making a clothing line business plan

To take your dream from a business idea to launch and make it in the frenzied world of fashion takes a specific set of skills, a generous dose of creativity, and a pinch of business savvy.

Today, Sarah is a successful designer and owner of her own clothing line. What she’s learned over the past two decades is that taking your dream from idea to launch and making it in the frenzied world of fashion takes a specific set of skills, a generous dose of creativity, and a pinch of business savvy.

In this guide, we’ll explore the ins and outs of starting a clothing line from scratch—everything from education and design to manufacturing and marketing—with tips for selling clothes from a seasoned pro.

Meet the fashion industry pro

Full body portrait of designer Sarah Donofrio

Sarah has lived and worked in two countries, and her experience spans everything from design and production to education and physical retail. She has struggled and thrived, sometimes simultaneously, over her many years in the industry.

In 2016, Sarah was a contender on Project Runway ’s 15th season. She has since launched her namesake brand as an online store on Shopify, won multiple awards, and had her work appear in multiple publications and retailer shops.

How to start a clothing line in 12 steps

1. Develop your fashion design skills

A framed fashion drawing leans on a table beside a plant

Designers like Vivienne Westwood and Dapper Dan found massive success in the fashion world, even though they were self-taught. And they started their careers pre-internet. We live in a time of access, where rebuilding an engine or tailoring a t-shirt can be learned simply by watching a YouTube video.

It’s possible to skip school and still launch your own clothing line, but formal education, whether in a classroom or online , has its merits: learn the latest industry standards, access resources and equipment, make contacts, and get feedback from pros.

While Sarah owes a great deal of her success to learning professional skills in a classroom, much of her education was gained on the job, working in corporate retail. “I wanted to work for myself,” she says, “But I felt that it was important to get experience.”

It took me a long time to be confident enough that I could fill a store with my clothing. Sarah Donofrio

Sarah is a huge advocate for spending a few years learning the ropes from other brands and designers. “It took me a long time to be confident enough that I could fill a store with my clothing,” she says. “I think that I needed the time to grow and to get advice and experience.”

How to start a clothing line: A step by step guide

In this video, we'll teach you the ins and outs of the fashion industry and everything you need to know to start a clothing brand from scratch.

Many institutions offer fashion design and small business programs in varying formats. Schools like Parsons in New York and Central Saint Martins in the UK are world renowned for their fashion programs.

If you have more drive than funds or time, there are a growing number of fast-track and online courses for fashion industry hopefuls. Check local community colleges for virtual or part-time formats that accommodate your schedule and budget, or consider learning through sites like MasterClass (there’s a fashion design course taught by Marc Jacobs himself), Maker’s Row Academy , or Udemy .

2. Create a business plan

A person carries a notepad and a large leather handbag

As Sarah discovered, the world of fashion and the world of business have a lot more overlap than she expected.

Starting a clothing line requires many of the same considerations as starting any business. How much does it cost to start? When should you pursue capital for your startup? What outside help will you need to navigate legal, financial, production, and distribution aspects of the business? Where and how will you produce your garments? Let’s dig in.

What’s your business model?

This guide is for those looking to design and develop their own clothing brand and collections. If you are interested in the fashion world but have no interest or skills in design, consider reselling by buying wholesale or trying dropshipping.

For those designing a clothing line from scratch, this is the point where you will decide what type of business you are looking to run. This will help you determine how much time, effort, and funding you will require upfront.

A few business models are:

What does it cost to start a clothing line?

Once you have a business idea for your clothing line, you may be able to fund it yourself and bootstrap as you go. Designing and sewing made-to-order clothing on your own means you don’t have to carry a ton of inventory. However, you will need to invest upfront in equipment and large quantities of fabric to be cost-effective. Other costs include shipping materials, fees for launching your site, and a marketing budget.

If you plan to go all in and work with manufacturers on a production run, you’ll have high upfront costs to meet minimums. A solid business plan and costing exercise will help you determine how much funding you’ll need.

In either case, expect to need thousands of dollars upfront . “In fashion, you’re not just costing fabric and buttons and labor,” says Sarah. “You’re costing shipping, you’re costing heating and rent.”

There are a few low budget entry points in the world of fashion, though, including consignment , dropshipping, and print on demand.

💅 Resources:

3. Follow fashion trends

A two panel shot of models posing in pieces from Sarah Donofrio's clothing line

Through Sarah’s years of developing her brand as a side hustle, she’s learned that while watching trends is extremely important, it’s equally important to focus. Hone in on your strengths and be true to your own design sensibilities.

Fashion school will teach you the basics of making everything from undergarments to evening wear. “The trick is finding what you’re good at and focusing on that,” Sarah says.

I’ve always had a really good trend intuition. But it’s all about translation. Sarah Donofrio

While her line has a year-over-year consistency—design choices in her pieces that are unmistakably hers—Sarah is always watching trends. She says that the key is adapting those trends to your brand, personalizing them, and making them work for your customer.

“I’ve always had a really good trend intuition,” Sarah says. “But it’s all about translation.” Sarah worked on plus-size collections during her time in the corporate world and said that translating trends meant also considering the needs of the plus customer.

Though she sticks to her strengths, Sarah factors what’s happening in fashion—and in the world around her—into her development. “Take athleisure,” she says. “I don’t make tights, I don’t make sports bras, but this cool woven crop would look kind of awesome with tights, so that's how I would incorporate the trend.”

Keeping her production tight and retaining control over design, Sarah was quickly able to pivot in the wake of the global pandemic, adding face masks in her signature prints. She sold 1,100 masks within a two-month period, and she’s turned those sales into repeat customers.

Person wears a face mask against a colorful backfround

To get inspiration for your own idea, devour fashion publications, follow style influencers, and subscribe to fashion newsletters and podcasts to stay inspired and catch trends before they emerge.

In the noisy world of fashion, consider finding niches or filling gaps in the industry like these inspiring founders:

💅 Resources:

4. Build a strong brand

6 panels from Sarah Donofrio's Instagram feed

Remember that “brand” does not mean your logo (that’s branding). Building your fashion brand is an exercise in putting to paper your values, your mission, what you stand for, your story, and more.

Creating brand guidelines will help to inform all of your business and branding decisions as you grow. They will dictate visual direction, website design, and marketing campaigns. They should dictate what you look for in a retail partner or a new hire.

Use social media to build a lifestyle around your brand: share your inspiration and process, inject your own personality, tell your story, and be deliberate with every post.

“The key to social media is consistency,” says Sarah. “I think you have to post every day, but it also has to be interesting.” She mixes up her content with travel, inspiration, sneak peeks at works in progress, and even some interesting stats from her Shopify dashboard.

💅 Resources :

5. Design and develop your clothing line

Fashion illustration of three figures against a peach background

Sarah is an advocate of the sketchbook as one of the most important tools for a designer. “I take my sketchbook everywhere with me,” she says. “As I’m sketching away, every so often I’m like, ‘Oh, this little drawing would translate really well into a repeat pattern.’”

As a contender on Project Runway , she wasn’t allowed to have her sketchbook with her due to the rules of the competition. “That really threw me off my game,” she says.

Illustration of a person wearing a sleeping mask

Sarah’s tips for developing a clothing line:

6. Source fashion fabrics or design your own

Sarah says that fabric sourcing has a lot to do with who you know. Building a network in the industry can help you access contacts for fabric agents, wholesalers, and mills. When she lived in Toronto, she knew the local fabric market and used an agent to get access to fabrics from Japan.

But even that route has pitfalls. “In Canada, everyone’s using the same agent,” she says. “ All of the local clothing lines are all using the same fabrics.”

In Canada, everyone’s using the same agent. All of the local clothing lines are all using the same fabrics. Sarah Donofrio

When fabric from all over the world became easier to access online, Sarah began to find it difficult to source unique prints and materials, despite her contacts. Her solution: she began to design her own.

A person wearing a patterned sleeping mask holds a notebook above their head

“When I got out of fashion school in 2005, you couldn’t just go online and go to Alibaba. Now, lots of people I know do that,” Sarah says. “That’s why I really got into honing my textile design skills.”

For those just starting out, agents can be helpful, but Sarah suggests building personal networks and joining communities of designers. Start meeting others in the industry at local incubators, meetup groups, online communities, and live fashion networking events.

7. Setup clothing production and manufacturing

Close up of a person's hands sewing garments on a Juki Sewing machine

In the early days, you may not be producing volumes that warrant outside help, but as you scale, a manufacturing partner will let you free up time for other aspects of the business and design.

