Discuss the fun task of marketing a t-shirt shop. Where to advertise, local marketing tips, word of mouth, press releases, search engine marketing, keyword advertising, magazines, etc.
Attempting to construct a business plan for our t-shirt (and apparel) business (well, it's almost a business).
I am trying to justify reasons for why the t-shirts will sell. I know they can sell but what evidence can I gather to support my theory? We have sold t-shirts but not officially. How else can i convince funding sources that our t-sirts can and will sell?
Can I get sales forecasts from other companies etc?
These are a few off the top of my head. I'm going to have to ask my beautiful Vice President/Director of Marketing for some more. She's great at this kind of stuff! She's also pretty smart (she married me didn't she?!)
Hehe, lucky guy! You're married to your very own company Vice president . I bet you're experiencing exciting times what with your business rallied to start v soon! I envy you! Wish I could fast forward to a latter stage and skip the prep. work. This planning stuff is really bothering me.
Back on topic.. I hate paying for things, though I appreciate your time in finding me those links. I'll check them out and consider the costs.
While we're here... Can anyone recommend any other ways I might be able to convince cash injection sources through my business plan?
Can anyone recommend any other ways I might be able to convince cash injection sources through my business plan?
You could try your local SBA (Small Business Association) office. And there's always Visa/Mastercard/American Express. They don't care about a business plan
You should consentrate on the demographics of your area in that section of your business plan. Like if your shirts will be marketed towards college kids, then is your location near a college? How many other businesses are in the area selling tshirts? Are your tshirts different from all the others? Things like this will take you far in the bankers mind I think. Convince them that the college kids in that area need your store and your clothes because all the other guys are selling crappy designs that the kids arent interested in.
Something along this line may help you out, but I dont no really.
Im kinda in the same boat as you. I want to open a store in my area selling my shirts and body jewlery, gothic type nick nacks and such. I live in small town and no one sells anything like that around here. I am currently writing up my business plan to. Thats why your thread here caught my attention.
Being in Marketing for about 2 years, I've learned alot about positioning your products. And spending money to make money is a big part of jump starting your company. Paying for ad space, web banners, google ads and such.
I started my click-n-mortar T-shirt business back in Feb 06 with Cafepress and I've chosen to market my shop with only personal time. I wear my products, had business cards printed (www.48hourprint.com) which I leave in all kinds of places. I put them on the mail box board and they fly off the wall. Either people take them, or someone building a strange house of cards.
I've built a email list so when I launch a new design, I do an email blast announcing it. I register my site with alot of search engines, I brand as many things as possible.
I join forums and make sure my signature advertises my site. I affiliate with people with banners, I point my site to my store. I talk up my shirts and on and on.
I'm basically a T-shirt Pimp.
www.entrepreneur.com is a great place for FREE info on all kinds of stuff including Business Plans.
Hope that helps.
Last edited by Rodney; August 9th, 2006 at 11:54 AM.
when I opened an Ice Cream store back in the early 70's after I worked as a training director for Baskin and Robbins for 6 years. I had this idea.. but not a lot of money. I went to the bank and the VP told me something that I have passed along since. The bank wanted a business plan.. I had something but it was not enough. he told me to contact Stanford U. as I lived in Palo Alto at the time and see their business teachers about having a business student do a business plan on my concept. I did. The student did his report for grade and the bank loved the idea I had and loaned me the money.. then my ex wife left me took the money. My Air conditioner broke in the middle of summer and the business around me started closing at the mall and the mall is now Hewlett Packard. I still have pictures of the store..
While we're here... Can anyone recommend any other ways I might be able to convince cash injection sources through my business plan?
Identify your target market. Are we talking 1000 people or are we talking 10,000,000 people.
Identify they're spending habits on similiar items within the same general interest category.
Identify how you are going to penetrate your market. Project your market penetration. That means you're going to need a marketing plan as well, how do you intend to make potential customers aware of your product? And, how are you going to persuade potential customers that your product is better then the competition's?
Estimate a reasonable amount of sales based on your target market, your projected market penetration, and your company's capacity. (I went with estimating annual sales based on being able to initially penetrate 1% of my target market of 500,000 people, that's an average of 13 shirts a day, which is doable for me from a manufacturing standpoint. Although it is probably a bit optimistic...)
When you look at all these numbers in relation to one another, it gives you (and a prospective money lender) a good idea of how you plan to make it all work. You know who your customers are and how much they spend. You also know who your competitors are and have a reasonable idea of how much market share you can take from them. But you've tied it all back to something that you can actually produce, from a manufacturing and logistics standpoint.
You'll end up with a projected financial statement summary
www.entrepreneur.com is a great place for FREE info on all kinds of stuff including Business Plans.
i second this idea. i used some frequent flyer miles that were just collecting dust on a subscription and was surprised at how much i learned from that magazine.
the entreprenuerial experience is pretty universal, so there's a lot to learn from people who have started up all kinds of businesses.
Just need some clarification though.. How would I go about broadly providing an overview of the potential customer base? I guess you could say we are targeting the younger, 'hip meets urban' type market, but I am sure our t-shirts can and will be bought and worn by all sorts.
And also, how can I provide evidence of buying trends within this 'hip' fashion market?
I don't quite understand?@ Should I speak to owners of existing similarly orientated t-shirt sellers who primarly sell through e-commerce?
Sorry for the abstract questions but just trying to understand.. Aiming for a top-notch plan.
Help With Business Plan 
. I bet you're experiencing exciting times what with your business rallied to start v soon! I envy you! Wish I could fast forward to a latter stage and skip the prep. work. This planning stuff is really bothering me. 
