Episode Details

Managing employees well starts long before difficult conversations ever happen. In fact, the systems you put in place from day one can determine whether your team grows together or struggles with disengagement and poor performance.

In this episode of the Business of Apparel podcast, Rachel explains why great leadership and effective employee management go hand in hand with preparing for the possibility of letting someone go. She shares how to set clear expectations and implement performance improvement plans that protect both your team culture and your business. Rachel also discusses how underperforming employees can impact morale and why retaining A-players sometimes requires making tough decisions.

📝 Today We're Covering:

• How to set employee expectations from day one
• Why KPIs and goal setting are essential for growing an apparel brand
• The benefits of quarterly performance reviews over annual reviews
• How to create and manage an effective Performance Improvement Plan (PIP)
• How to recognize disengagement and "rust out" inside your company

Whether you're hiring your first employee or managing a growing team, this episode provides practical leadership strategies to help you build a stronger culture, support employee development, and make difficult personnel decisions with confidence and empathy.

➡️ Your Next Steps:

• Join The Board here: https://www.thebusinessofapparel.com/join
• Sign up for the weekly newsletter here: https://www.thebusinessofapparel.com/contact
• Purchase the Business of Apparel Online Course: https://www.thebusinessofapparel.com/course

‼️ Don't Miss These Episodes:

• Wholesale 101: https://youtu.be/lpezH1YwCyE
• Use AI in Your Apparel Brand: https://youtu.be/Dn9tjPNmfaw
• Grow a 7-Figure Apparel Business: https://youtu.be/rpQYDyo5Rao

🤝 Meet Rachel:

Rachel Erickson is a Fractional COO, Apparel Industry Consultant, and founder of Unmarked Street and The Business of Apparel. With 20+ years in technical design and product development leadership, she sat at the executive table of a $25M apparel line and helped scale it to $60M in one year.

After decades working inside major fashion companies, she learned the truth behind billion-dollar brands, and it's not about chasing trends or pumping out endless products. It's about building clean processes, tightly edited assortments, and obsessively focused customer targeting.

Rachel helps founders and CEOs of performance apparel brands:

✅ Build lean, profitable product lines

✅ Streamline operations for growth

✅ Replace overwhelm with executive clarity

✅ Create garments that fit bodies in motion

Whether you're just hitting $1M in revenue or trying to break through the $10M ceiling, Rachel will join you as an embedded operations and product partner—running fittings, line plans, tech packs, and vendor communications so you can get back to leading.

Connect with Rachel on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachel-erickson-pmp/ and visit her website at

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