Downtown nonprofit Fashion Business Inc. plans to close its doors by August after 18 years of providing guidance for apparel startups.
Founder and President Frances Harder informed the company’s board about her closure plan early this month.
“The nonprofit model isn’t working for us,” Harder said.
Harder started the operation, commonly known as FBI, in 1999 after dealing with a lack of resources early in her design career. That led her to create Fashion Business, a membership-based organization that centralized information and provided educational services for anyone who wanted to start an apparel company.
The organization today counts 350 members, each paying an annual membership rate of $200, which gets members a consultation with Harder and access to other services for an extra fee. Those services – including webinars and making showroom space at the California Market Center at Ninth and Los Angeles streets available to members – provided extra revenue.
Fashion Business used to receive city grants as well, but that resource dried up in recent years. Harder said it has been difficult to grow her nonprofit, which employs her part time and has one full-time staff member.
The nonprofit reported $193,388 in revenue and $191,295 in expenses for its most recent year, according to the organization’s publicly available tax forms. That followed a loss of about $30,000 on $164,052 in revenue the prior period.
“It was the go-to place for aspiring designers and manufacturers who wanted to start an apparel company,” said Sherwin Ross, an apparel industry consultant.
Such was the case for Shamini Dhana, a former banker who launched Marin-based Dhana Inc. in 2008.
“I came across FBI and signed up for a startup course. … The course and subsequently all the support provided by FBI – from pricing a product to marketing and social media; branding to distribution and sales were all pivotal in my grounding of the industry,” she said via email.
Harder said she plans to remain a part of the apparel sector.
– Shwanika Narayan
