Many fine creative fashion talents have seen their up-and-coming design ventures crash and burn, all due to one harsh fact: They didn't understand-or regard well enough-the business side.

Many tine creative fashion talents have seen their up-and-coming design ventures crash and burn, all due to one harsh fact: They didn't understand-or regard well enough-the business side.

Today, thanks to the generosity of the Los Angeles apparel education and business communities, such training is abundantly available to the motivated. One industry veteran in particular, Henry Cherner of Apparel Information Management System (AIMS), an apparel-based business management software company, has been spreading his business savvy everywhere he can. He donates software and hardware, and

Key to the program is developing a facility with apparel- anc business-related software programs such as AIMS, which Cherner has donated to the school.

"The kids are ready when they get here," she says. "We use the computer as much as we possibly can, even on the creative side. That's the way it's going to be in the industry."

For those without the benefit of formal business training, there were few information resources until four years ago, when industry veteran Frances Harder founded the non-profit group Fashion Business Incorporated. "I've been out there and done it,"she says, "and realized that if I'd had the FBI as source for information, I would have made it sooner:'

FBI, with the support of the City of Los Angeles, the Department of Water and Power, the Ben and Joyce Eisenberg Foundation, which provided space in The New Mart, and a host of

lends his expertise by training students and workers how to navigate the increasingly perilous apparel industry waters.

Two educational institutions that have long serviced the apparel industry are Los Angeles Trade-Technical College and Cal Poly Pomona, offering two- and four-year programs, respectively. Both degrees

industry sponsors, serves as an informational clearinghouse/ meeting place/ educational arena for those trying to make their way. "Everything we do is about networking, sourcing, working together," says Harder. "Some of it is getting interns into possible jobs; some are small manufacturers who need to identify what they need to do to get to the next level. FBI gives

are designed to immerse prospective apparel workers in marketplace realities.

At Trade-Tech, Fashion Merchandising department chair Adrienne Zinn has spent 12 years teaching mainly minority students how to create and run their own shops. "People who are owners or merchandisers need all the help they can get," she says. "Many, many in the business don't even know what they are earning."

In the course of the two-year program, students learn how to formulate business plans, capitalize a business, put together financial and profit-and-loss statements, understand the intricacies of wholesale and retail merchandising, and-indispensable these days-master computer applications, with donated AIMS software and a computer-rental fee of a mere $7. "The only way you can build business is with technology," Zinn says. "You've got to have a vision and be creative, but you also have to have business skills. You can't just think of this as a fashion show:'

Cal Poly Pomona's four-year Bachelor of Science program "stresses the management, the running of a business, and overseeing people within a business," explains Apparel Merchandisinc and Management chair Betty Tracy. "We saw a need within the apparel industry, and talked with lots of people in the industry before we wrote the curriculum."

them the expertise that can help them:"

FBI's annual membership entitles members to discounts on seminars, training modules, trade resources, and special events, among other benefits. Cherner, an FBI sponsor, has donated hardware and software to help train members, and offers to rent AIMS on the Internet business software to members at an affordable monthly rate, also donating back annual FBI membership for the first year.

"It's so much harder to make it now, with offshore manufacturing, retail stores with their chargebacks and demands and squeezes," Harder says. "If we can help the small creative designers, in the long run we'll be helping the retailers-and the consumers. We can't make it happen, but we can help make it happen."

For more information contact Henry Cherner at AIMS, (310) 5562215 or www.aimshotline.com.

Better management means a better bottom line.

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