how do I raise capital for starting my own retail business?
139125
If you are starting a sales business or anything that will create a revenue based on a contract, you can get your first contract and bring that to your bank and get a loan equal to that contract amount using it as collateral.  Believe it or not, this is actually how Nike was started.  They made one shoe, not a pair, just one shoe and sold a multi million dollar contract to a sporting goods store.  They brought the executed contract to the bank and got a loan to start the actual company!
1094742
There are many businesses who started with so little yet grew to become good income vehicles down the road. But it will take more work, more research. With little resources, you can't afford to make mistakes.\n\nFrom the article "How to Start a Business with Little Cash" http://www.powerhomebiz.com/vol30/nocash.htm  here are some tips on how you can start a business and earn more money even if you are short of cash today:\n\n1. Find a business that you can start for little money (e.g. an errand business where your main cost is telephone and gasoline is easier to start than starting a Subway franchise)\n\n2. Consider your time and effort - if you have little cash, you may have to work harder for the money because you will have no resource to outsource or employ others to do certain tasks for you; or you have no money to buy equipment so you can only do certain things the long way\n\n3. Get your creative juices flowing. With no money, the only thing you have is your imagination. Be creative and find ways to get things done \n\n4. Be prepared to do all the work yourself - from doing your business plan, finding financing, writing emails, shipping and handling, marketing or whatever processes your business requires. \n\n5. Be prepared to invite investors - you may need financing help from someone down the road so be prepared to share some of the pie.\n\nTo give you ideas on what exactly do you need to start your own business, here are ten things you need to know before launching your own business  “10 Things You Need to Know When Starting Your Own Home Business” http://www.powerhomebiz.com/052006/startingbiz.htm .\n\nYou may want to consult with an experienced entrepreneur or small business adviser to help you map out the best and cost efficient ways to start a business.There are several places where you may be able to find a mentor: \n\n- Government Mentoring Programs such as SBDCs, which works with community colleges and local business development councils to offer mentoring programs http://www.sba.gov/sbdc/sbdcnear.html ; or the Women's Network for Entrepreneurial Training http://www.sba.gov/womeninbusiness/wnet_roundtables.html \n-Volunteer programs such as SCORE http://www.score.org  which is composed of mostly retired executives and entrepreneurs \n- Formal mentoring programs such as Athena Foundation http://www.athenafoundation.org/programs/globallinks.html  , Helzberg Entrepreneurial Mentoring Program http://www.helzbergmentoring.org/HEMP/  , or The Aspen Institute MicroMentor Program http://www.micromentor.org \n- Professional organizations such as the National Women’s Business Council http://www.nwbc.gov/Mentoring/programs.html \n- Industry and trade associations \n- Local business groups, such as the chamber of commerce \n- Local chapters of business groups
779069
The best routes to take are to research the process of starting a business as well as the industry you're interested in.\n\nI recommend checking out the SBA, Entrepreneur, The Start Up Journal & Nolo. All 4 are great informational resources for the new/small business owner. I posted links for you in the source box.\n\nAssociations may be a good avenue to explore. These organizations will address many of the thoughts, questions and concerns you'll inevitably have as well as many you haven't anticipated yet. See the source box for some relevant links. \n\nResearch, research, research – this cannot be stressed enough. Read as much as you can about the industry. Here are some book titles that are relevant:\n\n* Starting A Flower And Gift Shop by Millicent Gray Lownes-Jackson,\n* Specialty Shop Retailing: How to Run Your Own Store Revised by Carol L. Schroeder\n* Start and Run a Profitable Retail Business by Jim Dion, Ted Topping\n* Retail Business Kit for Dummies by Rick Segel \n\nThere are plenty of free informational resources out there. Check the source box for links to articles.\n\nHope that helps! I wish you much success & happiness in all your ventures!
666614
If you are already doing business and you are in profits, then my suggestion is to save as much as you can from your profits. As a rule, spend only 20% for your personal expenses and invest the rest back to your business. This way your business will keep on growing and the small will become huge one day. This is the easiest and the best way to grow a small business as it is not always easy to get financing from banks or personal sources for new business.\n\nBut yes you will have to sacrifice your luxuries of life in the begining but a day will come when even the 20% of your profits will be more than enough for you....BEST OF LUCK!!
137278
It's hard to answer your question in specifics since we don't know what type of business you're involved in, so I thought I would just list some links that'll help you get started on your way. There's links related to starting, financing & advertising.\n\nHope that helps! I wish you much success & happiness in all your ventures!
153277
I posted 2 links that should help you to get started.\n\nHope that helps! I wish you much success & happiness in all your ventures!
