How to Start a Clothing Business
Learn How to Start a Clothing Business With Low Capital and Without Experience.
You can easily learn how to start a clothing business if you have interest and determination to succeed. Learning how to start a clothing business is not totally different from learning how to start a different line of business. You should have that business approach for you to succeed.
Why Must You Learn How to Start a Clothing Business?
- It is easy to learn. If you are serious about it, you can easily learn how to start a clothing business. Some people start without any experience and succeed. Therefore, if they can succeed, you should be positive that you will succeed when you learn how to start a clothing business.
- Clothing is an essential item. Everybody wears clothe whether poor or rich. Besides food and shelter, clothing is the third essential basic needs that everybody has to meet.
- The market is huge and wide. Just look around and see many people around you. You will find out that everybody wears varieties of dresses of different sizes and colours. This should suggest to you that the market is very huge. Meanwhile, you will discover that individuals have different types of dresses, possibly for different occasions.
- Demands are not that seasonal. Except for some clothing such as sweaters, you will find out that people buy clothes round the year. Sales may be higher during festive people.
- Clothing Business can be started from home. If you don’t have enough money to rent, you can start from home.
- It can be run as a side business. As a corporate employee, you can learn how to start a clothing business and run it to supplement your income.
Keys to Success
Good Location
The location of your business will be determined by your target market. On the other hand, your location can determine your target market. There is no point selling things that are not needed by your immediate environment. Therefore, your target market and location should go hand in hand.
Read Also: How to Choose a Good Business Location
Excellent Customer Service
Ability to render satisfactory customer services will boost your market. You should be ready to render personalised service. Don’t press your customers to buy something you know it doesn’t meets his/her needs. If you don’t have it in stores, you can offer to order it specially for him/her.
Wide Varieties of Items (both in sizes and colour)
Clothing business is such that requires that you store varieties of materials both in term of sizes and colours. If your customers keep coming without finding what they desire to buy, they may leave for another place.
Fair Pricing
One of reasons why you need to learn how to start a clothing business is for you to understand how to fix prices on your items. Clothing business does not return high margin. But you can leverage on volume. If your prices are competitive enough, you will enjoy much patronage. This will lead to high turnover of your items. You will also enjoy repeat customers. That is, your customers retention rate will be high. In fact, existing customers will help you spread the news about your business.
Read Also: How to Determine the Right Price for Your Service
Good Relationship with Suppliers
You must have good relationship with your suppliers so that you can extend goods to you on credit. It is not every time you will have cash to pay for the goods you want to buy. In the time like this, you need their supports.
Also, since margin on clothing items is very low, you must ensure you buy from sources where prices are reasonable and not too high. The price you buy will have effect on your selling price.
Convenient Store Hours
Your store should be open to customers at their convenient time. That is why you need to understand the purchasing styles of your customers. Availability when needed is key.
Quality Products
Of course, your customers deserve quality products. Some of them may like particular brands such as Polo, Tommy Hilfiger and Nautical. If they demand a particular brand, don’t sell a different brand to them. Though you can suggest another good brand to them but you should not lure or deceive them to buy it.
Define Your Market Niche
As mentioned, the market for clothing business is very huge. One of the things you need to know when you are learning how to start a clothing business is to how to choose your market niche. For example, you may decide to go into sales of baby wares. Baby items usually move very fast because of their rapid growth rates. Some of the items you can sell are listed below:
- Dresses
- Casual Tops
- Sweaters
- Socks
- Blouses
- Knits
- Pants
- Jackets/Blazers
- Coats/Outwears
- Jewelry
- Fashion Accessories
How to Market Your Product
Personal selling
You can market your goods through personal selling. If you run the clothing business as a side business, you can market it to your office colleague. At times, they may buy on credits. You need to sell to only those that you know will pay you at the agreed date. Other ways to market your products are:
- Word of mouth to networks of friends, colleagues and relation
- Visual displays in storefront
- Direct mails/SMS
- Sales Promotion
- Advertising
- Social Media (Facebook and Instagram)
Read Also: How to Increase Sales Without Extra Marketing Costs
Above are the simple guides on how to start a clothing business. If you need more comprehensive business plan, you can contact us or your consultant.