Just to warn you I'm about to blabber alot here, but if you could I'd appreciate if you read the following and pointed out to me any thing I haven't yet considered or recommendations, tips, anything like that, as it would be extremely helpful.

I am very much considering and hoping to be able to set up my own business specialising in Vintage Clothing. I have done some research into sourcing products and have found a vintage wholsaler directly within my hometown where I am. So sourcing products would be very simple to do, I could retrieve orders myself most likely. The warehouse is less than a 30 minute drive, so I'd say that's sorted.

I emailed the company for a pricelist and information on minimum bulk orders, they sent me a PDF with prices, and they told me the minimum bulk order is £300. Their prices on their items are quite competitive, I would say that I could make profits of 100% on certain items (probably most) as I personally know what tends to sell from being active myself in the vintage clothing fad.

I'm planning on for starters selling online, through eBay aswell as an eCommerce website which I will set up myself as I have IT experience, both professional and personal. No doubt it will take a rather considerate amount of SEO in order to attract enough attention/visitors on both eBay and the website in order to recieve profitable sales of 100% on items.

I have never set up a business before, and I'm not quite sure where to start, should I be contacting my bank to set up a meeting to discuss a possible new business? Of course I will need a business plan, budget etc. I will be needing the backing of a bank to start up the business, though I doubt I will be needing a large amount of money as the costs will mainly be for purchasing first stock. eBay Shop costs, website hosting/domains are all fairly reasonable at cost. I would most likely hire a website designer and coder to create an attractive template and website for me, though maintenance of it I will be able to handle completely by myself.

Other costs I can think of would be rent an office in order to easily store and organize stock, possible van hire for easily picking up stock. I would be doing everything myself within the business, I would run it, own it, and be its only worker, but I would imagine if I did not have enough time for packaging and deliveries I may hire someone part time, such as a friend or family member.

I will start putting together a budget just to get an idea if this would all be possible, and get an idea of how much money I would need.

So, I think that will do for a start, so please - if you've got any thoughts on things I am not considering in this, or any tips, etc etc(!) please don't hesitate to throw them at me. I'm open to constructive criticism too.

Couple finishing questions;
1. Would this kind of small business go down well with a bank? From your opinion would they support something like this with financial backing?
2. Has anyone done this and been successful in setting up a profitable business? What kind of budget did you need?

Many thanks in advance!

EDIT: Sorry its so long!

J

Quite a few views.. anyone have any input?

J

J, welcome to the forums! Sounds like you have given this quite a bit of thought, so get stuck in.

If you're looking to go to the banks for finance, yes you will have to prepare a business plan and arrange a meeting. There are so many factors determining whether or not they will fund such a business, it's impossible to advise.

If you're not taking this route, then you don't need a business plan, but I've always found it useful to have something down on paper, if anything it makes it clearer where you are, where you want to be, and what you need to do to get there. You don't have to follow the traditional format, put together something that works for you.

I'd also go and see a few local accountants. You mentioned this is the first time you've set up a business of any kind, so they will help you get started, and in my experience provide invaluable advice. They don't come cheap, but generally save you a lot more than they cost, not only in money, but in time and not forgetting, stress.

An office may not be necessary to begin with, they don't come cheap either. Is it storage you're looking for or do you need somewhere to work from too? If storage only, do some research, there should be plenty of places locally that will offer storage of some kind. Make sure you know all of the associated expenses with an office first before committing to anything.

But. Before you do any of this. Try it out, what research have you done? The great thing about selling on eBay is, you don't need to incur all of the start-up costs associated with a traditional brick-and-mortar store, or even an online store for that matter. I'm speaking from experience here, products do fail, trialing a few lines first will potentially save you a lot of time, expense, and hassle.

Good luck!

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Firstly thanks alot for your reply.

OK thank's for clearing that up about the financing, I would hope that presenting a business plan to a bank would be successful. If I could finance the start-up myself I would do but I don't have that kind of money to do so. Might be worth saving up enough for a first minimum order, and working from the profits?

Yeah, I would most likely put together a plan in order to stay on track with the different stages of starting up the business. Like design, research, trial, etc.

Talking to an accountant seems like a good idea, there's a fair few things I dont fully understand such as taxing and other legal matters.

I think you're right it's just I was thinking about the annoyances of possibly having to travel between storage and home to complete orders, I wouldn't be able to store at home as for starters there's not a lot of available space and there's no garage or shed either.

