Franchise Owners Only: Your HQ Let You Down...Now What?

Jun 26, 2023 Posted by: Matt Albrizio

Are you a franchise owner? Have they let you down when it comes to apparel?

Either it is too expensive, not customized to your location, or it takes forever to be delivered?

The good news is, we work with franchise locations across the country. Regardless who your HQ or affiliation is, we can help you with your specific apparel needs. We've navigated these situations and agreements for many years and we're prepared to step in and help out.

In this post, I'm going to breakdown 6 key characteristics you need to build a thriving, profitable, and scalable apparel brand at your business- without any help from your HQ.

Have a plan- You need to have a plan for apparel. Don't rely on feeling. Don't rely on "when people ask enough". Have a set plan. 3-5 times a year is plenty. Once a quarter is great. The main thing is to have a plan. This is why I recommend all of our clients have an apparel plan. We will help you set up a plan in less than 10 minutes. This plan has shown to keep clients on track and clients on an apparel plan sell 30% more apparel than those who do not have one.

Limited edition- View every project as a limited edition design. Have a staple tee that you always have a little inventory on. Adopting a mindset that every design will be new and unique will give you peace of mind knowing you don't have to go backwards and constantly place reorders for orders you already placed. If you're nervous about having to come up with new designs every order- that is our job! We're always happy to provide fresh and new artwork for each order.

Custom to you- Let's face it....your members want a shirt designed for their specific location. Your members are not anchored to your franchise brand. They'e anchored to their location. When you offer apparel for your specific location, be sure to included your location information in the design.

Preorder- You don't need to order in bulk and spend good cash flow on apparel. Run a preorder for 7 days. Collect everyone's order ahead of time. That way, you know how much profit you made and how popular the design is. This will take a lot of guesswork out of the process.

Avoid excess inventory- We have all walked into incredible businesses and gyms with amazing retail areas with tons of items available for purchase. While this seems like a good idea, in reality, unless these businesses are super high traffic, the inventory just sits there and unsold goods will burn a hole in your pocket. Consider offering extremely limited inventory. This will keep your preorder process effective. If people know they can only get new designs via preorder, they will be sure to participate in the preorder.

Hammer the basics- You're stressing yourself out sourcing some super particular items- leggings, sports bras, head bands, running jackets...The problem is simply this...unless you're planning on ordering 500-1000 pieces at a time, it is really hard to find high quality items like this thru a wholesaler. I'm going to save you a lot of headache and heartache. That stuff is best done through someone who specializes in custom garments. If I am being honest with you, this is an expensive rabbit hole. You will spend a lot of money before settling on the right garment. If you want to go down this rabbit hole, it is doable but if you to avoid it, I recommend tees, tanks, longsleeves, and hoodies. Those items are instant "YES!" items.

If you're a franchise location and you're struggling with apparel and need some consistency/clarity with this process, schedule a call with us today to learn more about how we can simplify this for you.

Incentives Matter

Jun 22, 2023 Posted by: Matt Albrizio

Merch Economics 101 is in session. Lesson 1: Incentives matter. Without the proper incentives, it is going to be a grind to get people to buy merch. Luckily, we've learned a lot of these lessons the hard way and discovered 4 key incentives to get people to buy more merch:

Pricing: For example: the preorder price is 27.99. If you order inventory and people buy your inventory, the price is 32.99. People like to “win”. They like “deals”. The people who enjoy paying full price are few and far between. Offer a price incentive during the preorder to get people to take action.

Time: Again, deadlines matter. Tell them they only have 5-7 days to order. Do not stretch the deadline to longer than 10 days.

Samples: People like to touch and feel garments before they buy. If we sent you samples, USE THEM! Tell people there are sizing samples. Encourage people to touch and buy them.

Special benefits: If you order a shirt, you get a free goal review session, nutrition consultation, etc... Whatever special benefit that you feel is valuable but not super time consuming on your end, it may be worth experimenting with this.

Seven Years of the Apparel Plan: Lessons Learned

Jun 14, 2023 Posted by: Matt Albrizio

It's been about 7 years since we launched our Apparel Plan service. If you don't know what this is, here is a quick summary: A plan to help keep you on track with apparel throughout the year so you never miss a project.

General Thoughts and Lessons Learned

Apparel Plans Still Work: Gyms on an apparel plan sell 30% more apparel than those who are not on a plan.
A Culture of Apparel: The gyms and businesses you admire have a strong apparel game. It is not a coincidence that the gyms that have a strong apparel game are also the most consistent when it comes to these projects.
Consistency is Key: Consistency=results. You have to build a culture of apparel. The only way to do that is to regularly offer apparel for members to buy.
Leave Apparel Design to the Professionals: Gym owners are understaffed and stretched super thin. With the staff you do have, you do not want them wasting time on creating, designing, and managing apparel. This is your vendor's responsibility. Your staff has much more important things to do than design apparel.
Trust the Vendor: Allow yourself to be served. If you're on this plan, it allows us to become an extension of your team. We'll reach out proactively, show you design ideas, make recommendations, and facilitate this process more for you.
Change the Mindset: Ask yourself honestly "is my current vendor serving me best"....Regardless of how nice they are, they're local, it's my cousin's best friend from high school!, and the worst one..."they're a member of my gym. I can't switch!". Apparel becomes a nightmare when you're doing someone else's job for them.
Focus on What Matters: Free up your focus for things that matter to you. Simply, when we touch base with you about your Summer order, it's time to focus on that. No need to worry about the in-between time. Have confidence knowing we're on top of it and you don't need to worry about it.

The goal of our apparel plan is to provide a free planning tool to pitch in and help gym owners get more ton for no extra fees or costs. If you're interested in booking an apparel plan with us, there is no cost to do so. The call takes less than 10 minutes. Book a call here.

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