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The advent of tech startups within what some might call a techonomy, the evolution of startup blogs, and the teching-down of our society might lead you to believe that in order to call yourself a startup, you must be a technology company.
Sure, tech companies do play an important role within our new economy. But Anneke Jong states it clearly in her Forbes post, Why I (Used To) Hate Pink Collar Startups: “there’s more to startups than tech.” Even leading tech blog, TechCrunch, recently posted a guest post from startup founder Sarah Paiji, urging women to go for “pink” startups.
A look at the 2012 Forbes Billionaires List shows that the average worth of a Forbes billionaire is $3.7 billion, and the second largest industry category for billionaires is the retail and fashion industry.
Don’t disqualify fashion as a startup.
Lessons learned from some of the fashion billionaires:
Amancio Ortega, the brains behind fashion chain Zara, rose to #5 on the list this year.
Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx, is sitting comfortably at #1153; not a bad debut for a woman who started with $5000 and an idea that would make girdles modern for women.
Italian born Miuccia Prada, lead designer of the Prada brand, is #139 on the list, and also #79 on the powerful women list.
Liliane Bettencourt of L’Oreal, is #15 on the Forbes billionaires list, while Bernard Arnault leads fashion again—#4 on the list.
Kevin Plank, #1075, started Under Armour at 23 years old, in his grandmother’s basement; turning a t-shirt company for athletes into a billion-dollar empire.
And surely you’ve heard of the brand that made their name with cheap, yet chic fashion wear: H&M. Stefan Persson sits at # 8.
Judging from the list, we can learn 2 things from these billionaires:
They’re in it for the long haul. Whether they were groomed for a family business or starting their own business, they invested years into their companies. Take Plank for instance, who started at age 23 and now debuts at age 39. And Blakely, who made her debut after over a decade in business.
They know how to diversify. They dabble in this and that, while keeping their brands aligned. For instance: in addition to his clothing line, Giorgio Armani introduced a line of eyeglasses, socks and a gift collection in the late 1980s. And although Mohamed Al Fayed made the bulk of his money in the department store business, he dabbles in discount fashion online retail; even buying his daughter a controlling stake in the fashion brand Issa.
Cheryl is a writer, start-up junkie and global business fanatic; with a passion for women studies and global children’s issues. Find her on Twitter or via her blog:Making Business Personal
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