YOUR T-SHIRT!
Our Business Plan
Gaye Gülüm Şimşek 20210386
Yavuzalp Demirci 20210396
INDEX
Executive Summary (Opportunity) ........................................1
Why Us? ...........................................................................5
Expectations (Financial Highlights by Year) ............................6
Keys to Success ..................................................................8
Execution (Marketing&Sales) ................................................8
Operations (Milestones&Metrics, Company) ............................9
Financial Plan (Forecast) .................................................... 12
Financing ......................................................................... 14
Bibliography ..................................................................... 16
EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY
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 form of expression. There are no limits to what you can communicate.
Some people might show their fanaticism for a particular sports team, others a
musician. Or you might have 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 Size&Segments
Market Segmentation
Your T-Shirt! has segmented the market into two groups, organized by the type of
product that they purchase. The first group is customers that desire an already
created graphic image to be placed on the their shirt. The second group are those
that prefer custom artwork to be placed 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. An additional reason for
segmenting the market based on the two products is because the demographics for
the buyers of the two products are distinct enough to group them separately.
Graphics — This is group purchases a shirt and has an existing graphic placed on the
shirt. This is the less expensive option and lends itself to low production numbers, as
low as one, since there is not the inherent expense of artwork creation.
• Ages 14-25
• 69% are students
• Median individual income is $26,000
• Go out to eat 3.4 times a week
• Listen to 3.6 hours of music a week
2
Artwork — This segment prefers having custom artwork created and placed on their
shirt. They generally have the image or style in mind and will direct the artist to create
it. Occassionally when the customer will not have an exact image in mind but will rely
on the artist’s skills to help shape the work. Some of these customers will use Your T-
Shirt!’s partner artist, others will have a friend or other service provider develop the
art.
• Ages 24-43
• Median individual income is $42,000
• Go out to eat 2.7 times a week
• Listen to 3.3 hours of music a week
• 18% are using the shirt as a form of communication for a cause or a message
3
Target Market Segment Strategy
Your T-Shirt! has chosen these two market segments because their demographics
(reasonably young) have the highest likelihood of purchasing a custom shirt. Both of
these segments are reasonably young. This is important because most of Your T-
Shirt!’s products are T-shirts and younger people tend to wear them frequently.
Music is also an important interest for the target markets since both segments listen
to and watch more than average amount of music. T-shirts are particularly popular at
music events. This phenomenon may be explained in part by the expressive nature of
both music and T-shirt graphics. Your T-Shirt! will provide a form of expression,
allowing each customer to choose what aesthetic or idea they want to communicate.
Lastly, the business will be located in Seattle which has a young, hip scene. There are
many music and other venues that cater to Your T-Shirt!’s demographic and these will
be useful in developing awareness of Your T-Shirt!
Competition
Your T-Shirt! has identified three competitors, two are local companies, the third is an
Internet-based shirt designer.
• T-shirt World — This local competitor specializes in silk-screening. 70% of
their business is silk-screening with the remaining 30% sublimation. They
require a minimum order of 10 with a 2-3 week lead time. This company only
uses pre-existing designs for their silk-screening and for sublimations you
must use their artist.
• Shirt Shack — This local retailer is geared toward organizations or teams with
production runs of 20 or more. They do fairly good work but are rigid
regarding custom work.
• Design House — This is an Internet-based retailer that primarily offers
computer sublimations. Design House has a catalog of approximately 200
images for the customer to choose from. They do allow customers to use their
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own graphic. The quality of the sublimations is mediocre at best because they
can only use 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. Customer’s expectations will always be
exceeded.
5
Expectations
Forecast
We are going to grow our business to start making a modest profit in year 3. Our
name will become synonymous with high quality fashion forward T-Shirts. Everyone
will come to us when they want to wear something custom made. We will be able to
pay off friends and family by year 5.
Financial Highlights by Year
Financing Needed
We will be getting a total of $84,500. Yavuz will be contributing $19,500 of his own
money. We have a loan of $65,000 which will be fully paid by year 5. We will make a
small profit starting year 3 and will consider taking on more staff by year 4 or 5 after
we pay off the loan completely.
6
Our Advantages
Your T-Shirt! has two advantages that will use to their advantage to achieve market
penetration.
• Large catalog of graphics — Your T-Shirt! is developing several strategic
relationships with existing graphics companies that have an extensive images
catalogs. It would be difficult and expensive for Your T-Shirt! to create their
own library of graphics but by developing relationships with companies who
own existing libraries, Your T-Shirt! is able to offer its customers an expansive
array of imagery. Your T-Shirt! pays a royalty for use of these graphics.
• Quality of the sublimation — Due to its networking contacts at Hewlett-
Packard, and the use of prototype technology, Your T-Shirt! will be able to
produce sublimations of much higher quality than any of their competitors.
This gives Your T-Shirt! a fantastic competitive edge. At some point within the
next two years this technology may be available to the public, however
because of the close contacts Mr. Inkler shares with HP, Your T-Shirt! will
always have cutting edge technology available, well in advance of any public
release.
7
Keys to Success
Keys to Success
Our keys to success is:
• Leverage cutting edge technology as a competitive advantage.
• Exceed customer expectations by offering high quality products at reasonable
prices with quick turnaround times.
• Employ careful financial and accounting analysis to ensure efficiency and
proper controls.
