Would like some advice

[beautystyle]

Hello YE, I am planning on starting a new venture a i would love some input... Well basically i am starting an online beauty an fashion store.. but i want it to be more than just a online store. I want to do have trade shows, hair an fashion shows, beauty an fashion schools, magazines etc. I really want to really brand my company into a house hold name. The thing is tho where should i start first should i just start my online store first an tackle each other project 1 at a time or just do everything at once? Any input would be highly appreciated.

[mtnjkwe]

My advice will be to start simple and expand into the other areas with time. This will save you time and money as well as permit you to reinvest what youve made towards expanding.
What is your current situation in terms of your idea?
Mail me hear m @njmart.in if you need help starting out. I aim to help 5 entrepreneurs per month successfully set themselves up online.

[nick1resume]

agree with yah mate, make a feasibility report on particular area where you want to expand your business.

[guidemesingapore]

Doing everything at once could be risky, time consuming and expensive. Start with one thing at a time. At least get some revenue in before you expand.

[DangerousCurves]

My advice would be to launch the online store first, as it could be done with the least investment. Build your brand and expand into the other areas as your budget and business allows. Online retail is getting harder every year and will require more marketing and advertising budget than you may expect to develop brand awareness. So focusing on one task at a time will keep you from spreading yourself too thin in the beginning..

Best of luck..

Larry
Dangerous Curves

[Julianflynn]

Most people in that business would first start with the fashion part. Only after their brand is completely recognized would they branch out to other areas of the business. This gives the business the anchor it needs to establish itself before it could promote an expanded range of products.

[lizaadams]

Always start with your very core. Figure out what works and what doesn't and change. Once you've validated your idea, that's the time to start expanding. Read Getting Real by 37 Signals. It's technically written for developers, but can be applied to any industry.

[petelta]

If you are going to start on the web front, then you need to start learning about internet marketing. The approach you want to take will highly depend on the amount you can invest into the project. If you have some money to throw in at the beginning for marketing purposes, you can start to look at traffic generation from PPC, banner ads, magazine ads, etc. These are all effective traffic sources for a web business. Then of course, there are the free methods but they take some work and time. These are things like article marketing, video marketing, podcasting, forum posting, blog commenting, press releases, etc.

Either way, I would say get your internet presence built then expand or get your fashion shows built then go internet. Spreading yourself too thin in the beginning can be trouble.

[Don M.]

Establishing a web presence is definitely where I would start. And I agree with petelta's comment that internet marketing will be a critical piece of the of your online efforts. Once you have your website generating some business you could also use it to support the other areas that you want to expand into.

[SmoothEntrepreneur]

Start slowly, perfect every stage. Moving too fast reduces your focus on the details that matter.

[stevendownward]

I really have to agree with everyone on this one. If you start out too fast, you will end up spending a lot of money and normally waste a lot of time. Take it one step at a time and move forward nicely.

Now, If you actually do have a large budget to get things going, hire some people to set up the systems and start your marketing. The sooner that you start marketing, the sooner you will start seeing money come back to you. Just make sure that you have your systems up and running.

[beautystyle]

Thanks everyone for the great advice!!

[ironlinx]

The keys to a successful startup:

-Identify your market - define your nitch
-Identify the products your market wants, not the products you want to sell
-Develop solid relationships with your vendors, you'll need their support as you start
-Create a website that represents you well. Don't get caught up in "Look Big", rather "Look Solid"
-Stay focused on selling and marketing your business, use a fulfillment service (like IronLinx Distribution Services) to handle your shipments and handle your inventory.
-Cash-flow, cash-flow, cash-flow...

When it comes to marketing (trade shows, web marketing, e-stores etc), you may be able to tackle more than one venue at a time, it depends on how much of the process you can do yourself, and how much you can outsource to other companies or business partners.

Good luck! : )