I want to start a website.

I want to start a clothing website...where do I start?

• I want it to be a website with a lot of inexpensive clothing, like Ross, TJ Maxx, or Gabriel Brothers online. I have multiple ideas where to get the clothing, and I have about a year left in school before I'll be able to invest more money into this. But smaller things, like my business license, seller's permit, etc., I can work on now. Legalzoom.com is good for the majority of the things I need from what I saw, but I don't want to be blindsided by anything. Is it safe to just shoot for this? Should I talk to someone first? I'm going to school for Baking and Pastry Arts. It's way left field from an online clothing store, I know, but I want to bake/decorate cakes on the side. But I KNOW the clothing website would take off at least as far as I'm dreaming it to go, but I'm scared that my motivation is blinding me...I can't afford to lose tons of money from this. Any tips?

• Answer:

  Hiya, this seems pretty interesting. I was influenced to help you because of that lousy answer that someone else gave; that's just not fair when you're expecting a serious and helpful answer. I think that diving straight right into it without much experience can be quite risky so I would think that it would be safe to start off as small as possible and then build yourself up over time and then when you feel like the time is right to take it a step further. I would suggest that starting off could be something like selling clothes on eBay. I say this because it gives you an idea on what it's like when it comes to trading. It's also a great opportunity to figure out what works for you and what doesn't. You may also be able to figure out other things such as demands and the cost that you'll have to pay as well. This includes maintaining stock, postage and packaging and additional fees. You may want to read more into how you can make a reasonable profit on eBay before you start - if that's where you want to start. There's a lot of helpful guides on eBay that you can read if you're interested. Once you get into selling on eBay and you feel like you're getting used to it, you may want to begin to read into having your own clothing website. It's not a bad idea to ask questions, so ask as many as you can and want to; you'll learn a lot from people who do it for a living. Part of having your own website involves having your own domain name. It can once again be pricey to purchase your own domain name and to also maintain it. So you'll want to have as much as money as you can before you start up. Another thing is advertising. You'll want to appeal to certain people but you're not going to if no one knows about your website. So advertising is important when you start off. For example, you can advertise in local papers or add your site to search engines. Do what ever you feel like you need to do. One last thing is that there are very nasty people out there. Don't let them bring you down or try to scam you. If a deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is and that's the honest truth. I hope I helped and I wish you the BEST of luck! :D