Book Review: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Sewn Product Manufacturing

I love books. When I was little, my father would take my sister and I to the library EVERY Sat. Although I spent most of my time reading Nancy Drew and the Sweet Valley High girls, I learned to appreciate the world a book can open.

That is why I want to start off my first book review series with Kathleen Fasanella's book The Entrepreneur's Guide to Sewn Product Manufacturing.

I actually first discovered her blog site www.fashion-incubator.com by accident. Once I started reading her comments I was hooked. It did take me a while to buy this book because honestly the title is just not that inviting. But once I decided to become a DE, I figure I had to buy the book. And now I am sorry that I didn't buy it sooner.

The book takes you through the process of manufacturing a fashion line in a very open and no nonsense way. I honestly felt like I was talking with a friend/mentor.

There are so many things I can point out, but let me share one with you and you can discover the rest for yourselves.

This is in Section 1, titled "Weird Things that No One Ever Tells You".

"In some ways, DEs are disadvantaged because they assume that industry suppliers and service providers will act rationally." (uhmm yeah ...)

"Suppliers have things to sell but they won't tell you what they have!" (yeah, what is the deal with that? I've always wondered how they stay in business when they make it so hard to find them and then make it so hard to find a particular product, forget about asking for prices!)

"The reason is that everybody keeps secrets from everybody else." (I am getting tired ...)

But then she goes into how to deal with suppliers who have this set mind frame.

So basically this a high recommendation to all those who are or are thinking of becoming a DE.