We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Steve Dunlap and Meghan Fabulous. Enjoy the conversation with these two fabulous entrepreneurs.
Hi Steve, and thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today. Would you share some stories about how you and Meghan learned your craft?
Learning your craft is an interesting topic for us because we’re so different. Meghan learned to sew from her mother when she was four and has been doing this all her life. I had to relearn much of what I knew when I switched careers to fashion from financial technology (“fintech”).
For us, it all began when we started dating in 2018. I had sold my previous company and Meghan was struggling to keep up with her business as a one-woman-show. We enjoyed a wonderful romance, and talk often turned casually to business. Strategy, marketing, technology and sometimes the nitty gritty of employee issues all became fodder for dinner-time conversation. One thing led to another, and it was clear Meghan’s company could benefit from professional business management and a capital infusion. I had those things to offer, and heck, I really didn’t want to go back to “corporate world” so a partnership was born!
Four years later, Meghan has continued to hone her craft and build on her extensive knowledge of design and production. Her designs have gotten even more exciting and more commercially appealing. She would tell you one of the best things she’s learned – or taught herself, really – is how to mix the commercial or “what will sell” with the artistic to create beautiful, wearable art. Commercial by itself is boring, and art by itself is impractical. But harnessing your innate talent to design beautiful, head-turning designs that maybe just happen to have pockets? Priceless.
And it shows in our growth and customer loyalty. Our firm has grown at a 91% CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) since 2019. Our DTC business has grown at 252% and the number of wholesale accounts offering Meghan’s designs are up 203%. But in order to support all this growth, it was me who had to learn a few things! I knew absolutely nothing about women’s fashion when Meghan and I started working together, and I had no contacts in this industry.
However, in many ways I found that “business is business” and much of what I already knew still applied. It wasn’t a new language entirely, but perhaps a new dialect and I needed to build my vocabulary. We needed all the same things any business needs to succeed: a great product (Meghan handled that), solid sales support, clever marketing and advertising, competent and enthusiastic customer support, precise operations and logistics and careful planning and financial work. While I didn’t know much about fashion, I had spent 30 years of my career building those things. So the craft I needed to learn was how to apply that knowledge abstractly to selling dresses instead of financial software.
Much of it was common sense and could be figured out as a went along. But lack of domain-specific knowledge led to some painful missteps along the way. We hired and fired FIVE marketing agencies before we finally found a good one. And the tuition to learn that an agency is no good ranges from $40 – $50 grand! Ouch. There were other mistakes like that, but one of the things you learn is to “know what you don’t know” and do your damndest to dig deep and figure out what pieces of the puzzle you’re missing.
We also learned a lot from each other – and continue to do so every day. One thing we’ve learned is how to keep the personal relationship going when you’re always working and we spend 24 hours a day together. We’ve also pulled from each other’s specific knowledge to make ourselves better. Meghan lived in China for eight years and has forgotten more about managing apparel production and factories than I’ll ever know. When we’re hiring new factories, I rely on getting that info out of her head and into mine. I’ve supplemented her passion for providing a delightful, fabulous customer service experience with my decades of executing strategies that provide exactly that – and I’ve improved along the way.
We work hard to draw on each others’ strengths, and try (sometimes unsuccessfully) to avoid letting our strong personalties put us at each others’ throats! Building a business is hard. Most people have no idea, because no job compares to business ownership. We GRIND every single day. We laugh, we cry, we swing the hammer, and sometimes we rest and pour a drink to enjoy some downtime where we do our best not to talk about work! But the key thing we’ve learned is that you never, ever, ever give up. We’re sailors and we know that on a boat, something ALWAYS goes wrong and needs to be fixed.
Business is similar – there are always headwinds, problems, vendors that don’t perform, partners that are unreasonable, technology that breaks. So, you take a deep breath and you deal with it today because you know this will all lead to a bigger, better and more fabulous tomorrow. And you learn that every once in a while you’d better look around and remind yourself of what the business looked like last year – because the progress is stunning and incredibly satisfying. Finally, just like so many others, we have learned that after years and years of backbreaking work, someday soon we will be an extraordinary “overnight success.”
