Meagan Michelle Scott

Product Sewn Manufacturing | A Bikini Brand

• Created a high-caliber, new-age infrastructure in product-sewn manufacturing for what will become a prominent international bikini brand known as Boys and Arrows.
• Single-handedly invented all processes, manually laboring all parts of a piece-by-piece cut-and-sew production in a nearly extinct industry demanding entry into my first American sewing house with the intention of becoming an all-American-made bikini brand, beginning in the Los Angeles Garment District, expanding territory to San Francisco, Las Vegas, and eventually New York. The Manhattan Garment District.
• Fine-tuned all systems, establishing nearly error-proof processes in order to begin my brand as sole proprietor until I eventually start building my internal team, hiring my first employee years later, which attracts established industry professionals who will mark my manufacturing processes as notable SOPs for their very own brands welcoming me as new competition.

From Thin Air | Boys + Arrows, 2008 A.D.

• The name: The message. The line. The skin. The guts. The blood. The boys. 13 bodies. 8 solids. 2 prints. 6 tops. 7 bottoms. Zero 1 piece. No coverage. No flowers. No smiles. A loaded gun. Atteeeention. I said.
• The Domain: I began developing my first website, www.boysandarrows.com, while I continued developing the brand and creating the line.
• The Business: I introduce myself to the Board of Equalization, who holds my hand, knowing I was new to business, showing me exactly where to begin and exactly what to do next, eventually gaining my resale license, tax ID, fictitious business name, etc.
• The Plan: I was accepted into an accelerated business program from the local organization WEV, Women's Economic Venture, building my business plan in exchange for capital, where local business executive Lori Ann David will end up giving me more than I could ever bargain for over a 6-week course, securing my business loan of $25,000. I had received two $5,000 advances before the completion of the course, as my advisor knew cash was critical and my exact position. I will end up being denied the remainder of the loan suddenly, leaving me without expected and guaranteed capital, and already in business, nearly putting me immediately out of business. A proper introduction as to how wonderful business will be over the next 10-plus years.
• The Mark: to begin trade marking a fictitious business name process in the local news paper for 30 days grants me the ability to proceed to the next steps with the BOE. Trademarking already in process, is officially submitted, approved and intends to grant me the mark for Boys and Arrows, however I will still have to endure a fight for my name in a special court called the trademark commission, ignoring a cease-and-desist demand from an unknown company I engaging in battle to keep what is mine. Against my lawyer's advice to cease, I demand to fight. An 800 lb Gorilla vs. Myself, she explains. Without your mark, you have nothing, I explain. We win.
• Line Up: I strategically offer something for most body types and a stretched age bracket, including styles to ensure my audience is as vast as possible, so a shopper won't have to pass if I didn't offer padding, adjustable tops, high-waist bottoms, etc., and more importantly withholding highly desired details such as full coverage and push-up tops, knowing I would have to tackle those consumers from a different angle to encourage them to try something they weren't comfortable with.
• Line Conception: I begin sketching bodies with minimal detail and very little instruction to hand off to my first pattern maker, which allows her and me to have an in-person conversation in order for her to further decipher my words and concepts, where she responds in the form of a drawing seeking my approval, if possible, so she can begin to translate the bodies into patterns to soon cut and sew into physical bikinis, which is where the accuracy of concept to fruition can be measured.
• Price-Point: 2.2 is set to begin with a healthy margin based on extremely detailed COGS to achieve an acceptable cost-to-sale percentage of 70%, either immediately or by year 2 or 3, as some margins I priced on the lower side of 60%, knowing improvement would come with volume to decrease costs and improve wholesale margins.
• The audience: My audience is identified, and I begin to communicate using the bikini as my medium, speaking violently through colors, words, stories, videos, secret ingredients, weaponry, and noise.
• A response. A response in the form of flesh and blood is achieved. My very first customer. She buys some boys. And then, there was more noise. The noise is the response. This marks my in-commerce date on March 13th, 2011.
• In business: the line is developed, cut, sewn, and captured for a look book and line sheet. I begin to sell the collection, starting with my top five dream brick-and-mortar stores, all of which will write the line before I have even introduced myself. This is when I will realize I've sold bikinis up and down the coast of California, selling out before appointment three. I'll have to violently move mountains to deliver goods for orders I have accepted with an in-season start ship in 3 weeks, 6 months shorter than the industry average, I deliver. They sell. They want more. They become the demand, and supply becomes a permanent issue. A good problem to have. I meet the demand. I'm grateful for the demand. Generally, it's the demand that is missing with full supply, which leads to an immediate fatality or a very difficult journey into defeat. Most businesses fail. To succeed is not likely. They say. Prepare to fail, and don't expect to make any money. Love business.

