Written by: Maciek

I was supposed to write about analyzing all of the ideas I wrote about previously, but right now let’s just say that both the workshop and the fairy tales ideas were considered as good, but not scalable enough. We have the desire to conquer the world in our blood, so unfortunately we had to discard these two ideas, at least for now. Also, the moment the idea of a clothing brand was brought up and Kasia described her vision in mere three sentences, we all knew that this would be it.

Indeed, I guess you simply have to know, feel and understand that this idea, the one that’s going to turn into a business, that this is THE idea, that it  merges many different aspects, talents and ambitions, that it sounds like it has always been ours and that we fit to the idea and the idea to us. That's exactly how paterns clicked with us.

However, before Kasia and Iza could get to work, it was necessary to deal with numbers, deadlines, budgets and all matters of importance, which in greater numbers can kill all enthusiasm, but not taking care of them can kill any idea.

Let me recall one of my favorite satirical dialogues, which can be used accurately and with a pinch of salt to summarize the first serious conversations about paterns.

Dziewoński: There is a deal to make!

Michnikowski: How much is there to lose?

D: Why are you asking me how much you can lose! You should ask me immediately how much you can earn!

M: How much you earn, you earn when you do. I'm asking, how much do you need to have to take the risk in the event of losing?

[...]

We knew from the beginning that costs were the easiest way is to plan.

In the beginning, naturally we were not able to accurately estimate everything, but at least we learned the rough scale of the investment. The estimated cost was accepted and this amount became the reference point for Kasia, i.e. the initial budget.

We also asked ourselves a lot of other questions related to this idea. How much do we want to earn and when (it’s super-important to check if that’s at all possible), who do we need, what for and at what stage. For much should we spend on fabrics, Designer, Constructor, sewing plant, website, Branding, Graphic designer, PR, Social Media…? Oof… that’s really a lot… [This is a topic for a separate blog story]

As my dad says, "let's worry in stages…” We adopted this strategy. The time for hard work has come. Step by step.

For starters we had to come up with the definition of our target group of clients, a communication strategy, the brand’s story, vision, mission, brand statement, etc. Every brain storm lead to another. We produced a lot of material during that time, which Kasia later meticulously worked on. At the same time, we were constantly asking ourselves (and others) the question "what is our brand’s name?"

Creating a strategy, vision, mission and brand story is a long, often painful process, with a million amendments. One day it seemed like we finally had it, but when we returned to the subject after a few days we changed our minds and it was back to the drawing board. This can not be done quickly. I am glad that we had the internal consent and patience for this process to continue and evolve peacefully. Because of this today we have nothing to reproach ourselves for and we still like what we came up with in the process. However, the question "what should the name be for our merino clothes for generations?" remained unanswered.

My next post will be about coming up with that name. Trust me, there’s a whole story to tell :-)

PS. Just so I can act all smart in future posts, I need to emphasize that I (we) do not want to teach anyone or give advice on how to work with a new brand, how to organize and how to work.  I simply want to tell you about our adventure, our dilemmas, how we make decisions and what they are. You will also hear a little something about the consequences, mistakes, and the pleasure of building all this, because first of all it has to be fun.