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Meghan, Inc is a rapidly growing, multi-brand fashion house offering maximalist, fun, happy fashion across three labels in an omnichannel, technology-driven environment. We connect deeply with our customers, whose response is sometimes cult-like in it’s enthusiasm! We sell direct-to-consumer, through wholesale shops and boutiques, and through major department stores.
Our websites are www.meghanfabulous.com and www.bohemelosangeles.com. As Meghan often says, “Fashion should be fun! We’re not saving babies or solving world hunger!” And that’s what you’ll find on offer: fun, unique, pleasantly crazy apparel and accessories that are guaranteed to have you bathing in compliments. Think it’s too crazy? You could never wear that? Do yourself a favor and just put it on and wear it with pride. It’s like a superpower and you’ll be amazed at the new friends you’ll make the the compliments that will come your way. People love someone who is “feeling it.”
Meghan has been sewing since she was four and designing clothing professionally for more than 20 years. She started multiple businesses as a child – one of them selling postage stamps door-to-door (until she learned that was a federal crime!). She’s a native of Orange County, California and a true California girl at heart. Her love of life and nature, and her sheer radiance comes through in all her designs.
Steve is a native of Williamsburg, Virginia and the grandson of a historian who worked for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. He remembers the fife & drum corps going down the street just outside and tourists looking in the windows at Thanksgiving dinner! He spent 30+ years running business in the financial technology sector, and has a few successful transactions under his belt. Fashion is a “second career” for him, and he loves putting his skills and experience to work building a business that he and Meghan own – with no boss or even a board to report to!
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
Steve:
When Meghan and I were contemplating this partnership, I had an offer on the table to be the CEO of a financial tech firm. I knew the business cold and knew exactly what that firm needed and how to do it. I was confident I could be successful and probably drive a nice payday when we sold it. The problem? I couldn’t have been less enthusiastic or interested in doing more of what I’d been doing for 30 years. The money was good, the job security was great – but he “fun” quotient was zero.
So, I decided to take the plunge and invest in Meghan’s business. I also took over as the CEO. This was a tiny business compared to what I had run in the past, but it was all ours. We weren’t making any money, and I didn’t even pay myself a salary for the first three years. There is no 401k. But we are both having an absolute blast and believe 100% in our mission.
Our growth has been great so far, over 90% per year on average and we’re selling all over the country now. We’ve got a long way to go because our dreams and aspirations are big. The journey is unconventional and exhausting. Would I change it if I could, and go back to the boring, great-paying, comfortable job? Nope. Not on your life.
And when, a few years from now, we’re sailing away in our brand-new, beautiful catamaran, Meghan and I will be thankful I didn’t!
We’d appreciate any insights you can share with us about selling a business.
Yes. There are two critical lessons I suggest keeping in mind when selling, or preparing to sell a business.
First is to be a boy scout (or girl scout). Run your business clean. Don’t run personal expenses through it, don’t play with the books. Some day, professional investors will be combing through your financials and they will respect how you ran it. I once lead a team trying to buy a small business to merge in with ours, and we learned the founders ran everything from personal cars to first class tickets through the business. They even 1099’d themselves! A $15 million deal fell apart in front of our eyes because of this nonsense. Don’t be tempted.
Second, and this applies to nearly everything in business: if you’re not an expert, hire someone who is! Selling a business is complicated and chances are you’ll be selling to people far more expert on dealmaking than you are. They know every advantage and every way they can massage the term sheet in their favor. If you try to negotiate that yourself, you’ll lose. Set your ego aside, and spend the money to get a trusted expert on your side of the table. It will be the best money you ever spent.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.meghanfabulous.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meghan_fabulous/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/meghanlosangeles/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/meghaninc/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/MeghanFabulous
Image Credits
All photos taken by us