There are a few exceptions. If the handmade aspect of your pieces is a cornerstone of your brand, you’ll always touch production even as you scale. Growth, though, is generally dependent on outsourcing at least some of the work.

Manufacturing your designs can be accomplished in a number of ways:

In-house production

Adrienne Butikofer of OKAYOK has kept her production in-house by bringing on staff as she scaled. She also outsources her dye runs to a factory. In Michigan, Detroit Denim produces clothing in its own manufacturing facility, where the founders are able to control the process—at scale.

If you’re starting out from your home , be sure your studio is set up to accommodate flow from one machine to the next, has ample storage, considers ergonomics, and is an inspiring space where you’ll be motivated to spend time.

Alternatively, combat loneliness and save money on equipment by seeking out co-working spaces, incubators, or shared studios.

Two pane image of the same model posing in different looks

Working with clothing manufacturers

In the beginning, Sarah’s line was produced primarily by her own hands, but she began outsourcing some elements to local sewers as she grew. Now, she’s working with factories and taking back her time to focus on building her brand, developing new collections, and expanding her wholesale channel.

Obviously American-made comes with a higher price point, but it’s worth it to me. Sarah Donofrio

For Sarah, closely monitoring the process was important. She also feels that her customer cares about local and ethical production— enough to pay extra for it . “Obviously American-made comes with a higher price point, but it’s worth it to me,” she says. “I think transparency is a big plus.”

When vetting local factories, Sarah believes it’s important to visit each one to get a feel for their practices. She initially requests samples from the factories to inspect the craftsmanship.

Sarah’s experience working in the corporate world taught her not to put all of her eggs in one basket. She weighs the strengths and weaknesses of each factory and collects her findings in her own database. “Big companies use different factories for different things,” she says. “Maybe there’s a factory that does knitwear better or one that does pants better.”

Ultimately, how you choose to tackle production and choose a manufacturing partner comes down to a few questions:

8. Plan your collections around fashion seasons

two pane image of the same model posing in two different looks

The fashion industry operates on a seasonal cycle (fall/winter and spring/summer), and working backward from each season means that development of a collection can start a year or more out.

"In corporate, we were developing two years in advance,” Sarah says. “Big corporations tend to design faster, so they’re doing a lot of trend research.” Without the big team and resources, though, independent designers like Sarah are working closer to delivery dates.

Have your collection ready for the next season at least six to eight months in advance. If you’re selling wholesale, buyers will need to see your collection a month before fashion week. Sarah Donofrio

Your design and development period and delivery dates depend on your customer and your launch strategy, Sarah says. She suggests that you have your collection ready for the next season at least six to eight months in advance. If you’re selling wholesale, buyers will need to see your collection a month before fashion week.

Work backward from your delivery date to establish your design and production timelines. Add dates of important global fashion events, like New York Fashion Week, to your calendar to help set goals.

Seasonality doesn’t have to dictate all of your collections, however. “It’s always such a shame when I design a beautiful print and I think, ‘I only have this for one season. I only have a six-month window,’” says Sarah. Therefore, she’s inspired to work toward prints that work regardless of season.

While product development is a constant concern for fashion brands, signature or core bestselling pieces may stay in your collection for years. This is true for basics brands that focus on, say, “the perfect cotton tee,” a classic that occasionally gets a color update. KOTN ’s brand is built around well made, sustainable basics with core tees selling alongside seasonal releases.

9. Pitch your clothing line to fashion retailers

A person holds shopping bags inside a lifestyle retail store

Wholesale played a huge part in the growth of Sarah’s brand in the beginning. After navigating other sales channels like her own retail store, she’s recently returned to a wholesale strategy.

In fashion, there are two main ways to sell your clothing line through other retailers:

“It’s a lot easier for stores to take your whole collection on consignment, as opposed to just one or two pieces,” says Sarah, “because they have nothing to lose.”

You can’t just have pretty clothes. You have to know every detail. Sarah Donofrio

Approaching buyers is a daunting experience, and Sarah has worked on both sides of the transaction. Her experience looking through the buyer’s lens helped her stand out when she was pitching her own line.

Be prepared, Sarah urges. “The first time I pitched my line, I asked myself, ‘What are buyers going to ask me?’” she says. “You can’t just have pretty clothes. You have to know every detail.”

Hitting the pavement was a strategy that worked for Sarah when she was starting out. While she advocates for face time, Sarah doesn’t recommend an ambush. Start slow, she says. Introduce yourself with a card or a catalog and try to book time to meet later.

“There are ways that you can approach people without either accosting them or hiding behind a computer screen.”

10. Build an online store

Screenshot of Sarah Donofrio's website home page

Let’s make sure you have a solid online business idea . Does your clothing line business plan detail how you will handle shipping and fulfillment , packaging, and online customer service? Is your production method able to accommodate single orders?

Ready? OK, let’s open your store. It only takes a minute to sign up for a free trial, and we’ll give you some time to play around before you commit.

Ready to launch your own clothing line? Start your free trial on Shopify.

A professional online store can serve two purposes:

Setting up your online store

A platform like Shopify is simple to use even if you don’t have graphic design or coding skills. Choose a Shopify Theme that puts photos first, and customize with your own logo, colours, and other design elements before adding products.

We suggest themes designed for fashion brands like Broadcast or Spark , or a free version like Boundless . 💡 Tip: Need help picking the right theme for your store? Take our quiz .

Your product pages need to work overtime to capture details like fit, feel, and draping. There are also a wealth of clothing store apps in the Shopify App Store designed specifically to help fashion brands create personalized shopping experiences and solve common challenges like fit and sizing. Among the best apps to sell clothes , these are a few standouts:

Consider other online channels like social selling. Reach your target audience by integrating Instagram and Facebook Shops . Your clothing line may also be a fit for marketplaces like Etsy, where you can reach a built-in audience of those interested in handmade goods.

Photography for clothing brands

A model poses in a patterned top and yellow pants

The right theme helps photos pop, so make sure you invest in professional photo shoots . For a smaller budget, a simple lighting kit, a DSLR camera (or even your smartphone), and some tricks of the trade can help you produce professional-looking DIY shots. Be sure to capture details: fabric texture, trims, and closures.

A lifestyle shoot produces content for other pages on your site as well as marketing campaigns, a press kit, and lookbook. Show your clothing on a model to demonstrate drape and tips to help your customers style the piece.

Marketing your clothing line

Marketing and driving sales remain the single most reported challenge for online brands, regardless of industry. As fashion is a saturated market, developing a solid brand with a unique value proposition will help you focus your efforts on your ideal customer rather than throwing money away.

In the beginning, your budget will be small, but there are still ways to grab attention with creative and organic ideas :

As you grow, paid ads, hiring a PR firm, and applying to show your clothing line at smaller Fashion Week events are all ways to gain exposure for your brand.

11. Open a retail store, launch a pop-up, or sell at markets

It took Sarah 11 years to be in a position to seriously consider opening her own retail boutique. But it wasn’t a leap—it was a move that she’d been grooming herself to make. Throughout the evolution of her brand, she used local markets to gain more insight into her customers, test her merchandising, get exposure, and build relationships in the industry.

I was always afraid of opening my own store because of the overhead, especially in Toronto. It just wasn’t attainable. Sarah Donofrio

After her move to Portland, she took her retail experiment to the next level with a three-month pop-up before opening a permanent retail location. “I was always afraid of opening my own store because of the overhead, especially in Toronto,” says Sarah. “It just wasn’t attainable.”

Through the process, she learned that she could use six more hands. She hired a fashion design student to help in the store. “When you have a retail store and a clothing label, as a lot of entrepreneurs do, you just have to learn how to allocate things,” she says. “It’s taken me a long time to learn that, but what I’m paying her to work in the store, my time is worth so much more.”

Selling IRL doesn’t mean signing a 10-year lease on a retail space. You can dabble in in-person selling in a number of more affordable and non-committal ways:

Sarah has since closed her retail location. “I did not like running it,” she says. The store took her away from the aspect of the business that she loved—designing. She still sells direct to customers via the website but has switched much of the brand’s focus to wholesale.

12. Learn from the pros

Models prepare for a runway show backstage

Sarah’s experience as a contestant on Project Runway taught her many important lessons about herself and her industry.

