Website

So we are finally about to get our site built. We bought the name www.shirtshapers.com as it is a bit catchy and also makes sense for a dress shirt tailoring business.

We may be able to build the site for cheaper than usual as I have a friend who builds sites for cheap. The only problem as he uses something called Cpanel to build the site, and the hosting service we purchased (Network Solutions) does not allow Cpanel. My friend has his own hosting service so we will figure something out, and if worst comes to worst we may just use his hosting...

Everyone should check out Brad's site www.ideas2earn.com as he is going to post an awesome tool to find wholesalers and dropshippers! He also has tons of other useful information and his blog is always a good place to learn new things.

I will let you all know when the site is done.

Talk soon,

Mike

Hi Everyone!

So we are finally making some progress! We decided to rather than selling generic sizes (S, M, L) that we would sell tailored shirts so they fit our customers perfectly. There are just too many generic shirts out there and the market is very competitive. I figured since you can buy a namebrand shirt for the same price we were trying to sell non name brand on the internet, most consumers would go for the name brand as they would think of it to be higher quality...

I just found someone who can build us a site for $75-$150 depending on how much work it takes them, so once that is all set up we will start making brouchures and we'll try to get some traffic to the shirts. There is a ton of profit to be made in tailored shirts, just need to get the customers...

I will update you once the site is done and all of you can take a look!

Hey Guys

So as of right now I am starting to think that there may be too much competition in the field that I was trying to go into. The samples we actually got were great, but they were at too high of a price to make a profit on...

I have talked to several other suppliers and they expect us to order such a high quantity to get a low price that it just isn't going to happen...

Brad just got offered to transfer to Shanghai and accepted so he and I probably won't talk as much for the next few days as he has lots of work to do before he moves...so right now I am at a bid of a stand still until he gets moved and we can start discussing our options together.

I told him in an email last night that I believe the two of us together can build a great money making business, yet it will just take some time. Me and Brad trust each other greatly which is a main component of building a successful business....

I will continue to write when new things begin to arise. So long for now.

- Mike

Hi Everyone

So last week I received samples of my product and they look great! I put a few samples up on Ebay to see what kind of sales I would get out of them yet none of them sold. Brad told me to list them at a higher price just to see if they would sell which is smart because if we had them at a lower price then we would never know how much we could really get for them.

Since none of them sold, the obvious thought is that we need to lower the price we are selling them at. Well, right now we are getting them at too high of a price to lower the price in which we are selling for. So, what I am doing now is I am starting to search non stop for more manufacturers trying to find the cheapest price we can get for this item.

Brad has been a tremendous help throughout all of this, I can't even start to explain what he has done. He is helping me pay for all of these samples, and since most manufacturers require a large order to get a low price per item, Brad had offered to pay since me and him both know we will be making money in the long run.

So as we stand now, I am talking with a few people in China discussing what we can work out as far as how many items I will have to order in order for them to work with us. I will keep you posted when anything happens!

- Mike

Still figuring everything out....

Hey everyone!

So my product comes tomorrow and I am really excited to see the quality of it. I am still searching other places to see if I can find lower prices as well because the shipping for my particular distributor is a bit expensive. I actually just sent him an email to see if there are other alternatives so I am awaiting his reply.

I also contacted a website designer to see how expensive it would be to build me a site and it was around $400...which i won't be able to afford until my business gets going. I did build a site last week but I am not too pleased with it and me and Brad still need to figure out how we are going to do the whole shopping cart thing...

Right now I get my product for $12.00 + shipping cost which with my sample order added almost $10 a piece...So I am trying to get a $5 profit total on each product I sell so we will have to work some things out.

I actually just received an email from another distributor saying his highest quality is only $7.50/piece so I will start talking to him more about his products! Well thats all the news I have for now. Talk soon.

- Mike

Just Created A Webpage!

Hi again.

So our next step is to build a web page which I know absolutely nothing about...I didn't even know where to go to find a host but I asked a friend for a reference and he recommended www.fortunecityhosting.com so I went there. I thought it was more expensive to have a webpage but it was only $4.99 a month which is not bad at all.

Now I am just waiting for the webpage to process to I can start building it but I got an email saying it will take 24-48 hours before that happens, and it may take longer since it is the weekend now. Oh well...guess I'll just be patient.

In the mean time I am still searching for other distributors to see if there are any cheaper prices even though the people we just bought from are very nice...cheaper prices are always ideal.

I will continue to fill everyone in!

- Mike

Starting My Business

Hi everyone.

Alright I finally have my blog up and ready to go....

So I have been looking to start an online business for some time now but haven't really had the guidance to start it up. I searched and searched for products to sell and couldn't really think of what to sell for months...

I started joining business forums which actually became a great help, people on there have great ideas and are very educated in the business subject. I recommend everyone to join a forum before they try to start any type of venture.

So while I was on that forum I found Brad who seemed to be very informative to everyone's questions and that is why I messaged him asking for help with my new business... After many messages back and forth we both realized each others strengths and how we could help each other. We came up with a product (which is now on the way to my house which I am very excited about receiving), and now we must figure out all the little things such as the price, how we are going to market the product, where we are going to start selling first (maybe build a site, maybe sell on eBay), so we still have a lot of work to do...

I don't have a lot of time to write right now, but I will finish this post in a few hours. I will continue to update you on my business and how successful it is going to be as I am always optimistic! :)

- Mike