Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hi there, I`m new to the forum but have already gotten a lot out of it. I would like to start a retail business through both online and direct marketing. I`m definitely in the very early "ideas" phase and I`m just wondering if anyone has any books, websites, articles, or words of wisdom to help succeed in a business like this. Any help would be greatly appreciate. Thank you.

 

Chris

Hello Chris and welcome!  You have found a great resource in SuN!  Just poke around here a while and you`ll get some GREAT info! 

 

I also find some great stuff from Entrepreneur magazine.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/startingabusiness/businessideas/startupkits/article75912.html

 

Also make sure you make an appointment with your local SCORE office, find a mentor at www.score.org, make an appointment to chat with your local SBA and SBDC and get started on your business plan.  I`m sure you`ll get tons more advice any minute.  Just stick around!

Hi Chris,

What type of retail store are you interested in starting?

One of the ideas we have(and the retail aspect is only one of the things my partner and I are looking at) is to sell glowtoys. Glowsticks, blinky toys, blinky jewelry, etc. We go see a lot of live music and discovered what you can order in bulk for .60, you could sell at concerts for $5. Obviously we aren`t the first to do this, but we are hoping we can come up with a new way to market and sell these things.

 

Just a little about me. I`m a stockbroker, have been for about 9 years now. My whole career has involved customer service in one form or another. One night a couple of months ago we decide that we are tired of working in cubicles, and want the freedom to live life as an adventure. So we agreed to go into business together. What are we going to do? I don`t know. But we took a few ideas that have been tossed around and decided to research them as much as possible. What would it take? How much money do we need? What is the market like? What are the pros and cons of running such a business? The other ideas we are working on are consulting and internet service. We are starting from virtually nothing, and the truth is we probably won`t be leaving our cubes for quite a few years( I have a family to support and keep insured). So that`s what I mean when I say "early stages". VERY early!. Yet we want to treat this like a job, so we are doing what we can to come up with a business plan and start small. Make no mistake, we want to make money! But we would also like to run an ethical business.

 

I don`t think we are going to have a store per se, that is a physical location to sell our products directly. But again, we are pretty open. I`m interested in anything you all have to say, and I thank you so much for taking the time to help a guy with nothing but a dream!

Back to........I`m sure others here  can recommend  great books and articles for you.  I`m off to Barnes and Noble myself to look for "Where`s Your Wow".  Looks like something good to read. It`s about the (discussed...... many times on here, Sun) "You`re unique, selling position`"  I can`t wait to see what I will learn!

Good luck!

Janie