Britt Swilley

Athens, GA (USA)
Role(s):
Founder/Owner/Principal

The Spirit Shop

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Location: Athens
Industry: Retail/Clothing
Year Founded: 2008
Number Employees: 1-10 people
Business Stage: Growth (not profitable)
Entity Type: Not Incorporated
Description: The Spirit Shop is an exciting new business that offers various spirit and promotional items with a focus on high school athletic teams. The Spirit Shop will initially be a home based operation utilizing the latest technology in inkjet garment printing for small orders and outsourcing for larger orders. Products The Spirit Shop will offer customers a variety of items. The majority of orders will be for t-shirts; however other style shirts will be available. The Spirit Shop has developed a strategic relationship with Brother printer division. We will use their garment inkjet printer sublimation technology that allows a computer image to be applied to a shirt in a high quality, high resolution, and economically feasible manner. This technology creates an image durable enough to withstand thousands of washings. Its photo-like quality, due to significantly higher printer resolution than anything on the market, will show off any image. The technology is cost effective enough to offer customers the ability to order just one unit. Most other competitors' costs prohibit printing custom shirts in one-off production runs. Finally, the customer may choose from an extensive library of existing images, supply their own image, or have an artist create an image for them. Competitive Edge The Spirit Shop has two sustainable competitive edges to assist them in market penetration. The first edge is an already established relationship with the two high schools, four middle schools, and the eight elementary school in the immediate area. Their second edge is the relationship that The Spirit Shop management already has with both local and national wholesale suppliers. Management The Shirt Shop will be led by Britt Swilley. Britt has over 20 years of retail management experience. He earned his MBA in 2008. Britt has served as the President of the Jaguar Touchdown Club at Cedar Shoals High School for the past 3 years and is highly involved with the athletic program. ROI indicators show the breakeven point to be around month six. With an projected accumulated profit of $93,853 by year two fiscal year end.