Growing a following online and growing a business are two very different things.
Social media can give an entrepreneur access to thousands—or even millions—of potential customers, but that attention alone doesn’t automatically translate into sales. Turning attention into a sustainable consumer brand requires finding the right products, creating a consistent identity, earning trust and giving people a reason to actually buy.
That transition has been one of the biggest challenges I’ve faced while building HAGS Clothing, a college apparel brand I started while attending the University of Missouri.
The lessons I’ve learned building HAGS can be useful for other young entrepreneurs trying to turn a social media following or a small community into a real business.
An Audience Is a Starting Point, Not a Business Model
Before starting HAGS, I had already spent years creating social media content through TheRealTbat, building an audience of more than 200,000 followers and generating more than 75 million views.
Having that audience gave me a big advantage when starting HAGS. Instead of launching a company with no way to reach potential customers, I already understood what types of content worked and how to reach a large audience.
But reach doesn’t necessarily lead to sales.
Someone might spend a few seconds watching a TikTok or Instagram Reel without giving it a second thought. Buying a $25 or $30 product requires a lot more trust and intent.
For someone starting a business with an existing following, the real question shouldn’t just be, “How many followers do I have?” It should be, “What would this audience actually want to buy?”
Finding the Right Niche
HAGS started with a simple phrase: “Have A Great Summer” then turned into “Have A Great Saturday”.
That idea eventually became the foundation for a brand centered around college culture, gamedays, tailgates and the communities surrounding college towns.
Instead of trying to become another broad clothing company in an already crowded market, HAGS became more focused. That has helped with both product development and marketing because we have a much clearer idea of who we’re trying to reach.
College sports are an interesting example of how strong a community can become around something.
A college’s identity isn’t limited to the students who currently attend the school. It extends to alumni, families, local businesses, fans and the surrounding community.
Cities like Columbia, Missouri; Athens, Georgia; and Knoxville, Tennessee can become identities of their own because of the culture surrounding their universities.
HAGS has built products around that idea, including apparel that focuses on college towns, gamedays and the places people associate with their college experience.
For a small business, finding a specific audience like that is much more manageable than trying to make something for every college student or sports fan in the country.
Create Products That Build on Community
One thing I’ve learned is that a product can become more meaningful when customers understand the story behind it.
One HAGS product, for example, is a rope hat with “COMO” across the front, referencing Columbia, Missouri, where I went to college.
To someone who has never been to Columbia, COMO might just be four letters. To students, alumni and people familiar with the city, it means something more. It connects the product to a place and the experiences people had there.
That same idea can work outside of clothing.
Small consumer brands can find opportunities by understanding communities that bigger companies might overlook. That community could be a city, university, club, profession, hobby or tradition.
The important part is that people already care about it before they ever discover your product.
Building Trust Is One of the Hardest Parts
One of the biggest challenges I faced wasn’t creating products. It was convincing potential customers that HAGS was a legitimate brand worth buying from.
That can be especially difficult when a business starts through social media.
Consumers see countless ads, products and new online stores every day. As the founder, I know HAGS is a real company. Someone visiting the website for the first time doesn’t know that yet.
Professional product photos, a good website, clear policies, reliable fulfillment, customer service and independent media coverage all help build that trust.
It also changed the way I think about marketing.
Getting someone’s attention is only the first step. Once they visit your website, you still have to give them enough confidence to actually make a purchase.
Organic Distribution Can Reduce the Cost of Experimentation
Another major benefit of having a social media audience is being able to test ideas quickly.
Traditional consumer brands can spend thousands of dollars advertising products before knowing how customers are going to respond.
Social media gives smaller businesses a way to get feedback much faster.
You can introduce a new design or product idea and see how people respond before putting a lot of money behind it. That doesn’t mean every post that gets likes should immediately become a product.
Likes and follows don’t pay the bills, and someone liking a design doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll buy it.
But that feedback can still help a small business figure out which ideas are worth pursuing and where marketing dollars might be better spent.
Scaling Without Losing the Original Idea
As HAGS has expanded into more college markets and gameday products, another challenge has been maintaining an identity while growing.
Adding products can help you reach more customers, but adding too many unrelated products can also make it harder for people to understand what your brand actually represents.
The question I’ve had to keep asking is simple: What should stay the same even as the products change?
For HAGS, it still comes back to the idea behind the name—Have A Great Saturday—and the culture around college weekends, gamedays, tailgates and college-town communities.
The products will change. Marketing will change. Social media will definitely change.
The idea that connects customers to the brand should be much more consistent.
A Practical Lesson for Young Entrepreneurs
Social media has made it easier than ever to start a consumer business, but that doesn’t mean building one is easy.
You still have to understand your customers, manage costs, build trust, differentiate yourself and create products people actually want.
Having an audience can give you a head start, but it can’t replace those fundamentals.
My experience building HAGS has proved one simple lesson: attention creates an opportunity, but creating something people see themselves in is what turns that opportunity into a business.