While Sarah understands that being reactive in fashion is an asset, she knows she thrives when she has more wiggle room. Because of her development background, she was amazed at the work her fellow competitors could do in a short amount of time. ”For me, it was not a realistic pace at all,” she says. ”It’s a shame that my best work wasn’t on national television.”

She also faced one of the scariest things any artist has to face: the haters. She was eliminated in the fourth episode when her swimwear didn’t resonate with the judges.

The lesson: your audience is not everyone.

But she was also surprised to see many supportive tweets from new fans she amassed during the show’s run. “The show taught me that everything comes down to taste,” she says. “There’s always someone who will like your stuff.”

What’s next for Sarah? She’s taking her own advice by staying creative and honing in on what she’s best at: design.

Sarah’s business is thriving because she pursued the dream of it through her lowest lows and let every misstep guide her next pivot. Sometimes those pivots were risks, but, she says, that’s the only way to grow.

Starting a clothing line FAQ

What is the first thing you need to do to start a clothing line, do i need a license to start a clothing line, how much does it cost to start a clothing line, how do i name my clothing brand, can i put my own label on wholesale clothing, about the author.

Dayna Winter

Dayna Winter is a Lead Writer at Shopify, telling stories about the humans behind brands and the moments that motivate them to create. On the side, she resells vintage, runs a film-themed vacation rental, and is working on her green thumb.

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Clothing Line Business Plan Template

Over the past 20+ years, we have helped over 10,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans to start and grow their clothing line businesses. On this page, we will first give you some background information with regards to the importance of business planning. We will then go through a clothing line business plan template step-by-step so you can create your plan today.

Download our Clothing Line Business Plan Template here

What Is a Business Plan?

A business plan provides a snapshot of your clothing line as it stands today, and lays out your growth plan for the next five years. It explains your business goals and your strategy for reaching them. It also includes market research to support your plans.

Why You Need a Clothing Line Business Plan

If you’re looking to start a clothing line or grow your existing clothing line business you need a business plan. A business plan will help you raise funding, if needed, and plan out the growth of your clothing line in order to improve your chances of success. Your clothing line business plan is a living document that should be updated annually as your company grows and changes.

Source of Funding for Clothing Line Businesses

With regards to funding, the main sources of funding for a clothing line are bank loans and angel investors. With regards to bank loans, banks will want to review your business plan and gain confidence that you will be able to repay your loan and interest. To acquire this confidence, the loan officer will not only want to confirm that your financials are reasonable. But they will want to see a professional plan. Such a plan will give them the confidence that you can successfully and professionally operate a business.

The second most common form of funding for a clothing line is angel investors. Angel investors are wealthy individuals who will write you a check. They will either take equity in return for their funding, or, like a bank, they will give you a loan. Venture capitalists will generally not fund a clothing line.

How to Write a Business Plan For a Clothing Line Business

Your business plan should include 10 sections as follows:

Executive Summary

Your executive summary provides an introduction to your business plan, but it is normally the last section you write because it provides a summary of each key section of your plan.

The goal of your Executive Summary is to quickly engage the reader. Explain to them the type of clothing line business you are operating and the status; for example, are you a startup, do you have a clothing line that you would like to grow, or are you operating multiple clothing lines.

Next, provide an overview of each of the subsequent sections of your plan. For example, give a brief overview of the apparel industry. Discuss the type of clothing line you are operating. Detail your direct competitors. Give an overview of your target customers. Provide a snapshot of your marketing plan. Identify the key members of your team. And offer an overview of your financial plan.

Company Analysis

In your company analysis, you will detail the type of clothing line you are operating.

Generally, you will describe your clothing line based on the 1) intended buyer (e.g., women’s, young men’s, etc.) and the type of clothing (jackets, shirts, dresses, etc.).

In addition to explaining the type of clothing line you operate, the Company Analysis section of your business plan needs to provide background on the business.

Include answers to question such as:

Industry Analysis

In your industry analysis, you need to provide an overview of the apparel business.

While this may seem unnecessary, it serves multiple purposes.

First, researching the apparel and clothing line industry educates you. It helps you understand the market in which you are operating.

Secondly, market research can improve your strategy particularly if your research identifies market trends. For example, if there was a trend towards looser-fitting clothing, it would be helpful to ensure your plan calls for offering such products.

The third reason for market research is to prove to readers that you are an expert in your industry. By conducting the research and presenting it in your plan, you achieve just that.

The following questions should be answered in the industry analysis section of your clothing line business plan:

Customer Analysis

The customer analysis section of your clothing line business plan must detail the customers you serve and/or expect to serve.

The following are examples of customer segments: college students, sports enthusiasts, soccer moms, techies, teens, baby boomers, etc.

As you can imagine, the customer segment(s) you choose will have a great impact on the type of clothing line you operate and vice versa.

Try to break out your target customers in terms of their demographic and psychographic profiles. With regards to demographics, include a discussion of the ages, genders, locations and income levels of the customers you seek to serve.

Psychographic profiles explain the wants and needs of your target customers. The more you can understand and define these needs, the better you will do in attracting and retaining your customers.

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Competitive Analysis

Your competitive analysis should identify the indirect and direct competitors your business faces and then focus on the latter.

Direct competitors are other clothing line businesses targeting the same products and customers as you. Indirect competitors are other options that customers have to purchase from you that aren’t direct competitors. For example, an indirect competitor to a sweatpants manufacturer is a company that manufactures jeans as the two are substitute products.

With regards to direct competition, you want to detail the other clothing line businesses with which you compete. For each such competitor, provide an overview of their businesses and document their strengths and weaknesses. Unless you once worked at your competitors’ businesses, it will be impossible to know everything about them. But you should be able to find out key things about them such as:

With regards to the last two questions, think about your answers from the customers’ perspective. Looking at online reviews of your competitors can provide great insight here.

The final part of your competitive analysis section is to document your areas of competitive advantage. For example:

Think about ways you will outperform your competition and document them in this section of your plan.

Marketing Plan

Traditionally, a marketing plan includes the four P’s: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. For a clothing line business plan, your marketing plan should include the following:

Product: in the product section you should reiterate the type of clothing line that you documented in your Company Analysis. Then, detail the specific products you will be offering.

Price: Document the prices you will offer and how they compare to your competitors. Essentially in the product and price sub-sections of your marketing plan, you are presenting the menu of apparel items you offer and their prices.

Place: Place refers to the location of your clothing line. Document your location and mention how the location will impact your success particularly if you are targeting a specific geographic region.

Promotions: the final part of your clothing line marketing plan is the promotions section. Here you will document how you will drive customers to purchase your clothing. The following are some promotional methods you might consider:

Operations Plan

While the earlier sections of your business plan explained your goals, your operations plan describes how you will meet them. Your operations plan should have two distinct sections as follows.

Everyday short-term processes include all of the tasks involved in running your clothing line such as designing clothing, manufacturing, procuring supplies, managing inventory, etc.

Long-term goals are the milestones you hope to achieve. These could include the dates when you expect to sell your 1,000th item, or when you hope to reach $X in sales. It could also be when you expect to hire your Xth employee or launch a new clothing line.

Management Team

To demonstrate your clothing line’s ability to succeed as a business, a strong management team is essential. Highlight your key players’ backgrounds, emphasizing those skills and experiences that prove their ability to grow a company.

Ideally, you and/or your team members have direct experience in the clothing line business. If so, highlight this experience and expertise. But also highlight any experience that you think will help your business succeed.

If your team is lacking, consider assembling an advisory board. An advisory board would include 2 to 8 individuals who would act like mentors to your business. They would help answer questions and provide strategic guidance. If needed, look for advisory board members with experience in clothing line businesses and/or successfully running retail and small businesses.

Financial Plan

Your financial plan should include your 5-year financial statement broken out both monthly or quarterly for the first year and then annually. Your financial statements include your income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statements.

Income Statement : an income statement is more commonly called a Profit and Loss statement or P&L. It shows your revenues and then subtracts your costs to show whether you turned a profit or not.

In developing your income statement, you need to devise assumptions. For example, will you sell 100 items per day or 200? And will sales grow by 2% or 10% per year? As you can imagine, your choice of assumptions will greatly impact the financial forecasts for your business. As much as possible, conduct research to try to root your assumptions in reality.

Balance Sheets : While balance sheets include much information, to simplify them to the key items you need to know about, balance sheets show your assets and liabilities. For instance, if you spend $100,000 on building out your clothing line design shop, that will not give you immediate profits. Rather it is an asset that will hopefully help you generate profits for years to come. Likewise, if a bank writes you a check for $100.000, you don’t need to pay it back immediately. Rather, that is a liability you will pay back over time.

