BUSINESS PLAN

2021

MARIA CLARA

“Wear confidence”
 Maria x Clara

A fashion-based business is one business that would always survive regardless of what
is happening in the economy. It doesn’t matter if there is an economic downturn or a
galloping inflation, people would always wear clothes and sadly enough (for the buyer)
but good enough (for you) clothes do not last forever. They are susceptible to wear and
tear so you people have to keep on buying clothes for as long as they live.
You are on the right path by deciding to set up your own clothing line instead of just
being a retailer of other people’s brands, but there are some things you need to consider
very carefully before you start your own clothing line. Some of these factors include-:
a. Your niche: girls/ women age 16 to 40.
b. Employees: Next, you have to decide on how you would be producing your
clothes. Would you outsource to another company or would you employ tailors to sew them for
you? Would you hire designers to create unique designs for you? What about marketing, how
would you market your designs? Would you have to employ marketers and sales assistants? All
of these are some of the things you need to carefully consider before you start your
clothing line.
c. Funding: How much will it cost you to start a clothing line? How would you get funding for
your business. Do you have all the capital you need to start your clothing line? If you
don’t, how do you plan to raise the needed funds? Do you have a good credit rating to be able to
borrow money from financial institutions and if you don’t, what is your back up plan?
d. Location: You also have to carefully consider the location where you intend to set up
your business to determine if it’s the right one for your business. Before deciding on a
location, you have to consider factors like-:

 Competition-: Do you have what it takes to compete with the existing brands in your
area?
 Taxes: Are the tax laws in that area favorable for your business?
 Government incentives: Would there be any financial assistance or incentives from
the government?
 Labor laws: Would you have access to employees at reasonable wage rates? What are
the labor laws in that area like?
 Rents: Are costs of renting a business premises in that place generally higher than other
places?
 Suppliers and customers: How close are you to your suppliers and customers?
 Future potentials-: Would your current business allow for future growth?

When you have figured out all of these, then you are more than 70% ready to launch a
successful clothing line.

Starting a Clothing Line With No Money – Sample Business Plan Template

1. Get in the right mindset
The principles of building a successful business is the same all over the world; so
regardless of the business opportunity or idea you are pursuing, you will never find
success if you lack the right mindset. Why do you want to start a clothing line? Are you
doing  it for the passion, money, fame, etc? Having the right mindset entails that you
understand that success is not an overnight venture. You must also be prepared to face
business challenges and stiff competition of the fashion industry.

2. Understand the fashion industry

The fashion industry is a rapidly changing one; trend come and go just as the sun rise
and sets. For you to succeed in the clothing line business, you must thoroughly
understand your customers and their taste. You must possess the ability to foresee
trends, months before it hits the market. Most importantly, you must be creative and
flexible in your tactics.
You would also need to conduct a market research to understand your potential
customer’s tastes, preferences and expectations. Because the fashion industry is
seasonal in nature and changes are made everyday. You have to be able to keep up with
trends in the fashion industry. You don’t want to turn out spring designs when it’s
already summer. So you have to be fashion forward and keep up with trends to know
what designs are hot and what other designers are doing.

3. Write a business plan

In every starting business, a plan of action is important. For your clothing line to be
successful, you need to identify your target market and learn the kind of products that
they buy. It will be good to have a part-time job in a clothing store that caters to these
individuals to see what sells and what does not. Here is a sample clothing line business
plan template to help you get started.
Also, you need to ask questions from different stores and customers regarding
products, the price and the quality. Make a list of materials and other things that you
need for the business together with the projected cost of operations within the year.
Consult experts on your plans and seek advice from entrepreneurs in the fashion
industry. Take note of the legal requirements and prepare all the necessary documents.
Decide and define the kind of company you wish to create. Analyze your manpower
needs to see if you need employees and if you do, how many will you hire? Organize
your plans and identify possible constraints. Compile all this in one report, so that you
will have a guide to follow.
4. Build a Brand
What every clothing line need is a brand. Make sure that the name of your line is
creative, unique and catchy. You can put your own name as a brand name like Calvin
Klein or Kenneth Cole or you can think of other names like Mango or Gap. After that, you
need to create a logo. Make sure that your logo reflects the philosophy and nature of the
brand. Be reminded that the name of the company can be different from the name of the
clothing line itself, which you need to register for legalities.

