Learning how to start a leggings business online from scratch may sound really tough, but trust me, it’s not. In fact, starting your own leggings brand from home is pretty much simpler than you may think. You just need to follow a step-by-step guide and your leggings business is up and Running in no time. I am going to format this article into three main phases of a fashion business, which are planning, launching, and scaling. Before we dive into the exact steps, you might want to read how to start an activewear business, where I talk more about starting a sportswear business in general.
1. Planning Your Leggings Business
This is the first and most crucial step in order to start a leggings business online. First, you need to come up with answers to some of the key questions in this niche. Planning your business not only helps you focus on the specific steps necessary to make the leggings business succeed, but it also helps you achieve short-term and long-term goals. Below is a step-by-step guide you should follow while planning your business.
Research the Market and Demographics
The first thing you need to understand before starting a leggings business online is – who your target audience is going to be. Furthermore, you need to have a clear idea of why someone would buy your leggings over billion-dollar companies like Lululemon. Luckily the process isn’t too difficult.
If you are having trouble doing demographic research, the best thing I can suggest is taking a piece of paper and writing down every single detail about your prospective customer. Having a clear picture of your prospective customer not only makes decision-making swift but also helps in creating winning marketing strategies.
Once you finish your research in demographics and understand your possible customers the next phase is market research. Fortunately, to perform the market research all you need to do is look at your competitors. I suggest visiting the reviews of your competitors and noting down all the negative ones. Once you compile all the bad reviews, ask yourself – Can you do it better? Can you offer those customers a better product or service?
Create a Business Plan
A business plan is an encyclopedia for your business. A great business plan not only details the goals and ambitions of the business but also addresses the steps to be taken to achieve those goals. If you are having difficulty in writing a business plan, SBA offers a great resource to help you write your business plan.
Register your Business
When you start a leggings business online, registering it will provide a legitimacy factor to it. This will help to strengthen the relationship between you and your clients. Moreover, registering your business as a legal entity will prevent any legal problems with the government in the future.
One of the best structures to register your business is LLC, which also stands for Limited Liability Company. An LLC will offer you a blanket of protection from business debts or lawsuits. Although the protection is not fully-proof, it is significantly better than operating as a sole proprietorship.
My number one choice for forming an LLC is LegalZoom. The best thing about them is they have a flat-fee system (no hourly charges), and they got you covered in all 50 states. That means no more leaving home to work with a lawyer.
Once your business is registered, make sure you get your EIN number. EIN is just a 9 digit unique code given to every business by the government to recognize them as a tax-paying entity. You can apply for an EIN number online. This number will come in handy while filing taxes or even when opening a business bank accounts.
Create your Socials
You should never aim too high when starting your leggings business. The main objective should always be to start with a small and loyal group of people who want to buy your leggings. And the best way to find this loyal group of customers is through social media.
Considering the leggings business is more into the yoga and fitness niche, focus more on these niches on your social media platforms. Create two copies of every social media site. By two copies, I mean to create two Instagram pages – one for your business and one for a theme Instagram page related to the yoga and fitness niche. This way you can gain a massive interest in your theme page and funnel them into your main business page to buy products. The same thing goes for TikTok. Create one to showcase your products and a different one talking about Yoga and Fitness in general.
This may sound like a lot of work but trust me, it’s really worth it at last. A lot of people focus on just selling. Sale is not everything. Building a relationship and providing a great experience will take you a long way in this game. And there is no better place to build those relationships than social media.
Source your Products
In order to start a leggings business online, you need to know exactly what type of leggings you want to sell, the next step is to source them. You can either manufacture them or buy them through wholesalers. I would strongly suggest you stick to wholesalers while starting out and only approach manufacturers when your business is well established.
Your number one solution to all your leggings requirement at a wholesale price is Leggings Wholesale. The best thing about them is they are 100% USA-owned and operated business and their shadow website PickMyLeggings is probably the biggest resource for leggings businesses. They also have an extensive guide on starting a leggings business on their website, which is a must-read for everyone.
If you do not have enough cash for inventory, you can follow the dropshipping model to run your business. This way you won’t have to spend any money on inventory.
2. Launching Your Leggings Business
This is one of the most exciting phases when you start a leggings business. You have gone through all the boring things in the planning phase and the launch of your business is just around the corner. This excitement often brings carelessness among young entrepreneurs. Therefore always remember the commitment before starting. With that out of the way, let’s get to the steps involved in launching your legging business online.
