How Scaling Retail CEO Syama Meagher went from working in fashion to starting her own consulting firm

Giada and I discovered Scaling Retail, a fashion consulting firm, a couple of months ago. We found it on Instagram and were really fascinated by its founder, Syama Meagher. A true retail enthusiast since childhood, her YouTube videos and articles for helping brands grow attracted our attention. Originally from San Francisco, Syama moved to New York where she worked for big names like Barneys and Gucci before setting up Scaling Retail in 2008 and finally moving to L.A. a couple years ago.

 

Now spending her time between L.A. and New York, Syama agreed to spare us some of her time to talk us through her career path and Scaling Retail. From her first paper at school about products going on sale at Macy’s to how she built Scaling Retail, tune in for a very insightful conversation- especially if you’re a fashion entrepreneur. You will learn A LOT!

 

 

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On how and why she decided to work in fashion…

You might say that I am someone who already knew I was going to be in fashion. When I was about 9 years old, my very first paper for school was talking about how I noticed at Macy’s that products would go on sale. Now for a 9-year-old, this is very unusual.

As I proceeded through my high school studies, I was deeply inspired by my economics professor. I was starting to understand how the market works and the power of the market and that really turned me on to the idea of business. So for me, it was really the combination of fashion and business that got me very excited.

By the time I was 16 years old I was looking at the jobs at LVMH back at home in San Francisco because I was already started to think about what types of career paths could lie ahead of me in this area of fashion. So it’s not accidental that I ended up where I am today. That was very intentional.

I studied economics and philosophy at university. I always knew that I needed a studious background to understand how the market works and how people work because, ultimately, fashion and retail are not just trends- it’s really the science behind how people purchase. It’s simply executed through emotions and products. So for me, this was the most interesting career possibility.

And I really knew that I wanted to be in fashion but I didn’t know the exact area that I wanted to be in. But it became very clear to me once I finished my studies that going into planning and merchandising was really the best combination of quantitative analysis and understanding emotional drivers and how consumers behave when they want to purchase.

On the importance of training programs in fashion companies…

I was very fortunate to get accepted into their business development program. Now a business development program is really almost like a training program where they say: ‘Hey, we’re going to train you so that you can learn how to do these things and then we will place you into a department upon completing the program’.

At the time it was between going into finance and going into finance in a more specific way surrounding retail or a similar aspect of the business. I was very fortunate that Macy’s was my first step in that direction.

On her start in e-commerce…

I was very lucky. A friend of a friend introduced me to someone at Barneys and the e-commerce division there was a very new one at the time. That was back in 2007 and there were not many people working in e-commerce. In fact, the idea of a content manager and all these different things were very, very new. And I said to myself, ‘Woah this is an amazing opportunity to be on the forefront of what’s happening in e-commerce and on the luxury side.’

There were no more than five people in the e-commerce department. So that was kind of the beginning, how I started to get a well-rounded experience. Not only had I had this big department store experience, but I moved into this e-commerce role and then I moved to Gucci. From understanding e-commerce and luxury to understanding brick-and-mortar and luxury, my career has always been about how I can understand all the different areas of retail. How can I understand all the different types of businesses in order to perfect my experience?

On how she started Scaling Retail…

When someone hears you work for a store, you start to get all sorts of emails all of a sudden, like ‘Hey I wanna pitch you my product’ or ‘Can you help me with this?’

But what was truly fascinating, was that through spending lots of time with different peers and getting more of an understanding of the market and what it takes to be a successful brand and business, it really became evident to me that no one else there was helping these brands to understand how to operate a business. There were certainly people who had great products after graduating from top fashion schools, ideas and an eye for trends, but they lacked a lot of business fundamentals like how to market, how to sell and how to set up their businesses.

So I really saw a fantastic hole in the market. My original intent was to be able to offer the kind of consulting and business background that you would get from a firm like McKinsey but without that heavyweight management and big dollars investment. There was no one saying ‘Hey let me show you how to do this, let me educate you…’ and this will actually be the counterpart or balance to the creative side of the company.

On how Scaling Retail started with an email sent to a bunch of friends…

People were emailing but I didn’t want to make a bad name for myself and couldn’t make any breach of contract. So my very first outreach was to a list of 50 friends in NYC, and I said:

‘Hey guys, I’m launching this consulting company, these are all the things I’ve done and these are the things that I’m doing and if you know anyone or if you’d like to consult, please let me know.’

And I have to tell you, ladies, it was the scariest thing that I’ve ever done – writing to my friends and telling them I was doing that.

But they really became my biggest help. They sent me my first clients and it was through word of mouth and recommendations that I was really able to launch the business.

On what a consulting firm does VS an agency…

Really what a consultant is there to do – in my opinion – is to really be a pain in the ass. We call our clients quite regularly and we set up a roadmap which is what they need to be doing, what the goals are, what the milestones are and what they need to be accomplishing. And then we work very closely with them in achieving these goals.

The consultant role is obviously very different when they are working on the agency side. Now a great example of that is if a client is interested in understanding what their market looks like and they want to do a market analysis. On the consulting side, we will provide them with the tools, guide them through and challenge them on their own research. We will let them do the work, come back and have a conversation. On the agency side, we will do the market research for them, we will sit down and look through trend analysis, forecasting, we will conduct surveys, do interviews and we will tell them ‘Hey, for the business you want to create, here is your business positioning’ or ‘Here is how we think you have the biggest opportunity in the market, here’s the price point’, etc.

That’s the biggest distinction between agency and consultancy. Now a lot of clients love consulting because they want to learn a lot. They are the people that are the most interested in knowing how the business is operating and they want to know everything.

The issue that I find most consultants have these days is they will consult in one area of the business without understanding the implication of the other side of the business.

A really good example of that is if I’m going to consult you on merchandising and product, I still need to have an idea of how marketing looks like and who your demographics are. I should have a good understanding of market positioning, I should also understand your sales channels…

So for us, we really focus on a synergy of sales, marketing and merchandising- basically all of the main fundamental areas of business.

Website: Scaling Retail 

Instagram: scalingretail

Youtube: Scaling Retail 

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