How to start a Boutique business in Nigeria

This is the most complete guide you will read on How to start a boutique business in Nigeria.

Starting a boutique business in Nigeria is one of the easiest ways to make money as a smart entrepreneur so asking yourself this question “how to start a boutique business in Nigeria” is one of the first and right steps you’ll need to take while trying to start a boutique business in Nigeria.

Fashion has always been a huge part of human history and existence and it is no doubt one of the largest industry in the world.

Types Of Boutique In Nigeria

Boutique business in Nigeria is an aspect of fashion design business which include the act of selling already made clothes, attire and materials, this may not require any skills but you’ve got to have a fashion sense in the game.

Examples of types of boutique businesses are little clothing stores you find at home or in the market.

Types of boutique  business in Nigeria include:

• Bridal/groom boutique
• Baby’s wear boutique
• Men’s wear boutique
• Women’s wear boutique
• Teens wear boutique
• Used clothes boutique

1. Bridal/groom boutique: 
   
   These include boutique who only sell weddings clothes, accessories and cosmetics, you may think weddings happens only once in a life time, but this guys they see wedding customers almost every day.
   
   One thing I like about this business is the big profit margin of the luxurious wedding outfit. This model depends majorly on imported luxury wedding clothes which can be expensive and would require large capital to start.
   
   To start this type of fashion business in Nigeria you don’t need to be a fashion design guru but you need to know the trends and have international connection to aid importation of wedding apparels.
2. Babies or children wear boutique: 
   
   The most important day of any mother’s life is the day they bring another being into life and thus they tend to make it special by preparing for that day.
   
   Babies and children boutique is one of the under looked part in the fashion design industry in Nigeria but has lots of potential.
   
   The best location for this type of business is an area close to a maternity, hospital or a residential area that way you reach your potential customer better than in a market. This also involves importation from other countries or you can do local sourcing both ways works as long as you buy what your proposed customer needs and make money of it.
3. Men’s wear boutique: 
   
   Adult wear is core part of boutique business and men’s wear is no doubt a big part of it, being a man is not easy and balancing the complexity of business and family life can sometimes be tedious but men still tend to show their love for fashion and bring out their personality with simple easy to wear clothes.
   
   This aspect of this industry is full of potential but has currently been left for the Igbo tribe who are currently dominating the industry, don’t get me wrong I’m not being stereotypical but all I’m saying is you can do better no matter your tribe or religion, it’s just business nothing more.
   
   For this type of business, importation is one of the key factors but local sourcing is not also left out but the major point is following the trends and satisfying your market needs.
4. Women’s wear boutique:
   
   Now this is where it get all crazy because women are the grand masters of trends and fashion, You see, women hold a total of 60% in market share in fashion business in Nigeria. Now this is a huge potential and advantage for both boutique owners and investors alike.
   
   All this business requires is your unique and explicit following of trends, women will buy anything that comes their way no matter the price but on one condition, it must be trending. Importation is paramount in this type of boutique business in Nigeria but local souring still goes a long way to preserve our Nigerian culture.
   
   Many Female boutique in Nigeria tends to over perform more than men because Nigerian women literally buys clothes everyday just to keep up with fashion trends, so this model has a high rate of success for entrepreneurs with the right marketing mix, more on this later. 
5. Teens wear boutique:
   
   This is also a huge part of the boutique business in Nigeria which involves the sales of teen wears and accessories, if you decide to venture into this type of business it might be a huge win for you because teens also follow trends since they are upcoming generations.
   
   Location is also an important factor in this type of boutique business in Nigeria, and goes a long way to help in generating sales, school areas and resident areas works like magic because there you’ll find teens who loves the trend. You can stick with importation but sometimes local can also help.
6. Used clothes boutique:
   
   This is a huge part of boutique business in Nigeria because it’s no longer news that more than half of Nigerians now wear used clothes and as an entrepreneur this is a huge business potential if you decide to invest in it.
   
   It may come as a surprise to you, but most clothes displayed in little boutique are nothing but packaged used clothes shipped from USA and UK, Just because it is called used clothes doesn’t mean it’s bad or won’t last, in fact most of them tend to last longer than already made Nigerian clothes. The average Nigerian know this and will always go for top quality used clothes.
   
   Your success rate in type of fashion design business in Nigeria depends on the quality and newness of your goods, Trending and fashion plays little role here (but not excluded) since our target market is trying to cut cost and not buy what’s beautiful enough to cover the body. Most market have specific days to sell used clothes so you need to put this into consideration as well.
   
