be fooled by the hundreds of new t-shirt startups you see these days; starting a t-shirt business isn’t cheap. A lot of the costs involved should also help you decide how much you should charge for your clothing.
6. Come Up With a Promotion Strategy.
Figure out a way to spread the word that makes it easy for those who discover your brand to spread the word to others. For starters, your strategy can include PPC ads, press releases to blogs, and social networking. You can even give away t-shirts with your logo for free. Using guerrilla tactics and promotional items like this can have a tremendous impact on your business growth.
However, don’t be a “cheapo.” Sooner or later, you’ll realize that you’re going to have to spend money to market your t-shirt business, so you should be willing to pay for things like online ads, event sponsorships, and other paid marketing methods. Understandably, not everyone is “rollin’ in the dough,” so find smart ways to balance paid promotion with free promotion to create an excellent strategy.
7. Find Partners.
You might start out on your own, but you should find partners to help maximize your brand’s potential and help you reach your goals more efficiently. Aim to have partners within your company while also collaborating with other businesses that may be of some help to you.
8. Set Business Goals.
How many t-shirts do you plan on selling this year? How about this month or this week? A lot of people new to the business have no idea, or just don’t care. Then there’s the group of people who are too scared to set a goal out of fear that they won’t reach it. A successful business sets goals so it has something to aim for.
Set a goal and believe in your ability to reach it. As the law of attraction goes: If you know you’re going to reach it, you’re going to reach it. If you decide from this day forward that you will sell 10 t-shirts every week, and you strongly believe in your business, you’ll do everything you can to figure out a way to get those tees moving. If you don’t set a goal, well of course you’ll be stuck with a box of t-shirts you were too scared to sell.
9. Don’t Quit Because You’re Not Seeing Sales the First Day.
That’s a good way to get you nowhere. Try to figure out ways of improving your designs, your strategy or your work habits. When you’re just getting started, you’re still learning, so keep at it. Winners never quit and quitters never win. Read informative, motivational books to keep your spirits up. Frequently visit other brands’ websites and blogs, and see how much fun they’re having to remind yourself of where you want to be in a few years and how bad you really want it.
Reanalyze your business plan, promotional efforts, and branding strategy. Consider how you compare to the competition and emphasize your competitive edge. Whatever you do, don’t quit. Finish what you’ve started.
10. Have Fun.
If you’re in it just to make a quick buck, you’re not going to succeed—and that goes for any business. Love what you do and do what you love. Your passion will definitely show in your brand image. The more fun it is, the more productive you’ll be.
Go Ahead!
The following pages will elaborate on the suggestions provided in the above article and also offer much more. Starting a t-shirt business is a fun and profitable journey, and the abundance of information you will learn here will make it easier. Get ready to kick-start your brand and kick some ass!
CHAPTER 3
A SIMPLIFIED STEP-BY-STEP
In order to get to a new destination, you need a map. Consider the following step-by-step plan your map to t-shirt stardom. Actually, since we know all brands don’t climb the ladder to success the exact same way, we’ve drawn out more than one step-by-step plan to give you a broad idea of your forthcoming journey. These are common paths taken by many entrepreneurial brands. Take a look at each one and decide which fits you best.
Plan A.
1) Come up with a brand idea.
2) Develop the idea and decide on a name.
3) Revise the brand idea through multiple developmental stages.
4) Establish a solid brand identity.
5) Develop product ideas based on the brand identity.
6) Produce multiple products to form a collection.
7) Promote your new brand and its new collection before its release.
8) Release the collection to the public online.
9) Escalate promotion of your brand.
10) Media outlets announce your new brand.
11) Your brand develops a fan base and customer base.
12) Continue to promote your brand in any way possible.
13) Whether or not your first collection was a big success, design and produce a new collection within 2-5 months.
14) Repeat steps 7 through 13 as many times as necessary until you begin to catch the attention of retail shops.
15) Create a wholesale catalog displaying all your products along with purchasing information.
16) Send your catalog to potential retailers.
17) Sell your t-shirts to retailers in bulk at wholesale prices.
18) Continue supplying your worldwide fan base through online product sales.
19) Repeat all previous steps until you can afford to exhibit at major clothing trade shows to attract even more retail shops.
20) Open up your own retail shop to sell your products face-to-face with your customer base.
21) Experience an immense increase in revenue as you sell your merchandise through multiple channels.
22) SUCCESS ACHIEVED!
Plan B.
1) Come up with a brand idea.
2) Develop the idea and decide on a name.
3) Revise the brand idea through multiple developmental stages.
4) Establish a solid brand identity.
5) Develop product ideas based on the brand identity.
6) Produce multiple products to form a collection.
7) Promote your new brand and its new collection
