Thread: To get my business "FAST LANE" . . .

Yeah, OK, so that was a bit long and convoluted.

To sum up I have created a t-shirt line for a niche market based on aviation themes and specifically WWII nose art, or bomber art. I was hoping to market online via e-commerce, but have found that to be un-achievable given my limited resources, skills in e-commerce and web marketing and time, although I have finally settled on an Wordpress site that a customer can purchase through.

I would like to expand the brand once established and market to a larger market (more mainstream) and have a plan for doing that.

I have been most limited by resources, errant thinking and actions and not taking action because I believed what I was seeking could be "attracted" against my better judgement.

The last six months have been by far the most production and I have [I]begun[I] to get some traction (revenue) and strategic partnerships as well as interest in the brand, though limited thus far.

With my product I am attempting to differentiate by bringing something that I believe elicits an emotional response from people (and has) and resonates with certain niche markets via unique original artwork and designs. My strengths are in my creative abilities and I really do have a strong vision for what I want to create and where I see it going.

My goal in six months is to build on at least one strategic partnership that is in place and be able to have a sufficient revenue stream to cover my immediate expenses and not have to "hustle" so much just to pay bills and focus on my strength - design and crafting my vision.

As far as an exit strategy I don't see selling the business completely, but finding the right equity investors to finance my vision, in steps for the business.

To be truly "fastlane" I will need to generate sufficient revenue and 1.get paid a sufficient salary via business one to sufficiently support myself. 2. Expand my vision by creating the broader brand based on the model and traction from the 1st.

The two will be related enough to be marketed similarly, but different enough to focus on different markets with some overlap. the product offering of both will be expanded not only in market share (creating a focused market from existing markets based on emotional appeal ie. lifestyle), but also an expanding apparel line.

This is my vision. I believe it can be very fastlane by generating an income significant enough to capitalize other investments that interest me. Also, by generating equity in the business.

This is a bit rough (esp the last few sentences) and would love any feedback if something perks any ones curiosity.

-R

Hey, Reno, hows it going?

I am in the t-shirt biz as well. From what I can tell, you're doing a great job already, and you're obviously a very smart person.

As far as 'fastlane' for clothing, here is my opinion on this (I am not a pro/guru in this field, just my two cents here):

Going the wholesale is very fastlane in my opinion. Get your products in as many relevant retailers as possible. Since you're making WWII airplane nose designs, you have a broader range on the type of stores you can get your tees into. I am in streetwear, so unfortunately, I have to be a bit selective of who I push my products to.


That's all I have for now, just my two cents, I"m still learning in this field so I hope this input helped atleast a lil. Good luck! always good to have a fellow clothing entrepreneur on the board

Originally Posted by ManWithABeard

Hey, Reno, hows it going?

I am in the t-shirt biz as well. From what I can tell, you're doing a great job already, and you're obviously a very smart person.

As far as 'fastlane' for clothing, here is my opinion on this (I am not a pro/guru in this field, just my two cents here):

Going the wholesale is very fastlane in my opinion. Get your products in as many relevant retailers as possible. Since you're making WWII airplane nose designs, you have a broader range on the type of stores you can get your tees into. I am in streetwear, so unfortunately, I have to be a bit selective of who I push my products to.


That's all I have for now, just my two cents, I"m still learning in this field so I hope this input helped atleast a lil. Good luck! always good to have a fellow clothing entrepreneur on the board

Awesome! Thanks for the response - I was stoked to finally get one lol! Nice to see someone in my industry in here as well.

If you don't mind me asking, what is your company?

-R

So the response here has been, shall we say underwhelming Oh, well. I'll use this as a diary of my progress and maybe someone will find something useful or perhaps interesting here.

So the partnership with SFI (Seattle Fashion Incubator) is currently on hold due to the coming resignation of the Director, who was the founder and supposed "visionary" of the project. I am disappointed in some respects, but very little actual progress has been made with the person and the resignation to me indicates more talk than substance was there.

The Second strategic partnership seems to be doing well. They are actively pursuing wholesale sales of the line I am creating for them and have made some sales both retail and wholesale, which is revenue generating for me. My concern at this point is that they seem to be spreading themselves a bit thin with focuses on their currently not directly related underwear line. On a positive note they are highly motivated and are actively pursuing outsourced production of the both the blank production (we use high end blanks with special cuts, dies, washes, etc.) and printing.

