Need Help Starting a Business

Dear T. M,

Your friend could start an internet business very simply and very inexpensively. Online, she could show examples of her work, so people could place orders. She would need to be set up to take credit cards, of course. A couple of great things about internet businesses are 1) She wouldn't have to carry a lot of inventory. She oculd make what the customer wants after their order comes in. 2) She doesn't have to pay for a store front. 3) She doesn't have to have employees until the business grows.

The three items listed above are generally the most costly items for new retail businesses. She could start her business very simply and inexpensively.

Another thing she could do is go store to store (to stores such as the ones you mentioned) and sell her goods to them wholesale, so that they resold them in their stores. She won't make as much money on each item, but the stores would order multiple items, whereas retail customers may just order one or two at a time. This would be something else your friend could consider.

What a great friend you are! May God bless you AND your friend!

Deb D

If she's interested in starting a web site related business have her check out the great craft site: etsy.com They allow you to upload your pictures and product descriptions and even have a shopping function for .20 a listing. She will need to know how to handle digital images and will have to set up a Paypal account but it is a great site. There are some tricks and tips. If she needs any advice email me privately and I'll give you my email address.

All if these are great suggestions. She could set up a Paypal account for taking online credit card payments on any of these sites. This is much easier and less expensive than getting a merchant account through a bank to process credit cards.

Also I have two online stores which I have set up through yahoo stores. It's not too difficult to set up. She could look at this down the road. I would try etsy or ebay or myspace as starting points. Easier to set up and get going.

She could offer drop shipping to online retailers. They place the photos of her products on their websites (at a higher price than she's charging them so they make a profit) and as orders come in, they forward the orders to her via email. She ships the products to the customers for the retailer without revealing her info and charges the retailer her agreed asking price. Many online retailers don't like to carry alot of inventory so look for people who will drop ship. I would love to see pics of what she does if she is interested in this.

Craft shows are also great but she would have to have some inventory.

Tell her to check out mompreneursonline.com there is tons of information there and also alot of ladies that started out on a budget. The community forums is where to get the information she needs.

I wish I had money to help out your friend. Just curious as to how much she is needing to start her business, if you don't mind me asking? I don't have a business of myself, but I can always run things by some friends and see if anyone bites. It's a long shot but worth it to help someone out.

I can't help in the money dept, but has your friend tried posting her goodies on www.etsy.com? It's a great site for hand made crafts. If she goes this route, I would suggest also making a myspace page. Etsy Dallas has a myspace page where she can get together with fellow crafters for advise and witty banter. Hope this helps. ;0)

Other links to looks at;
http://www.stitchaustin.com/participate.html
http://www.thedallascraftmafia.com/
http://www.themakesite.com/

Has she thought about doing some consignment type? Alot of little boutiques do that sort of thing you just got to do some leg work... Good luck

i saw on here actually like a week or two ago about a website called etsy.com. it looks really cool. that way she can post pictures of stuff she already has with no money outlay. she could try ebay as well.