So, you have been bit by the entrepreneur bug and have a strong love of fashion. You have the start of your business plan made, now you need to think up the things you will physically need to start your fashion business. Where do you start? What types of things do you really need to open a fashion business in this day and age?
Things you need to start a fashion clothing store are types of clothing you’re going to carry and also if you’re going to cater to a specific niche (IE big and tall men, plus size or all sizes), brands you want stock, a variety of mannequins, racks and shelves, a nice stylish storefront and all the required licensing.
Start With a Business Plan
You will need to write out a detailed business plan. You will need to come up with your target market as well as a detailed list of everything you’ll need. Once you come up with all areas of the business plan, you need to get the licensing.
Find Your Store Front
Clothing can do fairly well online, but when you’re wanting to open a boutique, a storefront with dressing rooms is ideal for people who want to feel the clothes and try them on before buying.

You want a place with a good parking lot as well as bright, natural lighting (or easy access to putting more lighting up). If you’re selling clothing, you want bright lights so people can get a good view of the colors of the clothing they are trying on. Nothing is worse than trying to make sense of the color of the clothes when you’re in dimly lit rooms.
You also want a popular shopping area with a lot of foot traffic. Foot traffic brings window shoppers and window shoppers can easily turn to buyers. When you’re looking for a good storefront, a shopping plaza with food and other shops is ideal.
Create a Trendy and Stylish Website
You may want to pay someone to open your website or you may want to do it yourself. You will want to make sure all your clothing is photographed professionally and the lay out is easy to navigate. You don’t want potential customers to get turned off by a hard to read font or a difficult to navigate storefront. Your website may be some customers’ first impression of your store, so you want to make sure it properly shows what you stand for and what kind of clothing company you’re running.
Make sure the proper sizing is on each listing and the cart works well- you could run into the issue of a store cart that doesn’t work and that will cost you money in lost revenue.
Your website will also be available when your storefront is closed and people from all over the world will be able to shop there- you will have a much wider range of customers.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Opening A Clothing Boutique.
Determine Your Niche
The first thing you will need to do is determine what types of clothing you will carry. There are many styles to choose from or you can open a multi niched store- similar to a department store where you will carry a wider variety of clothing. You may choose bohemian, preppy, gothic/biker, sporty, casual or business casual. You also may choose to open a formal-ware store.
Once you choose the exact niche, choose sizes. Do you want to carry a wide variety of sizes including plus sizes or do you want to specialize in plus sizes? You may choose petite or big and tall, if you’re choosing to cater only to men. You may want to carry a wide range from petite through plus and normal men through big and tall- that way everyone can find something that fits right. Don’t discredit carrying plus size, plus size stores do well and plus size women have a very hard time fitting clothing in some stores so the plus size category is a very under tapped niche that can add quite a bit to your business.
Determine the Brands
You will likely have a variety of brands you want to carry. Most stores do not only carry one brand so go online and look through wholesale catalogues to find which brands appeal to you that you feel you can resell.
If you’re starting your own line, you will want to either find a good Print on Demand company (there are several that will charge lower prices to you for your own creations then let you resell at a higher price)
If you’re starting your own brand and sewing the clothing yourself, take careful measurements of all your clothing and come out with your own personal sizing chart. Make sure that you make several copies of the chart and post around your store. If people don’t know what your sizes are, they will have no idea where to start when trying on clothing.
You Will Need Mannequins

Good mannequins of different shapes and sizes will help show off the clothing and how the clothes will fit on different body types. They will show how well outfits fit together as well. If you’re wanting to sell a full outfit with shoes, socks, purse, and accessories, you will find that a full body mannequin will do the job. If you want to sell hats, just a mannequin head will work. There are all types of mannequins you can buy- arms for watches, bracelets, necks for scarves and necklaces, heads for hats and full body for outfits. You will want a variety.
You Will Need Shelves and Clothing Racks
Some clothing looks better hung and some looks better and neater stacked and folded. If you’re selling a lot of jeans, shelving that allows you to fold the clothing works, same with tee-shirts. Stuff that wrinkles easier is typically better hung up on a rack. You will want a large variety of both racks and shelves styled together in an attractive way.
Other Miscellaneous Items
Some other random items you will need for your shop include a cash register or POS system. You will want something more advanced than a normal register. A full POS system is more advanced than a regular cash register but will cost more, you may want to start with a basic cash register until your store is off the ground, then move on to a POS system.
You will also need good bookkeeping software, or a good accountant to make sure you keep track of every expense and sale.
Marketing materials are also going to be required. Sites like Vista Print offer a wide range of affordable marketing materials- from large banners to signs you put on your car, business cards and brochures you can go to them for any marketing needs you have. You will want to pay for a good logo for your business, it will help your ecom store as well as marketing materials stand out and soon it will become synonymous with your brand.
Good business cards are another need. You will want to talk to strangers or attend marketing and networking events, so you will need business cards you can pass out when people seem interested. You could just try telling people where you’re located, but a business card tends to get more business. It will show your website as well as your physical location.

The last thing you’ll need are good employees. You want people who will take pride in your store and keep it running. Even if you just start out with a small staff, you will want someone to manage the store and someone who will run the register. Having an extra two or three people to keep the shelves stocked and people to work in the back taking inventory of what you have and what you need to order will help a lot as well.
Those are the primary things you will need when you choose to run a clothing store. The stock depends on if you’re selling already made clothing or if you’re doing print on demand or creating your own clothes. Staff is a very important part of the store. You want to make sure it’s clean, well-stocked and the customers see friendly faces to help them out when they come in to shop.
How To Make Your Clothing Line Stand Out From The Competition
Related Question
How Do I Find the Perfect Staff?
You will want to make sure to hire people who have experience with retail. When you’re looking for a store manager, it’s best to require a business degree; especially focused on management. They are the ones who have gone to school and exclusively studied being store managers. Most retailers require their lead manager to have a business degree, while supervisors tend to have any education and experience.
Retail workers can be anywhere from teens to experienced retirees. You want to make sure they are friendly and reliable. It can be costly to continuously rehire people and retrain so you also want to make sure you retain the employees that are really good.
When you’re interviewing, you want to make sure to ask questions about their history and pay close attention to body language. If they are lying, they will look and act uncomfortable. If there seems to be differences in what they say and their resumes, you may want to ask questions or pass. A gap may not be anything bad, but several gaps along with a large job history could show an employee who tends to get fired or quit easily and that can get expensive to constantly replace employees.
To learn more about how to start your own fashion clothing line check out my startup documents here
Please note: This blog post is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Please consult a legal expert to address your specific needs.

Meet Shawn Chun: Entrepreneur and Fashion Business Fan.
I’m a happy individual who happens to be an entrepreneur. I have owned several types of businesses in my life from a coffee shop to an import and export business to an online review business plus a few more and now I create online resources for those interested in starting new ventures. It’s demanding work but I love it. I do it for those passionate about their business and their goals. That’s why when I meet a designer or boutique owner at a craft fair, farmers market, retail location or anywhere else I see myself. I know how hard the struggle is to retain clients, find good employees and keep the business growing all while trying to stay competitive.
That’s why I created Fashion Business Boss: I want to help fashion business owners like you build a thriving business that brings you endless joy and supports your ideal lifestyle.