056: From an $800 Startup to a Million Dollar Custom Apparel & Merchandising Business (w/ Zee Ali)

Summary: Zee Ali is the founder of Zee Group, a full-service custom apparel and merchandising company. Their products include custom apparel/uniforms, promotional products/custom premiums, print material/direct mail, event/tradeshow products, graphic design, award products, brand identity, and packaging/gift with purchase. <br> <br> Zee started the business as a hospitality apparel company while he was studying restaurant management and culinary arts at Triton College. He started it with just $800 in his bank account and has grown it into a million dollar business. <br> <br> Period in full-time business <br> <br> He has been in business for 7 years now. <br> <br> Core revenue streams <br> <br> When he started the business he was selling chef coats and uniforms to culinary schools. In fact, he was selling the chef coats to his fellow students while he was studying the culinary arts. When people were asking him for aprons, hats, knives, pastry sets, pens and mugs, he would supply them all without exception, and so far his company offers more than a million products. They have partnered with some of the largest brands in the world including Nike. <br> <br> His company is a B2B business that customizes merchandise for clients. <br> <br> Culinary arts industry <br> <br> His company works with different culinary schools to provide them with all their uniforms, pastry sets and other items. They also manage the logistic fulfilments for the schools. Zee worked in the industry for a while from being a buster to a server, bar tender, and executive chef but he now doesn’t have time for that. In future he would like to travel through Europe and do some cooking.  <br> <br> Starting out in business <br> <br> The root of his business journey started when he was very young. He was always money hungry and had side hustles all the time. He sold bootleg music, dvds, cigarettes, and any item he could get. He eventually got a job at a senior luxury living community as a busboy and worked his way up to a server. He used to really want a chance to cook and one Saturday he got the chance to wash dishes which eventually led him to becoming a prep cook and later a line cook. He had the job all through high school and through sponsorships he got a chance to join culinary school.  <br> <br> While there, he started getting chef coats from a flea market for a few dollars and then selling them to other students from his duffle bag. He kept selling the chef coats because a friend of his used to get them from a good source and together they would make good money from that. <br> <br> Getting the first set of clients <br> <br> His first customer was a culinary school he was referred to by one of his teachers. He showed up at the school with his duffle bag and his prices printed out, which really impressed the chef who ended up making an order immediately but Zee couldn’t supply them there and then because the chef required him to have some business-related paperwork to become an approved vendor. Zee went and got all the necessary paperwork for his business and went back to them after which he got them as his first customers. <br> <br> He would always secretly record all the conversations he had with clients and prospects because he never understood all the business language they used. At that time, Zee was not branding the coats and the only reason why he got them so cheap from the flea market was because they were considered defective coats. They used to be in great condition so he could comfortably sell them to his customers. <br> <br> Growth strategy in the beginning <br> <br> Zee used to print fliers and give them to people in the culinary schools. He also convinced teachers to let him show up in their classes and let the students try on the coats so that the ones who needed them would order. When he started getting into the other merchandise like t-shirts and hats,