Create an E-commerce Website
The only thing that comes into mind when thinking about creating an e-commerce website is Shopify. Whether you are starting a denim line or a leggings line, Shopify enables normal people like you and me, without any coding skills, to create beautiful websites to sell their products or services online. However, a lot of my readers complain to me about the pricing of Shopify which is $29/mo and $11/yr for a domain. This can be a bit too steep for someone just starting out.
Another option which is on the cheaper side is Square. They will let you sell online with a free online store. But the catch is they will run Square Ads on your website, you will not have a choice of a custom domain and Square payment processors charge you 2.9%+30c for every transaction. If you don’t want ads and love to connect a custom domain, the $12 plan is best for you.
The cheapest option is an e-commerce website with WordPress. This route will only cost you $2.95/yr on hosting and you’ll get a domain name of your choice free for the first year. The only drawback is it is a bit technical and someone with no experience with WordPress may struggle to grasp the basics.
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Run Ad campaigns
Running Ad campaign is crucial in order to start a leggings business online. Since you won’t have any customers or audience for your brand, your first few sales always come from ad campaigns. Paid Ads can give your business an edge when it comes to marketing and advertising. Our $499 package includes free marketing consultation where we actively help you to acquire new customers with as little cost as possible.
Generally speaking, Paid ads can be divided into two phases. Testing and Scaling.
The testing phase is all about testing as many variables as possible on a limited budget. Try to test as many ad sets(interests), creatives, copies, and landing pages as possible.
Once you find your winning Ad set, the next phase is scaling it. You pause all other Ads except the ones generating nice revenue. And increase the budget of those Ads that are generating revenue or showing promising results.
While starting out, I will suggest you opt for Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, TikTok Ads, and Snapchat Ads. Don’t go for Google Ads till you can create some sort of authority of your brand. If you need help with marketing and running paid Ads, please contact us. We won’t just run Ads for you as every other marketing agencies do. Instead, we will teach you and make you understand the process.
3. Scaling Your Leggings Business
So once you start your leggings business online, launch your online store, get a solid social media following, and get a few sales through the paid Ads, the next phase is scaling your leggings business. Scaling is not easy. You have to test a lot of stuff and identify the ones that work best for your leggings business.
Focus on SEO
The biggest problem online entrepreneurs face is getting sales only while running paid Ads. This is not sustainable for a long period of time. You will need organic traffic to your store. And the best way to do that is to focus on Search Engine Optimization(SEO).
SEO helps your leggings website to rank higher up in the Search Engine Result Page(SERP). However, SEO is not only about search engines but good SEO practices improve the user experience of your leggings website. Frankly speaking, users trust search engines, and having a presence in the top positions for the keywords the user is searching for will increase the website’s trust.
I would highly suggest hiring an SEO expert for your leggings business during the scaling phase. Contact us, if you want to try our SEO services. Our $499 package comes with free SEO services for 1 full year.
Work on Feedback
As an online entrepreneur, your sole focus should be on getting feedback and working on them. Whenever you receive positive feedback, take your time and cherish the moment. However, when negative feedback comes knocking at your door, try to work on it and find a better solution for your customer. This is a great way of making a loyal group of customers for your leggings business.
Negotiate with your Suppliers
If you want to start a successful leggings business online, you would want to reduce your operational costs in the scaling phase of your leggings business. Therefore, it is a perfect time to negotiate the pricing with your supplier. If you want to move to the next level, you should look into manufacturing your own leggings to cut the costs down.
Social Media Management
As your leggings business expands, your social media game should be spot on. Try to engage with your followers and post content regularly. Organizing giveaways is a great way to create awareness about your brand and increase engagement. You can also consider hiring a social media manager for your business. With only $99/mo, you can hire someone who can post a couple of content and engage with your followers every day. If you want to hire a social media manager for your brand, contact us through this form.
A/B Testing
A/B testing also known as split testing is just random experimentation with different aspects of your business to determine which change leaves the maximum impact and drives business metrics. You should be A/B testing all the time during the scaling phase. Do more of what works and eradicate the things that don’t seem to make much of an impact. Lastly, don’t be scared of changes, it’s an integral part of a successful business venture.