March 13th, 2011 in-commerce | Boys + Arrows Sole Proprietorship

Hand Cut, Surger Sliced, Machine Sewn

• Seeking sewing lessons for bikinis only, I was turned down by every single sewing teacher I approached, asking specifically to teach me how to sew swimwear. From small business sewing classes to in-home mom sewing classes, no, they will say. They will not begin with swimming. They force me to begin with a tote bag. Frustrated, I have no other choice. Eventually, I am able to see the difficulty I would have without the foundation of a single needle and a back stitch. Communication to my sewers would have been impossible, leading me to believe I would have failed if I had skipped the tote bag.
• Started a test line creating custom tote bags lined in cashmere, sealed with a date of birth, name, and occupation.
• I placed the bags on consignment in a local surf shop at their request.
• Not a single bag was sold.
• I proceeded into bikini making and offered my bags from the trunk of my car to the hands of friends and family instead of throwing them away.
• Gained skills such as how to use a surger, how to use a single needle, how to thread a single needle, how to adjust a single needle, sourcing a mechanic for a surger, attaching buttons, buttonholes, turning inside-out handles, turning dirty edges into a clean finish, turning corners, basting stitches, back stitches, industry lingo, custom stamp creation, non-stretch material handling, reinventing the wheel from one bag to the next, and what I would or wouldn't do again, etc. I am still not able to get anyone to teach me how to sew bikinis.
• Without supervision, I decide to fly blind using all I learned and tried to figure it out myself. Cutting up poster board, considering books, chugging wine, wondering why I'm not a doctor, knowing this is probably more difficult than brain surgery, accidentally dissecting bikini bottoms I did not own, not yet learning of a seam ripper. Ripping bikinis open with my teeth. I can see the guts. It's the guts. The tools. Temporary insanity. A living hell. I will not leave this loft until it's finished. It's finished. It's blue. Straps are attached. Seams sewn. Adjustable triangle. A string bikini. I give myself an F- grading the bikini top and bottom I made from my own pattern made on hot pink poster board, put it on, and, to my horror, I have made the world's most horrific bikini, and it fits. I took it off. I hid it from myself and vowed not to ever put myself through that again. This creates a clearer starting point for how I am going to build my bikini brand. I planned to do this all by myself. I did not ever intend to have them sewn by others. I begin seeking sewers.