Cash Flow Statement : Your cash flow statement will help determine how much money you need to start or grow your business, and make sure you never run out of money. What most entrepreneurs and business owners don’t realize is that you can turn a profit but run out of money and go bankrupt. For example, let’s say a retailer approached you with a massive $100,000 contract to design and manufacture apparel for them. And that doing so would cost you $50,000 to fulfill. Well, in most cases, you would have to pay that $50,000 now for supplies, employee salaries, etc. But let’s say the company didn’t pay you for 180 days. During that 180 day period, you could run out of money.

In developing your Income Statement and Balance Sheets be sure to include several of the key costs needed in starting or growing a clothing line:

Attach your full financial projections in the appendix of your plan along with any supporting documents that make your plan more compelling. For example, you might include some of your apparel designs.

Clothing Line Business Plan Summary

Putting together a business plan for your clothing line is a worthwhile endeavor. If you follow the template above, by the time you are done, you will truly be an expert. You will really understand the clothing line business, your competition and your customers. You will have developed a marketing plan and will really understand what it takes to launch and grow a successful clothing line.

Download Our Clothing Line Business Plan PDF

You can download our clothing line business plan PDF here . This is a business plan template you can use in PDF format.

OR, Let Us Develop Your Plan For You

Since 1999, Growthink has developed business plans for thousands of companies that have gone on to achieve tremendous success.

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Clothing Line Business Plan FAQs

What is the easiest way to complete my clothing line business plan.

Growthink's Ultimate Clothing Line Business Plan Template allows you to quickly and easily complete your Clothing Line Business Plan.

Where Can I Download a Clothing Line Business Plan PDF?

You can download our clothing line business plan PDF template here . This is a business plan template you can use in PDF format.

Clothing Line Business Plan Template

Clothing line business plan.

You’ve come to the right place to create your clothing line business plan.

We have helped over 100,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans and many have used them to start or grow their clothing line.

Clothing Line Business Plan Template & Example

Below is a template to help you create each section of your Clothing Line Business Plan.

Executive Summary

Business overview.

Posh Sophisticate is an emerging clothing line start-up that is geared towards female professionals between the ages of 26 – 64. The clothing line is designed to be everyday work essentials with a modern and trendy flair, appropriate for the office or afterwards for cocktails. The clothing is designed for the modern woman who has a busy professional career and engaging social life.

Posh Sophisticate is the brainchild of Boston native and Paris-trained fashion designer, Marla Worthington. Now living in New York, Marla has taken her decades of apprenticeship and design to develop her own unique and trendy clothing line, while maintaining the style and sophistication required of a professional woman.

The Posh Sophisticate clothing line is suitable for women of all ages and body types. No matter what status level or background, there is a professional look suitable and affordable for any female. The Posh Sophisticate clothing line can be found at major retail department stores around the United States.

Product Offering

The following are the Posh Sophisticate clothing line items:

Customer Focus

The Posh Sophisticate clothing line will focus on professional women in the United States working in urban cities that regularly shop at large retail department stores such as Macy’s, Dillard’s, Nordstrom, or Bloomingdale’s.

Management Team

The Posh Sophisticate clothing line will be led by President & Founder, Marla Worthington and the CFO, Kimberly Fornell. Because they are a startup clothing line, they have decided to outsource the manufacturing and distribution of all clothing items to a third party manufacturing warehouse located in New York City.

Success Factors

Posh Sophisticate will be able to achieve success by offering the following competitive advantages:

Financial Highlights

Posh Sophisticate is seeking $1,000,000 in debt financing to launch its clothing line. The funding will be dedicated for the manufacture and distribution of the clothing line. Funding will also be dedicated towards the advertising agency and law firm on retainer. The breakout of the funding is below:

Company Overview

Who is posh sophisticate clothing line.

Posh Sophisticate is an up and coming clothing line tailored toward female professionals between the ages of 26 – 64. From the mind of creator and fashion designer Marla Worthington, Posh Sophisticate is a breath of fresh air that sets itself apart from the traditional attire usually available to professional women. The clothing line of Posh Sophisticate does not include drab pant suits or unflattering dresses; the clothes are modern and trendy yet sophisticated enough to be seen in the executive boardroom. The clothing line is geared towards women who work in an office setting who want to dress in clothes that allow them to feel trendy while maintaining the utmost professionalism.

Posh Sophisticate Clothing Line History

Marla Worthington has been in the fashion industry for over three decades. She worked at Bloomingdale’s in Boston during her high school years as a stock girl and cashier. She kept the job while attending Boston College, eventually becoming a window dresser and was in charge of the mannequin displays of the Donna Karan and Carolina Herrera brands. It was while she was an undergraduate that Marla found her passion and decided that she wanted to dedicate her life to designing women’s clothes. After earning her Bachelor of Arts degree, Marla packed up everything she had and moved to France to attend the Paris Fashion Institute. Upon completion of the school, Marla was able to apprentice with a few of Paris’ top fashion designers and was able to travel to fashion shows all over the world – from Paris to Milan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and New York.

The business of fashion proved to be intimidating, but Marla continued to pursue her passion. She moved to New York in 2010 and rented a small studio loft where she could focus her attention on designing and branding her clothing line.

Through a business acquaintance, Marla was introduced to an angel investor who has committed to investing $500,000 to help Marla launch her clothing line. The funding will be used as initial equity to obtain a business start up loan.

Since incorporation, Posh Sophisticate has achieved the following milestones:

Posh Sophisticate’s Products

The following will be the available items of the Posh Sophisticate Clothing Line:

Industry Analysis

The rising demand for high-end clothing, accessories and jewelry has benefited the fashion industry. For designers, demand from retail trade operators is a crucial factor for success. Demand from retail trade is expected to increase over the next five years.

Social media and mobile apps have also contributed to industry growth over the past five years. Websites such as Pinterest and e-commerce platforms such as Etsy enable smaller designers to both showcase their designs and draw potential new clients.Moreover, the increasing number and popularity of fashion blogs have also helped industry operators. The growing number of fashion blogs enable smaller designers to gain exposure and attract new clientele.

The industry will also benefit from rising disposable income and increased consumer confidence; it will also be aided by downstream apparel manufacturing industries. As consumers demand trendier yet reasonably priced items, department stores will continue collaborating with designers to create product lines with mass appeal.

Customer Analysis

Demographic profile of target market.

Posh Sophisticate will target the working professional female in the United States between the ages of 26 – 64. The women will work in an office setting and come from a variety of backgrounds. They can be at their first job right out of college or near retirement. They can be the administrative assistant who greets you when you first arrive at an office or they could be the CEO and President of a large company.

The precise demographics for the Posh Sophisticate Clothing Line are:

Customer Segmentation

Posh Sophisticate will primarily target the following customer profiles:

Competitive Analysis

Direct and indirect competitors, donna karan new york.

Donna Karan New York is one of the clothing lines by famed fashion designer, Donna Karan. A native of Queens, New York, Donna Karan is also known for her other clothing label, DKNY. Donna Karan launched her first collection “Seven Easy Pieces” in 1984 that consisted of a bodysuit, a tailored jacket, a skirt, pants, a cashmere sweater, a leather jacket, and an evening look. The idea behind the collection was that women could create infinite combinations with easy-to-wear garments to take them from daytime looks to evening looks without sacrificing elegance. Donna Karan is the epitome of New York energy and attitude for the powerful and elegant woman. The label has grown into a global powerhouse and is an icon in American fashion design.

Donna Karan New York clothing line can be purchased online or in a boutique store in larger cities. The collection can also be found in major department stores throughout the United States.

Ann Taylor has been a staple for the modern career woman for decades. Founded in 1954, Ann Taylor and its sister company LOFT, provides classic tailored styles with a wide range of crisp button-downs and sharp business suits. Early in its inception, Ann Taylor became the go-to destination for professional women and set several styles on the map. In the 1960’s and 1970’s, Ann Taylor was one of the first to sell tailored professional trousers and pants as more and more women entered the workplace. In the 1980’s, the power business suit emerged and became a status staple for the most ambitious female professionals. Ann Taylor LOFT was created to appeal to the younger professional women who were budget-conscious and required a more trendy business look. The Ann Taylor clothing line can be found at a retail store of its name around the country or purchased online. Today, Ann Taylor is owned by Ascena Retail Group who acquired the brand in 2015.