834199
Get registered as self employed with the tax office. Go see a business startup specialist in a Bank.  One of the best banks out there from personal experience were Barclays they have a team of business specialists they can provide loads of info including Starting and running your own business guides on CD Rom and information fact sheets, there are other sources of information you can obtain through Business Link too. \n\nBanks usually lend on a matched funding basis to new businesses, ie 50/50 but only if you can provide a cashflow projection and business plan up front.  If you have already bought equipment to use for your business and can produce receipts this would be included in your 50%\n\nYou sound like a hardworker, working for yourself is not always easy and does demand your time and effort, from what you have said you have no objections to doing this.  The benefit obviously being that any money you make (less any deductions) is your own clear profit not someone elses.\n\nAnyhow, best of luck!
538638
Since your question is not too specific, I will make my answer as general as I can. \n1. decide what kind of business you want\nThis might be stuff that you are interested in doing. It might also be something that you might be good at. Perhaps you just want to find something that will provide you with a living.\n2. Learn as much about what you want to do. Read about it, maybe there are trade journals you can read. See if there are any trade shows for your prospective line of work. Talk to people in that line of work. You might want to work in your area of interest to get a feel for it before you risk any money of your own. \n3. Create a business plan. Write out all of your ideas. Write down what you want to do, and how you want to do it. Work on the business plan more. If you find writing difficult, you might want to take some business writing classes. Taking some business and accounting classes will help too.\n4. When you have a business plan you think makes sense, try to raise some money. Your business plan will include enough financial information that you will have an idea of how much it will cost to get started. Banks will probably need some collateral or a cosigner. You might try to find an Angel investor. This might be a person who has money and maybe even some experience with your chosen field, or it might be someone with a strong business background. \n5. Find a location. If your business idea is retail, you need visibility. A commercial real estate broker might be able to help you find the location you want. Your business plan will be your guide for this. \n6. Your location might need to be set up for your needs. The space might need shelves, counters, signs, etc. Again, you will use your business plan as a guide.\n7. Your area might have laws that require licensing or other requirements. Figure out what these are before trying to operate.\n8. After you begin operations, update your business plan. It is almost guarenteed that you will make some mistakes along the way. Don't let that get you down, learn from it. \nThe business plan is not something you finish, it is really a way to collect your thoughts and expirences and make some kind of sense of things.\nI hope this helps at least a little. Good luck.
331023
You might want to start by contacting the manufacturers of the shoes and clothing and ask them their criteria for allowing someone to become an authorized dealer of their products.  If you don't have a business plan, yet, you might want to consider drafting one soon, as they will likely want to see such a plan before they commit to anything.  Good luck with your venture.
221711
start small, speak with the owner, try to get in good with a smaller shop first, work your way up.  and don't give up!
13858
In my opinion, and experience, the best small business to launch is an online business. Create websites about topics of internest to you, then put on PPC ads from servers like Yahoo Publishers Network or Adsense. You will be paid for each click, when visitors come to the site, see ads of interest to them, and click the ads. The best things about this business is the initial investment is very low. You have no inventory to stock,no orders to fill, no customers to contend with, no shoplifting, no breakage, no back breaking boxes to lift, no employees to hire, no rush hour traffic, and no credit card fraud. You are looking at monthly hosting fees of $20 or less, you design in, so there is no design fee. We are making over $4000 a month just in the PPC revenue, plus we sell ads to other business directly. We work from home, set our own hours, and just wait each month for the check from Adsense or YPN to arrive. It doesn't get any easier, or any more flexible.
