How to Start a T-Shirt Business | Everything You Need to Know

The first word that comes to mind when we talk about clothes is a T-shirt or jeans, and why not? T-shirts are the all-time fashion component that helps you stay in fashion.

Based on a number of styles, patterns, designs, and colors, the T-shirts provide us with a vast number of options to wear. The fact that T-shirts are always in demand.

No matter what fashion style comes in and goes, T-shirts are here to stay forever.
So you think in the right direction to start a T-shirt business that is 100% legit and safe.

The T-Shirt business is much easier to create and more profitable than others which require tons of industry experience and expertise in work.

However, there is no hard and fast rule that you should have prior experience when starting a clothing business, and you can begin the T-shirt as a side business and still make a profit quickly.

So for all those thinking of stepping into the clothing or fashion business, we recommend you step in because there is always room for something new.

Is starting a clothing business worth it?

The desire to look good and unique is universal and never-ending, everyone here wishes to look attractive, and all these people together are the potential target market of a clothing brand.

Now, just by imagining how big the consumer market is, you can easily guess how much demand there is in the consumer market. So, of course, the clothing business has its demand, but you must not forget that there is massive competition for you in the market.

Proving from facts, in 2021, the global custom T-shirt market was around $3.9 billion, and by 2030 the market is expected to hit a value of about $10 billion. With so much value in clothing, a good space is available for you to start a T-shirt business.

With your own clothing business, you can put as much time as you like into your business. After all, it’s for your benefit in the end. You can start your business with an initial small investment and then grow your business using the right marketing strategies.

Remember that marketing can only expand your brand name, but if you are providing the correct value to the customers that customers are satisfied with, then your clothing business grows.

Even if you don’t have something to start with, even if you don’t own a brick-and-mortar store, you can start your business online with a bit of investment and then continue to grow.

So, we can safely say that creating a t-shirt clothing line is a safe business to start with.

10 Steps to starting a T-shirt Clothing business

Here is how you can start your own T-shirt clothing business. Follow this Guideline:

1. Pick a Niche

When starting a clothing brand, the very first thing you should know about is the massive diversity in the clothing industry. So if you are tight on investment, you should definitely focus on one niche.

We have seen many startups decline because they just started with diversity and couldn’t handle them. Remember, slow and steady wins the race.

Brainstorm, think about your design ideas, and sketch your design over paper or a graphic designing tool like Photoshop or illustrator. Ask for reviews from people, and study what people find exciting and what consumers are willing to spend money on.

After brainstorming and finalizing your ideas, pick up a niche that interests you and has a potential market.

For example, if you are stepping into the market with something new, research the gap in the clothing industry and find a potential market that is interested and searching for the product you plan to sell.

The funny and humorous slogans on T-shirts are not much popular, and fewer brands are working over them. You are more likely to get more attention and a good response if less competition works over a niche.

2. Design the ideas

After choosing a particular niche, you need to think and work on the product ideas. The designs are the best thing that you can make your business.

Create multiple versions of your clothing design. Apart from the sketches, you must create digital vectors and graphic files of your clothes’ appearance.

Be as creative as you can be, and be as unique as no one after the fantastic products sell very fast in the consumer market. You can try different styles, patterns, and designs by selling them or getting reviews from your friends online.

Then, after getting reviews, identify what could be the best fit to sell in the consumer market.

To be updated about the industry trends and for any fashion industry knowledge, your competitors are the best thing you have.

You can learn a lot from your competitors and see what they are selling and how customers buy from them. Also, you can take notes on what marketing strategies they use to gain the customer’s attention.

Even if you do not have many designs, you can always seek help from others. For example, you can work with clothing manufacturers with a dedicated graphic and fashion design team who can assist you in creating a unique design for your clothing line.

3. Find the target audience

One of the most crucial steps is the target the audience. The top-quality designs of T-shirts are not enough to build up your clothing business if you don’t know what target consumer group you are targeting.

You might have a basic idea about your clothing line’s audience, but you need to find out the desires and needs of your target market, which will take some study.

You will need to study demographics, buying patterns, buying points, and customer buying behaviors to analyze the need of your consumer market. Read customer reviews. Join different fashion communities and identify who can be your consumer.

Also, several tools can help you identify a group of consumers and their buying behavior for a particular type of product.

4. Source the fabric

After that, you have validated your designs and made up your mind. Now you need to choose a clothes supplier who can source clothing fabric for you.

Here you have three options either you can source clothing fabric from the clothing suppliers or start production of your clothing line if you have machines and facilities, or you can hire clothing manufacturers, you can provide them with clothing fabric and then ask them to create a custom clothing for your based on your requirement and needs.

Or you can ask your clothing manufacturers to source clothing fabrics for you so that you don’t need to work with clothes fabric suppliers anymore.

It’s always the best practice to source high-quality clothing fabric, so your customer is satisfied with the value you provide. It’s not a good reputation if your shirt gets shrinks after a couple of washes, so you should consider things carefully.

Doing business and making it last that the secret to long terms business. By having a satisfied, loyal base of customers, your brand can quickly gain a reputation in the consumer market.

Also read: How to Start a Personal Shopper Business in 10 Easy Steps

5. Choose a clothing manufacturer

If you are not printing designs on your own, then you need to work with a clothing manufacturer. You can choose from overseas suppliers and local suppliers. The overseas supplier is more likely to cost you less because of the lower labor costs.

You can review different T-shirt manufacturers and check out their offerings what is their MOQ (Minimum Order Quantity). Be sure to choose the right T-shirt manufacturers offering various designs, styles, fabric options, and low MOQs.