Express, Inc. is an American fashion retailer that caters to young men and women. Express is known as a fashion-forward apparel and brand that sells everyday wardrobe essentials to the latest trends. Women and men of all walks of life can find something at an Express store. They carry a large selection of professional business attire, as well as jeans, dresses, outerwear, and casual attire. Known for being trendy and fashionable, Express is seen as a go-to destination for anyone wanting the latest and trendiest clothing. Founded in 1980, it first opened up as Limited Express in Chicago and only sold women’s clothing. In 2001, Express expanded to include a men’s fashion line. Today, Express operates over 600 stores in the United States, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, El Salvador, and Guatemala.

Competitive Advantage

Posh Sophisticate will be able to offer the following advantages over their competition:

Operations Plan

The following will be the operations plan for the Posh Sophisticate clothing line.

Operation Functions:

Milestones:

Posh Sophisticate will have the following milestones complete in the next six months.

3/1/202X – Finalize manufacturing agreement with manufacturing company

3/15/202X – Execute advertising agency contract

4/1/202X – Finalize contracts with large retail department stores

5/1/202X – Review first batch of manufactured clothing

5/15/202X – Review first round of advertising campaign and provide feedback

6/15/202X – Launch advertising campaign via social media, magazines, media, and billboards

9/1/202X – Posh Sophisticate clothing line is available to purchase at large retail department stores

Marketing Plan

Brand & value proposition.

Posh Sophisticate will offer the unique value proposition to its clientele:

Promotions Strategy

The promotions strategy for Posh Sophisticate is as follows:

Professional Media Campaign

Marla Worthington has hired a professional advertising agency based in New York who has extensive experience in the launch and advertising campaign of emerging brands. The advertising agency has developed numerous print ads for fashion magazines, commercial spots to be aired on major networks, and billboard advertisements aimed at getting the most maximum exposure in large urban areas of U. S. cities.

Social Media

The advertising agency has also been tasked with launching an aggressive social media platform for Posh Sophisticate. The clothing line will have a Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram account with professionally photographed images and posts. There will be a number of sponsored Facebook and Instagram posts.

Brand Ambassadors

Posh Sophisticate will partner with young professionals who have a social media following of more than 100,000. The brand ambassadors will post themselves wearing Posh Sophisticate items and tag the account so that they gain exposure through their legion of followers. The brand ambassadors receive compensation based on the number of likes or followers gained through their Posh Sophisticate posts.

The pricing of the Posh Sophisticate clothing line will be moderate and on par with competitors so customers feel they receive value when purchasing their items.

Posh Sophisticate will be led by its founder Marla Worthington. While she has decided to outsource the manufacturing, marketing, and legal, her and her CFO will oversee the clothing line.

Marla Worthington, President & Founder

Kimberly Fornell, CFO

Kimberly Fornell is the CFO for Posh Sophisticate, LLC. She has over 20 years of accounting and tax experience and is a licensed CPA in the state of New York. Kimberly has worked with numerous Fortune 500 companies providing accounting oversight and filing all of the company’s tax returns and filings. Kimberly’s accounting and tax knowledge combined with her extensive experience in the corporate world will set up the Posh Sophisticate clothing line for success.

Financial Plan

Key revenue & costs.

The revenue drivers for the Posh Sophisticate clothing line will be the merchandise sold at the major retail stores. The line will consist of everyday women’s clothing staples – blouses, sweaters, pants, skirts, dresses, and coats.

The cost drivers will be the cost of manufacturing and distributing the clothing items. Other cost drivers will be the law firm on retainer and the New York advertising agency. Marla Worthington and Kimberly Fornell have priced all expenses to be 70% of revenues.

Funding Requirements and Use of Funds

Key assumptions.

The following outlines the key assumptions required in order to achieve the revenue and cost numbers in the financials and in order to pay off the startup business loan.

Financial Projections

Income statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement, clothing line business plan faqs, what is a clothing line business plan.

A clothing line business plan is a plan to start and/or grow your clothing line business. Among other things, it outlines your business concept, provides market research about the fashion industry, identifies your target customers, presents your marketing plan and details your financial plan. It is meant to be a living document that should be updated as trends in the industry or changes within your company occur.

You can easily complete your clothing line business plan using our Clothing Line Business Plan Template here .

What Are the Main Types of Clothing Line Businesses?

The types of clothing line businesses include men’s apparel, women’s apparel, children’s clothing and athletic apparel.

What Are the Main Sources of Revenues and Expenses for a Clothing Line Business?

The primary source of revenue for a clothing line business comes from its sale of clothing. Businesses can sell directly to consumers, or to clothing stores and clothing wholesalers.

The key expenses for a clothing line business includes rent, salaries, materials, and marketing expenses.

How Do You Get Funding for Your Clothing Line Business?

Clothing lines are often funded through small business loans. Personal savings, credit card financing, crowdfunding and angel investors are also popular forms of funding.

What are the Steps To Start a Clothing Line Business?

Starting a clothing line business can be an exciting endeavor. Having a clear roadmap of the steps to start a business will help you stay focused on your goals and get started faster.

1. Develop A Clothing Line Business Plan - The first step in starting a business is to create a detailed clothing line business plan that outlines all aspects of the venture. This should include potential market size and target customers, the services or products you will offer, pricing strategies and a detailed financial forecast.

2. Choose Your Legal Structure - It's important to select an appropriate legal entity for your clothing line business. This could be a limited liability company (LLC), corporation, partnership, or sole proprietorship. Each type has its own benefits and drawbacks so it’s important to do research and choose wisely so that your clothing line business is in compliance with local laws.

3. Register Your Clothing Line Business - Once you have chosen a legal structure, the next step is to register your clothing line business with the government or state where you’re operating from. This includes obtaining licenses and permits as required by federal, state, and local laws.

4. Identify Financing Options - It’s likely that you’ll need some capital to start your clothing line business, so take some time to identify what financing options are available such as bank loans, investor funding, grants, or crowdfunding platforms.

5. Choose a Location - Whether you plan on operating out of a physical location or not, you should always have an idea of where you’ll be based should it become necessary in the future as well as what kind of space would be suitable for your operations.

6. Hire Employees - There are several ways to find qualified employees including job boards like LinkedIn or Indeed as well as hiring agencies if needed – depending on what type of employees you need it might also be more effective to reach out directly through networking events.

7. Acquire Necessary Clothing Line Equipment & Supplies - In order to start your clothing line business, you'll need to purchase all of the necessary equipment and supplies to run a successful operation.

8. Market & Promote Your Business - Once you have all the necessary pieces in place, it’s time to start promoting and marketing your clothing line business. This includes creating a website, utilizing social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter, and having an effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy. You should also consider traditional marketing techniques such as radio or print advertising.

Learn more about how to start a successful clothing line business:

How to Start a Clothing Line Business

get the super secret industry document that will cut your sourcing time in half

How To Create A Clothing Line Business Plan - w/ Template

Published: May 06, 2020 Updated: February 27, 2023 19 min read 37 Comments

Before you can get started on your business plan… Have you set up your clothing line budget ? If not, check out this article. Once your budget is set, come back to here and get to work on your clothing line business plan.

But, before we get started.

Have you heard about the super secret document that everyone in the fashion industry uses, but no one is talking about? Probably not. That is because you can't find it on Google or Instagram (believe me, I've tried).

It's a form I have used for over 13 years at every job I have ever had. Literally everyone from brands to fabric suppliers use it, but you can't find it anywhere publicly.

The best part? It can cut your sourcing time in half, and save you tons of money in product development ! This is the kind of info consultants charge the big bucks for. And, I'm giving it away for free until the end of the month.

So, get ready to make fashion startup life a whole lot easier, and GRAB YOUR FREE DOWNLOAD OF THE NOT SO SECRET SOURCING DOC HERE

What this article will cover:

Now, Don't Skip This Step

A clothing line business plan is a crucial (and often forgotten step) that is needed for creating a clothing line. The plan will help you define and streamline both your long term and short term goals. It will also help you set a path to reach those goals. Not only does a business plan help you by setting a road map, but it also shows suppliers, investors, and other businesses that you are serious about your company by having a profitable plan of action.

As a bonus to this guide, I use my brand, virtue + vice, to give step by step examples, and show you how it's done. And, there's more, I have a free downloadable template to help you get started!

