Hether` Posted February 23, 2006 Share Posted February 23, 2006 I have been reading about starting a business and does anyone have any advise on where to start. I make candles out of my home and wanted to start small. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sockmonkey Posted February 23, 2006 Share Posted February 23, 2006 Things to think about--Where and how will you distribute your catalog?What type of payments can you accept? Checks, creditcard, paypal?Will you require money up front or upon delivery?Do you have liablity insurance to start selling your candles?Will zoning be an issue for you?It's been said on here before, legally, zoning could be an issue if you're manufacturing and selling candles from your home. I'm sure 99% of the time no one ever gets caught, but if you find your business expanding and getting more and more supplies delivered to your home, neighbors might start having issues with it.Are you familiar with any type of legal requirements regarding labeling of your candle?Have you already looked into costs associated with producing your candles on a larger scale to get better pricing for all of your supplies? It can be quite time consuming to do the research and sampling of products to make sure you've got the right mix at the right price. It's one thing to buy a few pounds of wax at a time when you're making candles for yourself, but when you might need to make 100 at a time, cost becomes an issue.What is your plan for inventory?Will you make batches of candles in advance and have them sit on the shelves until they are ordered, or will you make them as the orders come in. If you make them as the orders come in, it's possible that you could run into unusual problems could negatively affect your delivery time. There was a recent post about just that very thing happening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobinInOR Posted February 23, 2006 Share Posted February 23, 2006 Are you interested in doing a direct mail type of catalog? I'd read through the SBA site and learn about starting any kind of business http://www.sba.gov/and then I'd do a search on mail order business.. good articles out there like http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/0,4621,287061,00.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hether` Posted February 23, 2006 Author Share Posted February 23, 2006 I have been doing testing candles for awhile. I have not started selling them but the amount of deliveries I receive now is crazy just for testing. Luckly though I do live in a building that this is the only apartment in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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