I have composed an executive summary of the brand and business model and sent that to a potential investor (family friend). The potential $100K equity investment appears to be at best on hold and was a lead generated by the soon to be former Director of SFI, so that is not on the radar at this point.

I will resume the networking activities that SFI had been performing and look to establish further strategic partnerships and investors as well as fine tune my pitch.

I am considering starting a blog to catalog and journal my journey as an entrepreneur starting an apparel brand.

Upcoming tasks and goals: I have continued the tee shirt of the month campaign, which was the idea of SFI, but I questioned its relevance given the lack of currently established retail customers or even web traffic. I decided to continue this as a focused way to 1. produce at least 1 new high end design per month. 2. continue the emphasis and focus of contributing from the "tribute series" and tee of the month club to vets causes.

I need feel I need to learn SEO better and fine tune my website to optimize for SEO, but am concerned that I am spread to thin with the duties of a designer as well as networking, and looking for wholesale opportunities in addition to need to create side income by doing art for custom tattoo designs and occasional screen printing.

Thus are some of my current tasks, obstacles, challenges, etc.

If you took the time to check this out - thanks and Happy Holidays,

-R

So continuing the lessons learned phase and going back to the drawing board.

My goal. To make a small fortune in t-shirts via a thriving online brand. Then to expand on that success via a related apparel and casual fashion brand.

Next steps and obstacles.

I am completely out of money and the venture is not investment worthy at this stage and I decided not to pursue a potential capitol investment from a family friend, but they did connect me with a friend of theirs in LA who has a growing high end apparel line and offered to send me to LA to check it out. Not sure what I would get out of that right now and need to do some hustling to pay the bills so that is on hold.

Apart from "hustling" my plan is as follows:

1. Learn web design and development by taking online tutorial classes five night per week while I develop my business model and web site layout and design in accordance with the development of my new product line.

2. Create a blog about t-shirts, graphic design and art to a. create a focused following and resource for generating traffic to my upcoming site b. To keep myself focused and on the cutting edge in these areas. c. To network in these fields and perhaps create some notoriety d. To showcase my own designs and that of others and begin to create a community.

3. Work on creative development of both my current designs and my future designs. Create a look book and a catalog of current and ongoing designs while shifting the focus of the brand with a broader and more focused appeal.

4. Learn SEO and online gorilla marketing as well as use of social media and e-mail marketing.

5. Work on my online graphic novel to enhance my design skills and post online with intent to generate further exposure as aspects of the work will be relate-able to the tee brand in a loose peripheral way (this is a hunch right now more than an exact plan).

6. Use all of this with the product line and website as it is and as I develop it to track results and changes.

The blog is a great idea to get some initial interest and some hype.

What you want to do is create a newsletter about the latest trends or some new designs.
This is to build an email list, so when you do launch your company, you get instant recognition and hopefully instant sales.
You could put your novel as a free download (or $$) to further enlarge your list.

I'm a big fan of outsourcing as SEO is a time KILLER and you should be able to get some cheap deals.

I think you need to determine how large your niche really is... it seems incredibly small to me.

People interested in WWII nose art and T-shirts... You can use Google Keyword search to see if anybody is actually searching for this. If so, how many? If not, your only chance of success in my opinion is catching on as a Fad, which is incredibly unlikely.

The T-shirt design business in general seems pretty brutal to me.

ok, So let me soften this up before I get to it.

1. good job on doing it regardless of your obstacles.

now, lets be clear here.
your trying to create a massive tshirt and then an apparel company right?

well your step 1 (revenue) has to happen before step 2. (big fastlane company)

I would go straight to people who would be most interested in your stuff. get a following.

by that i mean, ww2 aviation art would probably be most attractive to.
ww2 buffs,
aviation buffs,
ww2 collectors,
ww2 participants

instead of creating a blog and trying to draw the traffic in to you. (a long tedious treck)
go to the highest ranking blogs, and sites and forums of the above list.

talk to them on the phone, in email, something. get a human on the line.
Make them an offer they cant refuse. (great rev share for the first 100 shirts they sell)
get a following, Get some traction in front of the audiences that already like this kind of stuff.
make some trades, Go to a ww2 forum, offer the owners of the site tshirts for his whole family if he lets you send an email with pictures about how cool the shirts are. have them endorse them.
an eCommerce store is actually kinda easy. there are programs that you can do that with super fast with out being technical. shopify, 1shopping cart, ect. heck even paypal.

