There are different clothing business ideas for fashion entrepreneurs. The fashion industry is one of the fastest-growing industries that is centered around talent and creativity.
Looking for the right business to start today? Get 35 Booming business ideas with step-by-step guides to starting them. A strategic and financial breakdown of the most lucrative businesses in Nigeria.
Fashion covers clothing items like sportswear, women wear, menswear, bridal wear, costumes, luxury goods, children wear, and all forms of body covering.
Basically, fashion is seen as an important and unique identity. It is unique to each culture, gender, age, tribe, and class. Simply, what we wear is an extension of who we are, what we represent, and where we come from.
These days, the demand for unique clothing has made the business a very profitable one. As long as you are creative and skilful, there are opportunities in designing, manufacturing, distributing, retailing, printing, importing, and exporting fashion items, etc.
If you are looking at the possibility of starting a fashion business, below are clothing business ideas and the basic steps you need to take to start them.
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Clothing Business Ideas You Can Start In Nigeria
Fashion Design
Fashion design is the art of creating clothes that are aesthetically pleasing. It is a business well suited for those with a high level of creativity and good management skill.
Fashion designers do pattern grading, sewing, draping, weaving, and measuring. They use equipment like sewing machines, tape rule, scissors, seam reaper, needles, and many more. Fashion design can begin on a big or small scale, full or part-time basis, and can start from home or in a big building.
Clothing Line
This is one of the clothing business ideas that offers clothing services to a select target audience for a particular purpose. A clothing line business usually is a collection of apparel designed based on a theme or for a season.
A clothing line involves establishing a business, designing clothes, selecting materials of your choice, and sourcing for a manufacturer who can bring your designs to life. Then, build a sales channel through retail locations or online stores and target the right market.
The best way to make your clothing line profitable is to produce clothing items people want, that stands out from existing brands.
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Fashion School
This is one of the clothing business ideas perfect for fashion entrepreneurs who have the experience, knowledge, and can pass it on to others. It is a very profitable business area especially now that people are becoming increasingly fashion conscious and are seeking to have basic knowledge in the field.
Fashion institutes train people on pattern grading, fabric cutting, sewing, designing, drawing, draping, taking measurements, etc. It admits students, trains for a period of time, then certifies them as full-fledged fashion designers.
Fabric Store
This is a clothing business idea that specializes in the sale of fabrics to tailors, fashion enthusiasts, or the general populace. A fabric store may sell general craft supplies, sewing machines, and provide expert sewing advice to buyers. They can sell a specific kind of apparel or all kinds of clothing materials.
Depending on what you like, you can operate a fabric store that specializes in imported silks, culturally made materials, or pattern wears. You must ensure to have a reliable supply source and knowledge of the product.
Generally, the quality of what you sell determines the calibre of people that will patronise you.
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Textile Printing
Textile printing involves adding colour and decorative patterns to make a fabric more unique. It is often done in a way that the designs are well bonded with the fabrics to avoid washing and friction. Also, there are methods, techniques, and machines that can help you print your design and decorative pattern.
Garment Manufacturing
Garment manufacturing involves product design, pattern grading, marking, cutting, sewing, checking, finishing, pressing, and packaging of clothing. It is a process of turning raw materials into finished products.
It is a wide business that allows you to focus on the niche that resonates with you. For instance, you can decide to manufacture jackets dealing specifically with Safari jackets or all kinds of jackets.
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Boutique
This is one of the most common clothing business ideas. It is a specialized type of retail store usually limited in size, scope, and inventory. Boutiques offer unique and stylish clothing, jewellery, and luxury goods. It can be located in enclosed malls, streets of big cities, or places where you can sell goods at high prices.
Most times, boutiques are targeted at a niche market so, find the right location to set up a shop and attract the right audience. They may sell customized or one-of-a-kind fashion products to higher-end buyers.
Uniform Making
Uniform making is one of the lucrative clothing business ideas you can start today. It is high in-demands in schools, businesses, organisations, churches, etc.
In this kind of business, your major clients will likely be banks, airlines, security companies, military and paramilitary groups, truck drivers, health care workers, public transit employees, etc. This is because uniform to these businesses is a tool for branding and a way to communicate their corporate image.
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Sewing And Alteration Service
This is one of the clothing business ideas that require sewing skills. It has become one of the clothing businesses in high demand because no one wants to wear a dress that is not perfectly fitted. So once a new cloth does not fit, the buyer takes it to an alteration shop for adjustment.
Basically, an alteration shop offers services like clothing repair, custom tailoring, button replacement, garment and fabric alteration, etc. It is also a profitable business idea with the potential of having constant patronage. If you have little knowledge of sewing and the necessary equipment, you can begin an alteration service on a full-time or part-time basis.
Embroidery
Embroidery is a clothing business idea that involves decorating fabrics or other materials using a needle, special sewing machine to apply thread or yarn. It can also involve the use of materials like pearls, beads, sequins, quills, and can be done on different kinds of clothing material. It can be done by hand on a small scale or with the use of a machine on a large scale.
Crochet Knitting
This is one of the oldest clothing business ideas that create textiles with the use of crochet hook and yarn, thread, or strands of other materials. It requires a high level of creativity to turn the yarn into a full garment, décor items, or other designs made from fabrics.
