Launching a clothing brand : Business plan, the step not to be skipped

Avatar

Written by Julie Kerry
Le 12 August 2019

Launching a clothing brand is a long-term project that requires a great deal of thought before embarking on it. It's a risky venture that merits fairly in-depth marketing and financial research. It's true that sports equipment or clothing seems to be a flourishing market, but to be on the safe side, it's best to draw up a business plan before launching your own clothing brand.

THE BUSINESS PLAN, THE STEP NOT TO BE MISSED

Launching a clothing brand is no simple matter. Launching a clothing brand means thinking big and breaking into the international market. You need to study the upstream and downstream aspects of production, the production itself and the market where you can sell your products. All this needs to be costed and quantified to have a clear idea of the feasibility of the project.

The advantages of drawing up a business plan

Drawing up a business plan may be difficult, but it's well worth the effort if you want to successfully launch your own clothing brand. It has a number of major advantages, enabling you to see where you stand and know where and how to go from here. It allows you to :

- Better define your project
- Project yourself rationally and objectively
- Plan and anticipate your financial needs when you leave
- Avoiding potential bottlenecks
- Better price matching with resellers
- Spreading production and operating costs over time and in terms of value
- Reframe your project if necessary
- Better present your project to potential financial partners

THE COLLECTION IS AT THE HEART OF THE BUSINESS PLAN

The collection is the product to be sold. For it to be marketable, it has to be attractive and captivating. This is the best way to register your brand. To do this, be precise with your ideas. What do you want your collection to convey? The answer to this question will help you to better define its nature. That way, it will be easier for you to convey it to your customers, and to the professionals who will be your partners in setting up your personalised collection creation project, like Subli sport.

Then study whether your project coincides with current market needs. And if it doesn't, will you be able to create that need so that you can satisfy it later? If not, question yourself and try to adapt a little more to existing realities, otherwise you'll be disappointed from the outset before launching your own clothing brand.

It's worth noting that sportswear requires a lot more thought, since customer comfort and the durability of the materials are key.

DRAWING UP A RELIABLE BUSINESS PLAN TO LAUNCH YOUR CLOTHING BRAND

Given all the aspects involved in creating a clothing brand, one way or another, the investment required is substantial. To give you a clearer idea and help you refine your business case, here are the main steps involved in launching a clothing brand:

1. Summarise the project development plan
2. See at what stage of the project you are
3. Draw up a prologue on your career path and that of your colleagues
4. Conducting marketing research
5. Describe and situate the stage of creation of the collections
6. Defining the marketing and sales policy for launching a clothing brand
7. Draw up your human and material capital requirements using organisation charts, etc.
8. Taking stock over the next 3 years

Only then will you have a reliable business plan to present to financiers or undertake a crowdfunding campaign.

See more in the news
Recommended for you
See more news