all you need is a wordpress site, with some pictures, and a paragraph on the history of the nose art on the shirt. then a simple pay pal button. you could have 3. larger, larger, and whoa, slow down on the big-macs large.

take you couple days to throw all that up. you dont need 100K, you need a couple. I know you want to optimize the prices of the shirts to get the most profit, but youi really need to spend the money and effort to
1. see where yoru market is, (if there is one) and 2, getting the word out enough so you get more orders, THEN you can worry about buying 1000 shirts at a time.

we tested a comic artist idea for a series of shirts. he did the graphics, we threw it on caffepress.com had 5 diff shirts in diff sizes, (they are print on demand) and send out emails to people to see if any one would buy any of them. we had 10 sales on 1 and zero sales on the others. out of 2000 emails.
so? well, we did a limited edition run on the 1 comic and he sells them when he goes to trade shows, and to do caricatures.

the best part? we had zero upfront costs for the test, and we determined that only 1 needed to be printed. we I think we made 2 bucks per shirt for the 10 we sold so a whooping 20 bucks, but thats from a market test, with no costs. hell that's great.

Now I think his per shirt profit is 20+ dollars each. that's great, so he only prints 100 at a time, and sells those, and does more.

if art is your skill, then focus on that, scrape all the other stuff, (printing, accounting, sales to someone else) if you need traction, hire a friend who is a great sales person for a side job. get him to push your stuff to the right markets.

then, after you get 100 sales, or 1000 that's when you go to the big expos, and show them your sales.

Show them they are sitting on a huge nest of profit, if they take you, your stuff, and push it themselves to the markets.

all they need is a little proof.

good luck,
hope that helped

Thank you for the responses

@Zendolphin:

I agree it is too narrow and I do not think a market exists and I am changing product and business model significantly:

I am sticking with Bombshell Shirts (name) because the definition of "bombshell" speaks to what I have been thinking of since the beginning, but have been to stubborn to implement. bombshell: something or someone having a sudden or significant impact. Bombshell Style is the working name of the apparel brand.

Finding a market based on need; purpose and lifestyle is what I feel I need to focus on. I am studying the business models of some of the leading successful online tee companies as well as leading companies in general to tweak and focus my brand.

I stuck with nose art for so long because I felt like the story of nose art is so cool, but largely unknown and somehow would catch on. Funny, because everyone likes the shirts and designs as well as the idea, but I don't sell too many, though the womens shirts seem to have a broader appeal than the mens. I was afraid of being indecisive and seems got stuck in this mode, but clearly there were mistakes I needed to make before I could see the error of my ways.

The blog, etc. has to do with reaching and creating community, networking, then My goal is to create an online retailer of tees, like Threadless, Designed by humans (who recently went to a threadless esque model). I would like to get other designers involved similar to what these companies do because there models are successful because they meet certain needs that there customers get from the communities that have been created and are very loyal.

I want to learn web design/development because this is both a broad desire and directly applicable to the development of a website for my business (control as well as an understanding of how it all works).

I am working with a local small apparel company with the existing brand and will work with them to see where that goes while changing the focus of the brand as will as fine tuning the model to meet the needs of a focused market as well as getting the business financially viable.

I currently am using a wordpress site and have it put together, but with the narrow focus Bombshell Shirts and get little traffic and no sales right now.

This is the fourth incarnation of the site from an attempt at dreamweaver, to Zencart, to Opencart. I ran into tech difficulties with all of these that I had too much difficulty getting resolved (another reason I want to learn web des/dev).

My first two years have been a learning experience and I made a mountain of mistakes to learn from

The biggest of which was not putting together a business based on a need and an understanding of what that is. As well as not focusing on a cash/sales/revenue focused model.

I focused too much on my broad goals and not the steps to get there. From there my approach was fundamentally flawed and doomed to failure.

As I process this huge failure and lesson I will shape the new Bombshell Shirts (and eventually Bombshell Style).

Thanks again. I'll keep updating this post as things develop.

Reno

Zens advice is pretty sound..

How much did you make when you went to the air show?

If you made anything can you expand on that? Can you offer a bunch of different design shirts including newer and older.

Could you put those together in an inventory package (after proven sales) and sell the sales system and inventory to other people that would like to do the same.

