Tips for Starting a High-Demand, High-Volume Sewing Business

If you've got a great idea for a high-demand product to sew, you've created your own designs, and you're making plans to start a high-volume sewing business, there are a few things that can help you get off to a good start.

High Volume Sewing Business image courtesy of Pixabay

High-Volume Sewing Business Plan

Sewing is a creative business, and it might feel like something as formal as a business plan squashes creativity, but it's actually the opposite if you go about it right. Make the plan about how to merge your creativity with the business details needed for success, and you'll be off to a better start.

While a lot of sewing businesses start as home businesses, when you develop an idea that has the potential to sell in large quantities it's time to start thinking about things like:

• where to put the business.
• how to market your products.
• competitors and strategic alliances. 
• things that need to go inside the facility, like industrial sewing machines and pallet loaders or a gravity conveyor to move boxes of your products around inside the building.

Including the important details in your business plan gives you a solid roadmap for success.

Importance of Location for a High-Volume Sewing Business

If you're setting up a launch with the plan to produce a large volume of your sewn products, look for a location with room to grow. You need: 

• space for large cutting tables
• room for several industrial sewing machines
• an area for pressing machines to smooth wrinkles out of textile products
• space to package and ship your creations.
• easy accessibility to shipping routes

Develop Your Sewing Business Marketing Plan

The time to put together marketing plan is before you begin business. But - if you're already in business and don't have a plan yet, it's better late than never. Include things like: 

• Starting a website to promote your products
• What kind of paid advertising you want to try 
• What kind of advertising your main competitors use
• How much you plan to include in your budget for each type of marketing
• A schedule to review and assess the effectiveness of your marketing efforts regularly so you can change anything that isn't working.

The Role of Competitors for Your Sewing Business

The market for sewn products is huge, and there are many types of products out there. You can take the idea of beating the competition, or you can form strategic alliances that boost your products and the products of other companies. 

For example, if you decide to make messenger bags, you could form a strategic alliance with a clothing company, and when people see how great your bags look with the other business' clothes, they'll want to buy both items.

If you prefer to take a 'stomp the competition' approach, things get harder, but you can carve out your own niche in an existing market segment by carefully researching, determining, and promoting what makes your sewn products unique.

Amenities Within the Building That Enhance Sewing Business Success

Some things are kind of a given when you're planning a high-volume manufacturing business making stitched items, like bathrooms for employees and the need for good lighting. Other things may not be as intuitive, but they're just as important. 

Things like setting up a floor plan that allows the products to move through production, into shipping, and out of the facility are every bit as important as the obvious stuff. Make sure to allow space between machines for floor jacks and racks to move freely. Take advantage of things like conveyors that reduce the number of steps employees have to take to get the finished products out the door quickly and undamaged.