I've done plenty of research and I've noticed a big market for vintage clothes, from the wholesale costs of items I can get and what I've seen vintage items typically go for I know I can make some serious profits and at least double my money on a wholesale order. I've sold some vintage items on eBay myself already, items I don't wear anymore etc - and they really do sell.

Thanks for your input!

J

I had some extra thoughts, if I was able to acquire either a personal loan or an overdraft from a bank would it still be legal to use that as funding for wholestock stock?

Thanks in advance

J

i read most of your post, my advice is just start small and think big, you dont need to put expenses as rents and stuff, do it in a risk free form, dont purchase for 300GBP, just ask them you need to purchase some samples, im sure they wouldnt mind, do it at home, and see the feedback you get from ebay deals, then expand , start slow but steady

Originally Posted by sweilem

i read most of your post, my advice is just start small and think big, you dont need to put expenses as rents and stuff, do it in a risk free form, dont purchase for 300GBP, just ask them you need to purchase some samples, im sure they wouldnt mind, do it at home, and see the feedback you get from ebay deals, then expand , start slow but steady

Haven't looked at this topic for a while, but thanks for your post as it is interesting. The only problem with this is, if I say something like I'd like to purchase some samples, they'll simply ask me to go into the warehouse and take a look, as they are quite open about potential buyers coming in and doing so. So I wouldn't be sure that they would allow me to purchase a smaller stock, but I see where you're coming from, and I do agree with you - as I know I could work off the profits from sales on just those items in the long run.

I might send them an e-mail to see if I can tempt them, thanks.

J

Hello

I know its like 2 years since you posted this but how did it actually go for you. Did you set one up. How did you go about it. What are your future plans.

Thank you

Flutter

Originally Posted by flutter100

Hello

I know its like 2 years since you posted this but how did it actually go for you. Did you set one up. How did you go about it. What are your future plans.

Thank you

Flutter

Just started visiting the forums again, and noticed your reply, I'll give you a brief overview of how it went.

I started out with a £300 investment, and began selling almost immediately, as I brought in stock worth £300 of varied types of clothing, Levi jeans, leather jackets, tops, shirts, and shoes. Sales were going relatively well, making profits on most things I sold, but I soon realised which items sell the best, which was mostly vintage polo shirts(such as Lacoste), and vintage trainers(mostly Adidas, I was getting them for around £5 and selling for about £25 each on bids, so minus costs was looking at a profit of around £17 on each pair), and on some occasions made some good profit on leather jackets, as I was getting them for around £12, and was selling some of them for around £50, but it's just finding that sale as they're harder to move, but when they do you get a good profit.

Eventually the problem I came across, was trying to sell off all of my stock, but it got to the point where I didn't have much left to sell, and was mainly just t-shirts which weren't selling at all, I realised that having brand names in my listings such as adidas and lacoste, brought in a LOT of buyers which at that point I lacked. I earned enough money to bring a little more stock in, so I went for lacoste, which I made quite a bit more money on, but yet again they sold quickly, and I ended up with stock which wouldn't sell, and not having enough money to bring in a lot more stock.

In the end, I was out of pocket as I was left with stock I couldn't move, and all the fees got on top of me, when I hit sales of over £100, it's then that you realise how heavy the fees are, I mean for £100 you're looking at something like £30 taken off that just on fees alone. I had to close up shop as I couldn't make my money back, and so didn't make enough money to buy more stock.

If I was to give advice to anyone thinking of starting something similar, here's a few tips;
- Have a very good amount of money to start up trade with.
- Pick your speciality, don't try to sell a variety of items like I did until you are a very established seller.
- Know the fees(!), the fees are quite harsh on eBay, so before starting, do some serious research, see how much you can get your stock for, and use an eBay calculator(google it) to know exactly what kind of profits you can make.

I will most likely start trading again in the near future, but if I do I will be picking a particular item to sell which I know will sell well, and work my way to selling a bigger variety of items as business progresses.

If anyone would like more advice from someone who's been there, done that, got the t-shirt, failed, and know's now what NOT to do, then get in touch, I'd be glad to help. I also have a vast list of vintage wholsalers who I have been in contact with, so I can also give you some advice in that area of where to go for the best prices.

Good luck to anyone who can make it work, I will one day! :niceone:

Hey my email is billieraew@googlemail.com i would defo be interested in contact as i am wanting to set up an online business. Maybe we can swap ideas etc.

Just send me an email i have tons of questions

Cheers

Hope to hear from you soon