Looking to start a retail business, need resources

notkuroda

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

GrillCharmer

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/startingabu ... 75912.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!

notkuroda

thanks a lot, funny I thought I`d been all over that website and never saw this. Great article. Do you think there is a lot of info in the magazine that isn`t in the website? Do you think it`s worth getting a subscription?

GrillCharmer

Hi Chris!!  Janie is a WEALTH of info!! (She has awesome stores all over the place, not to mention the best Jerky on the planet!)  About the subscription, I have one and love it.  Call me old fashion, but for some reason, I read more thoroughly when it`s in print and it also forces me to read articles I might have missed online because I feel since I paid for it, I should read every word.  I usually wind up learning something I didn`t expect to, but I digress.  Back to your retail question.  Please do tell us more about what type.

notkuroda

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!

notkuroda

there is a pretty big market for it, believe it or not! Really this is an idea to get the idea juices flowing, I don`t know if it will be our final decision, but we decided to do some research on a few ideas to at least learn something about what we`re getting into