Five Four Club is looking to disrupt the mens fashion industry. Replacing the traditional shopping process that men hate with a simple monthly subscription service, Five Four takes the pain out of men's fashion. As CEO and Creative Director, Andres Izquieta is responsible for defining the taste and style of Five Four’s fashion, while also helping to sustain the company’s double-digit growth figures. In this latest “Small Business Spotlight” interview, he shares the importance of cultivating a diverse skillset, prioritizing initiatives, and the importance of innovation to sustaining growth.

1. What made you decide to start/make the jump to your company today?

I’ve been very passionate about fashion my entire life. I've always felt that there is a pain point in men's fashion and an opportunity in helping men dress better across the world. After some thought, I decided to evolve the Five Four brand into a membership service in 2012, and haven't looked back since.

2. How do you balance the multiple hats that you are required to wear?

I've put in my 10,000 hours in this industry, and have been able to see pretty much every facet of the business, whether it's packing boxes in my business partner's garage, reading customer service emails, visiting factories in China — you name it and I've done it. Being able to touch and understand every part of the business is extremely important. As the leader of the company, it's important I speak every language of the business and problem solve and evolve the business as a whole.

Over the years, I've been able to develop to be in a design meeting talking creative one hour, the next hour speaking with the technology team talking about programming and web development, then talking to finance about projections and planning the next hour, and so forth. My heart lies in creative and that's obviously the most fun part of the business, but the overall business side relating to growth is very exciting.

3. What are the top three company priorities that you focus on?

My priorities lie in product, customer experience, and brand. Many facets of the business touch that from operations to marketing, but those are the 3 driving forces of the Five Four Club that influence a membership service.

4. How do you prioritize initiatives? Walk us through how you determine where you invest time, people, and dollars.

We always have to look at the big picture and see what makes the most sense based on our internal resources. Since we are a privately held company and are not venture backed (on purpose, to retain control and autonomy), we think very bootstrap on everything we do. We focus on what's going to work and invest fully into that, people and dollars wise.

Next we see whether or not we have the internal resources dedicated to proper execution of the idea. It's important to see what teams need to be deployed to do certain functions on new initiatives.

If the two above check out, then we see how much time is going to be dedicated to the actual project and how relevant it is, short- and long-term. If both check out, then we dive into it. All of the above is supported by a written plan (sort of like a mini business plan) that helps support our logic and ultimate decisions.

5. Walk us through the characteristics that you look for when hiring top talent.

First and foremost, since we are a lifestyle company and that's a big part of our culture, it's important that the team and I gel with these potential new hires. Motivation, ambition, and aggressiveness are very important. I like people that are very excited and that email me at 2am with new ideas. It can be a simple text message or one-line idea, but I like people that are always thinking about the business. That inspires me.

6. What are the keys to your company’s successful growth?

Focus is everything. As of 14 months ago, Five Four decided to become exclusive to the Club, and was the best business decision I ever made. The Club grew 10x in one year and helped to simplify our business. Before we were doing Five Four Club, Five Four e-commerce online (for non-members), wholesale and retail. The latter three weren't growing, while the Club was the only thing that was growing every month that had a clear predictable and sustainable business model. We controlled our destiny since we were able to manage inventory, product flow, and distribution...something that we never had before. The company became focused purely on the Club and expanding it. 

7. What is the one piece of advice that you want to share with executives of other small businesses?

I think it's important to always stay at the front of innovation. In the world we live in today, technology is at the forefront of innovation and flipping traditional business models upside down. Always look at what you are doing and figure how to make it better.