Crochet knitting can be done manually or with the use of machines. But you need to choose only good quality supplies so as to have high-quality products for sale.
Costume Rental
This is a business that offers retail sales and renting of costume clothing, props, etc. They offer customers costumes, wigs, and clothing for specific purposes usually for a short period of time.
A costume rental shop can deal with a combination of items for theatre and dance troupes; gown and robe to educational institutions and religious centers; wedding gowns for brides, robes for Santa Claus, etc. If well managed, costume rental can be a lucrative business anywhere in the world.
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Step By Step Plan On How To Start Clothing Business Ideas
We have highlighted most of the popular and lucrative clothing business ideas you can start today. Going forward, we will dive into the steps you need to take to build these business ideas into a profitable venture.
Step 1: Decide On Your Niche
Virtually all innovative business ideas come from the passion to solve a problem. In the same vein, starting any of the clothing business ideas requires identifying a gap in the market, and implementing solutions that will relieve pain for your target audience.
Do not be a jack of all trades. Choose a niche and choose a target audience. Then, focus on building your expertise in that niche. This will help people to know you for something and it will make branding easy.
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Step 2: Create A Business Plan
A business plan is a living document that helps you to critically think about your idea, goal, and see if it is achievable.
In writing a plan, do thorough research on the target market, the product, marketing strategy, competition, organisational structure, and everything that makes up a business. It should be a flexible document that can improve as the business expands. A solid business plan is important especially if you intend to seek support from financial institutions.
Step 3: Startup Funding
As soon as the business plan is ready, you can proceed to secure funding from financial institutions or investors if you cannot bootstrap the business. You must ensure to have a steady source of finance to get the business up and running.
Financing a business can be from personal funds, grants or loans, through investors, or crowdfunding. The available finance should be enough to cover wages, license and permit fees, rent, advertising, equipment purchase, etc. Until the business can survive on its own, you need to secure finance to start and keep the business running.
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Step 4: Register The Business
You can run your business as a sole proprietor, or as a limited liability company. Depending on ownership, the most important step is to get it registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission.
First, choose a catchy name, then, log on to the official website of CAC to register. In case you do not understand the process, you can hire the services of ReDahlia. ReDahlia is a resource center for every entrepreneur. It offers business registration services, business consulting, and co-working spaces.
Step 5: Have A Physical Or Online Store
Set up a physical or online store for your clothing business. It should be furnished to taste and the location should be accessible to customers.
Alternatively, you can start by reaching out to existing boutiques, so they can add your brand to their collections. Be strategic in choosing the boutiques to partner with. They should have your target audience as their market.
Step 6: Create Your Design And Brand
Developing your brand and design can be a very exciting stage in setting up your clothing business. Once you have an idea of what you want to create, sketch it on paper by hand or digitally, using Adobe Illustrator. Then, include your product’s details, technical specifications, and other features.
Designs are usually created with the target market in mind. It is usually a unique and authentic piece that sets you apart. It can be printed designs, embroidered designs, etc. You have to do good work if you want to be associated with your design.
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Step 7: Manufacture Your Cloth
Manufacturing is one of the critical stages in the clothing business. It is a stage where inspirations and business ideas are brought to reality. After the designs, samples, patterns, fabrics have been developed, they are sent to manufacturers.
If you’re not manufacturing yourself, you have to do your due diligence before you choose a manufacturer. Go through their work and ask questions from other clients that have worked with them. This is very critical and you don’t want to get it wrong.
Agree on terms and conditions and make sure both parties are on the same page. Time of delivery, cost of production, etc. are some of the things you have to agree on and document.
Step 8: Create A Sales Strategy
Once your products are ready, the next thing is to create a marketing and sales plan. You have to consider factors like pricing, where you want to sell, how to deliver your products, how much to spend on marketing, the marketing channels to use, etc.
Here are some marketing tips that will help you sell your products:
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Sell Online
Having an online store where potential customers can look through your products and order is one of the cheapest ways to sell your products. This can be on E-commerce sites like Shopify, or your own custom-built site. These days, it is easy to create an e-commerce store without technical knowledge.
A well-designed website should expand upon and support the values and personality traits that are core to your business. More so, in an online store, there are no monthly rents, mortgage or property taxes to pay, and no fixtures to buy.
Leverage Social Media
Also, leverage social media channels like Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, Snapchat, Tik Tok, etc. Build relationships with social media influencers and get them to influence your brand.
With social media, you can attract more customers and keep your existing customers up to date with new product offerings. You can also build authority on social media by sharing valuable and educative content about the fashion industry.
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Advertise The Business
Creating awareness is one of the best ways to establish brand recognition and reputation for your business. This can be online and offline, through print and electronic media. There’s a limit to which you can reach clients organically, therefore you have to spend some money on advertising. You have to have a marketing budget as a business.
Are you a fashion entrepreneur or do you want to start a fashion business? We will like to hear your story and thoughts in the comments.
Looking for the right business to start today? Get 35 Booming business ideas with step-by-step guides to starting them. A strategic and financial breakdown of the most lucrative businesses in Nigeria.
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