Starting a business

[Gretel Blake]

Hello,

I'm currently on maternity leave and i've been doing so much research and notes etc on setting up my own baby/children's boutique. I'm in the process of thinking of a name, but never ever realised how hard it would be!! When i've chosen a name i'm planning on setting up a website and social media pages to get the word out there and get it up and running. I haven't yet found any wholesalers that i'm going to use, i've looked at quite a few but not sure who would be the best to use. I will be basing this online for the time being.

Any advice on getting my business up and running would be fabulous because i'm only 22 and this is so new to me. I'm determined to do this.

Questions i need answers to:
- What wholesalers are the best for baby/children's clothing in the UK?
- Do i set up a business bank account straight away?
- How hard will it be?

Any other advice will be wonderful.

Thank you so much,
Gretel Blake

 

[Mr D]

Look around - see what you like the look of. See what their terms and conditions are - a great place to buy from that has large minimum orders isn't necessarily great to start with.

You will make mistakes to start with. I'll repeat that, you will make mistakes to start with. Learn from the mistakes.
What you like the look of is not necessarily what someone else will buy. However as you sell you will figure out what is selling and what is not, what prices work and what are too high.
You will need to factor the site you use and postage costs into your pricing. Just because you can buy at £1 does not mean simply selling at £2 - work it out, figure what your costs are going to be and figure what profit you want.

Read a book. The dummies business book is OK as an overview, I still refer to mine 20 plus years in.

Also worth looking at third party sites. Ebay is probably easier to start with than amazon, quicker anyway.
Your goal in the first few months of selling will be learning. Mistakes happen, you correct and move on. The supplier you start with may remain a supplier for years or be dumped in 6 months.

Its worth looking around for trade shows. Some are virtual the past 6 months plus or so.
Besides being able to view stuff and getting contact details of suppliers of goods and services, they are also good to look at previous shows to see who was an exhibitor then you have names at least to google.

Look for any trade magazines in the sector you want. May be some free, may be a small annual charge.
Again will give contact details for places and will give pictures.
Plus news relevant to the sector.

A seperate bank account is really a minimum, a business bank account is often free for the first 12 months. Perhaps after that you move it elsewhere or you stay with your bank.

How hard it will be? That is up to you.

Creating a website is relatively easy. Getting noticed is harder. Perhaps you get an order every few months. Perhaps you get an order every day.
3rd party sites can be useful to get the profits coming in to then pay to promote your own site, to be able to afford better deals. Marketing can be a bigger bill than buying stock.

At start point, a business is often horribly inefficient. As you grow you can take advantage of better purchasing deals, perhaps 30 day credit on goods, perhaps a business account with royal mail, perhaps a half dozen sites being run....
Don't get into trouble with 30 day accounts. Easy to spend the money on more stock / bills then not be able to pay the creditor when bill is due....
Over time as you grow the cost per unit for an item can come down - buy one of an item it can be more expensive per item than a carton of the item which can be more expensive per item than a pallet of the item....

 

[Mark T Jones]

Hello,

I'm currently on maternity leave and i've been doing so much research and notes etc on setting up my own baby/children's boutique. I'm in the process of thinking of a name, but never ever realised how hard it would be!! When i've chosen a name i'm planning on setting up a website and social media pages to get the word out there and get it up and running. I haven't yet found any wholesalers that i'm going to use, i've looked at quite a few but not sure who would be the best to use. I will be basing this online for the time being.

Any advice on getting my business up and running would be fabulous because i'm only 22 and this is so new to me. I'm determined to do this.

Questions i need answers to:
- What wholesalers are the best for baby/children's clothing in the UK?
- Do i set up a business bank account straight away?
- How hard will it be?

Any other advice will be wonderful.

Thank you so much,
Gretel Blake

Gretel Blake Baby Clothes.

That's that one sorted.

Other questions:

1. Supply sources are a retailer's secret, so they are unlikely to tell you. However I'm sure Google will give lots of results, you just need to filter through them.
2. Absolutely no point until you have done your research and a sensible business plan & cashflow projection.
3. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it.