A Business Plan Is A Living Document

One of the most common mistakes I see founders making is that they will write their business plan, launch their product, and then never look at it again. Please don't do this. A clothing line business plan is a living document. You should use it to check in with yourself and make sure that you are meeting your goals. You can also make changes to it as your business changes.

As we all know, we can plan, and plan, and plan, but we can not plan for the chaos of life happening. So, as situations change, go back, update your plan, and re-strategize.

Keeping your business plan handy even after your launch will set you up for accountability and success.

Lastly, before we get started I am going to warn you. Making a clothing line is a lot of fun. But, it's also a lot of work, and (unfortunately) writing this business plan is the work portion of the job.

How To Write A Clothing Line Business Plan

Some business plans for fashion brands are extremely long, repetitive, and in my opinion kind of convoluted. They are a lot of words, that sound fancy and business-like, but are kind of just saying the same thing over and over. That is why I am keeping this short and brief. I have heard of people spending 6 months to a year working on a business plan. That is far too long. A month is enough - just keep it simple and don't get carried away with jargon and corporate speak.

So, let's get started.

Sections 1 + 2: Executive Summary and Company Overview

clothing line business plan mission vision values

An executive summary and company overview are basically a recap of your overall business plan. While they are the first section of your clothing line business plan, you actually want to write them last. So, we will circle back at the end this guide.

But, what you can do is work on your companies mission, vission, and values.

Clothing Brand Mission Statement

Why are you starting this company? How will your company change the market place, or even the world?

Vision Statement

Vision statements for fashion companies ask the question - What does success look like to you? Is it money? Or, is it positively impacting people's lives? How will you measure your success in the world?

Core Values

What are your companies guiding principles. What values are at your core that determine and influence your business decisions?

Mission, Vision, Values Workbook Page

Section 3: product and services.

clothing line business plan products and services

This section should include…

Development

What is the product or service.

So, what is it that you are actually selling? And, how will you make money? In this section, you want to be clear about the type of product or service you are offering and how that will lead to profits.

My Service Offering For virtue + vice

virtue + vice is a consulting agency dedicated to helping companies clean up their supply chains. Target partnerships are existing and established brands with strong supply chains that need help creating transparency or sourcing ethical and sustainable components, as well as, startups who are focused on creating conscious products.

virtue + vice profits through consultancy fees paid by the customer. virtue + vice specializes in the following - sourcing, product development, production management, sustainable design, supply chain transparency, and ethical and sustainable storytelling.

To Recap Products + Services...

See, it's quick and easy. What am I selling? My consultancy services. How am I making money? Through consultancy fees.

What Are The Features + Benefits?

What are you offering that makes your company unique or special?

virtue + vice features and benefits

One key feature that separates virtue + vice from other consultancy firms is our sliding scale for pricing. Because we believe in our mission, virtue + vice pricing structure is on a sliding scale based on a companies profits. We choose to operate like this as a way to give back to small businesses, which we believe in, who might not have the finances to pay our full rates that larger corporations can afford.

Secondly, virtue + vice operates transparently with our customers. Our supplier is your supplier. Many consultancy firms keep their supplier contacts close to the vest and do not share, we welcome our clients to come and visit our partner factories in China and India, and work directly with them

To recap...

Again, super quick and easy. What makes us different. One, we offer sliding scale prices to help small businesses (we aren't only about corporate life). Two, we work transparently without supply chain secretes like many other sourcing agents.

This section answers what happens when your company grows. Or how business people like to ask "how do you plan to scale".

How does virtue + vice plan to scale?

At about 20 clients, that is manageable for me as a solo-preneur. But what happens when I have 100 clients or more? How does my company grow?

As my company grows I plan on hiring support staff in three key areas. Product development, production, and storytelling. Product development employees will assist in taking our client's projects from initial inception, all the way through sourcing and sample development up until production. The product team member will be responsible for production, and shipping logistics of that production order. And, the storytelling team will assist our clients in telling the story of their products through photos and video for social media, copy, look books, line sheets, website design, etc.

I am actually excited to soon been announcing my first hire on the product development team (but more on that on the about us page.)

So, here I have made a plan for the future. What happens when it gets to be all too much for me alone? Who do I hire to help? I have chosen to separate tasks into three main categories that make the most natural sense for my business model.

Section 4: Marketing Strategy For Clothing Business

clothing line business plan marketing strategies template

Market Analysis

Do you understand the market that you are getting into? Like, do you really understand it?

This section of your clothing line business plan starts to get into proving that there is a need for your product or service. Even if something sounds great to you, if there are no customers that want it, then there won't be sales, and you won't have a successful clothing brand.

Here is how I break down my market analysis for virtue + vice

Sustainable and ethical fashion is a trend that has been growing year over year. In this article from Sourcing Journal they reported: "Overall, searches including sustainability-related keywords increased 75 percent year-on-year, amounting to 27,000 searches for sustainable fashion every month, according to the report."

This means that there is currently a sizable market share, that is growing rapidly for brands selling sustainable products to customers. And, those brands need help changing their traditional supply chain models to tap into the growing trend of sustainable fashion.

So, to recap.

What's the market doing, and how does my business play a part in that? Sustainable fashion is a proven growing trend, here is a little industry data to back that up. And, this is how my business plans to be part of that. Instead of choosing to sell direct to consumers, we are choosing to help brands that do.

Target Customer Analysis

Who is your target customer, who would want to buy your brand?

Here is who I target

virtue + vice plans to approach brands and companies that founder Melanie DiSalvo has been working with for the past decade. Because she already knows the ins and outs of their supply chains, she hopes to offer valuable changes and suggestions on targeted areas to help them become more ethical and sustainable.

Now, I understand that everyone does not have a built-in customer base like me. One of the most beneficial pieces of advice I can give is that you should go niche, and not broad.

To simply say "we are targeting people interested in making more sustainable and ethical purchases". Well, every big brand from H&M with their conscious collection to Walmart with their recycled t-shirts is doing that.

What makes you special? Pick something, one thing that makes your customers different. Maybe they are really into composting, so all of your materials are compostable. Maybe they are really into clean water, so your entire supply chain is dedicated to conserving water resources.

Again, I am saying this again, because it is so, so, so important. You can't be everything to everyone. Choose something laser-focused, and then as your brand grows you can expand into other areas.

How Are You Unique?

Did you see what I did there? By choosing a very niche target customer, you have already made yourself unique, and you stand out from the crowd.

How is virtue + vice unique?

virtue + vice is unique because of founder Melanie DiSalvo's extensive time spent living and working in countries like China, India, Taiwan, the Philippines, and the Dominican Republic. She has spent over 1/2 of her career working overseas and that offers her a unique and detailed first-hand perspective on how the fashion industry really works and the best ways to implement change quickly and effectively.

My tips for this section.

Don't be afraid to get a little braggy. Why does your customer want to buy from you? What makes your product so great that it's better than what is already out there on the market. Don't hold back.

Section 5: Sales Strategy

clothing line business plan template sales strategy

This section should include...

Sales Goals

Price strategy.

Investments into sales

What are your sales goals per quarter? For the year? The next 2-5 years? What is your pricing strategy? How will you sell? Do you have an online clothing store? Do you have plans to hire support staff for sales, as a showroom, salesperson, or go to trade shows? Will you open a boutique? Will there be promotional campaigns to support sales like partnerships, advertising, fashion shows, and events, etc.

How much, and how often do you need to sell to turn a profit? At what rate do you plan to grow?

This is what I have in place for virtue + vice

I am uncomfortable sharing that. Here is what I will tell you. My consultancy business is strong enough that I am able to offer all of this information that some other companies charge hundreds or even thousands of dollars for, for free.

My business is healthy enough that I am able to give back to the fashion community at this time.

Are you going to try and sell tons of product at a low price, or fewer units at a higher price? Do you plan to drive sales through special discount promotions?

As I mentioned earlier virtue + vice works on a sliding scale so we are able to help smaller brands build their businesses.

How Will You Sell?

Are you direct to consumers, selling online? Are you business to business? Will you wholesale, will you have a distributor? What is your plan and break down?

At the moment virtue + vice relies mostly on word of mouth and referrals.

Do you need to hire support staff? What does that staff need to do their job? Can you sell on your own, or do you need help from a pro? For example, if you hire a showroom, not only will you have the monthly cost of the showroom, plus a cut of sales that the sales agent will take. But, you will also have fees to be in the showrooms booth at trade shows. Maybe at the tradeshows, you will need some special promotional items like look books, line sheets, or even a giveaway so buyers remember you.