• Considering hangers and folded shirts. I don't know how to do this.
• I stall my bikini position, deciding it wouldn't be intelligent to move forward until I go backward, learning how to fold a shirt and use a hanger. These are called shop girls. I seek employment.
• Once I gain the experience I am seeking, I'll quit and proceed full throttle back into bikini mode hoping to be more equipped for where I am heading.
• To falsify my resume, I add a title showing my experience in something called ' buying ' with no intention to be anything but a shirt folder and a shirt on a hanger shop girl, in order to be hire-able
• Applying to be a shop girl, my resume lands me a position as a high-end buyer of some kind, and at my fourth interview, I seal the deal by speaking French and saying words I don't understand, helping me to understand why four interviews were required for a minimum wage position.
• This was a very good idea. To sell bikinis to a shop when I've never been in a shop would have been foolish. Behind the scenes of an industry I'm entering, experience is inherited.
• I begin to clean the house from past buys still sitting in the shop. Contacting sales reps, requesting swaps or returns for goods that are stagnant.
• I observe that my position as a buyer was almost incorrect for being in the shop, watching the ugliest shirts I've ever seen be the only thing to sell in the entire shop. I applied this observation opening my buys to the minds of these consumers and the decisions I made during what is called market.
• I learned that there are 17 more shirts in the back when 1 is on the floor causing the customer to panic purchase fearful it will be sold out
• I witnessed a customer spend $10,000 in one swipe without blinking, noticing that sales commission actually does make a difference on a paycheck
• I bought for one season, probably spring, accompanied by a master named Marty (my boss), who doesn't fill me in on his rank and level of skill. The buys are never done, as we now have to do them again. and again. and again he tells me. Digging through rompers and jeggings fine tuning these buys can make you feel like you have to put yourself into a coma for a few weeks. Before we finalize all decisions and see the buys in shop, I will quit. Confidently, I will calmly vocally express my dissatisfaction because my bosses are in fashion, and it is very stressful. They didn't realize that my lack of interest in clothing and fashion means you can't scream at the top of your lungs in my face for your own frustrations. They develop bad habits doing this to their employees because fashion employees are infuriating. Most fashion kids are useless. Mistaking me for one of them, I give Marty what he is seeking. Goodbye, Blue bee. I quit. Your welcome. And thank you.
• I didn't fold a shirt but I spaced hangers all day long which is why soon after I leave sadly they go out of business [ lack of customers ]
• I witnessed the beginning of the difficulty for brick-and-mortar businesses due to the recession which will end up being a complete wipeout for shops such as blue bee
• I painted several walls, learning how to cut in excellently with a paintbrush, so I will not ever have to mask again, creating in-shops within one shop with color blocking and furniture arranged specifically for the shoppers experience
• Painting white on white at night time is abusive
• I helped steal one of the owner's shop during the night and move it into another shop to hide it a few blocks away, realizing a landlord was betting on Marty's inability to pay rent in order to take away what the
• Actual vs. Budgeted is different then under budget or over budget
• Category budgets and terminology.
• Consultants should match. If they look like male lawyers and are talking to you about the skirt budget being too low, they probably don't know how to help your business because last year, 1,000,000 skirts generated $10,000,000,000, which will cause them to buy double the skirts, expecting to create double the sales, and not one skirt sells because they didn't know that it was a collaboration with Disney selling skirts to adolescents who die over Abu.
• You can underspend. To underspend can be nearly as fatal, or more than to overspend. A concept nearly impossible to comprehend. Red is black.
• Consultants are a sign of the end. They come specifically because the end it is near. They appear to be life saving there to help beyond a shadow of a doubt to help when buisness owners hit a wall or severe financial difficulty and seek wise council. They are expensive. They take a lot of your time. They know your postion and generally ahve bad intenstions of monetary gain and worse. Be very careful. Out of business with a large bill just in time to throw you over the edge. The consultants will take thier payment in the form of goods if they have to. To defer an invoice. To not manage AP. In bulk Q1 they show ruin any chance of financial recovery or the ability to stabilize however this was the intention upon entry so don't feel bad when you miss it.
• Gain insight into the industry I won't know I am entering, called fashion. To whitness the result of the contamination amongst those who do well and are very good at what they do. It is an industry of deciebt and betrayal which is why Marty and I will agree when he engages in my dismissal by misakingly becoming paranoid about my intentions becasue he has been very burned however he will be wrong. I had zero intentnion of ever hurting blue bee or him. But most people around him will and do and have. This prepares me for the future when I experience my very first round, followed by a close second round of poaching my entire staff by a competitor brand trying to assassinate me completely. An attempt to take me out of the game.

• The experience I will use on my resume in order to land a job as a shop girl in retail.
• Secret Service is a shop for dudes who have to make an appointment if they wanna browse. When I was working for the Secret Service, I noticed that Macintosh had created a new computer species that was so beautiful I might die if I didn't get to have one one day.
• I am given the Macintosh to borrow in trade for my black, broken laptop Apple, and the swap back is never executed.
• I gain experience in decipt thought to be innocent yet violently it will reveal itself to me to be a mistake. Honesty humbles the Secret Service and shuts it down if it were ever even up.
• I learned about eBay and side jobs.
• Sales reps are a very big mistake.
• Showrooms are useless
• Mexicans run the streets of Los Angeles and can't spell the word button until they are told how bad of a job they did on the shirts they hold in thier hands. Not approved to a man named George. No time to waste. Take these to the market. Dye the tie shirt, camels, leather, Prius. NY. What the fuck. Eric sucks. Kendra might. Chad either does, will, did, or doesn't.
• Fashion sucks
• To fail in business is personal. It's something to do alone. At your own pace. As quickly as you slowly can. Eventually, one day, you will sleep again. Love, Meagan. P.S. Making people feel stupid will put you out of business, cause you to lose your wife, your life and then look at you and say. Cool, kids. Huh?
• The boy brands here will come with me everywhere I go, until the end of time. It's them whom I look towards for all things boys. There is nothing close to see anywhere near here. Bikinis are dead. To become inspired is to find. Extinction in process. Boys do everything better.