Venture Concept No. 1

Putting It All Together

Opportunity

People throw away their clothes like they are garbage when they do not fit them anymore or have been ruined in some way because most people do not know what to do with them. A Fashion Forward Hypothesis.... There is an opportunity that lies within the fashion industry for an eco-friendly forward alternative for old, unused, and tarnished clothing pieces that can create a market industry for sustainable clothing materials. Who has the need? People who are looking for a more sustainable use for their unused clothing. People who enjoy fashion. What is the need? There is an unmet need for a sustainable alternative for the materials of old clothes to be made into something fresh, new, and eco-friendly. The trade-off for old clothing materials is not what it could be, thus there is no incentive for consumers to contribute to this industry so far. Why is there a need? People want to buy clothes that are sustainable and last long, therefore to kill two birds with one stone, recycling our old clothes for either money or new fashion in return grants us an eco-friendly way to build off of our past. Testing the forces of who: Lots of people have this need, everyone grows out of old clothes, everyone stains or ruins some item of clothing at some time in their life. Testing the forces of what: Are clothes too much of a want rather than a need where they couldn't hold up an entire industry consisting of old worn down materials? Or are people not going to do anything different because they already have other options and do not use them? There are consignment stores, and stores like GoodWill already that basically use the same concept, although this idea is to create something new from something old. Testing the forces of why: This definitely does not apply to everyone because some people do recycle and refurbish their clothing materials, but others just throw them out where there is good opportunity for them

The market...

- Clothes are not garbage, no matter what state of being they are in.

- Sustainability is important.

- Eco-friendliness needs to be addressed on a broader scale of thinking.

- Who are those who care?

- What would happen within the tradeoff; The industry would flip the materials.

..."Redone"..."Rework"..."Recycled"..."Refurbished"..."Renewed"...

Looking outside the market...

- Who would benefit from recycled materials?

- Who would find art in other peoples "trash"?

- Is there value to an industry like this?

Innovation

Recycled fashion is a business idea that will turn someones old, worn-out, or tarnished clothes into just merely materials that are used to create new creative unique clothing pieces for sale on our website. Instead of getting absolutely no use out of clothes that you do not use anymore, now you can ship them to us and we will credit you for your materials. With these credits customers can create their own unique new clothing pieces - shirts, jackets, pants, skirts, scarves, etc. On our website and our phone application customers use our software to create anything they want from their materials. We have two forms customers can design from; pieces that already exist or start from scratch. Our team uploads what materials each customer sent in into their profile and they can alter their new pieces based on the materials they have in their inventory. Customers do not only have the option to create, they may also receive money directly from their materials - although customers will get more out of creating than gaining cash value for materials. For the materials we have left over we use to create items that need more than customers have in their inventory, these are 'bought' with their credits as well at cheap value. This recycle process is how customers can make money or gain credit. After our creative design team creates customers' pieces, customers have the option to sell on their page or choose to buy their own product. There are fees for our creative team and shipping fees as well. Our site is run on a membership bases, per creation. Thus, membership is free. Customer credits are based on their own sent in materials (they have the option to also buy more credit for materials) and customer creations are bought via membership. Thus, one creation cost $20, 5 creations cost $75, 10 creations cost $125, 25 creations cost $300; therefore, it is cost efficient to buy more creation credits. Credits are equal to USD dollars, thus members can buy creations based on the credits they have from sending in material. We make money based off of creator fees we add into creation costs. There are also sale items that are customer creations that have been up on the site for longer than one year. There is also a 10 and under tab that customers can buy from that our design team puts together based on leftover materials. 

Venture Concept

Through this innovation we have endured the opportunity to solve the need for what to do with old, worn-out and tarnished clothes. We have created a recycled based system based on the foundation of creativity and art. In order to obtain customers we will promote our business via social media. Customers will use our business to end the wastefulness of throwing away clothes, instead we have built a way for those clothes to be materialized. Customers are becoming innovators and designing their own art forms that they then will wear around town. In order to step away from competitors we will showcase our designs on our website and express our mantra of a recycling clothing system. Competitors have nothing on us, this is not consignment, this is art. Let's address some weaknesses that may come about; it will be hard to create and design from scratch, but we will grant out team of amazing artists the opportunity to only create the best quality clothing pieces. It will be hard to gain major profit from this, but over time it will benefit much more than just us as a business. This idea will benefit our customers, the environment, and the aspiring artist community. 

Engineering: The engineers behind our online creation studio allow us to stand out amongst others. We have created the best software and computer coding system to ensure high-speed development of ideas. Our website and our social media platforms are vital to our business. We have engineered incredible layouts and aspects of our online business that has enabled us to create the business we envisioned. 

Social media - Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook, LinkedIN

Web - Search Engine Optimization... Recycled/Reused/Reworked/Redone, Fashion

Software - Adobe Photoshop, PayPal, Venmo, Gmail, Yahoo, Microsoft Excel, SquareSpace, Robots.txt, Shopify, Wix, The LAB

Shipping/Distribution: Customers register as members and input the weight of clothing materials they will ship into our main office. Customers are then mailed shipping materials at a small cost. After customers send in materials they are sorted and then uploaded to their individual secure profiles by our team. Upon creation of new pieces, once customers purchase their creations they are sent out packaged in our custom shipping plastic. 

Customer Service: We have a chat service on our website for questions and concerns with a team member that can be accessed 9am-5pm, 7 days a week. Customers can send in emails to our staff as well. When in the creation lab customers can chat with a team member to assist them with creating their new looks. We vendor at events in order to have strong communications with customers feedback on our brand, as well as to brand our business. Feedback is important, which is why we have so many social media platforms in order to reach customers to whatever level we need to.

Employees: Our team was created based on interviews with a variety of applicants from a variety of Universities. We have a young and innovative team based out of Atlanta, Georgia. Our team has 7 divisions with 3-6 individuals per division. 

-Executive Board: 4 employees

-Creative Team: 6 employees

-Design Team: 6 seamstress

-Public Relations Team: 4 employees

-Marketing Team: 3 employees

-Engineering and Computer Applications Team: 5 employees

-Distributions: 3 employees

Unfair Advantage

Based on our VIRN analysis, I have seen how our company will thrive based on our capabilities and capital resources. My top resource is customer outreach; social media and online content. Today's generation is centered around social media and online shopping. Our business relies on customers creating their new clothes from their old clothes via our website or application. Thus, technology outreach is vital. Social media holds an important role in advertising and marketing as well as customer communications and data analysis. Our online content has the ability to reach audiences on a broad spectrum, available via app, web, and social media. The value of this is shown by this generation feeds on social media and technology, therefore having platforms on every server is vital and thus makes us more valuable for search engine optimization. 

What's Next?

For My Venture...

In hopes to spread environmental awareness and sustainability, the reach our business will get to will hopefully ensure a better future for much more than just the fashion and arts industry. 

For Me...

I would love to further my knowledge and abilities in the fashion industry, hopefully by landing a steady career in a communications and content creation for companies within the fashion and lifestyle industry. By doing this entrepreneurial path, I have learned the various steps it takes to develop an overall idea. I will use these skills for my future endeavors and allow my skills of interviewing, designing, planning, and systematic learning to direct my career in the right direction.