Hey Whats up YouTube! My name is Jonathan (JohnXSantos). And I decided to make a video for
everyone out there that's trying to start a clothing line or any other brand.
You know I was inspired and I was inspired to create it after you know
struggling so long with the company that I created. Revive Brand Co. I was 18 years
old you know and I was learning everything from scratch similar to what
you're doing. But unfortunately when you start a business you're not really sure
exactly what you need to look up. So I'm here to help you guys with a couple of
the terms. And also most importantly show you how you can start your clothing line
less than $50 U.S Dollars. So the first thing that comes to mind when you want to start a
brand and you want to start a company is really planning whatever it is you want
to do. A plan you know a lot of people call it a business plan or whatnot. So
develop that, there's something that's free online it's a really free tool a
very cool tool I recommend everybody use is called Lean Stack. So Lean Stack
pretty much allows you to a one page plan very simple gets everything out the
way for you. And you hit the streets running pretty much the next step you're
going to need to do is obviously think of a business name. Think about the
clothing brands name. Every idea that comes in line write on a piece of paper.
Before we started our business we had about 150 names and we decided on Revive
Brand Co. And the way that we were going to market that and everything so
that doesn't need to tie in. So after you have your business name you're going to
want to do a trademark. You don't want to either trademark it or reserve it. Look
into that process. That process is a little bit expensive if you do it if you
do it yourself it's a lot cheaper. If you do what a lawyer its more expensive. But
at the moment you do not need that to start up. But always check their website.
Links are down below and check the website make sure that you can use it.
Last thing you want us to get sued by the company that owns it. The third step I
would say when pre-planning to start your clothing line. Is get set up with
either a logo or some type of branding. Or some type of thing that really that
when people see that image they it's
something that you could put on stickers. You can put on flyers business cards
spray-paint it, who cares? I mean so you know get creative with how you use it
how you market it. So now you have an idea, you have the names so now
you're gonna think about the business structure. My highest recommendation to
you guys the way that you're gonna save the most money and the least amount of
headaches is to just go with the sole proprietor. If you're a you know
you're like me you're just starting a business you might have a few friends
with you. You know if they really want to become a part of the business and you
know that they're gonna be there. They're like a key component to what it is that
you're doing. Then you'll you'll set up a partnership. Either way those are the two
easiest forms of getting your idea to market, registering with everybody you
know setting up your accounts which we'll discuss. So sole proprietor is a
way to go and it's free .Versus if you do an LLC it cost you 400 that's that was
$400 that you could have spent on your clothing. You know to really get the idea
to market. So that's going to be the first step to set up your business
structure. Like I said a recommending sole proprietor or a partnership. You
know so just look for your secretary of state website. And you should be able to
find that, The next thing you're going to need to look into is the fictitious firm name.
That's what a lot of people call it in other words it's what's your clothing
brands name? So the way that we're structuring this video is as if you
chose the sole proprietor route and in the sole proprietor you're the owner.
So the fictitious firm name is your brand's name. It's what you want
everybody to know you as. For example if I did a sole proprietor it would be
Jonathan doing business as Revive Brand Co. In the same similar manner your
going to want to do that.
The fictitious firm name is $20 US Dollars. That's very common across multiple states and
pretty much what that means is you're registering the name with the county
that you're operating keep that in mind. So you're pretty much registering it
they're saying that I'm going to be doing business at this address. In order
to qualify for the sole proprietor for free license you know they'll give you
an exemption for a business license if you do it this way. So you don't have to
pay the state license fee. And so if you set
it up with a fictitious firm name. They'll just ask for you to pretty much
document where you're going to be operating and they're going to want a
small charge in order for you to be registered with them. And pretty much
that allows you to put the brand's name on the legal paperwork. So the next
step you're going to need to do is file an EIN number. An EIN number pretty
much is a employer identification number. To sum it all up is a social
security number for your business. You're gonna need it so you don't put you know
all your personal information on documents that go out. You know to other
businesses, it's free beware of the websites that charge you for it. Because
you could do it yourself it's as easy as filling out a job application. And if you
haven't filled one out before or if you're not good at them contact somebody
who is maybe make them your business partner who knows. Once you have that
number you can pretty much start on the sales tax permit. And a lot of people are
like well what's the sales tax permit? What's a wholesale number? A sales tax
permit is pretty much the same thing of the wholesale number. So you can collect
taxes off the sales that you make on your shirts on your bags whatever it is
you're selling. This is an optional step there's something that I don't
recommend everybody do up front. But when you're ready for it you can pretty much
purchase a lot of the items wholesale. So you can buy a lot of bulk items without
paying any taxes. And the reason that they allow you to do this is because
you're a registered person to collect taxes for your state or your government
pretty much. And if you decide to do it the cost is $15. You will need to have a
bank account or a checking account that you're gonna want to pretty much write a
check to them for or pay for them electronically. And if you did all the
steps before this one. All the paperwork that you had which was the business
license, sole proprietor and the EIN number you're allowed to open up a
business account with whatever business you do banking with. And this this is
this is a huge step for you to organize your finances your
expenses and really separate yourself from the business.
