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slueth
12-30-2009, 01:51 AM
Well as my first anniversary in business approaches I think its only fair that I share with you my experiences in my first venture into the apparel business.

Having retired here in the Philippines I decided for whatever reason that I should go into business and open a small boutique selling a variety of clothes and other items. This business was to keep me occupied,provide me with a small steady income and overall give me an oppurtunity to expand into something bigger,employ more staff and of course make more money.

The first couple of months were exciting and the shop was making a small profit each week,however there was a turnaroud and suddenly I was confronted with not enough money to pay rent and staff other than to extract from own reources.Well you can only pull so many teeth before you become toothless so here I go again.

I had the oppurtunity to purchase some shirts from a top manufacturer here in the Philippines that were either cancelled orders,surplus stock or overruns that were made for top brand name shirt suppliers like Nautica,Stafford, Joseph A Banks and many more. Well finding a storage area to store some 30,000 shirts was a problem but not as big as the problem I was having to dispose of them. Due to copyright laws the name labels were removed and nobody seems interested even after I joined what I was told was a reputable web site that advertised world wide my shirts.

Other than selling some 80 shirts to a small company in the West Indies,an attempted rip off by a scammer in Nigeria.and selling some 200 shirts to friends I am stuck with a whole load of quality shirts.

To my dismay the reputable web site Company increased their fees so I am now becoming a street wise businessman and decided not to renew as I figureda 150% increase in fees was more than I could handle especially when sales at the boutique remained stagnant and the monthly rental of the storage area was also draining my reources.my solution was quick advertise on Craiglist and to this day my only response has been from a Nigerian woman living in Australia but my experience tells me yes another scammer.

I am not writing this post to seek sympathy but more to point out that if I could do the same over I would have fully investigated the positives and negatives without rushing in and if this post can make someone aware of what you really need to do before you even think about going into businesss its at least achieved something.

I know there is a solution to my dilema,what it is I am not aware of yet but all I know its going to take a bit of guile,common sense, hard work and a good business plan ,something I should have thought of without rushing in to what I thought was a quick way to make money out of business.

vangogh
12-30-2009, 02:02 AM
Welcome to the forum Richard. I broke your post into paragraphs since it was hard to read as a single paragraph.

Quite a story. Sorry things didn't go as well as planned, but you sound like you'll figure out a way and who knows maybe the story has a happy ending.

It's good advice to do some investigation before rushing into things. Always better to have a solid plan than to reach for the quick buck.

Anyway glad you found your way inside and thanks for joining the community.

Harold Mansfield
12-30-2009, 05:11 AM
Welcome to the forum. That story sucks, but agree with VG..sounds like you have your "sea legs" and I'll bet you will find a way to turn this into a positive.

Good thing is it's not produce, so the shirts won't go bad. I can understand that copyright thing, but hey, just because you can't use the famous makers labels, doesn't mean you can't label them something else.

cbscreative
12-30-2009, 06:11 PM
I agree that the valuable lesson here is go in armed with research and as much info as you can. It's possible to over analyze too, but it's always good to do due diligence.

Welcome to the forum, I hope the interaction here gives you some valuable ideas on how to overcome your challenges.