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I confess. I’ve committed my fair share of retail sins.

I’ve also encountered some of these “sins,” or mistakes, by doing business with other designers or vendors and with other retailers. With these experiences in mind, I compiled a few standout things I’ve found are common missteps or breaches in etiquette in the retail world. I hope these call-outs and pointers on establishing your precise marketplace, pricing appropriately in light of your profit margin, and retail neighborliness can contribute to a healthy, sturdy foundation for growing your business or brand.

NEBULOUS MARKET IDENTITY

From the get-go, it’s important to establish your market identity. Are you exclusive? In other words, are you going to cultivate a consumer following, develop narrow or niche stockists relationships, and make fewer things with a costlier price point?

Or is your eye set on mass market? Are you looking to scale big, and produce inexpensive goods for a large audience of consumers?

This is a foundational decision, because it reflects – and affects – the expression of your craft and the “identity” of your sales avenues (specialty stores versus big box, for example).

To be clear, there’s no better or worse way to establish yourself! What’s important, though, is making sure that you’re grounded in the vision you have for your company, and that you have made clear decisions about the direction you’re moving.

One reason this is such a crucial early-on distinction is that if affects your margin markup when you’re selling to consumers and buyers. For example, you can’t follow the conventional margin markup if you’re putting hours and hours of strenuous time and material resources into your product – but you’d likely be much more flexible here if your product is more easily assembled. This leads us to... 

MIS-PRICING

So you’ve committed to being a manufacturing and design business. Now, you’ve got to make that green. Stay out of the red. Taste the rainbow. However you want to say it, without exception, you must turn a profit to be sustainable and successful.

You know your business model and it’s time to focus your attention on your sales avenues. Hugely important is recognizing whether or not you are going to be selling to platforms other than your own website. (I think it’s safe to assume that most brands, at this point in time, will show and sell their goods or services from a dedicated web platform. Please do leave your comments below if your brand is an outlier!)

The Internet has disrupted the retail paradigm as we knew it. I get really hyped up about this, so I’ll save the nitty gritty of this ginormous shift for a later Design Talk. But for now, I want to call out that retailers will not sell your goods if you are selling on your website for less than they can afford to sell your goods for. Think: if you sell a product for $100 on your site, and try to sell it to a retail buyer, they’ll have to mark it up to $200 to accommodate for their profit margin and for the massive, unaccounted for overhead costs they’re responsible for.

Thus, from the inception of your brand, your product, and your online presence, there’s a certain amount of consideration that must go into your pricing so you’re not undercutting potential buyer partners.

Keeping in mind your market identity, and of course your practical considerations like material costs, other resource capital like website and operations, labor, and time – make sure you’re pricing to sell at the amount you’ll be able to make a profit based on where you see your business going. Pricing for your perceived profit margin is, of course, just another facet of your business interplaying with your vision for it.

I want to reiterate that no vision has to fall in line with another! Regardless, your decisions should be thoughtful, deliberate, and forward-looking. And “the money stuff” is certainly at the forefront of that decision-making.

DISRESPECTING THY NEIGHBOR

And with that, you’re up and running! (If only it could be that easy… ;) ) You’ve mastered your self-definition and established practices for sustainable profit margins. You’re developing relationships with stockists and are poised to expand even further into brick and mortar.

You are on a roll! Honor that “roll” (dare I say... butter it?!) by honoring your relationships with buyers. Respect their commitment to your brand, and your product, and recognize that in turn, you’ve committed to them. Part good business etiquette and part self-preservation, recognize that it’s not okay to pursue other retailers in the same neighborhood as your current stockists. Your current buyer cannot continue selling your product if their neighbor is selling it too – especially if it’s for even just 1¢ less, which starts a race to the bottom as far as profitability goes.

There’s also the seasonal acknowledgement of that buyer-vendor commitment. It’s best to avoid selling your back stock to a flash sale site, for example, until your product is fully out of circulation at your stockists.

