need help on starting a buisness

[chocomomma]

hi im 21 with 2 DC, after high school i didnt do anything as i got married at 16 and strted a family. i got a couple of gcse but nothing major. i am a SAHM and my youngest is now 2. i dont want to be a sahm forever.. im really interested in starting a mini buisness, a few extra pound, work from home - maybe the odd driving around, and not living off benefits!! i hate the 'paint' everyone has stuck on me, 'oh shell never do nothing have 647383 kids on benefits' i dont regret my 2dc a tiny bit, but now a bit of time for me.
I was thinking buying spanish baby clothes-i know where to get them cheap, and selling them. Only a small problem-i have no savings.. id need roughly £2000 to get started (buy stock) - wwyd? anyone know where i can get a small buisness loan? i havent had credit so i have bad credit

Hey OP! I love love love Spanish baby clothes. Do you dress your children in them? Would you sell them through Instagram? Do you already have a following? I think £2k seems like a heck of a lot of stock to have in the first instance. Can you not get photos from the wholesalers and ask people to pre order so you’re only ordering in what you’re selling? Or even but outfits for your children to model and encourage people to pre order?

i love them! i do dress my dc in them but not everyday, i was thinking of opening a facebook selling page and selling via that. also driving around to gypsy sites as i know there is alot of interest there. i was thinking about opening up, posting pictures and doing it via pre-order, but would people pay straight away when just pre-ordering? also delivery takes 1-3weeks from the place?

also £2K does sound like alot putting prices together in my head maybe £1K to be fully stocked and id hope to sell them within 1 month, and buy £1K of clothes every month and take home profit obv

I usually put roughly £10 holding deposit when I pre order and pay the balance for it to be posted. Sometimes I pay 50% up front. I don’t mind waiting- usually is a season ahead anyway so I’m not in a rush for the clothes. I think the deposit generally stops people pulling out of purchasing and even if they do it becomes stock that can still be sold on at full price. It might be an idea to have a brand rep from the gypsy community if they’re your target market?

i am a traveller didnt want to add that as some people are a bit funny.. but yeah the whole deposit on a pre order aiming for next season sounds good untill i get started fully! so if i was to do it now, would you recommend starting with summer or waiting a little while and starting with autumn?

No need to hide it- I look for traveller children on Instagram for wardrobe inspiration

Personally, I think you’re too late for summer. I’d work on building my social media presence, learn more about my wholesalers and aim towards an autumn/winter launch. Have you got Instagram at the moment? If you could get your hands on the cloths like I’ve attached on the picture I’d be all over your store and I imagine plenty of others would be

yeah, i think i may have a look at autumn clothes. i havent seen them around but will keep my eyes open! ive been looking at these

with matching boys sets too

Get some bonnets too OP..... I love a bonnet 😊 best of luck!

Those clothes you posted are fab as they’re pretty much all seasons so may be a good go to starter item

Honestly, I would get some qualifications. I know that’s not s fun answer but it’s what I would do.

i got some qualifications, i got level 2 hair & beauty so would only need 1 year of college for that. level 2 childcare so could either go to college for that or be trained in a nursery. passed my english and math. passed my ict too. there isnt a job i want to do tbh with you.. i love being with my children as much as i do, hence the job where i could still be with them

and thats what i love about spanish! they kinda are every season!! throw some tights with bows on for cold days and some bow socks for nice days

Ok well it’s good to hear you’ve got some qualifications. In your earlier post you said you didn’t.
If you’re serious about wanting to do this as a business I’d advise doing a business start up course. Maybe book keeping. There are various business related courses that would really help you to plan out your business and give it a great start. Have a look at what’s available, it could be really useful.

sorry i didnt make it clear, i meant i do have qualifications just never went to college/uni so in my opinion i dont have a lot of qualifications. thanks for the advice on courses jenny will defo look into them, never thought about it, was just kinda going to dive in head first lol

If I were you I would have a go at writing a business plan. This should give you an idea of how best to go forward. You can find lots of examples online about what sort of thing to have a look at for a business plan. because of your age you might be able to get a business grant from the local council to help you set it up but I expect they would want to see a business plan.

thanks readytotall for the advice, was thinking about a buisness plan, but never fully looked into it. would the council do a grant? didnt think they did?

Get your Instagram started asap. Even with inspirational images and say in the profile business name* Spanish kids clothes coming soon.

When you are finally ready to launch you will already have an audience.

Make your Instagram look slick and aspirational, no dodgy iPhone images, look at other Instagram accounts that are successful and copy how they write the captions and the type of imagery they post.

Good luck

ok, so ive never used instagram, i take it this is the best thing these days? also what do you mean by no dodgy iphone photos? i ask because i use a iphone and dont understan

Have a look at the Prince's Trust - they provide training and support to young people aged 16-30 starting their own business.

Are you wanting to be a sole trader or a it's company? You need to know what your tax responaibilites are etc so you need to plan your business structure first. Sole trader is the simplest way to do it and is what most of these types if businesses are.

Open up a separate current account from your everyday and savings accounts etc. You want all your business payments to go out of and come into one account, with no personal payments in between so they are easier to keep track of.

You want your business name and mission statement. Think about your brand; what are you going to five customers that others won't. Pay for a designer to make you a logo, or do it yourself (use Canva - just Google it. Canva is a great platform to do all your own marketing designing on. You can use the free one or pay for a fee extra features). Once you have your logo, I'd suggest getting a load if sticker printed up (internationalstickers.co.uk are cheap, fast and good). Then, when you sell the clothes, you can wrap them in tissue paper and deal the paper with your own branded stickers. If you want to be super fancy, you could get cheap card boxes to put the clothes in and pop your sticker on the lid. You want to reinforce your brand with every sale.

Set up your Facebook and Instagram. Start posting. Do giveaway competitions, or 'win a £10 voucher" competitions and ask people to like your page and share your post to be entered into the competition. I usually ask them to comment so you get a list of all the people commenting snd choose a winner from there. Run them for a week, then choose a winner.

If you want to make your own website, I can recommend Weebly as an e-commerce hosting site. It's easy to use and design (just drag and drop) and they deal with the online store stuff. Just set up PayPal and you're ready to go.

You also need to read the consumer rights act - you need to know the law and what your responaibilites are for returns etc.

There's lots more, but get all that done - your brand, your plan, your selling platform and a customer base and then you're good to go.

thanks snowgirl will look into them, never looked for a loan before so never knew where to start

rocinante wow -just wow lol ill defo be copying and pasting your advice into my phones memo! thanks

Feel free to PM me anytime if you've got questions. Women in business need to help boost the new ones!

Grab 'marketing for dummies' - loads of youtubing advice on start ups.

If you have health and beauty keep going on it. It really will mean you will never be poor. I did my massage therapy course and it is the BEST investment.

Careful not to end up with old stock :)