonstrate they are financially viable by providing financial accounts and reports for at least two financial years which show the business is profitable and has a positive balance of assets over liabilities.

By Tracey Porter