While many of us are used to determining ROI for work purposes, we often forget to apply that same concept to our day-to-day expenses. Your professional wardrobe is a perfect example. It’s important to realize that your professional attire is an asset and should be treated as an investment rather than an expense.
Knowing how your wardrobe impacts the way people perceive you is incredibly valuable and can singlehandedly help you establish credibility and trustworthiness in the professional world.
People develop judgments based upon your appearance in less than a half a second. Meaning that your coworkers, your clients, and anyone professionally senior to you, will subconsciously make a snap judgment on your worth, success, and capabilities simply by what you have on.
So, how does this apply to you? Well, it’s important to realize that your professional wardrobe is extremely influential and when applied in the right way, can help you garner greater personal and professional success. Let’s face it, when you’re dressed well, you not only feel confident, you act confident. You exude strength and success.
An article in the Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management revealed, “In a controlled experiment we explored whether a minor manipulation of a man’s clothing (the cut of the suit) would influence judgments and found that the bespoke suit consistently produced more positive impressions than a similar off-the-rack suit.”
The old idea that a suit is just a suit, is not only flawed, it’s scientifically disproven. A bespoke suit is capable of conveying qualities such as character, sociability, competence and intelligence without the wearer ever having to say a word. Not to mention, it can be the sole factor in closing your next big deal.
Based upon this information, its fair to assume that your professional wardrobe can help you land and close one big deal per year, at minimum. When taking this into account, you can determine the ROI of your professional wardrobe simply by subtracting the cost of your wardrobe from the profits earned from the deal.
Profits Earned From One Additional Deal – Investment in Custom Wardrobe
= Effective Net Cost of a Professional Wardrobe
To invest in a professional custom wardrobe is not only smart- it pays.