5. Register your trademark-: Most importantly, you must not forget to trademark your
brand name and copyright your clothing designs. This is to help mitigate against piracy,
intellectual theft and brand infringement. This would cost you about $400 in the US.
You should consider registering your trademark to protect your business and your
designs from copycats.

6. Create a bank account for your business-: You should also create a separate bank
account for your business, so that your personal expenses can be separated from your
business expenses. You may have to register your business legally before you can open
a business bank account.

7. Design your Clothes

The most exciting part of the process is designing the clothes. Make sketches of clothes
and choose which will go into your collection. Identify items that sell and appeal to
your target customers as a guide for the collection. This is one tip on how to start a
clothing line. Also make sure that the clothes are trendy and capture the right look for
the season in which you are going to release it. If you have no design skills, i advice
you seek the services of a professional clothing designer.
Next, you should test the potentials of your business by showing them to your friends
and family for constructive criticisms. For those criticisms to really be constructive, you
have to ensure that the people you show your pieces are fashion savvy and understand
garment construction and design.

8. Find a Manufacturer
Where will you get raw materials from? You need to figure out where and how you are
going to get your fabrics and other items that you would need. To get started, you need
to find a manufacturer who will be creating your clothes. Provide all the needed details
to make sure that you are going to get desired results.
Be aware of terminologies for different garments and weights or how thick the fabric
must be. This is essential information you must note when launching your clothing line.
You can do a search online for manufacturers and then contact them. A good place
to cheaply import clothing materials is China.

9. Advertise your clothing line

Who are your customers and who are those that you would sell your products too and how do
you plan to reach them? If you plan to start supplying boutiques and online stores, how
would you achieve this? You need to carefully strategize how to break into the market and
get customers to patronize you especially since you are a new entrant into the business.
You should also consider having your own retail store to carry your brand too.
An important requisite for launching your advertising campaign is a marketing plan.
You can start promoting your clothing line by creating a page for it in social media sites.
Here, there will be a lot of people who will definitely see your product. Have your
clothes or products advertised by celebrities by giving them some of the clothes for free.
Pay for advertisements on the pages of papers and magazines that your target clients
are reading. Better still, wear the clothes you made. This will help in promoting your
brand and gaining feedback about it in order for you to make improvements.

10. Register a domain name and create a website

You can’t do without the internet in any business in this age. Which means you would
need a website for your business but you don’t have forever to do this. If you are not
fast and smart about this, someone else would steal your domain name and you will
have a hard time searching for a relevant name for your brand.
A good way to start a clothing line that sells is to create a website and sell your clothes
online. Make sure that the site is professionally done and mirrors the philosophy of the
brand. In this way, a lot of people will learn about it. There are also some great places to
sell your clothes online like eBay, Amazon or Etsy, so you should check them out. Once
the above steps are done, you are now set to launch and build your clothing line
business. As a final note, I believe the question of how to start a clothing line business
from scratch has been well answered; so it’s up to you to take action.

11. Talk to retailers-: Retailers like boutique owners and online store owners can help
you sell your designs faster, so you should search for some of them and talk to them
about carrying your products in their stores.

12. Develop affiliate programs-: Affiliate programs have been helping designers and
clothing retailers increase sales for years. A simple blog post from a fashion blogger can
have your designs sold-out within a couple of hours. You should create an affiliate
program so that people can earn commissions from marketing your goods.
13. Manage your business-: Continue to create unique designs and unique pieces and
keep your customers happy and you won’t have a problem retaining them.

14. Network-: In fashion business, the competitor is not your enemy but your friend.
The fashion business is based on a whole lot of networking, so you would need to know
as many people as possible to help you make more sales. You should consider attending
industry events, fashion shows and meeting as many people as you can in the industry.
People who have been in the business longer than you may be able to offer you some
few tips and tricks to help you survive in the business.

