have some questions about starting a business

[dakota d]

hello everyone new here,first off wanna apologize for what im sure are stupid questions.

i wanna start by saying my passion is automobiles i love love love cars,so my idea for a business would be selling car parts for all makes and models,
i would sell oem and aftermarket parts,now there is alot of businesses that do this,but i believe with some good advertising via forums and other venues a person could make a decent wage. i would sell locally and online.

in order to sell another companys products,how does that work?do you just email or give a phone call to them and say hi im this business and would like to sell your parts whats the best price you can give me on products a,b and c.

i have a relative who can build me a website so that should be fine.

where do you get all info to create and register a business?the local court house or something?

again i apologize for my dumb questions ive looked up alot of info but my brain is beginning to feel a little overwhelmed i hope you can help!

[Business Attorney]

First let me say I know very little about cars. Replacing a bulb is about as far as I will go when it comes to working on a car.

It sounds like you need to do a lot of research on the market before you take the next step. It strikes me that offering car parts would be a highly competitive, low margin business. If you were selling from your own inventory, it would require a huge amount of capital to carry the kind of SKUs you are talking about. If you were simply marketing the parts and having them drop shipped from the actual seller, that would eliminate the inventory cost but would make your profit margins even thinner.

With national chains like Pep Boys, Carquest and Auto Zone competing in that space, with brick and mortar locations as well as online stores, and many specialty online autoparts stores, how do you plan to set yourself apart? Do you think you can undercut the big volume purchasers like that on price? I would be shocked if that were possible. Would you carry hard-to-find items that they don't stock in their stores? If that is the plan, is there enough of a market for the less common items to bring in sufficient revenue to maintain the business? Also, remember that items with a lower demand turn over in inventory much more slowly, resulting in higher carrying costs for the inventory and often mean more inventory write-offs for obsolete and unsaleable goods, further cutting into your profits or increasing your losses.

[tallen]

David is right about the competition from the national and regional chains. You could always look into buying an existing, or building a new, franchise outlet of one of these chains, but that will require a lot of start-up capital. A different approach might be to specialize in a particular niche... It could be parts for high-end performance modifications, offroad vehicles, antique cars, volkswagen beetles -- anything that develops a following of aficionados who like to spend money on their preferred ride.

[Wozcreative]

hello everyone new here,first off wanna apologize for what im sure are stupid questions.

i wanna start by saying my passion is automobiles i love love love cars,so my idea for a business would be selling car parts for all makes and models,
i would sell oem and aftermarket parts,now there is alot of businesses that do this,but i believe with some good advertising via forums and other venues a person could make a decent wage. i would sell locally and online.

in order to sell another companys products,how does that work?do you just email or give a phone call to them and say hi im this business and would like to sell your parts whats the best price you can give me on products a,b and c.

i have a relative who can build me a website so that should be fine.

where do you get all info to create and register a business?the local court house or something?

again i apologize for my dumb questions ive looked up alot of info but my brain is beginning to feel a little overwhelmed i hope you can help!

The biggest problems you will have:

• Inventory
• Shipping
• Marketing/getting sales

OK so let's say you got a wholesale company to agree to sell to you. Are you going to have to go to the wholesale company each time to put in the orders? Can you deal with being responsible for their accidental mis-shipment, damaged products and figuring out if they have it in stock? I'm assuming you won't be stocking these yourself.

• Do you have a good shipping deal with your shipping company? When I buy online for my car, I usually scour the internet to figure out which one has the cheapest price and cheapest shipping rate.

• Do you have a marketing plan other than forums? Posting on forums with your product will only get you banned. You will need a lot more than that.

By the way, a close family member of mine is a truck and couch mechanic so I have a fair understanding of the business.
I'm worried that you are already overwhelmed. Sounds like you are going into a business you know nothing about. You may love cars.. but your questions show you are completely in the dark regarding business. Have you worked in a car related business before to get some past experience?

[Harold Mansfield]

i have a relative who can build me a website so that should be fine.


You have a relative that can build you the kind of ecommerce/drop-shipping website that you would need to sell millions of auto parts for the 100's of car models out there?
This is more than just a website, it's an entire logistics infrastructure. You can't just plop that on a WordPress theme over the weekend.

[Wozcreative]

You have a relative that can build you the kind of ecommerce/drop-shipping website that you would need to sell millions of auto parts for the 100's of car models out there?
This is more than just a website, it's an entire logistics infrastructure. You can't just plop that on a WordPress theme over the weekend.

I didn't bother asking wether or not his brother will spend 80+ hours on a website build. Let's just say he has that kind of time (or that Dakota has that kind of money to pay him). He doesn't even know the basics of re-selling items which is what his business idea is all about.