Since the launch of the PeculiarPPL.com website on March 19th, I’ve been fervently working to build the best possible clothing brand. I did not have any prior experience with building an e-commerce site or a clothing company, so I had to do a tremendous amount of research to bring myself up-to-speed! This meant that I’ve had long days and short nights, but when I reflect on the progress that has been achieved, it’s all worth it!
Here is a sampling the milestones accomplished thus far:
- Tested and finalized our unique t-shirt packaging
- Designed individual t-shirt hangtags
- Tested the quality and resilience of different t-shirts and made a final product selection
- Registered the company with the Federal Trade Commission
- Finalized the pipeline of product designs for the next three months
- Registered a company mailing address for shipping/receiving of goods
- Selected a high-quality screen printing shop and submitted the first t-shirt order
- Started social networking initiatives on Twitter, Facebook and Flickr (updates coming soon)
- Ordered custom wristbands to be included with every t-shirt order
- Exceeded pre-order estimates with no formal marketing initiative
In building this brand, I wanted to make sure that I didn’t sacrifice quality in the interest of boosting profits, so when there’s a question of quality vs cost, quality always wins. For instance, the final t-shirt I selected was the most expensive option out of the 20 types considered because it was significantly better than the competition. In addition, I didn’t limit the number of colors in the design in an attempt to reduce screen printing costs. This meant that the profit margin was reduced, but I care more about building a high-quality brand rather than settling for average or “good enough”.
As of today, I am very happy with the result of the first month of Peculiar PPL. I will be shipping the shirts beginning next week and I’ve got many new ideas that I can’t wait to implement. The blog, Twitter and Facebook will be updated soon with ongoing status updates of new developments. In the meantime, feel free to buy a shirt and be Peculiar!