Welcome to the Young Entrepreneur Forums

gryph · 10-20-2006, 04:14 PM

I'm a college student looking to start a clothing label, initially starting with t-shirts. I have a bit over $300 right now that I'm planning to invest into this, but I need your help in figuring out how to best and most safely distribute this amount into the start-up.

(Yes, I know $300 is pocket change for some of you, but I'm a college student... Enough said.)

As I mentioned, I'm going to start with just t-shirts at first (through some screen printing company) and then expand from there.

Should I spend all $300 on an order of about 50 shirts (with one design), and hope they sell? Should I split it 50/50 and have two designs printed at the same time (but fewer shirts for each)? Any better suggestions? How should I distribute the money?

Thanks.

PS - If anyone can recommend some screen printers, I would really appreciate it. I've looked at some already, but I haven't yet made a decision on who to go with, so my options are still open.

hookedonhiphop · 10-20-2006, 04:39 PM

Hey, looks liek we're in the same boat. I'm 20 and actually dropped out of college due to personal reasons. BUt, I too am trying to start my own clothing business. At the moment I'm working a 9-5 in order to support my new business venture among other things (i.e. car payments, insurance, misc spending...) but here's my 2 cents:

maybe start by creating a catalogue of designs and see which ones pple are most interested in buying. Then, from there you can have an idea of which designs would sell, and which ones you should revise or scrap. Now you have done 2 things. 1. you have created a buzz around campus regarding your new busness venture, and 2. now you have an idea of how many of which design to get made.

As far as my own company goes, I decided to make a web page to display my designs. I did this for for a few reasons. 1. now that i'm not at school anymore, it would be harder to distribute catalogues than in a campus atmosphere. I can just plaster the URL everywhere and people can access my "catalogue" from anywhere. But this costs money. like web hosting, domain registration and the site design itself (unless you did like i did and design the site all yourself, but trustme it is a very time consuming experience). I also decided to make a web page becasue now if someone DOES like my design, they can order it on the spot. See, if i was in a college athmosphere, i could just sell out of my dorm. But there are drawbacks. For example, I can only sell using credit cards, not cash, since it's all online. Eventually I would like to buy bulk tees in my designs, but that costs $$ that i just dont have yet.

Hope this helps!

gryph · 10-20-2006, 04:47 PM

Thanks for the insight, Hooked. I like the idea of making a "catalogue" before making any printing orders. I may even allow people to "pre-order." What do you think?

Although I'm very knowledgable in web development, I plan to use an eBay store in place of my own online retail site... At least at the beginning.

Mad Muppet · 10-20-2006, 04:57 PM

hookedonhiphop pointed out some good ideas. Before your even consider buying anything you need to get some solid market researching done, especially as you really only have one shot at making it (atleast you will have to wait to rebuild capital) So do as hooked said and as your target market eg. college students which designs they like best and how much they would pay for it, it will be a slow process but more info you get better chance of success you will have. Also if your thinking of selling on campus buying all one design wouldnt be good as i guess people would prefer to be unique instead of every one having same, but your market research should show you what your market wants.

A website is also a good idea to every company as it gives another medium for your customers to reach you, and allows you to spread your market wider. To set a simple site up can be done for under $50 if you know where to look, you can just get a free template or possibly get some one to do it for free to build up their portfolio. However i wouldn't think a website should be your top priority.

Also it may be a good idea to scout about and see if you can get a friend to chip in with you, as it will give you more capital to start off with, because if people see you making money they will try and muscle in on the action.

Good luck with your project but remeber MARKET RESEARCH IS KING!

gryph · 10-20-2006, 05:03 PM

Thanks Mad, I'll take your suggestion and spend some time researching.

However, I'm not planning to sell these shirts on campus. Long story shirt (get it?): I go to a specialty college, so the people on this campus aren't exactly the ones my shirts will be targeted for. I'll be selling through eBay (until I have enough $$$ to get an ecommerce site) and word-of-mouth (I'm building a network of people whom I think would be interested in buying these).

impressive · 10-20-2006, 05:09 PM

my 2 cents:

Try to save up atleast $1,000 before going in to this venture, Going into this with 300 bucks will only get you about 300 in return since I assume your not doing the printing, so the most you can make on your investment is only 300 bucks. So starting out with 1k will atleast make 1k back! in the same amount of time. this assuing you have the shirts pre-ordered? am i making sense? I cant explain things to well! LOL

I have alot of experience in this field shoot me an email and I will be glad to help you.

Mad Muppet · 10-20-2006, 05:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by impressive

my 2 cents:

Try to save up atleast $1,000 before going in to this venture, Going into this with 300 bucks will only get you about 300 in return since I assume your not doing the printing, so the most you can make on your investment is only 300 bucks. So starting out with 1k will atleast make 1k back! in the same amount of time. this assuing you have the shirts pre-ordered? am i making sense? I cant explain things to well! LOL

I have alot of experience in this field shoot me an email and I will be glad to help you.

i kinda understand where your ocming from however i dont see any difference from waiting 6 months or whatever to earn 1k while youe can do it with 300 double it to 600 and double it and so on theres no reason why he cant start small and work up, in the end he would have ivested less money so the risk will be alot lower.

gryph · 10-20-2006, 06:14 PM

I don't have a full-time job, so I think it'll take far too long to save up $1,000.

impressive · 10-20-2006, 08:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mad Muppet

i kinda understand where your ocming from however i dont see any difference from waiting 6 months or whatever to earn 1k while youe can do it with 300 double it to 600 and double it and so on theres no reason why he cant start small and work up, in the end he would have ivested less money so the risk will be alot lower.

you can make 1k in the same amount of time that you would 600, why choose less money for the same amount of work. Hes not printing the shirts so already hes missing out on atleast $10.00 more dollars per shirt, so i would make that diffrence up in (time) and not waite 6 months for a sale. Pre order all you garments and you can be in production with in a month. And trust me in t-shirt sales there arnt any "risks" you can sell a one color job shirt to any trendy boutique in Cali. for about $30.00 wholesale.. I do this all the time. So you should never get stuck with any shirts as long as you can get them sold before they are even made.

impressiveprinting.org