And now you're ready to pretty much proceed to the next step. Which is
accepting payments. With inventions such as like Square, PayPal all kinds of them
jumping off there all for free. So I personally for my business I use Square
and PayPal. I use Square to collect a lot of personal sales so well while
we're at events or you know somebody hits me up I'm always selling stuff out
of the car. On the website we pretty much have our our PayPal into it .It's very
convenient very low fees for you to pretty much start up. And obviously when
you do higher volumes you might consider moving up to a bigger processor. But to
start off I would say a lot of businesses use square. It's very very
intuitive you could even create an online site on that. It's one of the best
ways to go if you're going to be selling stuff you know at schools at events
whatever it is. So all of that is free like I said you don't have to pay for
that. One of the things that I would recommend
you guys do is once you get your name and once you get you know all your stuff
put together. It's really budget for a website
you don't necessarily have to buy a website. Like and full out you know go to
somebody that's going to charge you a couple thousand to create a site. Don't
waste your time doing that at the moment. Just reserve the name that's the most
important part. So purchase that website and that website will cost you anywhere
between seven to ten dollars. And now there's Bluehost there's GoDaddy
Hostgator and all kinds of other hosting sites. I personally use Bluehost and a
lot of the lot of the Brands that I know use Bluehost they're very good and
they're very intuitive. And if you really want to you know get your hands dirty
with that with that WordPress and on your website. Then they have a lot of
videos to show you how to do it. So that will cost you ten bucks which pretty
much leads us to a total about forty five dollars depending on you know what
are the little fees you might get that are different from your state . It should
be under fifty bucks. And you know just keep a few things in mind when you're
starting up spend as little as you can always try to budget and save. And so
with this in mind website can be a high cost. So there's a lot of there's a lot
of things out available now that allow you to save that money.
There's things such as Store Envy or Big Cartel
you know they allow you to pretty much put up your products. And you could you
know once you're telling people you made these business cards you made all kinds
of things. Once once you're referring people they can actually see your
products online. So these things are free take advantage of them and if you
purchase your domain you can always pretty much create a real looking site
you know. So it's actually your "www.yourbrandname.com" it's nothing like
"storenvy.com/yourname" so I mean if you do it that way it looked like a legitimate
site. And then you could they have all of mobile they have all the online
processing they got the tools for you they got the analytics. Which are very
good actually I've seen it it's pretty it's pretty dope stuff we got our own we
got our own site off a Word Press but uh yeah, I mean I really recommend that way.
And so once you get you know once you finally get online and you decide that
you're going to start selling products online. You know one of the best ways to
get your products across the country is with the flat rate
shipping . The US Postal Service is a very good tool when it comes to this. They're
able to pretty much you can create an account with them and they may even send
you free boxes. I mean you could get a bunch of boxes I've ordered a lot before
and just you know stack them up and use them whenever we need to. But you know
they want you to use their service so they're able to give you all these free
shipping supplies. Take advantage of that and their rates are very well especially
for t-shirts you could ship stuff out for five dollars across the United
States. And sometimes even 15 to 20 you know internationally. Social media you
know you got Facebook, Twitter, Instagram YouTube, Vine(V2), Pinterest, Tumblr take
advantage of all of them. Put your name on every single one. Once you decide what
your brand is going to be called go out and get every single one. Go out and put
some kind of footprint out there. Put some kind of some kind of branding out
there you know. So your graphics everything is up there some company
information connected to your storenvy or wherever you're going to be selling
your products. Get it all up because once people start you know once you start
promoting it people are going to research it they're gonna look into
their phone they're gonna say oh s**t I talked to this guy the other day. He told
me about this clothing line let me check it out. You know so if you can't be found
you don't exist. Always make sure that you could be found. And that's a really
great tool to do that. Photography is gonna be very important when you're
starting your line. It's the difference between somebody seeing your product and
somebody just seeing a blank site. So photography is gonna be one of your key
crucial things when you're when you're online. Just make sure that you you know
have a decent camera have some good lighting a white backdrop. I may or may
not make a video ask me if you guys if you guys request you know to give you
guys some tips as far as photography goes. If not look it up online you know
there's all kinds of things. Look up the search key terms "photography with a
white background" or a "t-shirt photography with the white background".
That'll give you the ability to really learn how to set your camera settings in
order for you to shoot some really good product shots. And when it comes to
modeling you know. I mean if you're in school right now
definitely stay in it I mean you know as far as appear in high school finished
through it the least you could do is finish high school. If you decide to go
to college you know a lot of people say well there's you know I can do you can
start a business without going to school. Yeah you can, school the one thing I
would say that really helps you is the ability to network with others so
you could really go out and really you know be part of clubs be part of you
know movements that are going on within your community. And it allows you to
really meet these photographers, these graphic designers and all of these
people that would otherwise ignore what you're doing because they have no
personal connection to you. So always make sure that you know when you join
these these schools you take advantage of everything they offer. Take a
photography class, take a graphic design class, learn the basics of it or even you
know get better at it. And if you're going to be starting a clothing line one
of the things that you will need to have is somebody that could do the designs
and what you envision. Whether it be yourself or whether it be a partner
of whether it be somebody helping you part-time as an intern. Whatever it is
you got to have that person to come up with these designs. And always be
creative make sure that you're coming out with designs that really attract the
market that you're going for, the people that you want to attract. And really be
creative with it, if it's if you know as far as you know how to actually design a
shirt. I mean it's really your taste you know some people say keep it simple some
people want to go very off the off the wall with it. It's really up to you
really see you know what works adjust it and make it yours. If there's anything
you should take away from this video is just to keep things simple.
I mean don't complicate things because you're putting barriers in front of you.
You know have fun go out there and joy enjoy this journey. I mean it's one of
the hardest. But it's very, it's very, if you, if you, you know you continue doing
it you'll find it a lot of fun. You'll keep growing you know, keep things simple
have fun! Hit the subscribe button! comment down below for any other
suggestions on videos I should make and I'll talk to you guys soon and wake up and win.