Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hey there...welcome to the community :-)

Talk with some real-estate agents until you find one you find personally compatible. They have access to all sorts of rentals, lease-with-options, and so forth. If they don`t have a contract on a rental, they can look up anything else and split the commission with whomever does have the contract, not at your expense.

Tell them exactly what you intend to do, with an estimate of how much room you`d need. If you`re not sure, then the first thing is to create a basic business plan. In that plan---like an outline of a "to do list"---figure out how much inventory you`ll physically hold, and what sort of space you`d need to display it.

Additionally, you`ll want to have room for an office, for paperwork, and perhaps some display counters. You`ll need at least 1 counter for a cash register and for bagging up final purchases. That should give you a sense of the space, which you then can discuss with the real-estate agent.

As far as learning the online e-commerce side of things, you should likely start with eBay. It`s been going downhill lately, in terms of service, but it`s still the easiest system to use for showing a product, then taking payments. You`ll learn the ins and outs of such things as PayPal and electronic invoicing, along with electronic money transfers.

You`ll also gain a whole lot of experience with regard to product photography, image hosting, writing descriptions, and customer service. Even if you abandon the e-commerce in favor of the brick-and-mortar store, the overall education in retail will be very helpful.

I`ll assume you have some experience working in retail. If not, then the first thing is to get a part-time job in a store selling products in the same general category as what you`re intending to sell. That`ll help enormously in your estimates of what kind of space requirements you`ll need, and the overall "feel" of the store you want to create.

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Finding a real estate agent in Virginia is as simple as picking up the phone book, or going to Switchboard, YellowPages, or another online directory. You might start with ZipRealty Real Estate, one of the fastest growing online agencies. But when you talk with any agent, just do that....talk. See if they`re people you can relate to comfortably. If not, try the next one.

Your eBay idea is a good one, and you should definitely pursue it. The other thing is to learn how to build a business plan.

Ah...I think the problem is that $1,000 would likely be enough to rent a store for 1 month, maybe 2, depending on how small, and in what area of town. Given that most stores lease on at least a yearly basis, that`s why the realtor said it wasn`t enough.

Additionally to the rent you`ll also have electric, phone, heat/cooling. Then you`ll have to build out the store, putting in counters, racks, furniture, signs, and so forth.

From what you`ve written so far, I would suppose that you may be thinking one way, where the business environment is quite different. It sounds to me as if you might want to set up a meeting with your local SCORE organization.

This is a free consulting and help organization, staffed by volunteers of retired business executives. Their purpose is to help young entrepreneurs learn about business, get particular help with problems, and to counsel starting-out business people.

I`d recommend that before you go further in the planning stage, meet with a SCORE counselor in your area. You can search by ZIP code, and presumably find an office not too far from where you live.

Chica, did you apply for an actual business loan? It sounds like maybe you were asking for a personal loan, based on the amount they gave you. If you take some courses and plan your business and make an actual business plan, then you can apply for a business loan. If your plan is good, then you have a better chance of getting a better loan.

Like Craig was saying, you will need a lot more than $5 to start a retail clothing store. You need to buy clothing, have money to buy replacement inventory as soon as the racks start to thin out, shelving, racks, decorating/design, cash registers, business licenses, rent, electricity, water, advertising. These are the things you will make a budget for in your business plan. Your local SCORE office can help you. You might also find it helpful to go to a local bookstore and look through the business plan books and find one that looks good to you. There are a lot of good ones with workbooks and cd`s that will teach you a lot of what you need to research.

Good luck!

Jennifer



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