How to Start a Small Business for Clothing

Monday, February 2, 2015

How to Start a Small Business for Clothing

Clothing is fiber and textile material worn on the body. The wearing of clothing is a feature of nearly all human societies. The amount and type of clothing worn is dependent on physical stature, gender, as well as social and geographic considerations. Starting a small clothing business may be the perfect business, particularly if you are interested in clothing. Sell clothing items in which you are most knowledgeable. For example, you may have a knack for casual clothing fashion. Decide if you want to sell clothing online, by mail or at a clothing store. A clothing store would be your best option if you want to deal with people directly. However, consider your financing options.

Clothing Business Instruction:

Things Needed

Wholesale supplier
Clothing products
Shelving units
Hanging stand fixtures
Clothes hangers
Counters
Signage
Business hours decals
Cash registers
Fliers
Air machine
Large balloons
Banners

Step 1

Create a name for your clothing business. Contact your local county administration or city hall office. Obtain an application for a doing business as and vendor's license, as you will need to pay sales taxes on in-state customers. Fill out the application and mail it back with your application fee.

Step 2

Decide whether you want to purchase a franchise. Check the Franchisegator.com and Franchisedirect.com websites for potential clothing franchise opportunities.

Find a wholesale supplier if you start your clothing business from scratch. Access the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors at Naw.org. Call the NAW and ask them what clothing wholesalers they recommend. Go to the Tradepub.com website, according to Businessknowhow.com. Order free subscriptions of various retail trade publications.

Step 3

Call several of the wholesale suppliers. Find out if the wholesalers carry the products you wish to sell. Find out how long it takes the wholesaler to ship products to you. Select the wholesaler that provides a quick turnaround on shipments and the lowest per-unit product cost.

Step 4

Find a location for your clothing store. Choose a high-traffic area, such as a busy intersection, strip mall or busy highway exit. Make sure the demographics, such as average household income, are commensurate with your target customers. Pick a an upper-middle income neighborhood or downtown location, for example, if you are selling women's business clothes.

Step 5

Order the necessary clothing products a week or two in advance. Check to make sure that you received all of your items.

Step 6

Hire employees for your store, unless you have a spouse or family member who can work with you. Make sure all employees fill out W-4 forms so you know how much to deduct from each paycheck. Have each employee fill out an I-9 from showing that they can legally work in the U.S.

Step 7

Set up your counters, shelving units and hanging fixtures. Put your clothing on the shelves and hanging fixtures. Place in-store signage up high so customers can know where to find the products they need. Set up your cash registers. Place business hours decals on your front door.

Step 8

Distribute fliers on car windshields and on grocery store bulletin boards. Place a classified ad in your local newspaper -- the print and online versions. Conduct a grand opening sale with an air machine, large balloons and banners.

Tip

Establish a fair return policy with your customers. Allow customers to return all merchandise within 30 days, for example, if they have a receipt. Customers are more likely to become repeat buyers if you treat them fairly.

References

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Easy Tips and Ideas to Start Business

Although anyone can start a business, many people fail because of a bad product or improper research. If you want to start your own business, you can improve your chances for success before you even begin. In order to make your business successful, start strong and make sure that your idea will hold out for the long haul.

Have a Good Product

Ensure that you plan to sell something useful. Although you may think that your product is important or special, that doesn't mean the general public will agree. Ask friends, family and strangers what they think of your product. If they don't seem that interested, ask them why. With their suggestions, you can either improve the product or scrap the idea completely. According to Brad Sugars of Entrepreneur magazine, most small businesses fail because they sold a product that didn't have an adequate market. This also applies to small businesses that provide a service. A lawn-care business might be useful for part of the year in a northern state, but it is in-demand year-round in the south. Consider whether people will actually want to use your service and get constructive advice from those not afraid to give their opinion.

Research Local Businesses

Research local companies before starting up your own business. This will not only give you an idea of the amount of competition you will have, but it will also help you price your product or service. If you're looking to start a wedding photography business, you may find during your research that the market is over-saturated in your area. If not over-saturated, you should contact each business and ask them for a price list. Alter your prices so you can stay competitive with the competition in town. Researching similar local businesses will also help you decide where to locate your business location. Try not to start up a store or office close to another business of your type. If your small business is located away from similar business types, this will cause locals to choose you over businesses that are farther away from where they live.

Get Professional Advice

You may know someone who has started their own successful business. Ask him for advice and listen to his stories of how he started his company. You may gain useful advice on the good and bad ways to start a business. Local entrepreneurs can also introduce you to local product providers or advertisers that you may not have met without their help. Accept any advice with open arms, especially if the advice is coming from someone successful in the area.

How to Calculate Business Start Up Costs

Starting a business in no easy endeavor. It takes a great deal of research, perseverance and hard work. While sweat equity will make your small business more successful, you will most likely need real capital to get the business started. Before you start raising capital and/or investing your own funds, the first thing you need to do is determine the total start-up costs.

Step 1

Determine your costs of sales. For most small businesses this means inventory, the cost of raw materials, manufacturing equipment, shipping, packaging, and warehousing. However, not all businesses sell products. In this case, the cost of sales is primarily the direct labor involved in making the sale. For example, to open a small shoe business entails purchasing enough inventory ($10,000) to stock the store.

Step 2

Determine professional fees. Planning your business structure, i.e., limited liability corporation or general partnership, means hiring an attorney. There may also be the need to pay an attorney for help with establishing trademarks, copyrights, and patents. In this scenario, that puts total professional fees at an estimated $20,000.

Step 3

Determine technology costs. Technology can greatly reduce the cost of labor for small business if used effectively. Most small businesses require computers, printers, cell phones, website development, Internet access, software applications, information security, data storage, and outsourced information technology (IT) consulting. If the cost of technology is $10,000 to start, add an additional $5,000 a year for maintenance (hint: maintenance is not included in start-up costs).

Step 4

Determine administrative costs. This varies with business types and may include items such as business insurance, office supplies, product packaging, parking, rent, express shipping, desks, chairs, fax machines, phones, or anything else necessary to operate the business daily. A good estimate for start-up administrative costs would be $5,000 for the first six months.

Step 5

Determine initial sales and marketing costs. Now that you have your product, you need to let folks know about it. Sales and marketing costs generally include marketing materials for presentations, printing stationery, business cards, advertising, trade show events, and public relations. These initial sales and marketing costs can add up to $3,000.

Step 6

Determine the wages and benefits needed to secure a staff. This includes employee salaries, benefits, workers compensation, and payroll taxes. Let's put the cost of wages and benefits estimated at $20,000 for the first three months of business.

Step 7

Add all costs associated with starting the business for a total. Be sure to only include business start-up costs that will be incurred in the first three to six months of operations. For this example, the calculation is: $10,000 + $20,000 + $10,000 + $5,000 + $3,000 + $20,000 = $68,000.

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Monday, February 2, 2015