I recently conducted a “Networking 101″ seminar here at FBI. The idea of the seminar was to teach people why networking is so important and to give them the basic tools to start networking on their own. Networking is a skill and an art form. It’s relatively easy to explain the skill of networking – the tools you need, the types of questions to ask, how to introduce yourself and more. Explaining how networking is an art form is much more difficult. You really need to see good networkers in action in order to understand.

Technology is a great way to stay in touch with your personal and professional networks. On-line professional networks such as LinkedIn or social networks like Facebook or Twitter are a great way to connect with people from your past, present and possible future. I’m a big proponent of networking in person, too. For me, I like making a personal connection to someone else. I like being able to interact with someone in a professional or social setting. I get a sense of the other person’s personality, likes, dislikes, maybe even their favorite sports team. I make sure to follow up our conversation with an email or phone call and a reminder of where or how we met and what we might have discussed. If the situation is appropriate, I may add them to my LinkedIn network.

Networking in person or online is crucial to almost everyone. You never know who you’ll meet. You never know who you may be able to help and you never know who may be able to help you. By establishing connections throughout your personal and professional life, you build an organic network of people. Through those people, you continue to grow your network. Perhaps you’ve seen a job posting at a specific company. You’ve emailed your resume, but haven’t heard back. Using LinkedIn you search for people who work at that company. Just your luck, someone in your network worked there recently. You contact them directly and ask them to put you in touch with the HR person in charge of hiring for this position. The rest is up to you, but the fact that you have a network of people to connect you to that HR person gives you an advantage few other people may have.

So let’s get back to why networking is so important and what tools do you need to be successful at it. On-line networking is a very important component to building your network. I check my LinkedIn account every day. I participate in a number of discussions, am active in a number of LinkedIn groups and I post updates to my profile whenever there’s something interesting to post – FBI activities, tradeshows I’m attending, etc. because I know my network will see my latest updates. I also have a link to the FBI Blog so anyone visiting my profile can see what I’m blogging about. Friends, colleagues, former co-workers can see what I’m doing career-wise and, through my LinkedIn connections, can also expand their networks.

As far as networking tools: I never leave home without a pen, a small notepad, business cards and, hopefully, a good attitude. Whenever I’m interacting with someone socially or professionally, I want to be able to write down something they may have brought up in conversation. I may want to exchange business cards. Sometimes I may just want to write something down for the other person. I just take one of my cards and write down whatever book title, article, author, etc. and hand it to the other person. What I don’t want to do is hand them a scrap of paper from my purse, an old grocery list or bank receipt. As I said previously, you never know who you’ll meet, so be prepared!

Jill Mazur is an independent apparel business and technology consultant working with Fashion Business, Incorporated. Email: jill@fashionbizinc.org

Cable channel HBO premiered their documentary entitled “Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags” on October 19, 2009. If you missed it the first time, I’m sure it will be replayed soon and is most likely available through some cable providers “On Demand” services. Whatever you do, don’t miss this program! It’s an 80 minute history lesson that everyone in the garment industry needs to watch.

First of all “Schmatta,” or the more literal transliteration “Shma-teh,” is a Yiddish term for a “Rag, or anything useless” and is usually used to describe a worn-out piece of clothing, but it’s generally used to describe any piece of clothing – high fashion to yesterday’s rags. It’s also a great way to introduce us to the history of the garment industry in New York. The documentary takes us from the late 1880’s to present day in New York’s garment center – seven square blocks of some of the most important history in our industry. Immigrants fresh off the boats from Europe trying to make a living cutting, sewing or designing clothes through the Triangle Shirtwaist factory tragedy in 1911 through unionization to modernization of equipment, a thriving and profitable industry and all the way to the outsourcing of most manufacturing related jobs.

Some parts made me laugh – I recognized many similar personalities in the people I’ve worked with in LA’s garment industry. Some parts made me cry – so many talented people out of work, with no prospects, as more and more jobs disappear from NYC. I’m quoting this directly from the Tenement.org website: “In 1950, the garment industry made up almost 1/3 of all manufacturing employment and 1/10 of total employment in NYC. Today, as a result of the shift from a production and distribution-based economy to a service-based economy, the garment industry is 8% of all manufacturing and 2% of total city employment. This is a drop of almost 75%.”

One of the most worrisome statistics from this documentary is the fact that in 1965, 95% of all clothing worn in the USA was MADE in the USA. Today, it’s less than 5%. How do we bring those jobs back to the US? How do we create living wage jobs in New York or right here in Los Angeles for contractors, cutters, sewers, textile manufacturers, trim suppliers and more. Working conditions around the world are a reflection of the consumer’s desire for quality merchandise at the lowest prices, regardless of the cost. Watch this documentary and note the similarities between NYC in the late 1880’s and present day manufacturing plants. The documentary shows examples of abusive foreign manufacturing plants, underage workers and a scene eerily reminiscent of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire in modern day India.

