hi I’m Evan Carmichael welcome to
another edition of modeling the masters
today’s video is brought to you by MX
for business camera they launched a new
Facebook page that has a lot of
resources information ideas for
entrepreneurs that I hope you go check
out if you like the videos please go
check out the Facebook page now I
believe that the fastest and most
effective way to grow your business is
to model the strategies of people who
have already done what you’re trying to
do so today we’re gonna look at how a
Canadian entrepreneur who was arrested
for bootlegging t-shirts bringing them
across the border went from that to
becoming the largest t-shirt
manufacturer in North America this is a
story of Canadian entrepreneur Dov
Charney and the top three lessons you
can learn from his success he is the
founder of American Apparel Dov Charney
was born in Montreal Canada to Jewish
parents but was sent to Wallingford
Connecticut to attend a prestigious prep
school to control his behavior
Charney was a self-described hyperactive
child and was frustrating his parents
with his behavior who would focus on
just about everything else but the
school he was attending while ignoring
schoolwork he would find a money-making
opportunity by purchasing t-shirts at a
Kmart and taking them across the border
of Canada where he would sell them for a
profit journey would then close a large
order for t-shirts but the order went
south and he would eventually lose more
than $100,000 this business disaster
would make charlie quit the t-shirt
business for a while and go to college
he found that the t-shirt business was
calling him again so he dropped out of
Tufts University in his senior year to
follow his passion after moodling the
South Carolina and getting a ten
thousand dollar loan from his father
journey would start a new t-shirt
business in 1989 American Apparel today
American Apparel has over five hundred
million dollars in revenue and over
eleven thousand employees
it’s the largest clothing manufacturer
in the United States and has almost 300
locations worldwide
in 2004 China was named Ernst & Young’s
entrepreneur of the year and he’s made
quite a return for himself on that
initial ten thousand dollar loan
by following his passion and by not
giving up after a big defeat Charney was
able to go from small-time bootlegger
into the largest t-shirt manufacturer in
North America to help you amp up your
business here are three action items and
you can learn from Dov Charney action
item number one narrow the market
you can’t sell to everyone possessive
entrepreneurs hone their offering around
a specific target market and ignore the
rest of the world when you design for
everyone nobody ends up loving you they
might love pieces of what you do but
it’s never perfect for them when you
design for a specific market you can
make your product or service amazing for
them solve their problems and forget
about everyone else journey knows who’s
buying his clothes and it’s a very
specific market he’s tailoring his
designs towards twenty-somethings which
means tighter and sucks your clothes in
the baby boomer generation before them
were used to it also means given as
clothes bright and bold colors journey
identifies with this market a group of
people who are more socially minded than
their predecessors to the end he decided
to market his company as not only brand
free but also locally made and sweatshop
free as he sees it journey has connected
with an emerging youth movement a
network of new hip youths that want cool
clothes but do not want to be walking
advertisements for giant corporations by
narrowing his market he has created the
largest t-shirt manufacturer in the
country according the Charney
there’s the relaxed fit generation and
then there’s the next generation we like
sexy at American Apparel we don’t have
branding on the shirts it’s not a status
symbol
I can’t wear any brand on my body I just
freak out
action item number to innovate going
exploit success depends on innovation if
you want to stand out and be different
from your competitors you need to find
innovative ways to separate yourself
innovation takes many forms
it could be with your products or
services business practices company
culture customer service and the list
goes on
if you don’t innovate you’ll risk being
an average company that most people
ignore and forget about it
American Apparel is about much more than
clothes or at least Charney hope so in
creating the company of his dreams
journey wanted to make sure that it
stood for something that it was selling
a message along with its products that
message is that a company does not have
to be exploited if to turn a profit he
make sure his employees not only get a
decent base wage but can make more by
working harder Charney also implements
several new t-shirts every month to keep
his customers looking for new and
creative t-shirts to wear not only are
his employees happy but his customers
have several innovative choices when
buying one of his t-shirts
according to Charney we designed the
rate in such a way that the average
person should be able to make $100 a day
that’s our target we want to pay more
than the prevailing wages in Los Angeles
because we want to have the happiest
workforce we can have what I’m gonna
prove and I’m gonna embarrass the entire
establishment is that sweatshops are
more expensive in the end than
vertically integrated manufacturing in
Canada or the US you see those prisons
in China are inefficient and the
opportunity cost of offshore production
is huge because you can’t respond to
market demands as quickly
action item number three deficiency is
the key as entrepreneurs we tend to be
time starved
there’s always much more that needs to
be done and not enough time of the day
to do it focus on what you do best and
find ways to make everything else more
efficient
