Clothing Design & Retail Sale

**dknh** · 05-06-2009 09:48 AM

I have a business idea thats been in my head for a while, and now I am taking action on starting it. I want to start a small clothing line with the hopes for expanding if it's a success. I am only 16 so I planned on selling through an online store and through local events. I'm looking for some advice on what actions I should take to help me with a successful launch and avoid and pitfalls I could encounter. Right now I have met with a manufacturer for printing my designs on to clothes and got price quotas for all the items I wish to start with. I'm working with an excellent artist to create a portfolio of possible designs. And I have began creating a budget spreadsheet for initial costs, this includes manufacturing costs, I am researching advertisement costs, and then the cost of supplies I will need for things like shipping, website fees etc. I have also applied for a reservation of an LLC name within the state of New Hampshire where I plan to start the business. I will be using my personal savings to fund everything and right now I'm looking at a general start-up cost of 8-10 grand.
Any advice on cost effective ways to advertise would be great, also advice on trademarking and protecting myself legally would be great.

**Gene** · 05-06-2009 10:22 AM

You seem to have what you want to do all laid out, so you're definitely getting a head start.

Your startup costs seem a bit high.....I'd see if you could knock that down a bit. Is that just a random estimate, or have you actually sat down and figured up that's what you'd need?

**nate_f2** · 05-06-2009 10:27 AM

I recommend that you take it slow before spending all your savings on it. Fashion is a fast moving business and people get over designs quickly looking for something thats hot a week later. With this in mind spread all your "best designs" apart on a time line and dont drop all the good stuff at the same time. Have some filler designs and stuff like that. Another thing that I recommend is putting together a team, not just people you know but motivated hard working individuals that believe in what your doing and can help you with your marketing and fresh ideas.

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**fthom** · 05-06-2009 12:10 PM

I agree with nate_f2, don't jump in spending all your money so fast! Do you really think the startup cost will be 10grand!?! That seems really high, perhaps your not taking into account that you will not be mass producing these tshirts from day one...

**dknh** · 05-06-2009 12:39 PM

Its an estimate but not entirely made up. My original start up cost was a little under 5g, but someone brought to my attention that if you don't have a large enough selection, people will lose interest. So I double my figure from Six different designs to start with, to 12. ( Each design has a start up fee, depending on how many colors are in the design, its location(s), and the overall intricacy of the design.) but thats a one time cost for setting up the screen. The next orders will only cost the price of the unit with no printing fee. (and from the manufacturer you can buy in sets of 24, 72, 155). And I do those costs to exacts amounts because I have the exact prices. But the Marketing, Supplies and Other costs I'm not exact with what I'm going to do, so I found a general cost and used that as an estimate.