The entire documentary is not an expose on horrible labor conditions around the world. There is plenty of interesting historical and political information as well as a number of colorful “garmento” characters from past and present. There are plenty of recognizable faces and a number of familiar personalities. Interestingly, if you go to HBO’s website or even search directly on Facebook, there’s a page where you can post your stories about your personal experiences working in NYC’s garment center. How many of us out there had relatives working in NYC’s garment center 100 years ago? What will be left of it 100 years from now?

Some may place the blame on all of these outsourced jobs on unions, minimum wage, compliance or labor laws, but that’s not the real issue here. After watching the documentary, you’ll know – you already do – what the issues are and what we need to do about it.

If you were in the Los Angeles area this week, I hope you had the opportunity to come by the Globaltex trade show at the LA Convention center. There were a lot of great vendors, new products, new and familiar faces and interesting seminars. Since GlobalTex is a new trade show, they’re still fine-tuning it and responding to exhibitor and attendee feedback. I’m hoping the next show will fill the entire room and then some. If you’re looking for industry trends, companies such as MPDClick were there as well as a trend area showing some of the latest fabrics, colors and prints.

So here’s what I learned:

1: Trade shows are still the best way to see and feel new products, colors and designs. I’m a big fan of technology, don’t get me wrong, but nothing beats holding something in your hand to really understand the product.

2: Hemp jersey is my new favorite fabric. Seriously. I was thinking “Hemp Jersey?” How soft can that be? Well, it’s as lovely as Modal – soft and drapey, without the clinginess of Modal. One of my clients is already using it in some of their designs and I can’t wait to see it when it comes to market.

3: Heavy rains made for a light turnout the first day of the show. It also made for nightmarish traffic, but that’s to be expected in Los Angeles.

4: Frances Harder of FBI, Victor Dahan of Shipson, Ken Wengrod of FTC and I had a great time on the “Speed to Market” panel. We approached the subject from our own view points. Frances moderated and injected her wisdom about bringing production back to the LA area and how California designs are sought after around the world.

5: Ken talked about financing and the current credit situation. Everyone wants to know what will happen if/when CIT files for bankruptcy. Ken explained the most likely scenarios and let everyone know that business would still continue. I swear I heard a collective sigh of relief.

6: Victor discussed how to improve the supply chain and how markets in China and Russia are opening up to American goods.

7: We all talked about how selling to the international markets should not be a barrier in business any more. Financial transactions, credit, customs, commercial invoices and more are easy to address and can expand a company’s revenue stream dramatically.

8: I talked about the role of technology in speed to market and how using tools can give you a 360 degree view into the design, sampling, production, inventory and financial aspects of your business and how no company should ever be without them. No matter what your budget is, there are tools to help your business.

9: Retailers are conducting business differently and manufacturers need to be able to react quickly to change. Keep inventory low. Don’t expect the re-order. Speed to market is an entire process from design to delivery, know how to react.

10: Don’t wear boots with three inch heels when walking a trade show.

Jill Mazur is an independent apparel business and technology consultant working with Fashion Business, Incorporated. Email: jill@fashionbizinc.org

I’m excited about the Globaltex tradeshow next week. Last week’s double whammy of Material World and the LA International Textile show have left me feeling mildly optimistic about the state of our industry. I saw several familiar faces and lots of great products. There was a lot of traffic through both shows as well as seminars, color forecasting workshops and a great session put on by Cotton, Inc.

Speaking of seminars, many of the FBI seminars we held in conjunction with Material World and the LA Textile show were full. In addition to the seminars, we had a lot of people stopping by to say “hello.” Speaking of which, Frances Harder, Ken Wengrod from FTC Commercial Corp and yours truly will be on one of the Globaltex discussion panels regarding Speed to Market, so please stop on by to say hello. I hear we’re even having cocktails!

I heard someone say “Why go to Globaltex if I’ve just been to the Textile Show?” Simple. You never know what you might find at Globaltex. It’s a relatively new show and there are a lot of great new vendors testing the tradeshow waters. They may be looking for a different venue to display their products or are looking for a different type of customer. Plus, it’s not just for textiles, trims, etc. I, of course, am excited about the technology vendors. But that’s just me. Who wouldn’t be when there are supply chain, CAD, PLM, ERP, RFID, product development, logistics and warehouse management systems to review! Fine, go ahead and look at all the pretty fabrics…I’ll be very happy looking at the shiny software.

Getting back to our panel discussion next Tuesday, 3:30 p.m. at Globaltex: The panel will discuss how the textile and clothing industry are reacting to the new demands from the retailer for rapid response, what are the new buying habits of retailers and end consumers and how they are changing the way they do business, as well as how this effects California fashion and the global market as far as importing and exporting. Topics covered will consist of: logistics and speed to market, product development, production and the financial impact. The panel will include a group of experts in International finance, logistics, importing and exporting, production and retailing.

