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Starting a business is very risky. Don't 4 out of 5 businesses fail or something like that?
Too many businesses are vanity projects. That's rarely sustainable. The cliche used to be it was the doctor's wife opening a cute little boutique so she could keep busy and have fun. Didn't matter that it consistently lost money. Her husband probably wrote off the losses on their taxes.
Quote:
I'm guessing that retail clothing is highly competitive.
You bet. Not only have you got Amazon -- and they're now coming out with their own lines of clothing -- but you've got Costco, both the warehouses and online, which sells women's sportswear for less than anyone else can.
If you don't have the capital to survive a year, you can't go there. Plain and simple. Your overhead is high. Licenses, fixtures, employees, state-mandated costs such as unemployment insurance and SS payments.
Then you need a revolving line of credit for inventory. You do not want your cash tied up in inventory.
Then you have advertising, product research (no one sells what I want to may be an indicator that there is no demand), site location research. For example, a small store on a street may be appealing, but if there are limited clientele for your product, the location is poor.
Hi all,
I m not sure if this is this right place for me post, if not can someone please direct me to the right place...
I have been a fashion designer for over 10 years not counting the 4 years I took off to become a stay at home mom. After going back to the work force, I find myself have to start over.. Pretty much from the bottom, and I m not happy...
I m a very hard worker, I have the experience and passion for fashion,
So now I want to pursue my long time dream to open up my own clothing store.
I want to open up a retail store that sells women's wear ( targeting young women) with affordable, fashion forward casual career wear.
I have been looking at this area in New Jersey ( highland park) it's a small trendy town, with a lot of restaurants, fitness/ yoga, and a few niche shops, with about 5 clothing store, but nothing like the stuff I want to sell.
Now I just have a few questions since I really don't know much about the business end of opening a business ...
1. I have about &10,000 in saving , I know I need much more than that , I guess I will have to get a loan from a bank?
2. I called up one of the corner space for lease, he wants $3500 for 1950 S.Ft, I thought might be too big for my store, but he said it was negotiable .. How much Can I negotiate to?
3. I have been researching for wholesalers/ suppliers, but what's the best way to get a good supplier?
Eventually I want to sell my own designs.. But that will be after my store start making some profit, then I can use that money to launch my own line...
Any suggestion in how should I go about it?
Thank you so much for reading my long post,
Any feedback are welcome!
The logistics involved in starting your own retail business have been laid out pretty well already. Having said that I will add a couple of other random thoughts:
1. You don't need to take courses in how to write a business plan. There's plenty of detailed "hows tos" on the Internet. Having said that, yes...............write a very detailed plan. Your business plan (if you go at it properly and take the process seriously - and you need to) will tell you honestly if your plan is viable and if you can afford the endeavor. It is also a road map (once you pull the trigger) to keep you "on point" as you start and then grow your business
2. You mentioned being a stay-at-home mom. You need the full (and I do mean full) support of your significant other to start a business and some real and honest conversations (particularly about money and time). If you have no significant other the demands of a new business may or may not be a real barrier to jumping into this thing.
3. Think outside the box. If you can afford to rent a building, can you share part of the space with a complimentary business (eg. your clothing and someone elses jewelry)? If you know an exceptional seamstress can you have her make a few of your samples? Are there trade shows where you can display your work? Can you start with a retail store with currently available used fashion-forward clothing and branch out? Etc Etc. You get the idea. Get creative, think outside the box, figure out how you can make it work until you can move in the direction that you really want to go.
4. There is plenty of help out there to help you bring your ideas into focus (SBAs, small business help organizations attached to universities etc). Seek them out to discuss your ideas.
5. There are a million reasons why your ideas won't work and many people willing to tell you all those reasons. Maybe it won't work for you. Maybe it CAN'T work for you. But part of being a business owner is having faith in yourself that you CAN make it work. Be realistic. Your personal financial security (and that of your family) depends on realism. But if (after a lot of discussion, a lot of research, a lot of looking inwards, a lot of putting ideas to paper) you decide that this is something you want to do, make it happen. If you go forward with your idea make it happen in whatever scope you can make it happen. Unless your last name is Trump, your may have to build your dream slowly.
Hi all,
I m not sure if this is this right place for me post, if not can someone please direct me to the right place...
I have been a fashion designer for over 10 years not counting the 4 years I took off to become a stay at home mom. After going back to the work force, I find myself have to start over.. Pretty much from the bottom, and I m not happy...
I m a very hard worker, I have the experience and passion for fashion,
So now I want to pursue my long time dream to open up my own clothing store.
I want to open up a retail store that sells women's wear ( targeting young women) with affordable, fashion forward casual career wear.
I have been looking at this area in New Jersey ( highland park) it's a small trendy town, with a lot of restaurants, fitness/ yoga, and a few niche shops, with about 5 clothing store, but nothing like the stuff I want to sell.
Now I just have a few questions since I really don't know much about the business end of opening a business ...
1. I have about &10,000 in saving , I know I need much more than that , I guess I will have to get a loan from a bank?
2. I called up one of the corner space for lease, he wants $3500 for 1950 S.Ft, I thought might be too big for my store, but he said it was negotiable .. How much Can I negotiate to?
3. I have been researching for wholesalers/ suppliers, but what's the best way to get a good supplier?
Eventually I want to sell my own designs.. But that will be after my store start making some profit, then I can use that money to launch my own line...
Any suggestion in how should I go about it?
Thank you so much for reading my long post,
Any feedback are welcome!
Clothing and shoes have far too much competition. You won't be able to compete with the big stores like Kohls, Macy's, Nieman Marcus, CostCo, etc.
However, if you really wanted to try it out you can open a store on ebay for $19.95 per month. Ebay will even provide the templates etc to create your web based store.
No need to pay rent, insurance, property tax, sales tax, workman's comp, permit fees, utilities, etc. It can all be run from your garage or house. If you become wildly successful on ebay THEN perhaps consider a brick and mortar store.
In this day and age anything that is legal to be sold can be sold on the internet much easier than in a physical store. No reason to get tied to all those monthly expenses I listed above.
You could open and fail at 100 different stores on ebay for what one month of rent would cost for a commercial property.
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