Execution
Marketing & Sales
Marketing Plan
The marketing campaign will seek to increase visibility for Your T-Shirt!, emphasizing
the ability of the customer to completely customize their design. Your T-Shirt! will use
several different venues to communicate this message.
• Advertising — Your T-Shirt! will run ads in several teen/young adult
magazines whose readership demographics are similar to Your T-Shirt!’s.
• Youth events — Many different events will be sponsored as a means of
increasing visibility. These include but are not limited to music festivals
and sporting events along with the new genre of extreme sporting events.
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• Student groups — Your T-Shirt! will attempt to gain awareness of the
different student groups who actively purchase shirts for their members.
Awareness will be achieved through a combination of sponsorship of student
organization events as well as advertisements in magazines that specifically
target this demographic.
Sales Plan
The sales strategy will emphasize the fact that ordering a shirt from Your T-Shirt! is a
very easy and pleasing experience. The sales effort will work on the continual
development of the website, the main tool used for ordering. It will be quite
important to have a friendly, easy to use web interface for two main reasons. One,
there are so many choices available that it could become daunting to the customer.
The second reason is that a large portion of sales will be placed on the website. It is
imperative to make it so easy that people don’t stop part way through ordering due
to cumbersome or difficult instructions. The website embraces the philosophy of
making the experience so easy and pleasing that the customer comes back to buy
more.
Your T-Shirt! will also rely on three other factors to help boost sales. The first is
exemplary customer service. Having excellent service will provide the customer with
the feeling that the business is looking out for the customer’s interest. Second, when
a customer places an order, they will probably be excited to see the finished product,
so Your T-Shirt! will ensure the fastest turnaround time possible. Lastly, sales will be
boosted by offering customers a high quality product. We will use high grade cotton
shirts and state-of-the-art sublimation printing materials.
9
Operations
Locations & Facilities
We are going to have a small store front with one computer where our customers can
put in their own designs. We will have a counter and cash register for those who
would like to have help. It will be set up somewhat like a fedex kiosk, most of the
work will be done online and offsite at HP.
Technology
Your T-Shirt! will offer customers a variety of options for creating their own custom
shirts. The majority of orders will be for t-shirts, however other style shirts will be
available. Your T-Shirt! has developed a strategic relationship with Hewlett-Packard
(HP) printer division. We will use their printer sublimation technology that allows a
computer image to be applied to a shirt in a high quality, high resolution,
economically feasible manner. This technology creates an image durable enough to
withstand thousands of washings. Its photo-like quality, due to significantly higher
printer resolution than anything on the market, will show off any image. The
technology is cost effective enough to offer customers the ability to order just one
unit. Most other competitors’ costs prohibit printing custom shirts in one-off
production runs. Finally, the customer may choose from an extensive library of
existing images, supply their own image, or have an artist create an image for them
Equipment & Tools
The store will have a computer kiosk for customers to access the graphics catalog.
The customer can then place the order online or take the information to an employee
to place the order.
10
Milestones & Metrics
Milestones Table
Milestone Due Date
Hire in store employee Jan 05, 2020
Hire a bookkeeper Jan 08, 2021
Store Build out Aug 08, 2021
Website Completion Nov 22, 2021
Hire a Graphic Designer Dec 12, 2021
COMPANY
Personnel Table
2020 2021 2022
Graphic Designer $33,600 $34,272 $34,957
David $31,200 $31,824 $32,460
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Bookkeeper (0.67) $31,200 $32,500
In store employee (0.33) $33,600
Totals $64,800 $97,296 $133,517
Financial Plan
Forecast
Key Assumptions
Our key assumptions are:
• There are people with disposable income that will be interested in buying
custom t-shirts
• People like wearing shirts that say something as a fashion and personal
statement.
• Our customers will find us on our website
• Our customers will appreciate the convenience of getting t-shirts shipped to
their house and will be willing to pay for it.
12
Revenue by Month
Expenses by Month
13
Net Profit (or Loss) by Year
Financing
Use of Funds
Your T-Shirt! will incur the following expenses for start up:
• Two Apple Macintosh computers — These will be high end models and utilize
the following software: Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator,
Macromedia FreeHand, and QuickBooks Pro.
• HP XX Laser Printer — This is a prototype printer not available to the public.
• In-store computer kiosk — This allows customers to view options for shirts and
existing imagery.
• Website — This will be used for information disbursement as well as ordering.
• Shelving display unit — To display assorted graphic images on paper for easier
viewing.
• Broadband Internet connection.
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• Two desk/chair/office supplies sets.
• Small shirt inventory — Inventory will be kept small to lower overhead. This
will be accomplished by using a shirt vendor who is one shipping day away,
effectively using a just-in-time (JIT) system for managing inventory.
• Heat application unit — To make the sublimation transfer.
Start-up Expenses
Legal $1,200
Stationery etc. $200
Computer equipment $6,200
Office furniture $1,000
Sublimation heat transfer unit $2,000
Wesite development $6,500
TOTAL START-UP EXPENSES $17,100
Sources of Funds
We will need a total of $84,500. Yavuz will give 19,500 of his own money. He secured
a loan for $65,000 for the startup expenses. Since we are able to break even by the
second year, and make profit on the third year. He will start hiring more staff to up
the sales by year 5 after he pays off the loan.
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