The first production run in Australia, step by step.

1. Start with the landed cost, not the factory quote

Most founders quote themselves the factory price and call it the cost. It is not. The number that decides your margin is the landed cost: the factory price plus freight, insurance, customs duty, GST treatment, bank fees and any one-off sampling or tooling spread across the run.

Duty on most apparel entering Australia is 5 percent, and GST of 10 percent applies on the value of the taxable importation. Both depend on tariff classification and origin, so confirm the current position with a customs broker before you commit. Build the landed cost before you set the retail price, not after the invoice arrives.

Model your own landed cost→

2. Decide how many styles, and how much depth

Range width is the most expensive decision a new brand makes. Every extra style costs sampling money, a minimum order quantity, warehouse space, photography and a slice of your attention. Depth, the units behind each style, is what actually generates sales, because it lets the winners keep selling instead of running out in week three.

Five to eight styles, chosen well and bought with real depth on the two or three you believe in most, will usually out-earn a wide, shallow launch and produce far less markdown. Buy a small quantity to test, then put depth behind what the customer actually chooses.

3. Understand the minimum order quantity you are quoted

A minimum order quantity is rarely a single number. There is a fabric minimum, set by the mill, and a cut-and-sew minimum, set by the factory. The number you are quoted is usually the larger of the two, and the fabric side is where most of the rigidity sits.

You can often reduce the effective minimum by using a stock fabric the mill already runs, by combining colourways on the same base cloth, or by accepting a slightly higher unit price in exchange for a smaller run. What is not negotiable is a real production efficiency floor.

4. Plan the calendar and the cash

Work backwards from your on-sale date through shipping, production, approvals and sampling. Map the cash across deposit, balance, freight and landing, so you know when money leaves and how much stock it buys. A first buy that is sized to the budget rather than to ambition is the one that survives.

5. Name the three biggest risks

For your specific product, name the three things most likely to go wrong and the cheapest way to protect each. It is usually a sample that bulk does not match, a lead time that slips past your on-sale date, or a quantity that leaves you bare on the winners. Each has a cheap protection if it is planned rather than discovered.