Newbie. Where do i start

sarah.brown1

Hi recently been made redundant and I want to start an online business. I already have my idea of what I want to sell. Can anyone give me information/links on where/how to start

Wywth

sarah.brown1 wrote: »

Hi recently been made redundant and I want to start an online business. I already have my idea of what I want to sell. Can anyone give me information/links on where/how to start

No dear. You either have a business plan or you don't.

Wanting to start a business selling stuff is not a sensible alternative to getting a new job. Spend time & effort on doing that, and when you achieve that, if you still wish to follow your dream, then you can attempt to develop a feasible business plan at leisure. At the moment, all your efforts should be spent seeking a new job.

If you think you can sell stuff, prove it by selling yourself to a prospective employer and see how it goes

sarah.brown1

Wywth wrote: »

No dear. You either have a business plan or you don't.

Wanting to start a business selling stuff is not a sensible alternative to getting a new job. Spend time & effort on doing that, and when you achieve that, if you still wish to follow your dream, then you can attempt to develop a feasible business plan at leisure. At the moment, all your efforts should be spent seeking a new job.

Why would you waste your time posting nothing of value? Considering you have no idea of the amount of redundancy I received. I quite comfortable without a job at the moment, and want to try something new.

Unfortunately you had a difficult time understanding this. No worries, but please don't time waste.

Thanks

Wywth

sarah.brown1 wrote: »

Why would you waste your time posting nothing of value? ...

Have you ever posed yourself this question? :cool:

sarah.brown1

Wywth wrote: »

Have you ever posed yourself this question? :cool:

I was kindly trying to explain, if you have difficulties understanding how to answer a question fully, maybe it's best you didn't in the future. That all.

The replies are really for people who can provide value, aren't they? Once again Wywth... Please don't reply if your unable to add value. Please no timewasters

Thanks:rotfl:

Lagoon

It will depend on a lot of things, including what you're trying to sell.

The easiest way will be to launch a website, with the help of a professional, or (if suitable, and if you don't mind the fees) sell on eBay or another similar site, having registered as self-employed.

The details will depend on what you're selling, where you're selling it, what your budget is like, what protection you'll need, etc.

lincroft1710

Are you intending to sell specialist items or run-of-the-mill? Can you source the items easily and cheaply enough to sell on at a profit? Can you identify who the competition are?

Ilona

Hi. Throwing redundancy money at what is only an idea is a little bit bonkers. The information you give is far too vague for anyone to make constructive suggestions.

Wywth's advice to get a job first makes a lot of sense, then you can test the waters with your new business while drawing a wage from employment.

What are you going to sell? Have you identified a market? Have you found a supplier to buy stock from? What is your marketing budget? How do you propose to advertise your business? Starting an online business is no guarantee of selling anything. You could spend money on a web site and no one will find it. It could take years before you are able to live on what profit you make. Getting a job is the best option to start with.
Ilona

shmeeko69

sarah.brown1 wrote: »

Hi recently been made redundant and I want to start an online business. I already have my idea of what I want to sell. Can anyone give me information/links on where/how to start

The good thing about an online business as opossed to a bricks and mortar business is cost. Why anyone would want the risk nowadays with the latter is beyond me.

You can run a solid online business for about £300 and that would include things like hosting, domain name(s), autoresponders for building an email list. If your capable of basic HTML web design then, you can save yourself a small fortune or the costs would exceed £500.

Plan - Choose a niche that you're familar with, put aside a few hundred quid for set up costs and contigency plans, learn as much as you can about the marketplace and use Google and You Tube for free information.

If you give yourself enough time and find a formula that not only suits your style, but is profitable then, just rinse and repeat the process.

Brassedoff

It really depends on just what you are looking to do.

You have a simple choice, on here, there's some that do, others don't work in industry, opting to work for others. I don't know if the safety net qualifies some as the edge is honed based on making sure you are right first time, or starve, well, at the start you do.

Getting back to your point. You have a simple choice, don't spend the money on an expert(s) who should have a network of contacts to get you to the start point quicker and cheaper. You spend a little money.

Fail to do it and you may spend a small fortune scratching around in the dark so to speak, spending money, most likely more than had you consulted.

The choice is yours. Ask yourself, what do you want to do, where, when, how? What experience have you in actually doing it? What network do you have to support you.

Finally, take the spare cash you have, pretend its not there and then ask yourself how much you need to live on for the first year at least.

Now come back once you've done your figures and have a clear idea what you wish to do.

We're here to help.

motorguy

shmeeko69 wrote: »

The good thing about an online business as opossed to a bricks and mortar business is cost.

True however what people dont often factor in to that cost is how much they need to live on and how they are going to survive whilst building the business.

For example, whilst a business might make money from day one, in that you're selling something for more than you pay for it, due to re-investing in the business and stock levels you may not be able to draw a salary from it for say, 2 years.

Also as you say, any schmuck can have "something" up and running for £300, that doesnt mean anyone knows you're there or if you're competitive.

So lets say a website, stock, and advertising costs £10,000 and the O/P needs £1200 a month net to live on. Well its going to cost them £25,000 of their redundancy money to test the idea for a year. After a year they may say this isnt working and thats £25,000 flushed down the toilet, and it may take them another 6 months to get a job, so theres another £7000 gone.

Even say they decide to push on into year 2, they could potentially be out another £15,000 just getting the business to where its viable. So theres £40,000 gone.

Whilst the O/P is right to be on forums like this, testing out their business idea, they need to be very very careful as to what they put that redundancy money into, particularly given something like 95% of new businesses fail within 2 years.