Opportunity
Problem
Imagine being able to design a shirt that is completely unique. Choose the shirt’s material and style, and then choose the graphic or image you wish to be printed on the back. This is the ultimate way to express yourself. There is no limit to the messages you can send. One person might be passionate about a certain sports team while another may be a fan of a musician. Perhaps you want to display a social message, or cause, on your shirt. Whatever you may decide, you can print any image on your shirt.
Solution
Your T-Shirt! is an exciting new business that allows people to custom design a shirt (specifically the design on the front or back) any way that they would like. By intelligently leveraging cutting edge technology, Your T-Shirt! will harness the power of computer sublimation to allow custom shirt printing in production runs as small as one unit.
Market
Your Tshirt! This market segmentation is based on the product they are purchasing. Customers who want a graphic image already designed to be printed on their shirt are the first group. The second group is those who would prefer custom artwork on their shirt. Your Tshirt! The market is divided according to the products they purchase. This allows for an easy and intuitive way of targeting these two groups. Another reason to segment the market based upon the two products, is that the buyers of these products have distinct demographics. This allows them to be placed in separate markets.
Concurrence
Your T-Shirt There are three companies that have been identified as competitors. Two of them are local and one is an online shirt designer.
- T-shirtWorld This local competitor specializes silk-screening. Their business is 70% silk-screening and 30% sublimation. They require that you order minimum 10 items and allow for 2-3 weeks lead time. They only use pre-existing patterns for silk-screening. Sublimations can be made using their artist.
- Shirt Shack This local retailer caters to teams or organizations with 20 or more production runs. They do a good job but can’t handle custom work.
- Design House The Internet-based retailer that sells computer sublimations primarily. Design House has a catalog of approximately 200 images for the customer to choose from. Customers can upload their own graphic. Sublimations are of poor quality because they only have access to off-the-shelf technology.
Why Us?
Our mission is to offer the finest in custom shirt sublimation production. We will offer customers the best product at the best price. Customers’ expectations will be met every time.
Expectations
Forecast
We are going to grow our business to start making a modest profit in year 3. We will be known for producing high quality fashion T-Shirts. Everybody will find a custom-made shirt to suit their needs. We will be able to pay off friends and family by year 5.
Financial Highlights by Year
Financing Required
The total amount we will receive is $84,500. David will be contributing $19,500 of his own money. We have a loan of $65,000 which will be fully paid by year 5. After we have paid the entire loan, we will be able to make a small profit and may look into hiring more employees in years 4 and 5.