Turn Your Clothing Business Idea To Reality in 5 Steps

That eureka moment when you get your clothing business idea can be amazing. At first, it’s a bit foggy, but then it begins to form in your head and you start getting more and more ideas. You become excited, and more often than not, you want to start immediately.

This can, however, be dangerous if you don’t know what steps exactly to take next. Starting a clothing brand without the right information has led to many businesses failing, entrepreneurs starting rough, and all manners of ills. So, before you start that clothing business, here are 5 steps to take.

5 Steps to Take When You get a Clothing Business Idea

1. Decide what Problem You want to Solve

The first step to take after you get your clothing business idea is to decide the “why” and “who” of the business. It is not enough to come up with an idea you think is awesome if it solves no problems for anyone. All businesses exist to solve problems, and that includes clothing businesses.

Start to deeply think about what problem your business solves. Find out if many other people face this problem you come up with and decide if you have the solution with your idea. Find out the root of whatever problem you come up with to fully understand it and own it. As you think over this, ask your family and friends questions. What they say might give you a deeper perspective into the problem you come up with.

Next, determine who the target audience for your clothing business will be. Find out who you want to solve this problem for.

Read Also: Back To The Basics: Here’s What Fashion Branding Is All About

2. Carry Out Market Research

Before launching a clothing business, carrying out market research is one step that should never be overlooked. Now that you have decided what problem you want to solve and who you want to solve it for, the next step is to find out vital information about that business idea.

Go out there and talk to your target market. Get a deeper understanding of who they are. See if they’ll wear your clothes, how much they will pay for them, and what types of clothes they wear now to solve their problems. You can carry out surveys and get them to answer important questions to help you know them better.

“Lots of things have to be considered before setting up a clothing brand, some of them are in-depth market research, creating a marketing strategy, acquiring the necessary tools and equipment. Also, setting business goals to achieve after some time should be topmost.”

Ruth Olawoyin, Founder, Ribbons and Stitches.

Also, do market research on your competitors. You are not the first clothing business to come up and you will not be the last. The fact that other clothing businesses exist shows you that your idea is a viable one. From this sea, determine who your competitors are, what they are doing, and what you will do differently or better.

If you come out identical to others that already exist, you will not be unique. You will need something to set you apart if you must run a successful clothing business. So, find out all the details of your competitors that you possibly can and use them to your advantage. You should look into everything from their price points to their target audience, marketing strategies, location and so on.

Also, in this step, you can try and identify potential partners and vendors for your business. If you are running a dropshipping clothing business, find out what platform you will sell on, where will you get your supplies from, and how often people search for such clothing items online.

Read More: How To Create A Marketing Strategy When Launching In Competitive Fashion Environments

3. Create a Business Plan

A business without a plan is bound to fail. Whether formal or informal at first, a business plan helps you concentrate the core of your business in one place. A business plan will help you know what to focus on and how to go about it in the best way possible. With it even, you can measure your clothing business progress.

Your business plan will help you define your brand story, how you’ll define it to investors and potential customers. Also, it sees your marketing strategy, your financial and operational goals, plans to reach those goals, and outline the structure and growth strategy of your business.

“I think knowing who your target customers or population is is very important, then having a specific location where prospective clients can reach out to you, as well as writing out a good business plan for your fashion business goes a long way in setting up a fashion brand.”

Christiana Rotimi-Williams, Founder, CRW Style.

Creating and writing out this plan forces you to think about the intricacies of your business. It helps you have a clearer vision of how you want to run and grow your clothing business over time. By putting pen to paper or fingers on laptop, you get to fully process everything about your new business idea.

One of the best ways to create a foolproof business plan that covers all the basis is to work with a Fashion Business Coach. Book a qualified Fashion Business Coach here at Mauvelli.

4. Create a Prototype

Wouldn’t it be great to catch a glimpse of what your clothing business idea will look like in future? Creating a prototype of it gives you a small glimpse into the business’ future. It allows you to test and see whether your vision is feasible and worth pursuing at all.

To do this, you can create a mini business to resemble what you want your clothing business idea to grow into. That is, start your business on a small scale as a test run of what is to come in future. This is like the beta testing stage of your clothing business.

You can create a limited number of the types of clothing you wish to sell in your brand. Market your items to those that fall into your buyer persona and see how well they are received. As you market and sell off these items, note the feedback you get about them. Based on your target audiences” feedback about your styles, price range, finishing, brand appeal, and so on, you can draw insight into the future of your clothing brand.

From the small number of people you test your clothing items on, you get to have a feel of how others will receive what you have to offer. Feeding off this knowledge, you can make the necessary adjustments to your product offerings to make them more desirable to your target audience.

5. Raise Funds

Your clothing business needs finances to start. So, how you will fund your startup is a very important step to tackle before launching in. Consider how much money you will need to start up and run the business initially. This can be tricky but can easily be done with the help of an experienced entrepreneur.

Once you decide how much you need to hit the ground running, you need to figure out where to get the funds from. Do you want to get a loan? Do you have enough saved up to finance it yourself? Would you seek investors or ask family and friends to ship in? Sit and figure out what will work best for you and your business in the long run.

This is a very crucial step and should not be taken for granted in any way.

Check Out: Building A Fashion Brand? Here Are 6 Hidden Costs To Watch Out For

Once you have followed all these steps, you are ready to turn your business from an idea into a real thing. Remember to mentally prepare yourself for the bittersweet journey ahead because you sure will have ups and downs. But at the end of the day, if you do things right, you will come out successful.