Mistakes that could destroy your Black owned clothing line

But while starting a Black owned clothing line is simple, it is far from easy. It took me a lot of trial, error, and wasted money to build my clothing line. I made quite a few stupid mistakes like:

• Trying to do everything myself
• Building my store on social media instead of using my own website

Mistake 1: Trying To Make Your First Line By Hand

This is not a guide on how to manufacture your own clothing. Here is why:

• Manufacturing takes time. This guide is designed to get you in the game as fast as possible.
• Manufacturing is expensive. This guide helps you get started with $100 or less.
• When you manufacture, the margin for error is greater than using other methods. If you stick with this guide, you will be able to get your products in customers hands with the exact same quality every single time.

My first attempt at starting a clothing line failed because I spent more time shopping for fabrics, cutting, and sewing than I spent selling and making money.

To avoid making the same mistake that I made, I want you to think of yourself as the CEO and creative director of your clothing line. Your job is not to do manual labor. Instead, as the CEO you are responsible for building systems that run your company. And as the creative director, you are responsible for making sure your vision is carried out the way you want it to be.

But you will leave the manufacturing, shipping, design, and other ‘dirty work’ to other people that you ‘hire’ or other parts of your system.

Once everything is set up, your system will run on its own with little to no involvement on your part. This will set you free to work on your business instead of working in it!

If you need a refresher on what I mean by ‘business systems’ read The 3 Things You MUST Do If You Want To Succeed As A Black Entrepreneur.

Mistake 2: Not Writing Your Plan Down.

When it comes to goals and business plans, if its not written down its not going to happen. Period. There are some schools of thought that discourage business plans as being unnecessary or unrealistic. I cannot disagree more. ALL of the most successful operations on the planet – from small corporations to large countries – plan relentlessly, revisit their plans often, and operate according to plan. Your operation should be no exception.

The good news for you is that you don’t need a full 100 page traditional business plan. Instead, use the 5 page plan that I have included beneath Step 1 below.

Mistake 3: Being Obsessed with Tools.

You might be tempted to pile up “tools” that you think will help you get more done, but doing so is an expensive distraction from doing the real work. You don’t need a new MacBook Pro, business planning software, leather organization binders, iPads, or apps to get organized.

Instead, your money should be invested in graphic designers, fulfillment tools, a website and email autoresponder, and tools that automate your marketing.

At the end of this guide, I give you my full list of tools and a cost breakdown. While you might be tempted to jump to the end, I encourage you to read this guide to learn why those tools are necessary.

Mistake 4: Trying to do everything yourself.

Every great entrepreneur knows this #1 rule of business: NEVER try to do everything yourself!

Building a website looks easy. Using photoshop to create your designs looks easy. Creating nice packaging to ship your orders looks easy. Setting up payment processors looks easy.

Its not.

I know so many Black entrepreneurs who have been building their website for years that its not even funny anymore.

I also know many entrepreneurs who think their self-made logo looks great…

…And it looks like trash.

Here is the point: You can spend a full year trying to learn how to build a website and still not get it right. You can spend hours on your self made logo and end up with trash.

There are people out there who can build your site, design your logo, and ship your orders for you. And they can do it better than you. These are professionals who spent years learning their craft, and they do it well.

You can hire these people for a small fee (I will show you how later), and have great looking websites or designs in a few hours. Or you can try to do it yourself and maybe – maybe – launch in a year.

The choice should be clear. Hire cheap professionals to do what they are trained to do while you focus on moving units.

The Step By Step Guide To Starting A Black Owned Clothing Line

Now that you know what not to do, here is my full formula for starting and launching a Black clothing line. If you follow this guide to the letter, you can have a Black owned clothing line up and running in 2 days for less than $100.