Preselling/Premarketing your ideas to your Base is an Excellent idea.
Your business is an Experiement until fully proofed, and if your base of 350K is active, loyal, and vocal; you should have no problem creating a container to continue your Market Research.
Do these fast-fashion clothes add to the problem?
The huge garment pile is growing by about 39,000 tons a year. A mountain of discarded clothes in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile has reached such huge proportions that it can be seen from space.
There is an Exponential Curve of Effort, and right now you're about to "build and brand" on Merch alone?
I wouldn't do this until your "Save the Planet, Save the Animals" Thesis has matured.
The margins on Merch, without solid Brand Belief and Messaging are slim.
So, how much do you need to build a life you don't want to escape from?
$40,000 a year? $60K, $100K, $300K?
You well a shirt for $30, do you get $3?
If you're trying to do $40K, that's 13,333 shirts you need to Market AND Sell.
Do you or your artist deserve to eat during this time? What other developmental costs are there?
If this were my dream, I'd stratify Offers along that curve of Effort.
What do you know about Animal Protection or Conservation?
What sponsors are you courting for your continued existence?
What Lead Magnets can you offer to others to build Trust and also give them valuable Conservation Information?
How are you leading them to initiatives that make a REAL Difference?
The essence you might be looking for is known as Positioning. And right now you are about to need to Position your Self, not as a Hobbyist, but as a Conservation Expert.
What have you learned about it so deeply that you're willing to Teach? That's been THE best way I've found to build Brand Ethos quickly.
Can you Market a "Drink Business"?
What do you know about it, so intimately, that you can convince anyone they need it?
One of the greatest lies of this world is that "Water is Boring".
And yet we add some caramel color to make it look like it was aged in a barrel, some fizz, and call it Coke.
So, what PROBLEM does your business actually solve? You might need to spin your answer to make it make sense, but you still have to answer the question, if you want to create Customers.
Features do not always equate to Feelings.
It's marketing that turns rubes into Customers, by teaching them your Customers. It's also how you retain them.
That unfathomable mix of Language and Feeling.
Most "Entrepreneurs" have a 'if I build IT, THEY will come" with no real thought as to what IT is (in essence) or who THEY are (at their core). They put all Marketing last, and wonder how they "hurt themselves in their confusion".
They might forget what you've said, but they never forget how you make them Feel.
So, does it feel GOOD to use your product? How are you making it an Experience that actually fosters the values you're pushing?
I really wouldn't even LOOK at your Competitors (YOU are your own Competition right now), until you master your own Marketing Metrics. You can never know "theirs"; and your Customers aren't paying you JUST for features.
If you've run the numbers, then how much is in your Marketing Budget? This is the biggest red-flag to me as a Partner.
Seeing yet another Technician that thinks "If I build IT, THEY will come". Right now you're marketing the Business without marketing The Business.
Every company is a Marketing company first: it needs to be about 80% of your expenses (reminder it touches most aspects of R&D and Production, and is a deductible Expense).
Before you spend all this money setting UP a [Window Cleaning Business] you should try understanding and Marketing a [Window Cleaning Business] and see just how much Trust and Market Research you are able to drum-up via the channels/contacts you have available to you.
The last thing I want any of my Students doing is thinking they have it solved "on paper" but have chained their Selves to a stillborn entity that can't breathe because you never gave it lungs.
It's a recipe for low self esteem as you wonder forever why no one wants what you're not Offering.
Right now, without better Market Understanding or Proofing, this is too high risk.
What is it? Who needs it? What's it like to NOT have it? And how does it KEEP making money? What makes it so HARD, and why do we need YOU to be the one to solve it?
These are just a handful of the vectors you need to solve for if you're going to convince your Self, your Partners, Investors, or future Customers to work with/for you.
Governments MAKE money. You wanna GET some.
What's your Niche? Who are your Avatars? What's your Offer and Positioning.
If you don't know what these things are, or why 80% of business IS Marketing, then you might need to learn a bit more, still.
Money, grows on tress, of human connection. So you have to have something to Offer that TURNS their Trust into Coin.
You also have to have the Confidence to outright ASK.
Who needs it? And Why?
What Psychographics do they have in common (besides Toxoplasmosis)?
How do you want to make them feel for not buying it?
What is the-benefit-of-the-benefit of the features?
What are the features aside from Price?
Is there Anyone?
Depends, in your Experience what are you niches? Who do you like to connect with? What traits do they possess that lead to easier rapport-building were you know their Psychographics will make you more desirable?
As a Web Des/Dev of over 20 years who has-built an Agency around Marketing and Branding:
I tend to work with Artists, Creators, and Subject Matter Experts;
on their Business Development, Brand Strategy, and then on their Assets Production
[Imaging/Touchpoints/Content Calendar/Website. . .].
My niche enjoys leveraging their personal Brand Storytelling to create Customers.
Folks who've lived some-shit and have deep thoughts about their Craft, are Studious, Intentional, and are eager to learn more about Communication to make their Big Dream resonate with an Audience.
Those who realize the importance of Connection and that developing a Brand is both an Experiement and a Journey.
I don't work with those who openly self-identify as Capitalist, Boomers, Veterans, Right Wingers, Nationalists, Patriots, or Religious Zealots.
I take a world-wide view of business and economics these nights: with the advent of the internet we connect our vision with those who will actually Appreciate it (24/7).
Normally the Cheapest is reading the .gov website for the state and jumping through the hoops your Self.
Some states make it REAL easy, others make you have to pay a broker and take out an Ad in the paper for 30 days. >:|
This is also where I recommend Brand Strategy. If Therapy is looking backwards from the present-state, then Brand Strategy is pivoting forwards to a desired-state.
We look at your Big Dreams, Goals, Aims, Focus, and how it all relates to the People that are going to Appreciate you over time, as you grow your Practice.
As a self-led soul looking to become and Executive, Executive Function is your largest Asset.
Which is shitty to say, because I too have had problems Focusing; and learning what moves are meaningful to help you gain momentum.
There are 101 things you CAN do in a day, but what actually matters is what needs doing.
What's the smallest version of your dream/experiment you can build and still say you DID, so you can get feedback from Alpha-users? ((IE: MVP))
Pomodoro, Eisenhower Matrix, Gratitude Checklists, Gantt Charts. . . there are tools out there to help you feel more in control and confident that you can wrestle your Executive Function back.
I help Creative Entrepreneurs and Personal Brands untangle the knot of ideas and procedure that are holding them back. Lemme know if you ever wanna talk.
You've got your Equipment! Congratulations. That the part that'll allow you to turn your Commitment into Coin.
Customers are Created.
So now you get to do your JOB, which is learning everything you can about which Avatars you can actually manage to Attract.
As an Entrepreneur, the Work, isn't the easy, technical, thing you can do so well: 80% of your money and effort is going to be around Marketing, and making sure you're "puttin-down" what they actually are looking to "pick-up".
So:
Who are you? Why are you doing THIS?
What are 3 things/ways that make THIS so hard that I should really defer to YOU to do it for me? What are common ways Others fuck it up?
Why'd you get into BizNezz? Why should we trust you? What do you value? What do you rebuke and find distasteful?
Who will you NOT work with/for?
Why does anyone NEED what you're offering? What's the benefit-OF-the-benefit of choosing you?
How do you want to make them FEEL?
Just a little to think about.
Marketing is how businesses breathe.
Can you MARKET any of this thoughtfully?
What have you thought, and understood about them?
No one cares that you have a BizNezz, until you can demonstrate that you understand our problems intimately, and that we should trust YOU more than the-next-guy who has Constancy.
What does it DO, and who needs it?