Beyond all that, if you’re selling something that should be perceived as exclusive, you’re undermining its value if people see it in two shops in one day. You’re removing the sense of urgency to buy it at all, if the perception is that it’s available anytime, anyplace.

I have incredible faith in small business. That’s why I’m working on Design Talks as a resource for small companies, designers, and creative entrepreneurs. And the reason behind this all, the reason I want small businesses to be able to enter the market, is because I value and want to experience innovation and individuality.

And that is the hugest, most sin-repenting, redemptive, holy thing happening right now: there is a wealth of innovation on the market.

People aren’t hesitating to get their ideas out there. They’re learning from their mistakes and studying up on how to best make, promote, and sell. The democratization of the Internet has played a wonderful role in that (again, I say this with a tinge of caution, explanation forthcoming in a future Design Talk!). Innovative designers are forging smartly ahead to receptive markets like never before.

It’s the sustenance of today’s creative momentum that I hope Design Talks can be here to foster, to help create a scaffolding for future creator-innovators and their business models. That creative innovation is the spice of life.

As told to Emily R. Pellerin

Next week, pull a chair up to the dinner table as I talk aesthetics and congeniality of hosting. Plus, my personal practices for self-preservation, for when entertaining gets exhausting.

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Release your inner 'Wild Child'; an explosion of color, expression and discovery of self. 

Michele Varian's apartment

Indulge Your Senses

The eye is naturally drawn to quirky elements that create a statement and indulge the senses. Our small curiosities and decorative pieces are perfect to suffuse your space with, slowly but surely. 

Michele Varian's apartment

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“This Wild Child’s Wildest Dreams – And the Risks I’ve Taken to Follow Them.”

Not too long after graduating Parsons and working in the fashion industry for several years, I decided to take a leap of faith: I cashed in my 401K, twenty grand, and put all of my money into starting my own business. 

Taking things into my own hands was a dream come true, but it wasn’t by any means a smooth or easy ride. I began making textiles and pillows, designing, stitching, and running operations out of my loft on Grand Street in Soho. When I could finally afford to, I brought on another woman and, in my home, we worked side-by-side doing the sewing of every single one of the products in our orders. I developed great buyer relationships and landed a couple big accounts selling to Neiman Marcus and Barneys. I had just received that ever-memorable first big check. Being an entrepreneur was wonderful.

Then on September 11, 2001, the Twin Towers fell. Downtown New York was covered in smoggy clouds of debris and the malaise of unexpected vulnerability. It was a painful time.

 Separately, the city’s industries were thrown off kilter, which offered its own set of confusions. The design fairs were cancelled and no trade people were coming to town; I was cutoff from my buyers.

Owning a store had never been a plan. But, walking back and forth so often from my place on Grand to my now-husband’s loft on Broadway, passing the “for rent” sign in the window of a former bike messenger service… it just felt too right. I couldn’t access my buyers, so I may as well sell direct to my consumers. I cashed that first big check and, reprising my earlier strategy, I went all in. On December 1, 2001, I moved in.

Back then, SoHo was a wild west for artists, creatives, and the retailers scattered between them. I never conceived of the possibility of having to ask anyone to do anything – I didn’t get permits, there was no formality. I didn’t even consider not doing whatever I needed to, or having to get permission for anything. I was able to make it completely my own.

This first storefront on Crosby, as the next step for my business, was an un-dreamt dream come beautifully true; I soon outgrew this space, thought, and moved just down the block. Eventually, I outgrew that space too, and moved my shop from that second tiny little spot to my current space at 27 Howard, again just down the street.

I was incredibly excited… And I was incredibly scared. With the required ten-year lease, I was signing on to a cumulative $3.3 million in rent cost alone. It’s worth saying again: I was INCREDIBLY scared.