How to Write a Clothing Line Business Plan

Every savvy fashion entrepreneur knows that building a successful clothing line
business does not happen out of sheer luck or overnight. Hard work and perseverance
are required to achieve it. In this regard, every fashion house must have a concrete and
organized business plan.
It is key in order to decide on your course of action, manage your finances, raise capital
from investors, identify competitors and many others. Since having a business plan is a
critical element of success, guidelines on how to write a clothing line business plan
must be learned by starting entrepreneurs. So if you are ready to learn, then let’s ride.
A Sample Clothing Line Business Plan Template

 Prepare your Business Plan Outline

A good way to write a clothing line business plan is to begin by outlining its contents.
This will enable you put the ideas in your head into writing; and help you ensure that
your ideas and strategies don’t get lost. Decide on what will be the areas that the plan
will cover and reflect on what it will contain. Take notes of important factors that you
would want to include as a reminder.

 Company Objectives

Write about the objectives of the company. Always be specific in writing this because it
is important you have a clear view of your target customers; which will be a main
element of your objectives. Look for tips from sample clothing line business plans and
templates, so as to get an idea on how to state your company philosophy and goals as
clearly and concisely as possible.

 Market and Competitors

Almost every manual about how to write a clothing line business plan talks about
describing the market and your competitors. This will help you in identifying if the
market that you want to enter is new or if it is growing fast. This is where a marketing
plan comes into play? Here is a sample clothing line marketing plan template you can
use.
Determine your competitors and make entries on the kind of product that they are
selling. Include plans and tactics on how you will address such competition and your
niche among these competitors. It is important to keep track of strong competition so
that you will not be last in the race. Also, i firmly believe that you can learn and adopt
the characteristics of successful clothing brands in your region.

 Plan Implementation Strategies

Make an account of your implementation plans. This is important so as reach your

target goals; after all, what’s the essence of planning without taking the needed action
to implement. So in this part of your plan, you should include descriptions about the
production, design, marketing strategies, human resource, sales and retail. In simple
terms, this is where the necessary factors needed to run the clothing business is
contained.

 Financial Projections

A description of the finances of the company should also be included in the business
plan. More than writing a clothing line business plan, recording the company’s finances
is much crucial. A record of cash flows is very important in order to make sure that
operations will run smoothly. Seek the expertise of accounting professionals and
consultants while making the financial report in order to be exact and detailed.

 Executive Summary

An executive summary of the contents of the business plan should also be made at the
last chapter. This is necessary so that you will have a bird’s eye view of the contents of
the plan which will help in creating reports about it. In learning how to write a clothing
line business plan, it is of vital importance to have the ability to write about important
points of the plan in a clear and short manner.
List of Equipment and Tools Needed to Start a Clothing Line

 Industrial machines-: If you will be manufacturing the clothes yourself, you will
need industrial machines to sew them.
 Pattern makers for crafting designs.
 Fabrics
 Women and men dress forms used for garment building.
 Scissors
 Hole punchers
  Straight and curved rulers
 Pencils
 Measuring tapes
 Notchers for marking seams.
 Pins
 Slopers
 Dotted pattern paper.
 Sewing machine needles
 Hand sewing needles.
 Threads
 Sketching books.
 Drapings tools.
 Dressmaking Stick pins
 Muslin
 Style tapes
 Fabric shears
 Soft lead pencil
 Marking pen
 Pattern plotter.
 Pattern making software.
 Computer
 CAD tools for designs
 Digital drawing tools
 Digitizer board for pattern scanning.
 Heat transfer machines for T-shirts.
 Print tables.

For marketing and selling your designs, you would need-:

 Racks-: There are different types of racks that you can use to display your
products in a boutique or at home. The type you need depends on how much
space you have as well as number of clothes you have to display.
 Slat wall-: You can use this to hang clothes on the wall to save space.
 Mannequins-: Mannequins are better for displaying clothes and attract buyers
better than hangers and racks because buyers are able to see, to an extent how
the clothes would look on them.
 Hangers-: You would find several kinds of hangers in the market. So that you
don’t make your designs look cheap, you must make sure you select high quality
hangers. Do not go for a flimsy cheap-looking plastic hanger. You can consider
investing in customized hangers with your brand name on it as a way to
promote your business.
 Labels and Tags-: You would also need labels with your brand name on it and
price tags or product identification number.
 Packaging materials-: Lastly, You would also need materials to package your
clothing items for buyers. A good idea is a branded paper bag.