It Costs Money To Make Money

All of the costs associated with sales, need to go back into your price strategy. Price strategy is like a balancing act. You need to invest in it, but you need to make sure that your sales are more than the investment so that you can be profitable.

This is the hard part

This part of your clothing line business plan should probably take the most time, Really research what everything costs, what your product will cost to make, etc and come up with a well-researched plan.

How I invest in my sales

At virtue + vice I do everything myself. But, people reading this that want to sell a service like me, it's important to remember that your own personal time costs something. While it's not a salary, or an actual expense, the hours that you devote to generating sales for your company should be compensated for.

Section 6: Competitive Analysis

clothing line business plan SWOT analysis

SWOT analysis

How Do You Compare To The Competition?

This is where you get a little stalkerish. In this section, you need to identify your competition and then the advantages and disadvantages of your competitors. You will need to research things like how long they have been in business, their annual sales (if they are public). How they market themselves. Then compare your price, quality, and general vibe to theirs. Maybe you are selling the exact same thing but have a totally different target customer and vibe you are putting out.

One of the best ways to get you started is through a SWOT analysis.

Ok, so let's get to it with virtue + vice

Who is my main competition?

I just did a quick google search of keywords that I thought my compeators would rank for. And, let's call my top three competitors A, B, and C. Luckily I do not know any of these companies or people personally. So, I don't have to hold back in this analysis.

Before we dive into the SWOT analysis, here is a little info about each company.

Focuses on scaling small businesses.

The website was launched in August of 2018.

And, the founder just so happens to have no information about her experience. But a quick google and Linkedin search shows her background is in marketing for telecommunication companies. Good for them with SEO, but they don't have any real experience in the industry.

Dubs themselves as a strategic advisory for fashion and apparel brands. Offering a full range of different services.

The founder started her sustainable and ethical fashion consultancy business over 8 years ago with 20 years of fashion industry experience. And, has worked with many small, yet well known sustainable fashion brands.

A many different hats consultant that can help brands with things from marketing, so supply chain, to design.

The founder has over 20 years of design experience working with some seriously well known household names that do not have a focus on sustainability.

Competition is a good thing

A lot of times when people start their SWOT analysis they see other people doing what they want to do and they give up.

Don't do that. Competition is good.

Two of these ladies have been in the clothing business for over 10 years working in sustainable fashion consulting. That means it's a good market to be in. They have been making living out of sustainable consulting for a decade. So, business must be good!

Think about fashion in general. There are so many brands, like super successful American Eagle, which was basically just a knock of Abercrombie back in 2003. Don't' let competition discourage you.

The point of SWOT is to figure out your advantages and how to position your brand in the market.

I am working on writing a full SWOT and fashion business competition analysis post, that will be coming soon. For now, I will just quickly go through one example. For this article, I have chosen Company B because their business most closely resembles mine.

How To SWOT

clothing line business plan SWOT analysis template

SWOT stands for strengths, opportunities, weaknesses, threats.

Like I mentioned, a lot goes into a SWOT analysis. I am just doing a quick one here to give you a brief idea about what it is.

What advantages does your brand have?

virtue + vice is located in NYC, one of the fashion capitals of the world. Comapny B in New Zeland, has a much smaller fashion scene, and the geographical distance makes networking and partnerships more difficult.

I spend 1/2 the year in India. This keeps me close to my supply chains on the ground, and able to help clients with content about how their products are made as well as live updates. It also offers an added layer of authenticity.

Opportunities

Opportunity is a natural progression from strengths. How can you use your strengths to become even stronger?

My geographic strength of being in NYC leads to more networking opportunities and the ability to attend more fashion events. My life in India allows me to be on the ground working directly with factories so I am first in the know with the latest news.

Company B has been at this longer than me. Almost exactly twice as long as me. Also, one of the things that I thought made me unique - my long history working with well-established brands is also a strength of Jacinta's. We have even worked with some of the same brands!

Threats, analyze what obstacles you face because of your weaknesses. For me one of virtue + vices threads is authority. The fact that Company B has been in business for twice as long, gives them more authority in this space.

Now there are tons more strengths, opportunities, weaknesses, and threats that I could add. And I would recommend doing this exercise for at least 3-5 competitive brands. Again if you want to learn more I will be putting out a full competitive analysis guide with a lot more details and info on how to do a proper SWOT. But for now, I think you get the idea.

Section 7: Production Plan

Company development, sales, production, and delivery calendar

The Importance of Timelines

This is basically a development and inventory calendar. How many seasons a year will you produce? When will you develop them? Sell them? When will you produce them? And, when will they sell in stores, and even be discounted?

virtue + vice follows our customer's timelines. So, what I am working on for them, depends on their business model. Some of our customers are seasonal, and only put out one main collection per year. Some two seasons, and some up to seven. And, our clients are all over the world. So our southern hemisphere clients are working on a totally different season than brands in the North.

For example, I am working on everything from Summer 2020 (happening like now!) for quick deliveries to Fall 2021, that's not this fall coming up but the fall after it (18 months from now).

How To Set Up Your Calendar

As a brand, I would recommend setting up your calendar around industry tradeshows to start out. The below break down is for America's sales season.

There are 6 major fashion seasons. They are spring, summer, fall, winter, holiday, and resort.

And, there are 4 main dates you need to keep track of for each season. They are development dates, sell dates, and production dates, and delivery dates.

development dates

Are the times you will be developing your product for the next season. You are going to want to plan for 3 months of development time before your sell dates.

Are the dates there will be trade shows and other sales opportunities for that season.

production dates

Are when you need to start producing the goods, and when they need to be finished by.

delivery dates

Are when the goods need to be delivered to your customer. Remember it can take over a month to ship goods from a factory if you are shipping by sea, so factor that in.

the fashion calendar

SPRING Development Dates - May - August Sell Dates - August - October Production Dates - October-January Delivery Dates - January - March

SUMMER Development Dates - July - September Sell Dates - October - January Production Dates - December - February Delivery Dates - March - May

FALL Development Dates - October - December Sell Dates - January - March Production Dates - April - June Delivery Dates - July - August

WINTER Development Dates - December - January Sell Dates - March - April Production Dates - June Delivery Dates - September

HOLIDAY Development Dates - February - March Sell Dates - May - June Production Dates - July Delivery Dates - October

RESORT Development Dates - March - May Sell Dates - June - August Production Dates - July - September Delivery Dates - November - January

Get Detailed

But, this section needs to go even more in-depth than just a timeline.

To understand what goes into product development, production, and sales and marketing schedule I am working on writing full courses on all of those coming soon!

Section 8: Operation Plan

Your company budget

What Do You Need To Keep Your Business Running On A Daily basis?

Remember that budgeting guide I wrote ? This is where all that info goes. Filling out this part of your clothing line business plan should be easy if the budget was done correctly.

virtue + vice operatin plan

I work from home, so that saves me a lot of money. I don't have full-time employees, so that also requires me to have less capital for salaries. Where I personally spend most of my money is on travel.

And, no it's not the glamorous kind of travel. It's me booking a ticket at 6 am for a flight to India at 9 pm that same day so I can go straighten out some sort of supply chain issue we are having in person.

Do I have to travel? Well, that's 50/50. A lot can be done remotely. But, there is always a special touch that comes when you do business in person. You will find that almost any time in business when you are face to face the dynamic is different. Even just taking a conversation off of email and onto the phone can makes huge difference.

Necessary recurring monthly costs for me are the website domain, hosting for the website, apps, and programs I use like Grammarly, Adobe, and quick books.

Basically you can take your budgeting template and use it for this section. Yay! The work is already done for you.

Section 9: Financial Analysis + Projections

clothing line business plan financial plan

Again, this is where budgeting is going to come in handy. You might even want to hire a professional bookkeeper or accountant for help with this.

Financials make most peoples heads spin, that is why I definitely recommend talking to a pro for this part.

At virtue + vice I have a full-time bookkeeper and an accountant. I am uncomfortable sharing my companies finances publicly. But, if you need help with this section, that's why I suggested at the start of this article to help get your financial plan for fashion business in order before even starting the business plan.

Back to Sections 1 +2: Executive Summary + Company Overview

Now back to the top. Remember, we skipped the executive summary and company overview. Now that we have mapped out our entire business plan we need to recap everything by writing these two summaries.

