How to Start a Swimwear Line Business

Saturday, January 10, 2015

How to Start a Swimwear Line Business

A swimsuit, bathing suit, swimming costume, swimming suit, swimmers, tog, bathers, or cossie (short for "costume"), or swimming trunks for men, is an item of clothing designed to be worn by people engaging in a water-based activity or water sports, such as swimming, water polo, diving, surfing, water skiing, or during activities in the sun, such as sun bathing. Different types are worn by men, women, and children.

A swimsuit can be worn as an undergarment in sports that require a wetsuit such as water skiing, scuba diving, surfing, and wakeboarding. Swimsuits are also worn when there is a need to display the body, as in the case of beauty pageants or bodybuilding contests. Glamour photography and magazines like the annual Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue feature models and sports personalities in swimsuits.

There is a very wide range of styles of modern swimsuits, which vary in relation to body coverage and materials. The choice of style of swimsuit is dependent on current fashions and community standards of modesty, as well as on personal preferences.

Women's swimsuits are generally described as one-piece, bikinis, or thongs. While they go through many trends in pattern, length and cut there is not much modification to the original variety of suit.

If you want to explode into the world of fashion swimsuit design, do something outrageous. Rudi Gernreich catapulted himself from unknown designer to late-1960's fashion stardom by designing and displaying the monokini -- a women's bathing suit that was essentially topless with the exception of two suspenders that covered nipples and little else. It was outrageous enough to attract the news reporters, and just modest enough to skirt the pornography laws, allowing pictures of the suit to be shown on television and in magazines. The result was fashion fame and fortune.

Instruction:

Step 1

Create your signature look that fills a niche need in the marketplace and sets your line apart from other swimsuit lines. Filling a niche might include fashion swimsuits for large breasted women or swimsuits with special decorative effects.

Step 2

Manufacture samples that convey your signature look. They can be samples of your entire line or just examples of what you want to design and manufacture. Use these to market your designs to stores, manufacturers, wholesale sportswear distributors and potential investors. Take model shots and create promotional copy for a public relations campaign that will get you noticed.

Step 3

Contact manufacturers and wholesale distributors to learn how they operate and what they will charge for manufacturing and promoting your line. If they see something in your line that they feel sure will be an instant success, they may even finance the production of your launch.

Step 4

Write your business plan describing in detail your company, design vision, target customer, product lines, manufacturing operations, current retail activities, fulfillment, marketing plan and financial projections.

Step 5

Seek funding for your enterprise from friends, family and local banks. Use your business plan to present the value proposition of investing in your swimsuit company.

Tip

One way to promote your swimsuit designs is to convince a celebrity to recommend or wear one of your suits during an event, in a movie, for a magazine picture or other publicly visible situation. You may have to offer the celebrity a share of your profits, and the apparel you give will certainly be in the form of a free gift, but persistence pays off with excellent publicity that can be used to further market your products.

Warning

Even if you don't get funding to produce a full swimsuit collection, don't stop marketing your vision and swimsuit samples to local boutiques, at street fairs and flea markets, in beach resort hotels and online via eBay.com or your own website.

References (5)

Resources (2)

1 comment:

Swimwear Line BusinessFebruary 28, 2014 at 8:11 PM
How to Start a Swimwear Line Business, Swimwear Line, Swimwear Line Business
ReplyDelete
Replies

Add comment

Please don't spam. Spam comments are not approved

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

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.

Pages

Saturday, January 10, 2015