Uniforms
I can imagine a few readers' eyes lighting up at this one, but I promise that there will be no smutty content, well not intentionally at least.
The truth is that even in this day and age uniforms remain big business. I am certainly not about to suggest that you apply for the job if supplying uniforms to your country's military as I imagine that would be a complicated and frustrating way to start in business. There are however all sorts of places that require their staff to wear uniforms whether they be publicly or privately owned.
You will have seen shops selling uniforms in most cities that you have visited if you keep your eyes open. These are the smaller businesses with whom you will compete. Once you understand the business and are confident in your suppliers then by all means pitch to McDonalds, Buckingham Palace and even the armed forces if you believe you are up to the task.
What you can do is walk into a couple of those shops and see what they are selling. I can picture a couple of them with chef's and waitresses uniforms in the window, and even a branded set of mechanics overalls. Once you understand the types of businesses that you are likely to work with start by thinking about whether you know anyone who runs this kind of business? If not then ask around your friends and family, it may well be that your father in law knows someone with a restaurant, or a small security firm who you could go and talk to.
Ideally try to find 2-3 business owners that you can talk to. Buy them lunch and tap their brains. Make it clear what you are doing and explain that you think you can do a better job, more cheaply than the current competition. In other words let them know that helping you will help them and their business contacts.
If you have got this far then you probably have a good idea of the range that you want to carry, typical pricing and what your buyers will be looking for in terms of deliver times, quality, etc. Do not expect that these initial contacts will buy from you however. If they do not remain positive and of course be grateful for the time that they have given you to help you get started.
Other ways that you can sell your product are suggested below: -
Networking
Advertising
Theatres and theatrical groups
Open a shop
Telesales
Website
Keep talking to friends, family and colleagues. You will be surprised how often someone knows of someone who is looking for sports uniforms, or is starting a business, or even just in need of updating their current uniforms. Try to talk to people like shop fitters who will know of any upcoming re-fits of existing businesses, and also real estate agents who may be able to tip you off about new businesses opening long in advance of any signs going up. You may want to give these professionals a batch of business cards and offer them $50-100 for any successful referrals.
You should definitely take out an advert in the Yellow pages, and unless your company is called "1A Uniforms" you should think about the impact of a larger graphic style advert. Equally advertise regularly in your local newspaper, try different slots and measure their effectiveness. Is it better to be next to the classifieds, the restaurant section, or in the sports section for example?
Many TV shows and theatrical productions require uniforms from time to time. If you can get to meet the buyers or producers and give them your business card then this could be a healthy source of income over time. You may need to show some flexibility and allow them to borrow, or hire an odd uniform or two initially but once they have established you as the convenient place to go you can look forward to supplying police, nurses, and military uniforms to extras for future productions (at full cost of course).
Given that most small suppliers seem to have a shop then this would be a logical choice at some juncture. As usual I would recommend trying to close some sales before you do so, as simply opening a shop will not dramatically enhance your business flow. What it will do is bring in some browsers, some small orders and of course give you much needed credibility when you are working with larger clients. You will need to keep marketing your business, thank about where most of your clients are based and if possible base yourself nearby. There are exceptions to this, such as school uniforms when you would be better placed in a town centre or mall than near to the school; assuming you plan to serve more than 1 school.
Back to the Yellow pages; look for the adverts that have pictures of people in uniforms, Chefs, Security guards etc. If you are not up to cold calling yourself then the cheapest alternative would be to advertise on a college campus for a couple of students to do this for you. Give them a list of names and a basic script and get them to call all the sections you mark in the Yellow pages. Try to keep some kind of system, such as ticking the ones where they get an answer, or highlighting the ones who don¡¦t pick up so that you know who has and has not been called. If anyone sounds interested then make an appointment for a meeting at their premises at a time that suits you both. Some business owners will be happiest to meet you on an evening after your day job, whilst others will prefer a Saturday morning or maybe a weekday breakfast meeting.
I would usually put a website much higher up the list than with this business. My guess is that most business owners do not search the internet for their local uniform supplier. Google has 1.4m entries for "Uniform Suppliers" so you will be entering a fierce global market if you try to be anything other than local (until you have built your brand). The website here can be used as yet further proof of your capability and professionalism; it can be referenced in your business cards, literature, on your shop signage, in your advertising etc. Apart from carrying photographs of your samples you can list previous clients (with their permission) and explain why you are able to be lower cost than your competitors, provide better quality, or some other differentiator. Use tools like Google Adwords to draw some traffic to the website by all means but do not expect this to be a major source of buyers.
Whilst trying to keep things clean there are of course buyers on the internet who would like certain uniform types for personal reasons, you can decide how best to service this group if you decide to do so.
You will initially want to make up some samples of uniforms that look like the one's you saw when you first walked into the uniform shop(s) in your city. This is the standard range, at a minimum get fabric samples and photographs of the styles available. You are probably going to have to pay for these so this is not the cheapest business to start, but if you look into it the cost will be a lot lower than you think.
I highly recommend using 3rd world labour simply because of the cost differential. China and Vietnam are now part of the WTO which guarantees certain behaviours if you are worried about exploitation. You could of course just contact a tailor like Gulati in Bangkok (www.ideas2earn.com/archive/idea_016_Tailors.htm) and get them to quote you for various production levels (10, 50, 100 units).
Don't worry about sizing and other "technical" matters as your supplier will be able to help you.
As usual a good starting point would be www.alibaba.com but you may be able to find adequate manufacturers in your own country using Google if you are worried about importing textiles from abroad.
This is a competitive business and you will need to be patient to build the business up.
If you can get your supplies made cheaply and to a good enough quality you will win repeat orders.
This is exactly the kind of business that can be built up and sold on for a large cash windfall
If you are not a marketer, or sales person then start reading books on sales and marketing techniques as anyone can learn the basics, and if you find it really isn't for you then consider paying someone to take care of the sales side for you, whilst you take care of the ordering, finances etc