EDM Biz Academy
Billionaires Apparel’s Drew Burdick on How to Start a Successful Business in the EDM Industry
Kostya V.
August 4th, 2014
“What 3 pieces of advice would you give to an emerging EDM clothing/accessory designer looking to set-up their own business?”
Drew Burdick: Working in the clothing & accessory industry is tough, particularly when you’re starting out on a shoestring budget. My top 3 pieces of advice to get started are:
1. Out the gate, don’t spend too much money on the frills. When we first started we had custom printed polymailers, die cut stickers, slick hangtags, & some other unnecessary extras. This was a huge waste of money & didn’t really add to the experience or aid in attracting customers. Most of the time people wouldn’t even think twice about ripping that stuff off the product & tossing it in the trash. Focus on your product & making it the best it can possibly be from a quality standpoint. Save the money on frills & invest that in making a great product. People will remember wearing a great fitting shirt. They likely won’t remember if your sticker was die cut or not.
2. Once you get the ball rolling with your brand, it’s easy to get caught in the daily grind of keeping track of details, responding to emails, packing orders, tracking inventory, vending at events, etc. In the midst of these daily responsibilities, NEVER forget to market your brand. Also, make sure to spend your resources on the highest impact marketing efforts. For us, this has always been social media. We make a point to create unique content at least twice each day & share it at peak hours on our various social outlets. This has been a huge in helping us continue to grow the brand & is a great asset for all brands out there that have been successful.
3. Give. Stuff. Away. If you look at the most successful startup brands out there (within EDM and beyond), typically they start out initially by giving a ton of their stuff away for free or having promotional items that they hand out wherever they go. You might not be in a position to do this out the gate with your products, but do some research to find items that fit within your budget. A free sticker or 1″ button in the right hands can go a long way.
