Getting started, advice please!

[jaffacakehips]

I have an idea for a small on-line company. I very much want it to all be british made, however I'm really really snuggling to find suppliers, manufacturers etc.

Any suggestions /advice , would be really helpful.

My idea is children wear.

Thank you.

It's a saturated market so hope you have done your research good luck

So was fruit juice market but Innocent haven't done too badly, have they!?!

You will need business cards, but invest in them don't use the free ones!www.prowess.org.uk/the-downside-of-free-business-cards

Sorry forgot to convert the link! www.prowess.org.uk/the-downside-of-free-business-cards

Have you tried any trade fairs or trade magazines? There's Bubble, a childrenswear trade show in London, www.bubblelondon.com/ or the Harrogate Nursery Fair www.nurseryfair.com/
There are also trade magazines, Nursery Industry mag, Nursery Today mag, Childrenswear Buyer trade magazine you could subscribe to, and Nursery Online for weekly wholesale supplier updates

...and when you're ready get in touch with Baby London magazine (I think they may have another regional version of the mag). They have a section where they feature entrepreneurial mums and their businesses. I call it the Vogue of baby mags so presumably, the readers will have some decent disposable income - don't know why I read it then!! Looks great on my side table though! ;-)

Hi, I am a business trainer and help with training start ups. Hence I am going to say you start by putting together a business plan. Initially you start by identifying

• What aspect of your product needs to be british made? is it the material,design and manufacture or are you willing to do any of the three outside UK( think about how you can keep costs affordable)
• put down on paper the cycle of your business-eg. step 1-buying material,step 2-designing etc.
• work on each step one by one-eg step 1 -where r u buying from(there are websites that do business supplying eg. alibaba/global sources to name a couple).you can get an idea of whats out there.what are you buying wtc.

-you can wither choose to do associated costs with each step at this stage or do the costing separately.

This will be hard work but its totally worth it. It will give you a sense of direction and a vision for your product.
hope this was useful.

by the way-being a business trainer does not mean I know everything about all business ideas. but I can offer you some advice which you might find useful.

There are a lot of children's clothing brands that are made here but you need tho think about your niche. Do you want to cater to the luxury market, the mainstream, quirky/vintage, fashion-led, etc. That will be your starting point, you can't really search for suppliers until you have an idea of the identity you want to create. Are you wanting to manufacture or retail?

Thank you all, very helpful.