The new store, which I’m still in today, is three times larger than the last footprint (with a way larger overhead to match) with a mezzanine level and full basement. I had taken out a studio space nearby to do my design and fabrication, but with this new space, I was able to bring all the operations under one roof. It was great for me, my staff, and for my customers and visitors.

Throughout the years, when people come by they have often expressed surprised at how different the space looks from the last time they were there. I’m constantly re-arranging and shifting the visual lexicon of the storefront. As I watched SoHo begin to change more and more quickly around me, I realized that opening up my space to other shops that had been out-priced from the neighborhood was one way to continue the dynamism of that visual lexicon.

Birdie and the Boy, a concept shop by Jessica Fish (a partner in the iconic Erica Tanov Shop on Elizabeth Street, which had lost its lease), was the first to come in and share my space as a “pop-up” shop-in-shop. (Now, this concept of “Guest Shops” has turned into a full business, in which I’m a partner. I’ll be sharing more about how I got officially involved in the retail-matchmaking platform Guesst in a future Design Talk, but in the meantime, click through to check it out!) With the always shifting merchandise and a rotating roster of designer brands to share my store with, people experienced – and still do experience –the shop as a discovery.

Like in the good old days, things are still wonderful. Being open to shifting my expectations of my space, my vision, my design and myself has proven invaluable. Through some major risks, a lot of creative problem solving, and a still-growing capacity for amenability, I’ve been able to follow my dreams. 

Also like in the good old days, things can still be scary. I still consult my dad when I’m making big financial decisions about my company; I still have doubts and insecurities, and am still crutching on serendipity in things both business and personal. But exercising nimbleness in my decision-making, points of view, and responses to outcomes has gotten me here thus far. I’d say it’s fair to trust in that by now.

Sincerely,

As told to Emily R. Pellerin

Stay tuned for next week, when I’ll address some of retail’s “deadliest sins” and the hopeful trends repenting for them.

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Get schooled... MV style!

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So first of all – spoiler alert – I’m a real person! For those of you who already know me, this is of course no surprise. However, at least once a day someone walks into the store and is surprised to hear that Michele Varian is a real person, responsible for the world that they’ve stepped into. 

I moved to New York City to attend Parsons School of Design from Detroit’s East Side in 1986. I became a fashion designer, then when I started my own company, a home textile and pillow designer. I now make lighting, design furniture, create wallpaper, do licensing projects for other companies and am still producing my own line of textiles; I am an independent and self-financed design, manufacturing, distribution and retail shop owner, and… I’m a tenants’ rights advocate, micro–manufacturing advocate, mentor, and a partner in other companies (Detroit Built, and retail-sharing platform Guesst).

I am my brand – Michele Varian – and I am more than my brand.

I’ve seen a lot and learned a lot (A LOT!) over the years. From witnessing the evolution of industry, “small” entrepreneurship, and craftsmanship in both Detroit and in my longtime neighborhood of SoHo, to witnessing my own company grow, there’s been an inevitable thread of changing climates: social, political, ethical, corporate, creative.

In today’s – ahem – “distinct” climate, we’re all ripe for more growth. You don’t know what you don’t know; and what you do know, you should share.

With all this in mind, I’m beginning a new, permanent series of online posts. This is Design Talk by MV. The actual Michele Varian: the shop owner and businesswoman, the tenants’ rights advocate, the business partner, and the designer.

These thoughts will extend beyond just design. I want to share the knowledge I’ve been privileged with by experience, folly, success, and mentorship. I knew the design industry before the digital disruption and am flourishing in it afterwards. Design Talk by MV is for the creator, the ideas person, the entrepreneur, the retailer, the big thinker, the pragmatist, and the artist in all of us alike.

It’s back to school time not just for the students. We all have learning to do, and my hope is for these musings, tales of my personal growth, and pointers for retail etiquette can provide a guide for every aimless, fledgling, and growing self-starter out there.

Step into my world and inside my head! This business is my passion. I look forward to sharing that passion with you.

Sincerely,

As told to Emily R. Pellerin

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