There must be at least 2 airshows every weekend in the U.S. Alone. Not to mention world wide..

If you had a distributor at each that would be a way to create your brand from the people who would buy it.

Just a thought.

Interesting reading and observations. Great tests I used the same for my t-shirt designs sold none and scrapped the idea. Was not fast lane for me at all.

Originally Posted by JackEdwards

Zens advice is pretty sound..

How much did you make when you went to the air show?

If you made anything can you expand on that? Can you offer a bunch of different design shirts including newer and older.

Could you put those together in an inventory package (after proven sales) and sell the sales system and inventory to other people that would like to do the same.

There must be at least 2 airshows every weekend in the U.S. Alone. Not to mention world wide..

If you had a distributor at each that would be a way to create your brand from the people who would buy it.

Just a thought.

I made about $800 gross for the day. It was a smaller show and had four men's designs and one women's. The women's actually sold as well if not better with just the one design.

Putting a package together is not a bad idea. Branching out to distributors is interesting as well.

Perhaps these are ways to create exposure, community, and familiarity, which are keys to selling tees online.

The "nose art" stuff is on life support, but I have several ideas that I want to try in making the brand more focused with a broader appeal. I'll update this post as it develops.

Thanks

Reno,

I had a look at your website. Just my .02 cents. I like the idea of the shirts and the designs. As a casual observer, I think the website needs a makeover. It felt really "busy" and "cluttered" to me. I liked the designs though. Prices I thought were too high. $35-50 for a silk screen printed tshirt is pretty stiff. I can buy a nice silk Tommy Bahama button up shirt for not much more. I don't think I would personally pay more than $30 for a tshirt no matter the design or how much I liked it. Maybe you do some testing and try some different prices and see what people are willing to pay. Sell them at cost, and that will tell you if people even like the designs in the first place, then slowly raise prices to see where sales taper off and that will tell you what people are willing to pay.

I built a tshirt company from nothing to $200k/year in a very flooded market. You can do it. I'd be happy to look at your business strategy for free, I just joined here but feel I could give some advice on the topic seeing as I've done it. Anyway, I'm around via phone 24/7 502-876-7625 Rob.

Good luck. Same applies to any of you seeking advice/ideas.

Originally Posted by Z5 FILMS

Reno,

I had a look at your website. Just my .02 cents. I like the idea of the shirts and the designs. As a casual observer, I think the website needs a makeover. It felt really "busy" and "cluttered" to me. I liked the designs though. Prices I thought were too high. $35-50 for a silk screen printed tshirt is pretty stiff. I can buy a nice silk Tommy Bahama button up shirt for not much more. I don't think I would personally pay more than $30 for a tshirt no matter the design or how much I liked it. Maybe you do some testing and try some different prices and see what people are willing to pay. Sell them at cost, and that will tell you if people even like the designs in the first place, then slowly raise prices to see where sales taper off and that will tell you what people are willing to pay.

Z5 Thanks for taking a look. Yes I agree it is a bit busy and I am working on a cleaner design. I am considering focusing the brand a bit differently while defining my market audience more clearly. The price on the shirts is another issue that I need to pin down. The shirts are designed to be more high end and are printed on premium fitted combed ring spun cotton tees.

I also need to get more designs on there and define the look and feel of the brand better. It is too "nose art" and military right now, which I think will be a good aspect of it, but historical "bombshells", iconic figures and events through cool graphics on tees are where I think I really need to go with this.

I really appreciate the feedback

Reno

Originally Posted by domainflipguy

I built a tshirt company from nothing to $200k/year in a very flooded market. You can do it. I'd be happy to look at your business strategy for free, I just joined here but feel I could give some advice on the topic seeing as I've done it. Anyway, I'm around via phone 24/7 502-876-7625 Rob.

Good luck. Same applies to any of you seeking advice/ideas.

Domainflip:

That's impressive. So I'll give you a call and would love to hear your story.

Reno

And please nobody take my short messages as spam or bragging. I simply want to help in an overactive forum which is a great thing. I'm new here and hope to spend more time on posts in the future. Thanks! Reno I'm here all day.

Originally Posted by domainflipguy

I just joined here but feel I could give some advice on the topic seeing as I've done it. Anyway, I'm around via phone 24/7 502-876-7625 Rob.

Another example of solicitation.