Clothing Business Idea
If you’re a good seamstress, enjoy fixing clothing or have an eye for fabric, you could start a clothing business idea. Here are 10 clothing business ideas you can try:
111. Alteration Service
You can capitalise on your sewing skills by providing garment and fabric alterations services from your home.
How to start this business idea
You can offer to alter and fix clothing from family and friends to gain experience and get your name out there. You can also offer your services to dry cleaners, retailers, bridal boutiques and drapery studios.
How to keep this business idea successful
You can expand your offering to numerous businesses and gain repeat business from their customers. You can also continue to learn new techniques and work with new fabrics to increase your expertise.
112. Image Consultant
As an image consultant you can give both men and woman makeovers. You can coach them on the right wardrobe style for their image, weed out closets and go on shopping expeditions.
How to start this business idea
You’ll also give hair and make-up advice, colour-consulting and instructions in self-confidence. You can offer your services to both private and corporate clients to help improve their overall presence.
How to keep this business idea successful
You’ll need to keep up with current fashion, make-up and hair trends to ensure you’re giving your clients the best possible advice. You’ll also need to be a walking advertisement for your business.
113. Patternmaker
You can create patterns for designers, dressmakers and sewing enthusiasts.
How to start this business idea
You can start by creating clothing for yourself, while offering pattern ideas to sewing enthusiasts. Once you’ve developed some traction you can approach pattern publishers and offer your designs or approach dressmakers and ask if they’re looking for custom designs.
How to keep this business idea successful
You’ll need to stay on top of the latest trend in fashion and incorporate those into your patterns. You can also create eBooks and YouTube videos to reach a larger audience teaching them how to use patterns and about sewing.
114. Fabric Restoration
Fabric covers just about everything in a home or office and someone needs to restore and repair that fabric. You can repair and restore torn, cracked, faded, stained and burned fabrics.
How to start this business idea
You can start a mobile business and service hotels, motels, movie theatres, hospitals, carpet cleaners, furniture stores, vehicle upholstery and restaurants. You can master this trade by practising with different types of fabric.
How to keep this business idea successful
You’ll need to start small and eventually you can take on bigger clients. You can also offer apprenticeships and eventually have a full-team working with you.
115. Handbag Design and Manufacturing
You can create and manufacture handbags from the comfort of your own home. You can start this on a part-time basis until you have enough orders to support you.
How to start this business idea
You can design and make the handbags and sell them directly to customers using a website, or you can sell them at flea markets and community gatherings.
How to keep this business idea successful
When you’re ready to grow you can establish a joint venture with an established handbag manufacturer. You can then produce and wholesale your designs under a split revenue agreement.
116. Homebased Tailor
Formal and business wear retailers tend to subcontract to outside tailors. This creates an opportunity for those with sewing experience to capitalise by starting a home-based tailoring service.
How to start this business idea
A quick way to establish this service is to offer to subcontract to retailers. You can then arrange to collect and deliver garments at specific times.
How to keep this business idea successful
To generate more revenue for your home-based tailoring business you can purchase formal wear and offer to rent and alter them to clients through the retail stores.
117. Maternity Clothing
There are numerous brands and a wide range of maternity clothing available across the globe.
How to start this business idea
A way for you to cash in on this large and lucrative market is to design, manufacture and sell the maternity clothing or you can purchase the clothing on a wholesale basis and resell them for a profit.
How to keep this business idea successful
Once your business gets off the ground, you’ll either need to parent with a manufacturer to make bulk orders or you’ll need to upgrade your storage and transportation system.
118. Fabric Shop
You can sell numerous styles and types of fabrics in a fixed storefront location.
How to start this business idea
This business needs little in the way of specialised equipment, which will keep your overheads low. You will need a large retail space to display as many different types of fabric as you can. You’ll also need to secure supply arrangement with manufacturers.
How to keep this business idea successful
You can also stock and sell patterns, buttons, zippers, curtain rods, sewing machines, as well as various other sewing, knitting and craft items to increase your revenue and your customers selection.
119. Embroidery Service
The technology advancements within the lucrative embroidery industry have made it easy for even a novice to start an embroidery service.
How to start this business idea
You’ll need to invest in embroidery machines. Current machines are computer assisted, which means you can design the image using specialised software and transfer it to the embroidery machine to complete.
How to keep this business idea successful
You should create a small showroom or website for people to see your designs, to show off items that can be embroidered and samples of embroidery options. You can distribute brochures to sports associations, corporations and clubs to capture a larger market.
120. Sewing Classes
If you can sew at a professional level, you can offer to teach others.
How to start this business idea
You can advertise your classes at various fabric and hobby stores. You can have beginner, intermediate and advanced classes to ensure you have repeat customers.
How to keep this business idea successful
You can start a joint venture with one of the fabric shops allowing you to host the classes in the evenings and weekends keeping your overall start-up capital low, as well as capitalising on your partners existing customer base.