Opportunity
Problem
Imagine the ability to create a totally custom shirt. You choose the material and style of the shirt, and then the image or graphic you want on the front and/or back. This is the ultimate way to express yourself. There are no boundaries to what you communicate. Different people may have different fan bases. Some might support a specific sports team and others might support a musician. Your shirt might display a message or cause. Whatever you may decide, you can print any image on your shirt.
Solution
Your T-Shirt! A new exciting business allows customers to design their own shirt, specifically the design on the front and back. 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! has segmented the market into two groups, organized by the type of product that they purchase. Customers who prefer a premade graphic image to be applied to their shirt are the first. The second group is those who would prefer custom artwork on their shirt. Your T-Shirt has decided to divide the market by the products that they purchase because it offers an intuitive, easy method of targeting the two different groups. The demographics of buyers for both products make it possible to separate them.
Competition
Your T-Shirt! has identified three competitors, two are local companies, the third is an Internet-based shirt designer.
- TshirtWorld This local competitor specialises in silkscreening. 70% of their business consists of silk-screening, 30% is sublimation. They require minimum orders of 10 and a lead time of 2-3 weeks. The company does not use pre-existing design for silk-screening. For sublimations, you will need to use their artist.
- Shirt Shack —? This local retailer is geared towards companies or teams that produce more than 20 units. They do a good job but can’t handle custom work.
- Design House This Internet retailer mainly sells computer sublimations. Design House offers a selection of around 200 images that customers can choose from. You can use your own graphic. They can only use standard technology, so the quality of sublimations is not great.
Why Us?
Our goal is to produce the highest quality custom shirt sublimation products. We promise to offer our customers the best product for the lowest price. Our goal is to exceed our customers’ expectations.
Expectations
Forecast
We will continue to grow our company to begin making a small profit in year 3. We will be known for producing high quality fashion T-Shirts. When they need something customized, everyone will turn to us. In five years, we will be able pay our friends and family.
Financial Highlights by Year
Financing is Required
The total amount we will receive is $84,500. David will contribute $19 500 of his own funds. A loan of $65,000 will be paid off in full 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.