it starts with eliminating tasks that
are not really adding a lot of value to
your business then automate as much as
possible through technology finally you
can delegate out the rest of the tasks
that you don’t personally bring as much
value – leaving only the high value high
enjoyment tasks for you to work on
you’ll grow your business and have much
more fun in the process before building
American Apparel to what it is today
Charney had to file for bankruptcy it
was because his company was suffering
from a lack of one thing efficiency the
staff for all in her 20s a wildly
creative Bunch when it came to graphics
and design but few knew the ins and outs
of running the business in response
Charney brought on marty bailey the
industry expert will help make
efficiency American Apparel secret
weapon against his competitors one of
his main strategies was to create what
he calls team manufacturing where groups
of eight to ten people work on a single
garment together each performing a
different task being more efficient
during the manufacturing process
allows American Apparel to grow and
Charney’s determined to remain as
efficient as possible according to
charming as a result of this system were
able to compete with China and kick ass
the American way it’s less expensive for
me the way we do business to manufacture
here in the United States there’s a high
cost of going offshore if you’re working
with a supplier in China you’ve got to
work months in advance if you’re working
with your own factory you can wake up
one morning and say hey let’s make ten
thousand tank tops today
so remember narrow your market innovate
and be efficient to finish up this video
I wanted to share what on my favorite
true stories about Dov Charney and some
of his best quotes love Charney was such
a hyperactive child that his Canadian
parents sent him to a prep school in
Connecticut there you would see many of
his classmates selling t-shirts on
school grounds
this gave Charney an idea of buying
t-shirts from the local Kmart and taken
them across the border into Canada to
sell for profit which happened to be
against the law during one of his
bootlegging excursions he was arrested
they took me down a station ten which
doesn’t exist anymore and after a couple
of hours of me yelling
masoom Monsieur they let me out and gave
me back my cash and my shirts recalls
Charney so what did i do headed straight
for the and bull to try and unload
the rest of them even getting arrested
did not deter attorney from selling his
t-shirts
thank you for joining me for another
dish of the model in the masters if you
liked the video and you want to see more
please give it a thumbs up below I’d
also love to hear what you have to think
if you want to leave a comment under the
video and please make sure you go check
out the mx2 business kind of a Facebook
page they supported us in making these
videos so thank you and stay tuned if
next episode
Oh
another edition of modeling the masters
today’s video is brought to you by MX
for business camera they launched a new
Facebook page that has a lot of
resources information ideas for
entrepreneurs that I hope you go check
out if you like the videos please go
check out the Facebook page now I
believe that the fastest and most
effective way to grow your business is
to model the strategies of people who
have already done what you’re trying to
do so today we’re gonna look at how a
Canadian entrepreneur who was arrested
for bootlegging t-shirts bringing them
across the border went from that to
becoming the largest t-shirt
manufacturer in North America this is a
story of Canadian entrepreneur Dov
Charney and the top three lessons you
can learn from his success he is the
founder of American Apparel Dov Charney
was born in Montreal Canada to Jewish
parents but was sent to Wallingford
Connecticut to attend a prestigious prep
school to control his behavior
Charney was a self-described hyperactive
child and was frustrating his parents
with his behavior who would focus on
just about everything else but the
school he was attending while ignoring
schoolwork he would find a money-making
opportunity by purchasing t-shirts at a
Kmart and taking them across the border
of Canada where he would sell them for a
profit journey would then close a large
order for t-shirts but the order went
south and he would eventually lose more
than $100,000 this business disaster
would make charlie quit the t-shirt
business for a while and go to college
he found that the t-shirt business was
calling him again so he dropped out of
Tufts University in his senior year to
follow his passion after moodling the
South Carolina and getting a ten
thousand dollar loan from his father
journey would start a new t-shirt
business in 1989 American Apparel today
American Apparel has over five hundred
million dollars in revenue and over
eleven thousand employees
it’s the largest clothing manufacturer
in the United States and has almost 300
locations worldwide
in 2004 China was named Ernst & Young’s
entrepreneur of the year and he’s made
quite a return for himself on that
initial ten thousand dollar loan
by following his passion and by not
giving up after a big defeat Charney was
able to go from small-time bootlegger
into the largest t-shirt manufacturer in
North America to help you amp up your
business here are three action items and
you can learn from Dov Charney action
item number one narrow the market
you can’t sell to everyone possessive
entrepreneurs hone their offering around
a specific target market and ignore the
rest of the world when you design for
everyone nobody ends up loving you they
might love pieces of what you do but
it’s never perfect for them when you
design for a specific market you can
make your product or service amazing for
them solve their problems and forget
about everyone else journey knows who’s
buying his clothes and it’s a very
