This section of the forum is for discussing the business and finance issues of the t-shirt industry. Which business structure to use (sole proprietor, LLC, S Corp, etc), how to handle billing, where to register your business and get the proper licensing, etc.
Where will you sell this product? Who will you sell it to? What kind of margin will your market support? What kinds of other costs will you incur in selling the product you have purchased?
Plan to work and work your plan. It can be tough and there will be lean times, but if you deliver a quality product to your customers at a reasonable price then you're at a good starting point. From there its about smart business practices and a good marketing plan.
I suggest wearing your shirts. I wear my designs all the time. I have my website on the back of a lot my shirts. I always try to bring up my business if I can and always have business cards ready. If I go in a store and they have a bulliten board, I put up a few cards. i have my site in my window of my vehicle. P.R> is the key to success.If people don't know you exist, they can't buy from you. .... JB
Write a business plan. Get help from your local CoC and SCORE.
Form an LLP/LLC or C Corp and sell shares or find an Angel Investor.
Follow your plan.
QED
That's a horribly simplistic and unrealistic way to look at starting a business! I don't mean to "dis" you LampyB, but that's why so many "businesses" fail.
are you serious? the original question was "how do I raise money to start an apparel business?" so you can go with your route, an excellent way to get a business loan and start off in debt. very enticing to me. or if you have good designs (you should if it is going to succeed) you can order an allotment of one item. sell it and use the money to purchase more inventory. then all of a sudden you have a thousand dollars plus after a couple of tries. there's your start. now you can do whatever you want with that money to start the business. each individual allotment should be changed, ie hats, then one t-shirt design, then another, ect.
i'm not saying don't write a business plan, or skip out on any of the steps needed to start your business. this is a completely realistic way of raising funds for your startup, trust me it has worked great for my company. go ahead and get a loan and start in debt though if you want, it depends on what you want your company to do.
I'll say "Don't write a business plan". You might make a loose outline and be prepared to modify it as you gain experience with different aspects of the business. Start small and cheep. Find a set of plans to make a single station/color press and start learning. If you make a "business plan" and try to rigidly follow it, I believe you'll get a few surprises that you didn't count on or you'll spend a lot of money you didn't need to or even decide you don't like doing the work yourself. Start small and learn and keep your options open.
I'll say "Don't write a business plan". You might make a loose outline and be prepared to modify it as you gain experience with different aspects of the business. Start small and cheep. Find a set of plans to make a single station/color press and start learning. If you make a "business plan" and try to rigidly follow it, I believe you'll get a few surprises that you didn't count on or you'll spend a lot of money you didn't need to or even decide you don't like doing the work yourself. Start small and learn and keep your options open.
OK, so a great rule might be to start off small (DTFuqua's plan) but at the same time, formulate a business plan and go to market strategy to take it to the next level. From that stand point, I think it's a strong starting point. There are some good templates on business plan writing. I have always felt that knowing where you are and where you want to get to by having a plan is crucial. How you get there is up to you. Not wrong, just different.
Good post Jerry. You probably said it better than I did but its clear you got most of the idea. Also, don't let something you enjoy become to cumbersome and make you hate it. Take a little time. If your stuff is gonna make it, you'll get a good idea with the home made press. You'll also learn what it takes to do the work and put out a good product. You'll also figure out if you want to keep doing the actual hands on labor or concentrate more on designs and marketing. While getting all this valuable education and making even more valuable contacts, you'll have a minimum investment in dollars if it all gets you nothing but the experience. Good luck and get started.
Great advice from everyone so far, but I don't think anybody touched the importance and heartbeat of the word CASHFLOW.
Although you might be concerned with gaining working capital to start your business, do not overlook the main function of proper cashflow to keep your business flowing.
A business may have 100k to start a business with, but if they spread all that out and lets say they offer net 30, but they got soooo busy that most of their clients were net 30 accounts. Well, yes you made another 200k, but you won't be paid until next month! When I started, I heard the word cashflow, but never really understood it until I had to deal with it.
I started my screen printing business with $800 flat. Bought equipment for about $600. $200 left for inventory. Well I learned that when a customer wanted to order 100 shirts, I didn't have enough money to buy the blanks!!!! Don't put yourself in that position.
A year or so ago we were looking at investing with Press-A-Print and I got a copy of a couple sample business plans for the promotional products market. I'm not sure if this will apply for your specific business but you can use this as a template to clearly identify what you want to accomplish and your plans on getting there.
Don't get so caught up in the actual planning that it isn't fun. Your goal may not be to be the next big t-shirt printer on the block - you might just want to tinker with things and make a little money. You know what - that's ok. Your business is just that - your business.
Set your self some attainable goals and then also some stretch goals. You will be amazed at how much you can accomplish once you have a plan in place. You may not want a full blown business plan. That's ok too! Remember that in all things, the efforts you put in to your business (good and bad) will be reflected in your results.
Don't forget to also invest in yourself. Keep learning new things. Again, set yourself some yearly goals that you want to achieve. Go to trade shows (ISS is a great one). In my day job, we call these CPF's or Critical Performance Factors. I get yearly goals that I have to accomplish and I am measured on whether I meet these goals and objectives.
Again, this is one man's opinion. Please take this in the spirit I am giving. I don't want to infer that I know everything - just that I am taking my experience in corporate America to my own home business as a blueprint on how I want to run it.
I prefer my banking friends in Nigeria which inundate my email with tons of offers daily. But what seems to work best is VC Captial, i.e. Visa Card, use it till it bounces!!! (LOL)
__________________ Daniel Slatkin, SBE Multi-Media, LLC Print On demand Fulfillment with free web store included. You Design Apparel T-shirts Hats and more.
$1,000 is nothing. Volcom actually started with $5,000 & got only $2,600 in sales their first year... but they didn't get to the national level by selling one item at a time. They grew in popularity - the popularity of the founders in their sports helped - then got major investors.
I strongly believe that if you want to start a real business you need a real plan. The plan is like a target that you want to hit, and if you're not aiming at something specific there's very little chance that you'll hit anything worthwhile. It's not something so rigid that it cramps your creativity or flexibility - it can be revised any time.
Volcom used their personal celebrity status and got lucky, but they knew something up front - who their customer was. I know we all like to think that if we just come up with the next sickest design that millions of people will line up to buy it, but in reality it just doesn't work that way. First you have to carefully identify your customer, then you have to create products that speak to that customer and market in such a way that said customer becomes aware of your products and is attracted to them. If you can do that, you can raise the capital you need to grow.
$1,000 is nothing. Volcom actually started with $5,000 & got only $2,600 in sales their first year... but they didn't get to the national level by selling one item at a time. They grew in popularity - the popularity of the founders in their sports helped - then got major investors.
I strongly believe that if you want to start a real business you need a real plan. The plan is like a target that you want to hit, and if you're not aiming at something specific there's very little chance that you'll hit anything worthwhile. It's not something so rigid that it cramps your creativity or flexibility - it can be revised any time.
Volcom used their personal celebrity status and got lucky, but they knew something up front - who their customer was. I know we all like to think that if we just come up with the next sickest design that millions of people will line up to buy it, but in reality it just doesn't work that way. First you have to carefully identify your customer, then you have to create products that speak to that customer and market in such a way that said customer becomes aware of your products and is attracted to them. If you can do that, you can raise the capital you need to grow.
Re: How to Raise Money to start my biz 
Re: How to Raise Money to start my biz 
Re: How to Raise Money to start my biz 
Daniel Slatkin, 