You focus on several factors when choosing a clothing manufacturer: design quality, fabrics, and more.

6. Draft a clothing Business plan

A clothing business plan is one of the major parts of your business that you should not miss. Unfortunately, most startups brand don’t focus on creating a business plan, and that’s where they go wrong.

A clothing business plan is something that every brand should have. A business plan isn’t just a plan that lists out all the details but a proper document that tells a lot about business.

In a business plan, you can mention and put a different number of things together, like presenting a business summary, telling your financials, creating a marketing plan, and listing out how things will be in your business.

You can write down your business’s 1-2- or 5-year goals. And it’s a fact that you are more likely to achieve what you already know about. So, here having a business plan is beneficial for your business.

Here is a draft version of what your business plan should include.

Executive Summary

Products & Services

Market Analysis

Marketing & Sales

Organization & Management

Financial Projections

7. Register your business

When selling in the consumer market, you must acquire a business license to sell clothes through a brick-or-mortar store or online.

Obtaining a business license is beneficial as it can save your business from getting copied, or no one else can steal your designs, styles, or under your name.

If you find someone doing so, you can claim your copyright and gain a financial penalty from them. Moreover, the consumer finds registered businesses a trustable source for shopping.

Even if you are doing business online, you only need to register your business in the country or state from where you are operating your business.

8. Build your brand and all about it

Now, it’s time to focus on your brand, how it will look, and how you want your consumer to see it. Here are some of the things that you should focus on when you are starting your e-commerce T-shirt business.

Picking up a memorable brand name

Ever happened that you probably forgot the names of usual people, but you easily remember the unique characters. So it’s one trick you should keep in mind while naming your business.

To make people easily recognize your brand’s name, you should choose a unique name that reflects your brand image. Also, choose a unique logo for your clothing brand.

Here are the 800+ clothing brand slogans ultimate list you can choose from.

Unique logo

A unique, neat, decent logo is also a good cliffhanger. Nowadays, many brands are just selling their brands based on their logos.

A simple plain shirt with a brand logo is convincing enough for the consumers who buy it. That’s just because of the brand value and brand image.

Likewise, you can create a unique logo that is visually attractive to attract the consumer’s attention.

Use SEO marketing techniques

SEO marketing is a must-have for you if you are doing business online and have a T-shirt clothing website.

For those who don’t know, SEO marketing is a process by which you increase your website rankings by optimizing your website based on the guidelines from google.

You can use several tools to do SEO on your clothing brand’s website, or you can hire professionals.

9. Marketing Plan

In the initial stages, your marketing plan might be difficult as you will start your business from scratch. Making a marketing plan is a must-do step that helps your business and brand grow. You can use social media marketing and market your brand and business.

Read here: how you can increase your Instagram flowers for the clothing business

You can increase your conversion rate by remarketing your brand and reaching your customers again by email marketing.

For example, suppose you have a customer that hasn’t stopped from your website for a while, and you can send them an email offering them a discount or customized promotional offers based on their interest.

Also, try to work on your brand image, as customers get attracted to the visually attractive business and brand with a good brand image in the market.

Moreover, there are many brands working for the same potential market as you, so try to be unique so your brand can stand out.

Also, you can work with social media influencers as these people have massive fan bases, so by dealing with them you can ask them to promote your brand so that their audience knows about it.

Therefore, you can quickly get more conversion rates by promoting your brand through social media influencers.

10. Build an online T-shirt clothing website

The online clothing market is expected to reach around $1.2 trillion alone in the US by 2025. So the online consumer market is very strong.

So even if you are launching a brick-and-mortar store or selling in any marketplace, you should also launch an online clothing store. Launching your website is now easier than ever. Just buy the domain, upload your listing, add a product description, and done.

There is a number of online e-commerce platforms through which you can open your online clothing stores, like Shopify, Woocommerce, Wix, and more.

You can check their themes, customization options, payment gateways, and prices and choose the best fit according to your needs and budget.

You can integrate your business with print-on-demand services, where you can create a whole studio and receives custom orders from the consumers.

You can forward the orders received and ask your manufacturers to create those orders for you. Setting up an online clothing store and building an online presence is essential to earn profits and stand firm in the fashion industry.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q1) Is it profitable to start a T-shirt clothing line business?

The T-shirt is the only apparel component that is a basic need for all men, women, kids, and everyone. Based on stats, the T-shirt clothing line business has around more than $2 trillion value business.

The T-shirt clothing business is not only a profitable clothing business but also a low startup business. Although the T-shirt clothing business is profitable, you can make around $100000 by selling a custom clothing line.

Another factor over which your profits depends is at which what type of clothing niche you are selling in the clothing industry.

Q2) How much does it cost to start a T-shirt clothing business?

The online T-shirt business is a promising startup business with a small investment compared to the investment required in other businesses. Keeping the print-on-demand strategy can keep your business cost low but profitable.

Although you are unsure about any particular clothing line, you can ask the clothing manufacturer if you would pay them when all of your clothing lines are sold.

And initially, you’ll only need to pay subscription fees and other charges just buying the website. After that, you can start your clothing business with as little investment as $2500 to $10000.

Author Bio
John Cary is a keen fashion blogger and a design consultant who primarily provides detailed guides and advice about anything that comes under fashion.

He has worked closely in the fashion industry, which enhances his experience and makes him more passionate about the fashion industry. When it comes to clothing and fashion John Cary makes absolute sense.