   Capital for this type of boutique business is less compered to others and the profits are high as 100% and above if you have quality in demand goods.

Materials Needed To Start A Boutique Business In Nigeria

Store
Dummy
Clothes shelf
Generator
Website and social media presence

Registration And Documentations

Depending on the model of boutique business you want to start in Nigeria, If you’re starting you’ll need to register your business with CAC and other authorities, if your business has no structure and is offline, it is better to register it to avoid closure but if you’re starting online you can register later when you’ve scaled it to a bigger level.

Registering your business comes with lots of advantages like; making your business a legal entity and making it open to investors, so for a start it is advisable to register your business. 

Boutique Business Plan In Nigeria

A business plan is the soul of any business and in boutique business it is paramount to get a boutique business plan in Nigeria before any other thing, some aspiring entrepreneurs overlook this which is very wrong, and thats while majority of them fail when they start because they don’t have a clear financial projection of their business before starting.

These are things to look out for while drafting your boutique business plan in Nigeria.

1. Executive Summary
2. Description of Problem and Solution
   2.2 Vision
   2.3 Mission
   2.4 Value Proposition
   2.5 Business Objectives
   2.6 Critical Success Factor
   2.7 Current Status of Business
   2.8 Legal Requirement
   2.9 Contribution to Local and National Economy
   2.10 Contribution to SDG

3. SWOT Analysis

4. Market Analysis

5. Competitive Analysis & Risk Analysis

6.  Marketing Plan
 6.1  Description of Product (S) or Service (S)
 6.2 Potential challenges in the business industry
 6.3The Opportunity
 6.4Target Market
 6.5Marketing and Sale Strategy

7 .Production Plan/Operational Plan
 7.1 Description of the Location/Factory
 7.2 Raw Materials/consumables
 7.3 Production Equipment/Capital Expenses
 7.4 Equipment/Depreciation Table
 7.5 Pricing strategy
 7.6 Record/Stock Control Process
 7.7 Pre-operating Activities and Expenses

8. Organization Structure and Responsibilities
 8.1 Salary Schedule

9. Financial Plan
 9.1 Start Up Capital Estimation (Expansion Capital Estimation)
 9.2 Loan Details
 9.3 Business Risk and Mitigating Factor
 9.4 Financial Projections
 9.5 Sales Forecast And Sales Assumption
 9.6 Income Statement (P&L) Account
10.Conclusion

This is the structure of how your business plan should look so it will need lots of research and investigation which will take a lot of time before you can get accurate information with the ability to produce desired result.

We have an already prepared boutique business plan in Nigeria that has been used by lots of entrepreneurs to start their boutique business successfully and even secure loans. If you are realling interested i starting a boutique business in Nigeria You can reach out to us for a comprehensive boutique business plan in Nigeria.

PS: COST FOR BOUTIQUE BUSINESS PLAN IN NIGERIA IS: N10,000

Maintenance

If are looking for how to a Boutique business in Nigeria, Then it is also important that you know that starting a boutique business in Nigeria is one thing and maintaining a boutique business is another.

Maintaining a boutique business in Nigeria doesn’t require much maintenance because the major problem is just dust which you can counter by wiping displayed clothes every day to avoid stain, this also help to make the clothes look new and attractive to customers. 

Common Problems To Avoid

Little common things like size, color and style can become a Huge problems for boutique owners, this is caused by the taste of customer and trends in fashion. To avoid these little mistakes study your customers and your market before you buy any goods so you won’t stock your boutique with unwanted clothes.

Capital Evaluation

The size of your capital will depend on the model of boutique business you want to start either small, medium or large. You will also have to draft out a list of things to buy in order to get the actual amount you need to start then create an initiative on how to get the capital.

Here are some things to look out for when evaluating your capital:

• Cost of fixed materials
• Cost of structure and land
• Cost of business registration
• Cost of goods to be sold
• Wages and salaries
• Miscellaneous

Sourcing

Most boutique owners source for quality goods internationally and locally, in order to ultimately satisfy your customers you must have access to quality in demand cloths which are mostly found abroad while few can be gotten locally. 

Conclusion

I don’t think there is any need for you to search for “How to start a Boutique business in Nigeria again as we have broken it all down in this article

Boutique business in Nigeria is one of the easiest type of business to start as an enterprenuer and you don’t have to worry about loss of goods that many type of business go through, you also have the potential of getting 200% ROI on some products

Now you know all the building blocks you’ll need to start a boutique business in Nigeria so the first step is to get a business plan from us and kick start your new business.