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Hi there,
I am in the process of starting up a a new lingerie company which will initially be on line.
I have written down as many start up costs I can and I am wondering if there are any other
hidden cost for starting up business in the lingerie industry. Things that you never thought
you needed to include.
Many thanks.
Some startup costs to take into account are; the cost for a website, web hosting, shipping, inventory, office supplies. Also you might want to hire a lawyer, and accountant so include those fees as well.
Thanks Gary for the information. I found it quite helpful.
online businesses are cheap to set up. Domain name and web hosting is all you need. If you are selling a product then it is more complicated because you will need stock but if you are selling a service or software then you need to be able to market it so that people buy.
Other costs are ongoing but still cheap ie. electricity, broadband etc but these are mainly low costs and covered by you at home anyway.
That is a tough question to answer without knowing what expenses you are already accounting for. I don't know that any costs are really 'hidden'. You just have to make sure your thinking about every aspect of your business when calculating costs.
Everyone says how is is so cheap to set up an online company. True it is cheap to set up, but let me ask you this, once you do have an online presence how are you going to make people aware of your site and product and how long will it take to drive enough traffic to the site to make a profit? That is the trick. If you can't answer that, then you need to rethink your plan.
One of the big advantages of running an "online business" is the low-cost of setting up, operating and maintaining one. As others have mentioned, the only real costs required to get started are domain and hosting ($75-$100 per year). If you can't build the website yourself, obviously you have to pay someone for that (could range from $800 to $5000+ depending on the complexity). Checkout services like Guru.com, eLance.com or ODesk.com. You only need one, but these websites will allow you to post a job and multiple companies / developers will bid to build your website.
Other than setting up the website, it seems like the biggest cost will be inventory. Obviously, whatever you provide on your website will need to be kept in-stock. If you partner with a larger lingerie company, maybe they can dropship orders for you? This would reduce the cost of your inventory. Or, you could look into "affiliate marketing" and get paid a commission for promoting and selling other people's lingerie products.
After the website is taken care of and you have your product situation figured out, marketing will be the other big ongoing cost. There are a variety of ways to do this, but if you have no experience, you might consider hiring a professional to run an ad campaign and do SEO (search engine optimization). If you want to save some money -- do all this yourself! It will take some time to learn, but all the information is available online for FREE! Start studing "SEO" and learn about "PPC advertising". You just have to search ;)
There's a lot to learn and consider, but hopefully this helps a little. GOOD LUCK!
Save $1000 for your LLC, business license, etc
I think $1500 total cost of it.
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