Garment manufacturers in Bali have high quality ethical standards, so avoid these 4 things lest you jeopardize your garment and clothing business !
You know the old cliché of “time is money”. There is nothing that any business enterprise would want to avoid more than making a loss. So, no business would want to spend time on something that is not making money, let alone making a loss.
The followings are some things that might be innocuous and unintentional. However, any new designers should try to avoid these things to avoid problems with the garment manufacturers in Bali; because they might think that you are just wasting their time:
1. Having No Local Industry Knowledge at All
Don’t be surprise if a Professional Bali Clothing Manufacturer, one that is not so desperate for new business, declines your order. If this happens to you, perhaps you should revise your designs and lower your expectations. This thing happens among private label clothing manufacturers Indonesia, not only in Bali.
In short, some knowledge about garment manufacturer Indonesia (especially in Bali) can be very useful in managing your expectation.
2. Believing that You Know Better than all Garment Manufacturers in Bali
You might have had big ideas that worked and a lot of previous experience from somewhere. You might even hold a degree in fashion design while most pattern makers of garment manufacturers in Bali don’t.
But when it comes to the actual process of manufacturing clothes in Bali, you need to accept that there are some things that garment manufacturers in Bali know better than you.
This is not to undermine the fashion degree. In fact, most garment manufacturers in Bali acknowledge that designers with such degree would understand better about the production process and the challenges that come with them. And yet, just like in any other industry, theories might be different to the practice!
It is the business of garment manufacturers in Bali to actually turn designs on paper (or 3D images) into finished products that people can actually wear. However, for various reasons, some designs just aren’t technically doable. Some other designs might require some fabrics or procedures that would make them very expensive to be produced in Bali.
So, when a garment manufacturer decline a work order because they said they can’t do it, please be respectful because there’s a chance that they might be right. Perhaps revising the design itself would be more beneficial for all parties concerned.
3. Not Collecting Preliminary Info
Just like the rest of the world, garment manufacturers in Bali also promote their services using the internet.
Information you can get from websites
- what kind of garment they are specializing in
- where do they get the fabrics from (their fabric sourcing)
- the causes that they support (e.g. sustainability, eco friendly, etc)
- what kind of services that they could offer
- recommendation from their previous/existing customers
In short, reading the manufacturers’ website thoroughly might reveal some indications on the manufacturers’ suitability to your expectations.
Contacting the Manufacturers Directly
Don’t waste your time by contacting garment manufacturers in Bali that are not specializing in what you want to manufacture. Don’t contact a manufacturer that can only provide CMT services if the full package production service is what you need.
And don’t bother calling a “sustainable” garment manufacturer if you are looking for economical Clothing Manufacturer Bali.
In reality, some garment manufacturers in Bali don’t make it very clear about what they can and they can’t do. You can only get hints about their real capabilities. And in that case, you really need to contact them to clarify they things you want to know about.
4. Oblivious to Manufacturing Cost Estimation
Manufacturing cost estimation is an essential part of any clothing line business plan. What selling price you are planning to put on your finished garment is heavily influenced by the results of the manufacturing cost estimation.
We in Promoda have experiences of startup labels expecting us to manufacture their designs for very cheap price. This was because they got information that labour cost in clothing production Indonesia is “very cheap” (in compare to labour cost in their own countries).
However, labour cost is not the only item in the manufacturing cost estimation. There are many others should be included in the cost estimation to make it more accurate.
Obviously wrong estimation can cause a lot of future problems. You might run out of operational funds right in the middle of manufacturing process. Or you might not get a healthy profit to make your business sustainable.
A proper manufacturing cost estimation can help you in analysing if the proposals you receive from garment manufacturers in Bali can fit your business plan.
The Importance of MOQ
One important factor of manufacturing cost estimation is the MOQ.
MOQ (Minimum Order Quantity) is the least number of quantity that a clothing manufacturer can produce while still making (at least small) profit. Asking a garment manufacturer to produce less than that number is the same as asking the garment manufacturer to operate at a loss because the costs exceed the revenue.
As a matter of fact, the MOQ should be one of the first questions that you should discuss with the clothing manufacturer you are in contact with. If the clothing manufacturer’s MOQ is too high for you, then there’s no point in discussing everything else in details.
But actually, depending on the design, most garment manufacturers in Bali accept low MOQ. And if their “low MOQ” still not low enough for you, then perhaps you should consider to hire a dressmaker instead.