Read the exact business plan a Gen Z entrepreneur used to bootstrap her $250,000 fashion line, and convince her parents to loan their retirement savings just years before they plan to retire

• Lisa Qu is a 22-year-old Australian fashion designer and Parsons graduate who bootstrapped her clothing line while in her junior year of college.
• When she needed more funding, she wrote a 53-page business plan used it to pitch her parents.
• They loaned her their retirement savings and now her business is making six figures.
• Qu gave Business Insider an edited version of the business plan she created in 2018.
• Click here for more BI Prime content.

Sometimes the internet can prove a better source for answers than the most rigorous education.

Going to Parsons, one of the top fashion design schools in the world, taught designer Lisa Qu, 22, what she needed to know about creating a garment, but not a business. So when she decided to launch her own clothing brand, she turned to, what else - the internet.

"I spent hours and hours on YouTube and on Google looking for 'how to start a fashion label,'" she told Business Insider.

Qu, who is originally from Australia, started her business at age 20, while she was a junior at Parsons. She used savings from multiple jobs she had since she was 13, like waiting tables at her parents' restaurant in Sydney and tutoring on the weekends. At 17, she worked 40-hour-weeks as a luxury-suits consultant making between AUD$24 and $52 (or $16.19 and $35.07 USD) an hour.

"That only got me just enough to get through the first few stages of my business launching," she said.

So to get more funding, she created a 53-page business plan and pitched it to her parents. In the plan, Qu identified a problem within the fashion industry brought on by fast-fashion: brands value high sales volume and fast design turnover at the cost of product quality and sustainability.

Her solution was to provide high-quality women's clothing at a more affordable price point than high-end designer labels. Part of her business strategy is that her designs are seasonless, meaning they don't follow the typical cycle of the fashion industry in which a designer releases new collections four to six times a year. Instead, she focuses on clothing women can wear year long and can be versatile with other pieces in their closets.

After her pitch, Qu's parents gave her their retirement savings, which she is now on her way to paying back. Her label has grown into a six-figure business and she earned a spot on Forbes' "30 Under 30" list in 2019. Qu declined to publicly disclose how much her parents gave her. Qu said her parents want to retire this year, so she expects to pay everything back within the year.

Her parents trusted her because she proved herself through research, approaching factories, getting quotes, and an in-depth business plan, Qu said. "I really covered every ground I could think of. And there wasn't a question they could ask me that I couldn't justify," she added.

Qu shared total investment amounts with Business Insider, but declined to disclose them publicly since she is looking for future investment. She also could not share exact revenue, but said her company reached around $250,000 in 2019.

She said she puts all of her profits back into her business and makes her primary income as a creative strategist for a media agency.

While Qu found online resources and tutorials on how to write a business plan, it was harder to find advice about running a fashion business specifically. That she learned by knocking on manufacturer doors in New York City's garment district, until she found one that wanted to work with her.

"Find someone who is experienced in the industry. Get a good factory on your side and get them to tell you everything. There's really no other way to do it. You have to throw yourself in and do it," she said.

Her designs stand out for their shape and structure, like cut-out dresses and asymmetrical tops that evoke paper origami. This is achieved through her own technique she calls radio-point cutting, which simplifies the construction process, making what would be 20 lines of stitching into just a couple.

Qu gave Business Insider an edited version of the business plan she pitched to her parents. (She removed personal information and financial projections for privacy.)

Qu also used the same business plan to pitch the US government for her E2 business investor visa, which allows non-citizens to work in the US if they have invested in a US business, and can be difficult to obtain. Although US Citizenship and Immigration Services does not give a minimum investment amount for the visa, the qualifications listed on its site say investment must be "significant."

Take a look at Qu's business plan below.