ganesh

Hi,
This is my second post after my intro post. I live in the Bay area CA.I am planing to setup a business that would act as an agent for buyers or import the goods and resell to the buyers. This is not a sale pitch. I just need ideas/advice. What will be your approach if you can produce high quality cloths for very competive price. I appreciate any idea/advice. Thanks for reading my post.
- Ganesh

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Rodney

Quote: Originally Posted by ganesh Hi, This is my second post after my intro post. I live in the Bay area CA.I am planing to setup a business that would act as an agent for buyers or import the goods and resell to the buyers. This is not a sale pitch. I just need ideas/advice. What will be your approach if you can produce high quality cloths for very competive price. I appreciate any idea/advice. Thanks for reading my post. - Ganesh

What do you have in your business plan for marketing? What ideas did you already have in mind to get the word out about your products/services. Then we can build on that.

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ganesh

Hi Rodney,
Thanks for your quick response and for creating this wonderful forum. Here are some of the ideas I have in my Marketing plan.
1. Produce samples in my India facility and import them here. Visit local stores, show the products to the buying manager. Emphasise on the quality of the product and competitive price.
2. Create a pitch letter/catalog highlighting advantages of having to just deal with a local seller and at the same time procure goods with low prices and great quality. In other words you have a gaurentee of a local business and at the same time you enjoy all the advantages of manufacturing oversees. This I plan to send it in paper mail to addresses mined from Business directories.
3. Import high quality blanks(high gsm, soft etc) in bulk, collaborate with a good graphics artist, Screen printer and create my own brand.
The above are some of the ideas in my business plan. I am still refining my business plan. I am a software engineer by profession and getting into business due my passion to create and run a business. So if some of my ideas don't look good, please bear with me.

Rodney - I am honored to get some advice from you. Thanks and really appreciate your help.

- Ganesh

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ImageIt

International trade is difficult to establish. Until you are able to fill full containers with merchandise, you may have difficulty competing in the blank business.

What you will need is a product which is unique to the market and a customer willing to pay for the uniqueness.

I hate to mention it, but India does not have the reputation for high end merchandise. This is not an issue unique to India. Rather than trying to compete head to head, find an area of the business that will take advantage of inexpensive labor which is not flooded with competition.

Pulling a random example out of the air, sexy tops for women that are sublimatable.

fred

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ganesh

Hi Fred,
Thanks for your reply. I appreciate it very much. I agree that prices are very competitive in the blank shirt business. I am looking at fulfilling customers who have custom requirements(size, style, own label etc), which may not be available from wholesalers (just my idea, may be wrong). By highend do you mean designer clothing. I don't have much idea about that. I will try to collect some information on that.
Unique products is a good idea. I am working on that. Thanks for your ideas.

- Ganesh

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ImageIt

Quote: Originally Posted by ganesh By highend do you mean designer clothing. I don't have much idea about that.

I don't now much about designer cloths, so i'll use an example of one of the more expensive shirts i like to screen print. The Dickie work shirt at about $15. For screen printing this already is too expensive as a blank. If i saw an online offer for a generic version of the same shirt "made in india", it would need to be substantially cheaper. The Dickie version is available locally, so there is no shipping charges.

Better quality shirts are also a rarity to my business. Even if things went well, it could be months before i find anyone else looking for a similar style.

High end I mean anything people are willing to pay a premium to purchase.

Being made in America and of high quality makes people feel good about paying a few dollars more. The same or better shirt coming from India, China or Latin America would not give the same enthusiasm for people to pay a few pennies more, let alone a few dollars more.

Bamboo, hemp, recycled materials or organic cotton all have strong appeal to a limited market. People will pay a few dollars more if they think it will help save the planet.

In my business, i don't plan to ever go head to head with the big boys. Instead, i look for voids in the market to fill. It can be organic cotton baby bids, sexy sublimatable shirts or hemp thong underwear. There are plenty of opportunities. The same manufacturing facility can make any of these things. To be a successful business, it takes gambling a pile of money they the business plan is correct.

Just because the labor is cheap, does not make the product cheap to bring to the customer. When you are dealing with a place as far away as india, you need to put all of your eggs in one basket to hope to get the shipping cheap enough to beat the price of doing it with low paid employees in america or over the boarder to mexico.

What i'd be curious is what other positives India can offer? I've never been there, so i wouldn't have a clue. I live in georgia, so i'm about 3 hours from some of the most prime cotton fields in the world. If i was looking to manufacture, i would drive down to south georgia and get acquainted with was available.

Up where i live in north georgia, Bamboo is is considered a nuisance crop. If anyone had the ambition to convert it into cloth, they could probably get all they want for free. If the same thing could be done with kudzu, they would be heroes.

Again just throwing out random ideas, if for example in India, you teamed with someone who cast metal, you might be able to find a business making cloth belts. With a little creativity in design, you could make a highly imprintable belt and buckle.

What would i be surprised to know how cheap some service costs in India?

fred

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ganesh

Hi Fred,
Thanks for your ideas. It helps a lot. Producing garments oversees will work out cheaper if the volume is high (minimum 1000 pieces or more). Just to give an idea of various costs involved
1. You can rent a 3000 sqft factory space for $ 500/month.
2. Highly skilled labor for $200/month.
3. Raw material (cotton) cheaper due to abundance. The top 3 producers in the world are China, United States and India.
4. Fabric production and shirt production use imported machinery, so that high quality garments can be produced.

I will give an example. I took a look at the Dickie mens polo shirt. I am analyzing the shirt to give you an idea how much would it cost to import it. From the picture it looks like a 180 - 200 GSM weight with treatment to make the cloth soft. The shirt can be produced for approx US $5 + add 60% of production cost towards import duty and shipping. So it would be roughly US$8 per piece. It makes sense if the quantity is more.

Thanks again for your time helping me educate in garment area.
- Ganesh

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