Where to start for new business

I am planning on working with a manufacturer of ready made garments, to implement my own private label and then sell them either with FBA and/or as an online/physical storefront.

I am not as experienced with this niche, so where should I start first? I know most of you will tell me to go talk to a lawyer, but before I can go and put my ideas and my business into someone else' hand, I want to learn and know on my own first.

Any tips or leads will be appreciated. Thank you very much.

 

I work for a footwear retailing company and I can tell you that retailing is not easy. It takes a lot of money to build a brand. Survival is difficult in this market because competition is very tough. I'd suggest you not to go to physical storefront route in the beginning. Make a proper feasibility before you start. Consider expenses such as Shop rent/Electricity/employee salaries/Govt Taxes etc. Estimate how many articles you will be able to sell per day/month/year. How much money do you have to pay for the rent/electricity(because these will be major expenses) if you go without expected sales for a few months?
Depending on your country of residence you will need to register as a firm if you are going to sell the products in a shop.

 

First of all you should start with the market research - make sure what is your target audience and how you can reach them. As it was mentioned already, it would be best to start it as online business, so think about all the shipping, website creation and marketing expenses. A lot of business nowadays start just with awareness on social media and all the "Coming soon..." posts. It will attract first customers. While you will be doing with legal stuff, you can create the awareness at the same time.

 

Isn't the garment niche one of Amazon's restricted categories? Seems I've seen that a couple times. If that's true you'll need their authorization to market on FBA.

I can't give detailed advice here because it isn't one of my niches but I do belong to a membership site that focuses on Amazon and eBay selling. At the time I bought in the price was one-off and about a third of similar Amazon training products that I looked at. And they continue adding new training.

I don't have an affiliate link for the site. If you want to have a look at it search for Proven Amazon Course.

At any rate I wish you luck.

 

Your best option will be a lawyer. I think all you will need is an agreement stating that you have full authority to rebrand the product and sell it under your brand name. Making an agreement like this should not be costly.

 

Cannot sell in garment niche even if I do FBA?

 

What I mean is that I think garments is a limited/restricted category. You can sell in that niche but you must first get authorization from Amazon. (If it is restricted.)

You need to check with Amazon to see if it actually is a restricted category and what process to go through in order to get your business okay'd to sell in that category.

 

Clothing is a restricted category on Amazon. You will need approval first. Take a look here https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/t/selling-clothing/325957

 

What if it is fabric accessories? like oven mitts? not clothing per say.

 

I don't use amazon to sell anything, so not sure about it. You will look into amazon's restricted category list for that. Search for oven mix on amazon, see which category they are listed in. Then see if its in restricted category list...

 

You should be able to list oven mitts in a kitchen category. That category is not restricted.