If you are reading this article, it means you have decided to get into the clothing business which is a trillion-dollar business with a highly competitive market. Today our main goal is to discuss how to start a small clothing business from home.
There are many ways to sell clothes like dropshipping, white labelling, and manufacturing your own. If you plan to start your own, I hope you are not thinking about dropshipping. That left us with white labeling and Self Manufacturing
In white labeling, you visit a manufacturer and give him your blueprints and he will create a design with your brand name. This is the way most of the clothing brands operate today. While in self-manufacturing you need to set up a quite expensive manufacturing unit.
So, the best way for a beginner to start a clothing brand is through white labeling. Let’s understand the step-by-step process of starting a small clothing business from home.
How to Start a Small Clothing Business From Home
1. Decide Your Niche
The clothing industry is wide from casuals to fast fashion there are different niches that you need to decide on your own. Every day a new brand comes into the market with new designs for different audiences.
You need to identify your audience and make your designs according to them. Many Luxury brands are into fast fashion, and they change their designs every week, for a new small appeal brand this is quite difficult.
This is the reason why you need to do market research, in this way, you will have an idea about what people are buying and decide your price range which people can easily afford.
2. Create Your Business Plan
Creating a business plan means how you are going to get the products and fulfill them to your customers, whether offline or online, how you are going to shop them, and what would be your operational areas whether national or international.
Everything should be inside the business plan, including how you will attract people to your new brand and why they would buy it. It would help if you put everything together.
One more important thing is you can’t do everything for yourself, you need manpower to manage everything like packing, marketing, and inventory management. Hire passionate people who can work hard in the initial stage.
3. Brand and Logo
The next step is to decide your brand name and logo for the business, we all know the importance of logo and brand name in the business. Make sure to buy a domain name just after you decide your brand name.
Most of the luxury brands today are selling their products based on their brand like Apple, Zara, Nike, and many more. People are obsessed with their brand, not with their products. So, you have to decide this part very carefully.
4. Legal Requirement
Business registration is very important, You need to register your design or trademark since we are white labelling the product here we don’t need an appeal registration certificate.
You must acquire your business insurance to prevent the loss of your assets if things go the opposite way.
5. Visit The Manufacturers
We have acquired most of the things like legal requirements, business name, logo, and trademark registration, It is about time for a factory to visit our manufacturers, you can find them online and contact them.
Show them your designs and choose the fabrics, and they will design your appeals according to that, make sure to negotiate with the pricing if they are not according to the budget planned you can look for another one there are many in the market.
In the first order, you can order MOQ (Minimum Order Quantity) and if the quality is fine you can start importing in bulk.
6. Setup Your Website
Creating your website is one of the top priorities for your business because you are going to sell your appeals from your website directly. I have already told you to design your logo and buy the domain name for your brand.
Now it’s time to hire a web development agency to create a beautiful website where you can sell your appeals. It would cost you around $1000 to create an e-commerce website including domain name and hosting.
7. Marketing
Since we are selling products directly from our website, we need to run ads on different platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms to generate leads for sales.
In the starting you will have to spend a lot of money until your brand is established, for this you can hire a digital marketing agency to run ads and generate leads or you can run your ads.
This step is very important because you are not going to get any leads without running ads which means no sales and without sales you will be out of business very soon.
8. Choose Delivery Partners
You are selling from your online store so you have to manage your shipment, for you need to find some delivery partners that have a network to deliver packages in the area of your choice.
Generally, it would cost $7-$10 to deliver products all over US states from popular delivery partners.
9. Create Online Presence
As I already told you clothing industry is highly competitive, to stand out you need to follow the marketing strategies and build your brand online presence.
Today content creation is one of the best forms of advertisement, you hire a creator who can craft beautiful stories about your brand and present them to your audience in visual form.
Also Read: How to Promote Your Small Business On Social Media For Free
Total Investment Required
If you are starting as an individual on a small scale, it would cost you around $20,000-$50,000 just to buy the clothes from the manufacturer, set up a website, and brand marketing. You need to have additional funds for paying your employees.
And also for the miscellaneous costs, after all not everything goes according to the plan. Emergency funds are very important in business because not every month is going to be profitable in the initial stage.
Conclusion
The clothing business seems easy but it’s a deep ocean where there are big fish too, but it’s not impossible to survive alongside them, there are many people already doing this you can too, you just need to find the gap and get in.
There are always opportunities for people who are looking for them.
Is Clothing Business Profitable?
Yes, the apparel industry is highly profitable and in today’s world, hundreds of manufacturers can provide you with good materials. You can generate a profit margin of 40-60% based on the type of business you are in.
Can College Students Start Clothing Brand?
Yes, college students can start their clothing brands and market them with the help of a college network. As we all know business doesn’t require any degree, you can start your business with hard work, dedication, and some funds.
How much experience do you need to Get in this Industry?
If you are already working in this industry that is well and good but if you are new don’t worry everyone starts from somewhere.
Can You Start a clothing brand with no money?
No, you can’t start a clothing business with no money, you need at least $20,000-$50,000 to get in this business. Either you can ask your parents or raise funds from investors.