specific market he’s tailoring his
designs towards twenty-somethings which
means tighter and sucks your clothes in
the baby boomer generation before them
were used to it also means given as
clothes bright and bold colors journey
identifies with this market a group of
people who are more socially minded than
their predecessors to the end he decided
to market his company as not only brand
free but also locally made and sweatshop
free as he sees it journey has connected
with an emerging youth movement a
network of new hip youths that want cool
clothes but do not want to be walking
advertisements for giant corporations by
narrowing his market he has created the
largest t-shirt manufacturer in the
country according the Charney
there’s the relaxed fit generation and
then there’s the next generation we like
sexy at American Apparel we don’t have
branding on the shirts it’s not a status
symbol
I can’t wear any brand on my body I just
freak out
action item number to innovate going
exploit success depends on innovation if
you want to stand out and be different
from your competitors you need to find
innovative ways to separate yourself
innovation takes many forms
it could be with your products or
services business practices company
culture customer service and the list
goes on
if you don’t innovate you’ll risk being
an average company that most people
ignore and forget about it
American Apparel is about much more than
clothes or at least Charney hope so in
creating the company of his dreams
journey wanted to make sure that it
stood for something that it was selling
a message along with its products that
message is that a company does not have
to be exploited if to turn a profit he
make sure his employees not only get a
decent base wage but can make more by
working harder Charney also implements
several new t-shirts every month to keep
his customers looking for new and
creative t-shirts to wear not only are
his employees happy but his customers
have several innovative choices when
buying one of his t-shirts
according to Charney we designed the
rate in such a way that the average
person should be able to make $100 a day
that’s our target we want to pay more
than the prevailing wages in Los Angeles
because we want to have the happiest
workforce we can have what I’m gonna
prove and I’m gonna embarrass the entire
establishment is that sweatshops are
more expensive in the end than
vertically integrated manufacturing in
Canada or the US you see those prisons
in China are inefficient and the
opportunity cost of offshore production
is huge because you can’t respond to
market demands as quickly
action item number three deficiency is
the key as entrepreneurs we tend to be
time starved
there’s always much more that needs to
be done and not enough time of the day
to do it focus on what you do best and
find ways to make everything else more
efficient
it starts with eliminating tasks that
are not really adding a lot of value to
your business then automate as much as
possible through technology finally you
can delegate out the rest of the tasks
that you don’t personally bring as much
value – leaving only the high value high
enjoyment tasks for you to work on
you’ll grow your business and have much
more fun in the process before building
American Apparel to what it is today
Charney had to file for bankruptcy it
was because his company was suffering
from a lack of one thing efficiency the
staff for all in her 20s a wildly
creative Bunch when it came to graphics
and design but few knew the ins and outs
of running the business in response
Charney brought on marty bailey the
industry expert will help make
efficiency American Apparel secret
weapon against his competitors one of
his main strategies was to create what
he calls team manufacturing where groups
of eight to ten people work on a single
garment together each performing a
different task being more efficient
during the manufacturing process
allows American Apparel to grow and
Charney’s determined to remain as
efficient as possible according to
charming as a result of this system were
able to compete with China and kick ass
the American way it’s less expensive for
me the way we do business to manufacture
here in the United States there’s a high
cost of going offshore if you’re working
with a supplier in China you’ve got to
work months in advance if you’re working
with your own factory you can wake up
one morning and say hey let’s make ten
thousand tank tops today
so remember narrow your market innovate
and be efficient to finish up this video
I wanted to share what on my favorite
true stories about Dov Charney and some
of his best quotes love Charney was such
a hyperactive child that his Canadian
parents sent him to a prep school in
Connecticut there you would see many of
his classmates selling t-shirts on
school grounds
this gave Charney an idea of buying
t-shirts from the local Kmart and taken
them across the border into Canada to
sell for profit which happened to be
against the law during one of his
bootlegging excursions he was arrested
they took me down a station ten which
doesn’t exist anymore and after a couple
of hours of me yelling
masoom Monsieur they let me out and gave
me back my cash and my shirts recalls
Charney so what did i do headed straight
for the and bull to try and unload
the rest of them even getting arrested
did not deter attorney from selling his
t-shirts
thank you for joining me for another
dish of the model in the masters if you
liked the video and you want to see more
please give it a thumbs up below I’d
also love to hear what you have to think
if you want to leave a comment under the
video and please make sure you go check
out the mx2 business kind of a Facebook
page they supported us in making these
videos so thank you and stay tuned if
next episode
Oh
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