I have an idea, but where do I start?

G-Diddy20 · #1 02-23-2007, 02:17 AM

I am a college student and have no business background other than the fact that I am majoring in business. I have played poker for the past year but am kind of getting bored with it and doubt with the way things are going currently in the online world that it has a promising future. Games are tougher, less sites, etc etc.

Anyway, I made about 24k playing this past year, after starting last February with $200 to my name. Not great with the way some people make money in the game, but respectable, I guess. So, now I want to turn my focus on some sort of an online business website.

My idea was a clothing website, starting off small getting things going in and around my college town. An emphasis on urban clothing (ecko, jordan, sean john, whatever), would be ideal for me, but it doesn't have to be that. I think if I like put up signs in and around my campus, town, advertising discounts and things that I could get it going real slowly, and then eventually expand.

I have the idea, a little bit of money to throw around, and the passion to work hard at it, but there are a lot of "fundamentals", I guess you could say, in regard to business that I lack, and would need help with. Things like how and where to buy the clothes in bulk for cheap, any kind of legal issues I would need to take care of prior, taking advantage of advertising opportunities on my website, and even tips on designing the website, etc. If someone could PM me or respond on here with some insight and advice, I WOULD GREATLY APPRECIATE IT.
Thanks in advance,

G

Sniper · #2 02-23-2007, 03:03 AM

You can start off by finding a chlothing site that has an affiliate program, setup a website featuring the chlothes, do the offline marketing that you suggest to drive traffic... and basically test out the idea for pretty cheap.

Once you have traffic coming in, and some proof of concept, then you can start looking around for how to increase your margin on clothes... and specifically, the types of clothes you are able to sell this way.

You can explore other clothes sites for ideas, etc...

#3 02-23-2007, 08:10 AM

spex x · #4 02-23-2007, 10:52 AM

IMO this would be really tough to pull off. First, there is a lot of competition in the retail clothing industry to begin with. Second, there is a tremendous amount of competition for online retailing of clothing. I think that you've got to ask yourself these three fundamental questions:

1) Is there a need in the market for a new retail clothing website?
2) How is my website different from the competition (i.e., how do you plan to beat the competition?)

If you can answer these questions effectively, then you might be onto a good idea. It is important that you are RIGOROUSLY honest when evaluating a new business idea. Don't get swept up in the romance of owning a business.

G-Diddy20 · #5 02-23-2007, 11:51 AM

[ QUOTE ]
IMO this would be really tough to pull off. First, there is a lot of competition in the retail clothing industry to begin with. Second, there is a tremendous amount of competition for online retailing of clothing. I think that you've got to ask yourself these three fundamental questions:

1) Is there a need in the market for a new retail clothing website?
2) How is my website different from the competition (i.e., how do you plan to beat the competition?)

If you can answer these questions effectively, then you might be onto a good idea. It is important that you are RIGOROUSLY honest when evaluating a new business idea. Don't get swept up in the romance of owning a business.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well after asking myself those questions, It looks as though you maybe right. I guess my thought was that a lot of kids on my campus would be interested, and if the word of mouth got around that we were a reputable site, I thought there was a chance that it would spread to other universities where my friend's go, etc.

spex, do you have any other ideas that a person in my position might look into with regard to some type of an e-business.

G

ItalianFX · #6 02-23-2007, 11:54 AM

If you have an idea, just go with it. I'm starting an online business right now. I have no idea if it'll be a success or a huge flop, but the idea is that I'm doing it and I'm getting experience and I'm hoping that I can do just enough in sales to breakeven. The rest, I'll just see how it goes.

TheGrifter · #7 02-23-2007, 01:55 PM

[ QUOTE ]
<this is a joke, but could be done if you wanted to break the law>

1. Come to Thailand
2. Buy large quantities of designer knock off items
3. Take it or ship it back to the US
4. Sell it on eBay, CraigsList or over your website
5. Make several hundred % profit on each item

I might have a friend who has done this and made oodles of money who may be willing to partner and help you out. He might be in Thailand now and able to assist you with the purchasing end of it

<again this was all a joke>

[/ QUOTE ]

Wasn't there a famous legal case regarding this in which the copyright was found to be invalid and this is legal? I remember reading about it in my international law class. I'll look it up and post if I find anything.

ItalianFX · #8 02-23-2007, 02:24 PM

Don't people sell knock-off designer bags/purses on Ebay?

G-Diddy20 · #9 02-23-2007, 02:33 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Don't people sell knock-off designer bags/purses on Ebay?

[/ QUOTE ]

My friend did this and I was thinking along these lines, but he kept getting kicked off because people who knew what was fake and what wasn't would leave bad feedback and complain.

Italian, what type of business are you looking to get into?

G

ItalianFX · #10 02-23-2007, 02:54 PM

[ QUOTE ]

Italian, what type of business are you looking to get into?

G

[/ QUOTE ]

It's not that I'm "looking." I already have the website, have been putting the products into the store. I still have about 7000 more to go.

I am starting an online business selling sports apparel, collectibles, and some sporting goods.

I'm not sure how well it is going to do because of the competition, but I have some ideas how to get some sales. I already know of some people who are waiting until I launch it to buy some things. My mark-up is roughly between 30-60% depending on the item.

I still have to get a logo designed, which I am working on. If you search the MM forum, you'll find one of my posts about voting on my logo.

I also have to get my shipping method setup, and get my payment method(s) set up.

My problem has always been being too afraid to do something because I'm afraid of it failing. That only leads to never getting anything started. If you never try, you'll never succeed. You have to be willing to take the risk. I figured that if I'm willing to dump money into poker that I just continue to lose, it's no different than trying to start a business and losing money. I'll just be happy to make a few sales. If I breakeven, I'll be content.

Life is a learning process and anything worth the reward is worth the risk.

One quote I heard from Shaquille O'Neal is when he quoted Michael Jordan, "Before you can succeed, you must learn to fail."

And from that, I have come up with my own quote, "If you aren't willing to fall, you'll never be willing to get up."