Do you want to start your own clothing business but you do not have enough money? The solution to your problem is here. By reading this article, you will know that opening boutiques is not as expensive as you thought it is. There are so many ways on how you can save money. Here are some tips to get your business started with a low capital.

• Opening boutiques can be cheap if you know where to buy cheap wholesale clothes that are of good quality. You need to spend as little money as possible in buying your products. However, you should not compromise style and quality to save money.

• Another money-saving tip for opening boutiques is to be a jack-of-all-trades. If you have a lot of talent and skills such as designing clothes, accounting, sewing, selling, and so on, you can do all of these by yourself. This is only applicable for new and small businesses. This will be difficult for a big business that requires many staff and workers. And once the money start rolling in, you can start hiring staff and employees.

• If you have supportive family members and friends, why not hire them as your staff in the first few months or weeks of your business? Ask them if you can pay them less than the regular salary for what they are doing and tell them that you will pay you back once you business starts to grow. Opening boutiques is not just a money making idea but could also be a way to strengthen and build relationships.

Opening boutiques will not put holes in your wallet as long as you do these very helpful tips.

With the end in mind to source capital to opening a boutique, there are some important things to avoid traps in your funding.

Freshly minted business owners are typically major risks for lenders because they lack business experience, collateral to secure the loan or both. If you are getting help or investment from family or friends, please don’t be disappointed if they turned down your request.

We must understand that nobody are interested in losing their investment. You can’t blame them for not wanting to take a risk on a venture without reasonable probability of return.

At the same time, you need to be careful for having too many lenders or investors - one of the hazards of securing financing from multiple sources is managing too many relationships and expectations. It takes time away from your core business. These not-so-silent partners may have conflicting interests or demands and the consequences can be devastating.

This is particularly true when you raise money from friends and family. One boutique owner I know borrowed money from seven or eight relatives to open her own store. The business was successful, but there were perpetual battles over how the profits should be distributed. The arguments couldn’t be settled to everyone’s satisfaction, so the boutique was forced to close.

If you are still at planning and preparation stage at opening a boutique, you might not be very sure your clientele requirements yet.

Several factors for your consideration of clothes sizes to keep in your boutique:
1.  Boutique opening location
Which country, culture and trend in your country?  For example if you are now opening a boutique located in Asia, then Small to Large sizes are more practical.  You may not want to stock up Size
XL or XXL.

2.  Market trends
Do people like to wear fitting outlook, or big & casual outlook? 

3. Clothes material
Some material such as silk, you may consider 1 size bigger because
silk usually is not elastic.

4. Clothes fashion/design
Some designs are meant to be fitting on body and not because the size is too big.  So, choose it wisely.

More tips……
1.  Take yourself as a yardstick. 
If most people in your country is in your size, then you can use your own body measurement when  you visit showroom.

2.  Observe and make analysis
Record the buying trend of your customer in stock taking logbook.  You may not get
it right in the beginning, it’s perfectly OK!  I am sure you will understand your clientele requirements over a period.

3.  DO NOT buy too many variation in sizes
I think the choices of 3 sizes at maximum is sufficient.  You can always buy again if there’s more demand.

4.  Check with your supplier
You can ask your suppliers which sizes are the most sellable :)  By doing that, you’re actually doing a market research too!!

5.  Listen to your customer and be sensitive to their needs.

This is one of the common questions which boutique owners will be thinking.  How long should I keep my old stocks?  If I continue to display it on shelves, then my regular customer will be thinking I often keep old stocks in boutique.  If I do not display it out, then how can I sell it off or in other way of saying, how to “get rid” of it?

Of course as a boutique owner, the ideal answer is “as soon as possible”.  Often new stocks arrived in my boutique were sold before I could display it nor iron it.

You might be asking, how could that be possible?  Yes, it is certainly possible for all boutique owners with strategies and experience gained over a period.  

So, how long should your clothes in boutique be on shelves?

In my opinion, we should not leave our display more than 3 weeks or maximum a month.  We know the reality, sometimes we will experience few pieces left over. It could be due to big sizes, specific color not favorable, the cutting just not so great and various reasons.

What can we do?

Here are some tips we can try out…
1.  Mix and match - depending on the design, if you can mix with other fashion and sell it together.  Let’s say the new clothes cost $50, and then you mark up to $69 where it comes with the clothes which you could not sell off earlier.

2.  Provide suggestion to your beloved customers on how they can match those clothes with other purchase.

3.  Setup a “bargain corner” - for some customer who do not willing to spend more $$.

4.  Sell it cheap (I mean really really cheap at cost price) to your relatives / family :)  Not for friends! They should buy it at retail price (with some discounted price).

5.  You can wear it!  Remember yourself need to buy clothes too!

We should not keep old stock for a long period because customers can spot it.  This discourages customers to visit your boutique often and one of the elements to attract customers to keep revisiting your boutique is ”NEW STOCK” arrival!!

Opening boutiques can be difficult especially if you do not have the correct information on how to start one.  DO NOT start your own boutique if you do not know what you are doing in the first place.

To help you on this one, here are some guidelines and tips for opening boutiques. 

• The first thing that you need to consider is your target customer. In opening boutiques or any kinds of business for that matter, it is very important to identify who your customers will be so that it will be easier for you to position your product.

