How to Start a Clothing Line in Nigeria (THE CHECKLIST)

Clothing line is a supplementary to a clothing organization that designs and sells garment with respect to special code that may differ insignificantly from the main organization’s lead trademark. Multiple or single line of designs in line with the broad objective of the organization only with a slight peculiarity to distinguish it without distorting the organizations main trademark. In simpler word, you could view clothing line as designer brand of an organization.

Also Read: Boutique Business plan in Nigeria – Feasibility Study for Clothing Business

Clothing is one of the fundamental needs of human being and one of the major needs for functions, festivities ranging from a tuxedos, graduation gowns, gowns, to customized wears: each clothing suiting a specific outing; the worth of clothing line can’t be overemphasized.

Starting and running a clothing line in Nigeria is more than just selling of clothes, embroidering of clothing materials or printing on fabrics or weaving fabrics. It involves branding and creating a niche by adding lucrativeness and fashion enthusiasm to hard work, investing as much as you can in time, capital and energy.

Clothing Line Requirements in Nigeria

Education: the first need is to gather information about the clothing line. The current market, the organizations in the market, the governing bodies, the market advantage and disadvantage of clothing line in Nigeria. Background checks on the general clothing line must be done.

A business plan: all business start-up needs a detailed plan for the successful start and running of the business. This will detail the aim of the business and the objectives to achieve that aim. Feasibility study would also be conducted to ascertain the viability of the business both in the short run and the long run. This will also include mile stones to check the progress of the organization, legal structures and accounting segment for the going concern of the line.

Take for instance for a setup in Ikeja of Lagos.

Name: AB Ltd (ABCD subsidiary)

Location: Allen junction, Ikeja, Lagos.

Niche: unisex wears (business and casual).

Executive summary: to cloth men for diverse occasion with the best price for the best quality and ensure clothing need is met adequately for men from all walks of life.

Core values:

Prompt delivery of service
Quality designs and product
Uniqueness of styles and design
Customer care service

Aim: To be a one stop-shop for unisex wears for all occasions

Objective: Create fabric like no one else

Brand the fabric with uniqueness and exclusivity Make it available to end user at affordable price

Ensure the company has substantial ROI in the process

Model: market model will include differential pricing alongside regular price mode. Print-on-demand, custom cut and sew, wholesale/private clothing line. Different models requires different capital and different return on investment.

Advertisement mode: Life size models display, Ovations/look book, bill board advertisement

Equipment and Tools: Fabrics, men dress forms used for garment building, Scissors, Hole punchers, Straight and curved rulers, Pencils, Measuring tapes, Notcher for marking seams, Pins, Slopers, Dotted pattern paper, Sewing machine needles, Hand sewing needles, Threads, Sketching books, Draping tools, Dressmaking Stick pins, Muslin, Fabric shears, Soft lead pencil, Marking pen, Pattern plotter, Industrial machines (sewing for personal manufacturing), Pattern making software, Pattern makers for crafting designs, Computer, CAD tools for designs, Digital drawing tools, Digitizer board for pattern scanning, Heat transfer machines, Print tables, racks, Slat wall, Mannequins, Hangers, Labels and Tags, Packaging materials

Budget:

outlet #500,000

CAC Reg # 50,000

Stock #5,000,000

Machines #2,800,000

Overhead #300,000

Total #8,650,000

NOTE

This is just an excerpt of a medium clothing With the advent of machine and equipment, the budget surely will increase as well as the employment size which can span from 2 to 20 or more depend on the size of the clothing line. So basically, on a general term, a small scale will need around #25,000 to #80,000, medium scale from #100,000 to #4,000,000 and a large scale above #5 million naira.

To order for a sample clothing line business plan in Nigeria, pay N10,000 to:

BANK NAME: GUARANTY TRUST BANK (GTB)

ACCOUNT NAME: CHIBUZOR TOCHI ONYEMENAM

ACCOUNT NUMBER: 0044056891

After payment, send your full name, email address and topic (i.e. Sample clothing line business plan pdf) to 07033378184. Your business plan will be sent to your email within 15 minutes.

Market structure: the first thing during the research is the market, creating a niche: the type of clothing market you’ll like to enter. Will it be a men’s only, or women’s only or kids or a combination of a couple of them or unisex, will it be Nigerian attires( Hausa , Ibo, Yoruba) , or foreign wears, sport wears among others. The market size will determine the investment and funds necessary for the line while the type of market will determine the product type.

Location: this is a major determinant in setting up. The location have to be easily assessable to customers, and or to ware house or source of raw materials as the case of the niche may be. Location determines the type of customers and the type of setting up that would be employed. Setting up in Abuja municipal will definitely employ more funds compare to Akure. Location also in take into consideration

Internal and external competition
Tax laws
The political, economic, social and technological environment
Customers and suppliers
Economies and diseconomies of scale
Going concern

Getting materials for your clothing lines from the overall lowest cost and high quality materials from a reputable supplier. The low cost doesn’t generally mean the price of the material but it takes into account the cost of purchase, the cost of transportation, comparison of quality, savings on bulk purchase and other procurement cost. So taking into account all these for the overall cost.

Branding and trademark: Another major requirement for a clothing line is the brand. Selling quality helps pave road for easier brand sale. A trade mark is a symbol, word, or words legally registered or established by use as representing a company or product which is a distinctive characteristic or object of that brand. The trade mark must be unique and creative and must be protected legally.

You must scheme out design for you clothing, making it special, and targeting customers in your current niche or target market (in case of expansion). It include the design, the material quality, performance quality, the fit and style etc.

Advertisement: It’s one thing to have a great setup and nice products, it’s another thing entirely for people to be aware of that product. Thus the need for advertisement. First who are your target customer, what steps in reaching them and what mode of conveyance the information is going to take. How would you ensure that you are patronized? Adverts placements avail you the opportunity to take your products to your potential customer and it makes your brand known. Advertisement can be done on one-on-one basis, flyers and handbill, internet listings and online shops, referral method, visuals, internet ad, bill board ad and show room among others.

Management: develop and adopt management scheme for the business, keeping in mind the goal of the clothing line, networking with business to increase sales, talking to retailers, increasing capacity and creating exclusive designs to get new customers and retain old ones.

In summary, think and plan your clothing line, get the basic business need, make the clothes, market your product, improve and innovate on the product.

Clothing line is indeed lucrative and is an essential need of all human. It’s a business that continually make sale in all season and doesn’t entirely take into account the prevailing fluctuating economy of the country. So to be successful in clothing line, you’ll need to learn how to run a business, create your products, market your product, maintain and improve your products and make your customer happy.