How to Start a Shoe Manufacturing Company

                                 
A footwear is an accessory to complete your dressing and it comes in various types depending on the occasion, and the cloth the person is putting on. Everybody needs a pair of shoe to go to everywhere; be it church, work, school or informal outings, thus making it an everyday item.
Opening a shoe manufacturing company is a business that can make you much profit; but the major issue is that there is serious competition in the shoe production industry. There are hundreds of shoe manufacturing companies round the world; so breaking even in this industry with your company will require a lot of hard work, capital and creativity to make it happen.
If you have ever wished to start your own shoe manufacturing company, but because of competition or how tough you think the industry is, you have been shying away from achieving your dream; this article is here to break it down for you on how you can start a shoe manufacturing company and break even despite the competition in the market.

Starting a Shoe Manufacturing Company – Sample Business Plan Template

1. Choose a Niche-: This is the first thing you have to decide; as there are many types of shoes for both sex. So you have to choose which kind of shoes your company will be manufacturing. Will it be for both sex or just for male or female? Or will you focus on making children’s shoes? Also, will it be Sandals, cover shoes formal shoes or informal shoes? Answer to these questions will help you know the niche your shoes will dominate.
2.Develop A Business Plan for your Company-: After deciding the aspect of the shoe industry you wish to dominate, it’s time to draw up a business plan. The major content of the business plan is to set goals you wish your company to achieve and the step to step guide of line of actions you are going to take to achieve those goals. The goals should be clear and very achievable, so that it will not be intimidating or overwhelming for you. For instance, planning to sell over 2 million pairs of your shoes in the first three months for a company that just started out looks overwhelming and unachievable.
3. Define Your Brand-: Your brand is what unique features that will make your shoes stand out. This will anybody that sees your shoes anywhere to instantly identify it as produced from your company. For example, a popular shoe company’s branded its shoes with red soles; so anywhere you see a shoe with red sole, you know that it’s coming from that company without even looking at the company’s logo. Yours must not be the sole, you can find other creative designs you can add to your shoes that will serve as your brand; the logo will just be an added advantage.
4. Register a Business Name-: As an entrepreneur, you should know that before you can successfully run an enterprise that will sale products in commercial quantity, you need to register the business as a legal entity. Why? The reason is because people will prefer to deal with or buy from an incorporate business organization than buying from a private individual running a business without a legal backing.
5.Get a location for your Business-: You need a location for production, warehouse storage, sales and inquiries will be done. After you get an office space, you need to employ staff or workers. The main team of employees you need will be the; production staff to be in charge of the design and creation of the shoes, marketing or sales team, to be in charge of coming up with creative ideas of the best ways to market your shoes and get more sales.
The Public Resource team to be in charge of projecting a good name of your company to the general public; and the staff to be in charge of inquiries and order; the accounting staff to be in charge of the company’s finances and taxes, and the transport team needed to get the finished product from the company’s production location to customer’s location. If you are starting out on a tight budget, this will pose no issue. All you have to do is start with the number of staff your capital can accommodate and employ others vital staff as your company expands.
6. Order for Raw Material and Start Production-: Everything is set for you to start production; the next step is to source for a cheap place to order for raw materials needed to start production. The raw material will depend on the type of shoes you wish to produce. If it’s leather shoes, then you will need a bulk quantity of leather supply constantly. After you produce the first batch of shoes that will be introduced into the market; you can start with the first one thousand pairs, so as to know how customers and shoe lovers will react to your product.
7.Sales and Adverts-: This is left for your sales team to figure out the best way to advertise the shoes and start getting sales order for the company; but for those on low budget, the best way to advertise your shoes is through the words of mouth. You can contact one or two celebrities who are very fashion trendy through any of the social media. You can send them sample of the shoes for free in return that the mention the shoes on their network or fan base.
For this plan to work properly,you need a website or blog,or more of an e commerce site with a means of collecting payment, and a contract deal with some shipping companies to handle the shipping aspect. Another way to go about this is to offer the shoes on popular shopping sites that allow individuals to display their products for shopping or drop shipping sites. Sites like Amazon.com, Ebay.com for those in Europe or America, or Alibaba.com and Aliexpress.com for those in Asia, and Jumia.com for those in Africa.

Written by Titilayo Badmus