763649
OK, do you really want to nock your brothers socks off?\n\nTry following some or all of this:\n\nAnytime you want to start any kind of business, there are several basics that you will need:\n\n* You should first sit down and think about what it is you want to do and then write out the scenario in detail!  This may sound tedious, but it will help you clarify what it is you are thinking about.  Also, when you talk to anyone about the business (mentor, bank, clients, prospective investor), you will have a clear vision to share with him or her.  You can check any number of books at your local library or the Internet for ideas on creating a business plan or goals list.\n\n* Is there anyone out there doing something like what you want to do already?  Can you research what it is that they do and maybe even talk with them about what they do?\n\n* Are there businesses out there that are doing some aspect that you want to do?  In this case, you want to create an online drop shipment business.  What websites have you seen that you like (can you talk with them)?  How does the local McDonalds or other retail outlet do business that might help you in yours (i.e. how is McDonalds able to provide a product to a customer on demand at almost anytime of day – and do it with a much of high school kids)?\n\n* Never listen to anyone who says that you CANNOT do something UNLESS they have been there and tried that!!!!!  Anyone can tell you the good things that you can try or do, however, only someone who has actually tried the specific thing your are thinking can truly give you advise on the pitfalls that could await the unsuspecting.\n\n* If you want to look for a mentor (free or paid – although mentors usually offer their time at no cost), the question that you should be ready to address is WIIFM (What In It For Me {the mentor})!  What are you willing to do for your mentor to help them with something that they may need (for me it’s simple – I am looking for 10 points :-)\n\n\nContacts:\n\n* Contact your local Better Business Bureau or Chamber of Commerce – they have business people who will help start up operations.\n\n* Contact your local high school, community college or university and find out whom the teachers are for courses related to your business (like business or computer/internet classes).  Contact these teachers to get some ideas or even to see if they will take you company startup on as a class project or special project for some of the student to work on (might give the students extra credit and you a free startup).  In the worst case, you might get the names of some good students whom you might hire to do certain aspects of what you need at a very low cost.\n\n* Contact you local, county or state governments (check their websites) – many areas have small business administrations (or some other agency that can help with various things) that have any number of references and resources available at little or no cost.\n\n* Go to your local library in the Reference Section and find the Encyclopedia of Associations.  It is a three-book set published by Gale Research.  The first book lists thousands of tiles of professional organizations and groups.  It will give a code number to use in the other two books to find out more about that organization.  Contact the organizations who have something to do with your idea and find out if they have a services to give you advise or local groups that you can network with.  In many cases, just asking for membership and publications information may give you a lot of useful stuff.\n\n\nOther outstanding sources that I have used in running my four businesses:\n\n* Nightingale-Conant – the largest producer of audio/video training programs in the world.  Many of their programs can be borrowed for free from local libraries.  http://www.nightingale.com\n\n* Entrepreneur Magazine (http://www.entrepreneurmag.com) – many great tips and ideas about running a company.\n\n* Rich Dad Poor Dad - http://
1029516
you need Total capital investment of at least $200,000 that goes to what ever need to get you started\nthen you need an ADD another  $75,000 for cash on hand for thing that you need such as office supplies, gas and to live on
903260
To get started, I suggest contacting the Small Business Administration Financing Page (SBA) – links below. Entrepreneur also offers a great site dedicated to money & finance – see below.\n\nResearch, research, research – this cannot be stressed enough. Read as much as you can. Here are some book titles that are relevant:\n\n* Free Money for Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs by Laurie Blum\n* Finding Money: The Small Business Guide to Financing (Small Business Series) by Kate Lister, Tom Harnish\n* Financing Your Business Dreams With Other People's Money: How and Where to Find Money for Start-Up and Growing Businesses by Harold R. Lacy\n* No Cash No Fear: Entrepreneurial Secrets to Starting Any Business with No Money by Terry Allen\n* Starting on a Shoestring: Building a Business Without a Bankroll by Arnold S. Goldstein\n\nThere are plenty of free informational resources out there. Check the source box for links to articles.\n\nHope that helps! I wish you much success & happiness in all your ventures!
918621
work out how much you need to earn a day  then add this to the cost of your materials (retail).other than that go to breakfast meetings at your wholesalers and talk to other sparkies they will help im sure.
73985
start your own business...
205537
The article "Starting a Shoe Retail Store" can give you some pointers on how to go about starting this business http://www.powerhomebiz.com/vol136/shoe.htm . Your startup cost will depend on several factors, including the size and design of the store, location, target market, inventory selection and level of marketing.\n\nTo get ideas of the latest footwear styles and to develop contacts and find suppliers in the shoe retail industry, attend any or all of the important trade shows in this industry:\n\n- World Shoe Association http://www.wsashow.com/ the largest and most comprehensive footwear and related accessories event \n- Magic Marketplace http://www.magiconline.com - mainly apparel and accessories, though includes footwear as well\n- Fashion Footwear Association of New York http://www.ffany.org - largest shoe show in the East Coast\n- Shoe Market of the Americas http://www.smota.com  - held 3 times a year in Miami\n- North American Shoe and Accessories Market http://www.northamericanshoe.com  - the 10th largest shoe show in the world\n- Los Angeles Shoe Show http://www.californiamarketcenter.com  \n- Southwest Shoe Expo http://www.southwestshoeexpo.com - held 5 times a year at Dallas World Trade Center \n- Chicago Shoe Expo http://www.chicagoshoeexpo.com  - a small regional trade show held 4 times a year in Chicago\n- Micam Shoevent http://www.micamonline - international trade show for medium to high end footwear held twice a year in Milan\n- GDS http://www.mdna.com  - the premier shoe event held twice a year in Dusseldolf, Germany\n\nYou may also want to check out the following Trade Associations: \n\n- National Retail Federation http://www.nrf.com \n- America Apparel and Footwear Association http://www.americanapparel.org/ \n- Electronic Retailing Association http://www.retailing.org \n- National Shoe Retailers Association http://www.nsra.org/