Hope to see you there!

Jill Mazur is an independent apparel business and technology consultant working with Fashion Business, Incorporated. Email: jill@fashionbizinc.org

Like so many businesses, the business of sourcing has been rapidly changing. Whether we are discussing apparel, custom machined parts, electronics, or virtually any other manufactured product, we have sourcing technology available today that simply did not exist even a few short years ago that can make the work of sourcing much more efficient is a host of ways.

However, it is not enough to simply use computerized systems to connect buyers with suppliers. Both the buyer and supplier should and can go much deeper. There are a few key points that both the Supplier and Buyer need to understand in order to truly be effective in serving both of their interests. Let’s focus on two such points:

1. What kind of computerized system to use to solve the main sourcing issues of Apparel Buyers and Suppliers.

2. Why Buyers and Supplier need to be able to actually transact business via computerized systems, a.k.a. “Going Deep”

Example of using computerized systems and why that in and of itself does not get the job done.

When you really think about it the main goal of a Supplier is to keep the machines running. This means servicing current clients and having a way to connect with the right new customers at anytime.  Buyers on the other hand are on the hunt for the right suppliers with the right capabilities at a particular moment in time.

For Buyers and Suppliers the right technology via the internet is the solution.

Typically a buyer goes through something like this in order to source any particular garment; Get designs ready, prepare a tech pack with specs, email designs to a handful of factories, and request quotes back from factories. The buyer then might receive a handful of quotes from different sources in different formats – spreadsheets, faxes, quotes at LDP, quotes at FOB, etc… Now the buyer has to compare disparate quotes from different sources and try to figure out what is the best deal in price, geographic location, landed, picked up etc…

Doing that once you might say is worthwhile and perhaps the only way. Doing it repeatedly however is a real headache for both the Buyer and the Supplier. The internet offers various “solutions” for local suppliers to connect with international buyers. Upon further inspection however most of the options serve only as “brochure-ware” or directories of suppliers that a buyer must navigate to find a source. Then the buyer has to most likely go through a series of phone calls or emails to attempt to qualify the suppliers that maybe could do the work at hand. This is not that much different than a buyer pulling out the yellow pages and thumbing through to find a supplier.

The real value in connecting local suppliers to international buyers lies in a transactional online sourcing platform. In order for local suppliers to truly get connected to international buyers, the supplier has to have far more control of the situation and not simply be listed in a giant directory. Imagine a Chinese apparel factory joins a large sourcing site and gets listed in the directory with a profile. The buyer on the other side of the planet does an online search for “jeans factory in China” and receives a site with a directory of thousands of Chinese Denim factories. Now what? The buyer starts his processes of trying to find the right supplier. If you are the supplier and are listed on page 2 of the directory, you might never even get seen. Imagine being on page 257 of the directory!
It is far more interesting and effective for both the supplier and buyer to collaborate on a true online sourcing platform whereby a buyer can provide the designs to a marketplace and a supplier in the marketplace can hand pick the production it wishes to secure.
From a supplier’s perspective it is far more effective to be able to peruse a continuously updating marketplace of buyers with actual production needs exactly when the buyer is looking and has the capacity.
From a Buyer’s point of view it is far more effective (and clearer) to be able to tell the marketplace what it is looking for and receive several competitive quotes back from suppliers in an apples to apples format. From there it is easy to compare quotes and make decisions.

At that point the buyer and supplier can connect by other means – email, telephone etc.. knowing there is a good chance that the fit makes sense as they start to do business together.
Local suppliers are truly connected to international suppliers on an online sourcing platform that allows the parties to transact business together.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Rachel Yeomans, author of The Working Wardrobe blog, today.  What a great person and what a great idea.  Her blogs focus on one of the most basic questions we ask ourselves almost daily:  “What should I wear today?”  There’s no simple answer to the question, hence the inspiration for her blog.  There are articles for high-powered attorneys who don’t want to look like they’ve just rolled off the law school assembly line.  There are articles for those who are just starting out in the workplace or looking to get back into it.  There are tips for students, day-to-evening or office party looks, even entries about dressing for job interviews. 

Rachel posts a lot of great looks from magazines, on-line retailers and even just great photos.  I found myself drooling over a grey ensemble the other day, and I’m not a drooler by any stretch of the imagination.

If you haven’t checked out her site, click on the link to take a look.  You’ll definitely want to bookmark it; there are new articles almost daily.  Simply put, Rachel is a thoughtful and dilligent blogger who focuses on fashion and style in the workplace.  Alongside her blog, there are some great links, coupons, pictures and even videos from some of the top fashion sites.  There’s usually even a great deal of the week.  I’m looking forward to see how her site evolves from here. 

Jill Mazur is an independent apparel business and technology consultant working with Fashion Business, Incorporated.  Email:  jill@fashionbizinc.org