Starting a small online retail business...help needed!!!

Hi Jon,

I suggest you start a ltd, which wont cost you a lot to set up.

Why would I choose a Ltd over Sole trader is:

1) As you stated it is difficult to trade with international companies without an Ltd as alot of businesses buy on credit and eventually if your business becomes successful it will probably have to buy on credit.

2) It is a norm to trade with abroad companies with a business reg number and can be a wise investment to have VAT as you can claim alot back on import costs etc etc.
3) They will deal with you but be very wary as they will usually ask for up front payments but in my experience i have seen sole traders struggle.

4) There is not a huge amount a cost's involved roughly around £600-900...according to what your saying you will need a site similar to something like Argos where you will if successful add additional products.

5) Dropshipping is not bad but does not bring in huge income...it can be alright to start off with but you will eventually need to kill it off.

Hope this helps

If you need anymore advise send me a email.

Ray
raihan@bbkca.com

Most chinese suppliers will not give credit so ltd or sole trader does not make a difference. You will have to pay for everything before you get it so cash flow will be your biggest problem. as you are not aiming too high sole trader should not be a problem. Just open your ebay account and away you go.
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Wholesale Home Accessories

Wholesale Mirrors

Hiya Jon


Chinese companies don't give two hoots who buys from them, normally most want 30% on order, remainder at sight before the goods are loaded either FOB or CIF

You can be a sole trader with a different name, i.e cheque's can be made out to the trading name only

You can still be VAT reg as sole trader, I wouldn't go down the ltd route to begin with as the paperwork side will add to your pressure of starting the business


Need any other advice please email me

alex.mullholland@hotmail.co.uk

I'm not an expert on this - I'll defer to others on most of the points!!

2. Usually as a sole trader your account name will be "My name trading as XYZ Company"

4. Website with Ecommerce - depending on how many products you want to stock, and how much time you are willing to spend, you can do this with something like www.mrsite.co.uk for as little as £100.

5. We work with a number of online retailers and I would say that 90% of the calls we get are asking questions which are available on the website but that the callers are checking that the company is bonafide and they aren't giving their money to a dodgy fly-by-night. If you find you are getting visitors but no conversions, consider using a phone number to help convert sales. You can get a call answering service to do this for you, so you can still be at work. www.virtuallysorted.com/trial

Good luck!
Caroline
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Caroline Wylie

www.virtuallysorted.com

www.SocietyOfVirtualAssistants.co.uk

Chinese companies don't give two hoots who buys from them, normally most want 30% on order, remainder at sight before the goods are loaded either FOB or CIF
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http://www.acomputersecurity.info http://www.pdaplayer.info http://www.mymobileinfo.info

Hello,

Just a word of warning. Setting up an online business is VERY difficult. The biggest problem is getting traffic to your website. Before you start I would make sure that there are some keywords to target within your niche and check out the competition.

Setting up an online store is not that tricky. You could save a lot of money by doing the work yourself.

Thanks,

Andy
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Want a baby ear thermometer?

Hi,

What are you selling?

Ricky
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Kingdom Mines - Rubies And Sapphires (Gemstone Mining)

Website: http://www.kingdom-mines.tk

Hi Jon,

I know soletraders who import from China so personally I wouldn't set up a Ltd company before you have a business up and running unless you know someone who can help with the returns, accounts etc. I think it's more likely to eat away at your 10k in professional costs than add anything of any value.

I would have thought the other costs of setting an online retail business would be relatively small.

Good luck!

Dom