• Once you have decided on your customers, it is now easy to know what kind of clothes you can sell in your boutique. For instance, if your customers are teenage girls, you should sell hip and cool clothes appropriate for their age. Do not sell clothes that your mother will wear.

• Another important tip for opening boutiques is to think of a name for your store. The name should be catchy and easy to remember. Avoid names that sound like the names of famous boutiques if you do not want to lose any chance of making it big because of having no identity. Be unique and original.

• You should also find a location that will make your boutique visible to many people. In opening boutiques, good location is very important. Imagine a boutique located at the most hidden part of your town, without any passers-by. Nobody will buy from it no matter how nice the clothes that are because nobody knows about it.

• Start Saving.  When you factor in rent, electricity, and the price of clothes to stock the shop, opening a boutique can cost quite a fair bit to most people especially if you are new in industry. With a mapped-out business plan and good credit (your credit card payments have always been on time), you can get a jump-start with a government small-business loan. Check sba.gov for info.

Most people think that decorating boutique display at front shop is tough especially if you think you’re not a creative, artistic type of business owner.  Not anymore if you have a proper planning.

“PLANNING” which I am refering to is not just about planning to decorate, planning how to attractively decorate the big glass at your boutique door step but it is rather planning for any theme, mood set as well as to commemorate festive seasons such as Halloween, Christmas, New Year, Holiday and many more.

With a proper planning on your boutique decoration, it certainly ease your boutique operations.  There are tons of benefits by just planning ahead the decoration of your boutique.

For those who think they do not want to spend money to hire an interior designer or creative director, but prefer to pull up your own sleeves to get the creative work done - yes!! why not?  One tip for you is learn to be observant in catching up the new trends when you are out for shopping or travelling the next time. 

Here are some photos taken during my Phuket trip for an opening boutique visits.

There are plenty of people that dream about owning their own business but very few of them will ever do anything about it. Pursuing your dream can certainly give you a level of freedom, both financially and in your lifestyle that is simply not available by having a regular job. There are a lot of people that are interested in owning a clothing store or other small shop that specializes in something in particular. In order to become a boutique owner such as this, however, some work needs to go into it to make sure that you are successful.

Aside from the fact that you are going to need to have a lot of paperwork in order before the shop is able to open, there are a lot of other things that need to be taken into consideration as well. For example, you need to make sure that you are focused on one area because that is really what opening one of these little shops is all about. In order to become a boutique owner, you really need to focus on something, although it certainly is possible for you to expand your focus to a certain extent.

Unfortunately, there is not a lot of information out there that is specifically engineered to help you to become a boutique owner successfully. There are a few courses that are available, however, that will give you the success secrets of a new boutique by giving you examples of others who’ve already started one. This is one of the easiest ways for you to find success, looking at those who have already found success with a similar business.

Something else that can really help you to be successful with your business is employing the proper tools. Ask anyone who owns a store and they will be quick to tell you that it is a lot of work and some of the things that you need to do are extremely time consuming. That is why it is a good idea to put as many of these time-saving tools to work for you in order to streamline the back end of your business. This is the part of your business that none of your customers ever see and if you are able to accomplish your work in a shorter period of time, you will be able to work on the front end of the store which is where your customers are located.

Another important part about how to become a boutique owner is understanding how to create excitement about the shop that you are opening. Whenever this is done only Internet, it is usually referred to as buzz marketing but many of these tactics can also be taken into the off-line world as well. Try to find out where your future customers already are and then target them, letting them know that you have a boutique on the way which is going to offer some very specific items that they would be interested in. Then you should always make sure that you take care of your customers every time they walk into your store and they will continue to come back again and again.

If you would like to learn more about how to own a boutique or opening a boutique business from real boutique owners, please visit: http://www.openingaboutique.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Eveline_Wong

How will I finance my boutique?

Most people cannot afford to open a new business on their own. With a little research you will find a number of places or individuals that are willing to put money into new businesses. Make sure that you have a solid business and financial plan to present to any interested entity.Try to stay away from high interest loan situations and look for grants and smaller donations that will be straight forward to pay back. You may have friends or family that are interested in helping out. Be careful not to overly take advantage of such but don’t discount this resource either.How will I get customers?
Now that you have your shop, your inventory and the finances to open the doors you need customers in order to keep those doors open. Promotion is an area that can cost millions of dollars, but there is a lot that you can do on a limited budget as well.

Use your location to your advantage and talk up your store in other stores and with friends. Hand out fliers. Advertise a grand opening party and create a mailing list.

Word of mouth will be one of your best advertising strategies as customers that are impressed with your shop will bring in others until you have all the business you can handle.

Nike Air Jordan

You may not choose to carry everything that goes on this initial list but it will give you an idea of what you are looking for.

Where do I get it?

While you are at the show take your time to make sure you’ve looked over all the possibilities at that show before you put in orders and begin to acquire your beginning inventory. Think about colors and cuts that you want and order in appropriate quantities. Most manufacturers will require that you buy at least four pieces in any given style per color. Do not buy more than this as it will be too much for an opening shop and keep your options simple the first time out. You want to have a full boutique, but not break the bank on your first shopping trip.