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Hi everyone,
I've been working on my business for about 9 months now. I'm at the point where the store should be ready to open in about a month. Right now I feel like I haven't handled everything in the best way and I'm honestly worried about the future. I just want to post a little about my company, my experiences opening it, and what i've learned. Hopefully I can get some feedback, advice, and maybe help other entrepreneurs thinking about going down this road.
First of all, for those that don't know. Streetwear is a type of urban clothing that is growing very quickly right now. The brands are typically small companies that create limited quantities of their products. I choose this as the base of my first risky endeavor for a few reasons:
1. This market is exploding - at the time when I thought of the business, everyone already knew that more and more people would adopt this style.
2. It's a niche market - Streetwear is still considered "underground" even though it is becoming more and more mainstream everyday
3. I have knowledge about this market and wear it myself
As for why I choose to have an online store instead of an actual store, the reason is very simple; I'm a 21 year old college student with little money. Right now the business consists of me and my partner who handles most of the technical/computer aspects of the business. We are funding everything almost completely with credit. Yes, I know this is risky, but we felt this was the only option.
Some Problems: Here were some problems that we had with our business
1. Finding brands - Many of the brands do not sell to online stores, have their own webstore, or only sell to one online site. Many brands are reluctant to sell to a brand new online site. Right now we have very few brands, but we will add more and more as time goes on.
2. Money - This probably should have been number one. Our site is not up yet but we are in debt. With no cash flow right now, the interest is slowly killing us.
3. Finishing the site - my partner is in charge of this. Alot of the site cannot be finished yet because we still need to have pictures of the products, pictures of people wearing the products
Worries:
1. Money - See above
2. Marketing - we are not in this phase yet, but if we can't successfully market our site, the business will fail
3. The Industry - Streetwear is growing everyday, which is great, but scares me. Its becoming obvious that streetwear is becoming less and less "underground." If streetwear becomes "mainstream," I believe our "niche" will be obsolete. Also, the industry feels like it is becoming more and more saturated. There are too many brands coming out, with too many crappy products. If this continues, streetwear could die as quickly as it grew.
4. Competition - There are already a few online retailers that have a foothold in the market (karmaloop.com, digitalgravel.com). Many brands have a very good relationship to digitalgravel and refuse to sell to anyone else online (me).
4b. New competition - I've already read a few posts on this forum with people who are interested in starting streetwear based companies. I know as more people start wearing streetwear, there will also be more people trying to start companies. Fortunately(and unfortunately), the majority of these brands only sell to a limited amount of online retailers. So entering the market will only become harder and harder.
Right now, I have a few thousand dollars worth of clothing sitting in my room. We cannot start selling until the rest of our inventory comes in. As I look at these cardboard boxes, I realize the next couple years of my life will be greatly affected by if I am able to sell all these T-shirts and hoodies. The more I look at these boxes, the more worried I am.
That is all for now. Feel free to give some feedback and ask some questions.
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