Newbie. Where do i start

motorguy

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

Sarah, whilst Wywth may have been rather blunt in their response i have to say i wholehearted agree.

Its very easy with a large redundancy payment in the bank to think the worlds your lobster and you can start your own business.

Statistically even if you get as far as actually doing it, it is very likely to fail. And to fail having cost you a shed load of your own money.

I have been there, done that and got the T Shirt. A load of us got made redundant at the same time and the wise amongst us put the money in long term savings and got another job pronto leaving them with a very nice nest egg.

I, and one or two others started our own businesses. Cost me roughly the amount i described there - approx £40,000 - to find out i couldnt make it fly.

Be extremely careful - bear in mind the following

(a) the odds of you succeeding are probably less than 1 in 100.
(b) it will cost you an easy £20,000 to find this out
(c) your job skills will then be 2 years out of date
(d) friends and family will tell you its a great idea when you tell them what you're going to do (ask them to put in £5000 of their own money if they think its such a sure thing that you will succeed and see how quickly they back off!!)

Setting up a simple online selling business can be done for practically zero cost - you can set up an ebay shop for practically nothing - so ask yourself why havent you done this before? Buying £100 of stock and selling it for £200 shouldnt have been that difficult so what stopped you?

As was pointed out in the first thread, i would definitely focus on getting another job and doing something small on the side to start with and see how it goes.

As i said - been there done all that and failed so speaking from experience here.

shmeeko69

motorguy wrote: »

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.

That's the same scenario with a bricks and mortar business and I would rather risk £300 than £20k to find out there's not enough profit or you're not suited to it.

You should always have a few quid set aside to live on whilst you try and build the business and hopefully sarah.brown1 has enough redundancy to do just that.

motorguy

shmeeko69 wrote: »

That's the same scenario with a bricks and mortar business and I would rather risk £300 than £20k to find out there's not enough profit or you're not suited to it.

You should always have a few quid set aside to live on whilst you try and build the business and hopefully sarah.brown1 has enough redundancy to do just that.

Oh aye, i wasnt saying it as a reason to start a bricks and mortar business instead. Definitely definitely not.

Again, and to reiterate, people need to factor in exactly how much they need to live on - "setting aside a few pounds" - is not enough. If you need £1200 a month to live on, then those costs dont go away whilst you're trying to establish your business. If you're going to try a business idea for a year then 12 * £1200 = £14,400. Add in even £5000 - £10000 for startup costs and theres an easy £20,000-£25,000 burnt just to find out of the business model works.

Also, its not 'free' money you're using up, so you need to be very very careful about burning through it on a startup business.

If i had a unique idea in a market with large margins and exclusivity on the the product in question, then if i was the O/P i'd probably still be looking for a full time job and starting this on the side first.

"Selling something" is what everybody tries to do. Its easy to sell things. Making enough money at it to make a job out of it is the hard bit.

Pennywise

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

OK, so what research have you done so far? Have you sourced the products you want to sell? Have you checked the legalities, i.e. whether there are any permits/licences/restrictions of your products and have you properly costed out the purchase, delivery, import charges, minimum order quantities, etc? Have you researched the market? Who are your competitors? What will make your business different, i.e. unique selling point or points of difference? All this should be part of your business plan - how far have you got so far with it? As others have said, your redundancy may well need to be ring fenced for your living costs for 1-2 years whilst your business starts up and establishes itself - during that time, profits will almost certainly need to be reinvested for more stock, equipment, better website, better SEO, etc.

If you come back with some real info and specific questions, you'll get loads of good, constructive advice, but a generic "how to start" question is impossible to answer properly.

nonnatus

if you want to practise being self employed, and have a nice redundancy package, how about buying a Franchise and having all the support that offers?

If you REALLY think you have found a niche product though, you could do worse than watch a load of old Dragons Den episodes. Take notes of some of the regular questions that get asked and pose them to yourself. If you can answer them with confidence, maybe you really have found something that everyone else has missed!

My biggest concern for you would be as others have said: How can you make enough profit to support yourself from a standing start? Most businesses, mine included, make a loss / little profit in year one. Will your redundancy savings pay for your living costs as well as initial stock, website, advertising etc?

(Good Luck by the way! Not trying to knock your dreams, just wanting you to understand the harsh realities)

yilia

You need to think about which way would you choose for making money online.
and then build a website with the purpose. For building a website, you can use WordPress, it is totally free and wonderful.
There are also lots of free themes and plugins for you to choose.
The theme I use is Magee WordPress Theme which satisfied me a lot.

FatVonD

motorguy wrote: »

I, and one or two others started our own businesses. Cost me roughly the amount i described there - approx £40,000 - to find out i couldnt make it fly.

I'm a fully paid up member of that club too.

OP, I did what you're planning on doing, I put aside enough for me to live on for a year and then ploughed the rest into a business. We made money in the first year but not nearly enough to live on so the business folded and I went back to work.

With hindsight I could have found work straight away, started the business on a slightly smaller scale at weekends and paid £30,000 off of my mortgage.

pbfhpunk

Hi Sarah

I did the same thing (with out the redundancy) I started my own online business just over a year ago, in March this year I started taking it a bit more seriously, and I'm not a millionaire but I'm selling ok.

I did no research on the product it was something I saw that I liked, from deciding to do it to my first sale was probably about a month.

I got an account with create.net which is £9.99 a month, and lets me sell on eBay and FB, I set up an FB page I got a logo and colour palette designed by someone on Etsy for £15 I got £500 worth of stock and that was it.

So if it hadn't of worked within the first 3 months I'd have only been out £600 and could still have sold most of the stuff on ebay for a profit.

As it is I'm currently expanding the range of products I sell. And also will be paying to have the site redesigned next year. With an bespoke logo and colour palette.

So depending on what you do you don't need ££££ to start up.

Feel free to PM me if you want any other details
H

CinnamonGirl_2

I'm currently reading Marianne Cantwell's Be a Free Range Human and the book goes into some detail about how to set up a business for less than £100 and where to avoid wasting money - it's really helping me clarify my own projects and I'd recommend it. She also has a blog.

Basically, though, in essence she recommends: starting straight away, even if that's with a free Facebook page, and testing out whether people will actually buy what you're selling and then building up slowly as your customer base increases.

Good luck!

motorguy

CinnamonGirl wrote: »

I'm currently reading Marianne Cantwell's Be a Free Range Human and the book goes into some detail about how to set up a business for less than £100 and where to avoid wasting money - it's really helping me clarify my own projects and I'd recommend it. She also has a blog.

Basically, though, in essence she recommends: starting straight away, even if that's with a free Facebook page, and testing out whether people will actually buy what you're selling and then building up slowly as your customer base increases.

Good luck!

+1

The O/P hasnt returned though - i suspect they werent getting the answers they want to hear