I want to sell crafts and craft supplies online. I have no business experience at all - but need to earn a living, (it would be a very small, one person business).
Any advice on how to get started, or the pitfalls to watch out for, would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.Online trading - advice please?
1. Go onto the HM Rev %26amp; Customs website and get as much info as you can about VAT, especially flat rate vat (designed for small businesses). Also get info on business tax which is different to vat.
2. If you are going to run the business from home check your lease or freehold (or do as most people and don't take any notice of what it says about running a business from home).
3. You may wish to amend your property insurance to cover raw materials and finished goods.
4. Don't rely on your own internet sales alone, check for established businesses who may give you orders and check locally for shops that sell arts and crafts, it's an extra string to your bow (at reduced profit but it increases turnover).
5. If the council find out you are running a business they may wish to rate the premises differently. Check for small business rate relief on the basis that you are THINKING of starting a business and weigh up the pro's and con's of how to rate the property.
6. Bag your scraps before binning them, if the council find out you are running a business they will probably charge you for refuse disposal (on top of your rates).
7. Keep proper records of all transactions in case Rev %26amp; Customs decide to do a check otherwise they will use estimates and you could face a hefty bill.
8. Ask your local shopkeepers etc., who does their accounts then make an appointment for a FREE consultation and ask what they can do for you and at what cost. A good accountant should save you enough money to pay for him/herself.
Best wishes with your venture.Online trading - advice please?
try joining ebay or amazon and they will talk you through the sales process
try the following site for business start-up advice
http://www.newbiztips.net
First of all, you need to make a website with website creating programs such as dreamweaver. (yes, you need to learn how to use it and everything)
Just make a site with a table with the pictures of your objects, and make lots of hyperlinks (not joking- for real- that is how my old friend does his. visit his site (it's korean but still look around how he did his) www.queenswim.com
then using sites such as paypal? in america, you get it to connect it with your account, so as they pay, the money will be sent to you. connect your ';click to buy'; to paypal. (you will want to look how to build such website)
You then send it to their location, and that's it.
some important things are that you want to make your site on many search engines, make little cards inviting people to your website, and think of making posters and getting it out on public.
You sure need to buy your own domain name and everything (need to pay money to keep your website running)
and you should ';defend'; your site because of hackers, and should be aware of the IPs that come to your site. If you borrow one of those ';books for dummies'; (I think that was what it was called- you can get them in the library anywhere)
you can easily learn...
Hope I helped
Some tips to add,
Do not ever sell your stuff on Ebay- you can advertise your site, but Ebay is not for business.
When you build your site, do not ';change'; it, leave it how many people will easily navigate through your site..
register with ebay and you can do paypal only which means the money is paid into your pay pal account before you send anything. This is a good way to start because if your busines takes off you can become a power seller. Have a look on ebay and see what is selling best in your chosen product field. I suggest you do some buy it nows and some starting at alow price that way you can see what sort of price things are selling for. Hope that helps.
7 Investment Mistakes to Avoid:
Investment mistakes often happen when decisions are influenced by emotion and when basic principles of investing are misunderstood. Confusion also exists about how investments react to economic and political influences. In saying that, losing money on your investments may not be the result of a mistake, and not all mistakes will result in a financial loss. Help improve your investment performance by avoiding these seven common errors:
1. Investing without the end goal in mind. Keep your goals in mind when considering your investment options so that you can move in the right direction. Your investment should include time frame and your personal tolerance to risk. Planning for your goals should mean that you do not need to make frequent adjustments to your portfolio.
2. Not allowing for the emotions that market cycles will cause. Being human we are all affected by optimism and pessimism which is what affects market cycles – the ups and downs of the market. . Overdoing your involvement in a current trend and then quickly abandoning it creates a buy high/sell low cycle of your own. Remember why you invested in the first place. Has this goal changed? Invest for the medium and long term and forget about cycles. “Buy in gloom and sell in boom”
3. Not being diversified. Allocate your funds to different asset classes such as property, bonds and shares but within those asset classes make sure you are diversified too and not relying on one asset to perform. Spread the risk.
4. Becoming bored with your plan and changing direction too frequently. Many investors tend to look at their investments with a short term view even though they have invested for medium and long term. Remember that there is no index that compares with your own personal portfolio.
5. Investing in the latest fad or speculative investment. This can result in a hodgepodge of investments and mean that you are investing because it’s the latest “sure” thing and the easy way to make a quick dollar. History is littered with examples such as Tulip Mania (1630), The Mississippi Scheme (1719), and The Tech Wreck (2000).
6. Having an unrealistic time horizon and comparing “apples with oranges”. Comparing your investments with dissimilar products will only cause you to take a detour from your original portfolio goals.
7. Taking too much notice of the media. It is the job of the media to report the sensational and the negative, after all it sells more papers.
Investing is a personal venture taking into account yours and your family goals and objectives and these are what should influence your investment portfolio.
http://money--market.blogspot.com/2007/11/stocks-and-shares.html
i would start with a trial run on something like ebay, and just see what the market for your product is like,
if you get a lot of custom, then your laughing,
really you have nowt to loose by doing a trial, as regards to throwing all you have into it.
you could be out of pocket considerably.
good luck.
There are some daft answers here - you are starting SMALL, so think small.
My best advice would be to start out on Ebay - Ebay has millions of potential customers all looking for something. I even think some bigger companies should also trade on eBay. The setup costs are very minimal (only listing fees). Do NOT sign up for en Ebay Shop unless you are sure the sales justify it. Simply sell in a normal way as a user. EbayShops are pointless unless you have a large inventory of items which you can sell over and over again. All credit cards sales can be handled by Paypal - which is very easy to setup.
If Ebay starts to work for you, I would then suggest building your own website to allow repeat customers to come to you directly, using the contacts/sales you have made from Ebay, contact those customers and offer some kind of discount.
I doubt you could sell on Amazon ';Unless'; the goods you sell are barcoded, as every item on Amazon needs a barcode number to sell it. It helps if the goods are already for sales on Amazon and you can register as a trader and sell/undercut via the Seller Marketplace.
For the one-man-band, Ebay is the place to start and Craft Supplies are huge business on there!
My main tip is to AVOID spending loads of money, it simply isnt necessary in todays online market. Once you start to grow, then think about investing in a website and online advertising like Googleads.
As you will be self-employed, you will (by law) need to register with HMRC within 3 months of trading. This is very easily done online in about 10mins or over the phone.
Good luck.
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