Executive Summary

This is where you can hook potential investors. It's the first section anyone reads of your plan, so make it clear and quick.

Here is mine for virtue + vice

virtue + vice is a consultancy firm dedicated to helping companies clean up their supply chains. We are located between NYC and Goa, India. Our dual locations allow us access to the world's fashion capital, while our time spent in India allows for close monitoring of our supply chains.

Our goal for virtue + vice is to assist companies who are realizing that sustainable and ethical fashion is not a trend that is going away anytime soon, and want to be the process of cleaning up their supply chain. We offer support across all product life cycle steps including - conscious design, sourcing, product development, production, marketing and branding, retail and sales, storytelling, and content.

Key things to include in your executive summary

What you do. Where you are located. Benefits of your location. What you are selling. Why what you are selling is a great idea. Again, it's ok to get a little braggy here.

Company Overview

You can use this part to dive a little deeper into you and why you are starting your brand. Who are you? Why this product? How are you qualified to do this, etc? Why are you designing the type of products you are designing (hint, hint, market research). Etc...

this is my company overview for virtue +vice

virtue + vice was founded by Melanie DiSalvo. In her own words

"After working in fast fashion for 7 years I left my position as Director of Product Development with the goal of helping brands clean up their supply chains.

At the time I had a great salary, was working my way up the corporate ladder, under 30 and already had a director's title, and was traveling the world to developed and produce products for brands like Walmart, Target, Ralph Lauren, and Levi's to name a few.

The problem was that I saw and learned too much about how our clothes are really made in dark corners of the world.

So, I made it my goal to expose the industry by educating curious customers and help brands choose better supply chain partners. I have been featured in publications like WWD, VOX, Sourcing Journal, and more. And, was a speaker at SXSW."

virtue + vice aims to target clients from the fashion industry with well-established brands as well as startups to aid them in supply chain transparency and creating conscious products for this growing market share. virtue + vice will work with each client individually to meet their seasonal needs.

We believe our strength is our 10 years experience in this industry and the supply chain partners we have developed relationships along the way. Our plan. is to operate out of NYC and India for the foreseeable future where our founder has homes, and hopefully to expand to a third location in China in the next 5 years.

We believe that our dedication to quality and transparency, along with a sliding consultancy rate, will keep us profitable in years to come.

company overview recap...

See what I did here? I spoke more about myself and created a little background story. Then I hit all the other points of the business plan quickly - marketing, sales, competition, production, operation, financial.

And, We're Done!

And there you have it. A clothing line business plan. I hope this helps. After coming across so many generic business plan templates online, I was inspired to write something a little more intimate. I really wanted to show you what goes into making a business plan, and in the spirit of transparency open up about how my business works.

Remember, business planning is a lot of hard work. But, when clothing brands put in the effort at the start of their business, they have a much higher chance of success and growth.

37 Responses

Sandeep Kaur

January 30, 2023

Thank you so much for the wonderful information regarding a valuable business plan and it’s different stages. Thanks again

October 18, 2022

Thank you so much for the advise I would like a guide on my business plan Thanks

Opeyemi Kadri

This piece is so helpful. Thanks for sharing. God bless

August 02, 2022

Very detailed and understanding

mena cashback

June 17, 2022

You are so awesome! I do not believe I’ve read through something like that before. So wonderful to discover somebody with original thoughts on this subject matter. Really.. thank you for starting this up.

Adeola Olatokun

June 12, 2022

This is quite detailed and straight forward

May 10, 2022

I’m more motivated now having an overview of what to begin with and move forward in my business thank you so much

Ochiaka Amaka

April 29, 2022

Your advice is simple and legendary

Ikotun Deborah

April 26, 2022

Thanks so much, the business plan guide is super simple and straight forward.

Narcisse Tuyizere

Thanks so much for your amazing advice as well your ideas support in Fashion industry

April 25, 2022

I need help

March 28, 2022

Hi Patrick! To work with me check out the 6-month coaching program – https://launch-my-conscious-line.mykajabi.com/

Morning Thank you for your advices and make it easier for us whom wanna start a business.

I would highly appreciate your services via finance part..I am into sneakers, starting my own sneaker brand because. I am a footwear designer.

Looking forward to hearing from you

Abegunrin margaret oluwabusayomi

March 22, 2022

This is a nice one This information is very useful

Momoh Alpha

March 18, 2022

I am so much pleased to have come across this wanderful write up of yours which helps me greatly to set up my business plan.

Fredy Ngbanzo

thank you looking forward to work with you in the future.

Hilda Chimanayi

January 10, 2022

This is very helpful I am starting my clothing line soon for my company so I needed ideas of writing the plan, I found it here

January 07, 2022

Thanks this really helped me,I had no idea on how to start the bussiness plan but now Im ready to go!!

Josh Rasmussen

December 13, 2021

Thanks for this body of work. Much appreciated.

Oyinkule Omemu

December 12, 2021

I am completely blown away. So glad I saw this. Great Work.

Itumeleng Mathosa

December 10, 2021

This is really helpful thank you so much

November 25, 2021

Thanks for this I leean alot

November 16, 2021

I just learned some of important things, thank you so much

Tebogo Ngobeni

November 12, 2021

Wow this came in handy I think after reading the whole thing I am even more fuelled up. Thank you very much.

November 08, 2021

Very interesting

November 06, 2021

Thank you so much for your training, I have understood well hope am going to be the best seller clothing in my country thaxs so much

November 03, 2021

this really helped me .Am 20 and really trying to start my own brand was stuck a lil bit but now i guess am ready to do it .thankyou

ella peters

October 26, 2021

amazing, super useful content!! thank you very very much!!

Saratu Asuku

October 13, 2021

This is real good. Thanks

September 13, 2021

Thank you so much for this content, it is exactly what i needed.🙌🏼

September 11, 2021

THANK YOU SO MUCH for creating such a detailed overview of a clothing line business plan. Phenomenal and incredibly helpful information.

Ebere Agwu Ifiala

This is so helpful and informative. I really do appreciate this leverage.

Snegugu Mdladla

July 31, 2021

Thank you so much Melanie. This is so helpful and thoroughly informing. Appreciate this!

Olubanji Motunrayo

June 24, 2021

Thanks so much for the tip, more wisdom

Melanie DiSalvo

March 21, 2021

Pamela, have you checked out the Free Course? There is lots of information about budgeting in there.

https://shopvirtueandvice.com/pages/start-a-clothing-line-free-course

Pamela Bouable

Hi my name is Pamela Bouable, I would please like guidance regarding my cash flow for my upcoming business. I have difficulties completing this section. I look forward to hearing back from you soon. Thank you very much

March 17, 2021

Thank you very much for enlightening me through this business plan. I pray you grow higher. Thanks again.

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COMMENTS

How To Start A Clothing Business – Forbes Advisor
Create a Marketing Plan 4. Name Your Brand and Create Brand Assets 5. Register Your Business 6. Design and Source Your Products 7. Price Your Products 8. Distribute Your Products 9. Market Your...
How to Start a Clothing Line: The Ultimate 12-Step Guide
Get business licenses and permits: At the very least, you'll likely need a general business operating license to officially start your clothing line business. If you're going to be...
How To Start a Clothing Brand: 12 Easy Steps (2023) - Shopify
How to start a clothing line in 12 steps Plan your collections around fashion seasons Open a retail store, launch a pop-up, or sell at markets 1. Develop your fashion design skills Sarah Donofrio Designers like Vivienne Westwood and Dapper Dan found massive success in the fashion world, even though they were self-taught.
Clothing Line Business Plan Template [Updated 2022] - Growthink
For a clothing line business plan, your marketing plan should include the following: Product: in the product section you should reiterate the type of clothing line that you documented in your Company Analysis. Then, detail the specific products you will be offering. Price: Document the prices you will offer and how they compare to your competitors.
Clothing Line Business Plan Template + Example | PlanBuildr ...
The funding will be dedicated for the manufacture and distribution of the clothing line. Funding will also be dedicated towards the advertising agency and law firm on retainer. The breakout of the funding is below: Manufacture and distribution: $500,000 Advertising agency in charge of promotions: $300,000 Law firm retainer: $100,000
How To Create A Clothing Line Business Plan - w/ Template - vice
A clothing line business plan is a crucial (and often forgotten step) that is needed for creating a clothing line. The plan will help you define and streamline both your long term and short term goals. It will also help you set a path to reach those goals.