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Bootstrapping an Online Fabric Shop and Growing to $20k per month

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Re: Bootstrapping an Online Fabric Shop and Growing to $20k per month

#61

Post by rhizome »

ademup wrote: post #36
Afton wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that's true. If you have revenue from thousands of purchases, and lots of revenue, you have an avenue to reduce costs as your pipeline matures. It's not the only number you should care about, but it's hardly a who-cares item.

I respectfully disagree. Without context, revenue by itself is less than 'who cares', it can be something of a damaging number in the sense that it can lead financially illiterate people astray.

Lots of financially literate people exaggerate the significance of revenue numbers. It's a close cousin to EBITDA, often just a way to avoid admitting you aren't making money.

Re: Bootstrapping an Online Fabric Shop and Growing to $20k per month

#63

Post by Swizec »

rhizome wrote: post #58
justaskin134 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you're good at marketing you can shift quite a lot of fabric For me marketing is always the toughest part . How do you do your marketing ? What tips can you offer us that save the most time and money spent ?

tl;dr: Learn retail. It's kind of funny that people will get advice to get CS degrees, take a boot camp, learn a language, etc. to execute on an idea, but for soft skills you never see classes for business or marketing recommended. People could take 2-3+ business/marketing classes in the time it takes to learn React from zero Javascript knowledge. Instead, people are told to sign up to Stripe Atlas or Shopify and Ins…

Look around for what I call The MicroConf Crowd. Practical advice on the business part of business abounds. Books courses and more. Often targeted at programmers.

The Independent Consulting Manual is a good place to start, then go down the list of authors and read their other stuff.

They often do a christmas sale too.

Follow Patio11 on twitter, read his stuff. Follow Amy Hoy, do 30x500.

Then spread out from there.

If you’re funded, great! All the same advice applies, you just have more gasoline to pour on the fire. Try things faster.

Re: Bootstrapping an Online Fabric Shop and Growing to $20k per month

#64

Post by vageli »

mikec3010 wrote: post #45
Descartes1 wrote: post #24

Revenues are irrelevant. Profits aren't.

This is a really ignorant thing to say. If you have a hearty revenue stream but no profit, you can tweak the model to make it profitable. Some profits aren't possible at small scales, so having revenue proves you have demand and can lead to safely risking big bucks to get to a profitable scale.

> If you have a hearty revenue stream but no profit, you can tweak the model to make it profitable.

I don't think this necessarily follows.

Re: Bootstrapping an Online Fabric Shop and Growing to $20k per month

#66

Post by fukuro »

fabricexpert wrote: post #28
Descartes1 wrote: post #23

I've always hated the concept of "revenues" in commerce. Honestly, who cares what your revenues are? Profits are all that matters.

Depends on scale and runway. If you have 200k/month in revenue you can easily make (or lose) a boat load of money with a few small adjustments to your margins.

Every month I buy a Ferrari for 250,000 en sell it for 200,000. I can now make a blogpost and say I have a revenue of 200,000/month.

Revenue alone is not a valid metric.

Re: Bootstrapping an Online Fabric Shop and Growing to $20k per month

#67

Post by jasonpeacock »

amelius wrote: post #59
fabricexpert wrote: post #26

I run an almost identical fabric shop online. 20k/month revenue is great but remember this is not a SaaS with unlimited scale and low costs. It's actually a very traditional business model, and margins here are only going to about 20-30%, potentially a lot less if you have to pay for your storage space. You buy the fabric, typically you'll double the price when selling to customers. Then you take off additional posta…

One thing I've been wondering about wrt high-volume online shops: how do you protect your hands against the dryness of the cardboard boxes and papercuts? Is this an issue?

Lightweight cotton gloves :) Put them on, do all your materials handling, and be done.

Re: Bootstrapping an Online Fabric Shop and Growing to $20k per month

#68

Post by swalsh »

sdenton4 wrote: post #3

Beware. There's a whole lot of "start an e shop and get rich quick" bullshit out there. https://www.gimletmedia.com/reply-all/117-the-worlds-most-ex...

This episode only looked at one side of the business. There is a "legitimate" side of dropshipping, and there's the get rich quick, then die side of drop shipping. To dropship "for real" you need to build actual relationships with suppliers who are typically in the states. The margins are paper thin, and they're not very tech savvy most of the time. You typically have to prove yourself. Dropshippers provide real value. Good dropshippers are marketing experts. They build good customer relationships. It's a legitimate business. But getting into it is A LOT harder today. Consumer habits are different.

Re: Bootstrapping an Online Fabric Shop and Growing to $20k per month

#70

Post by stef25 »

a_brawling_boo wrote: post #49
emilfihlman wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, that's good to know because in Finland, your employer does pay it.

Hey, serious question from an American. How does this policy not cause massive hiring discrimination against young women, especially recently married women? I asked my Canadian relatives this question, and their answers basically boiled down to 'well that would be illegal'. But from what I can tell enforcing anti discrimination in hiring is next to impossible, especially if you interview and hire even a slightly more…

A candidate may get pregnant between the ages of 20 - 40. About half the people in my social circle with kids aren't married and almost all had their kid(s) after 35. This is quite a definite trend here in W-Europe.

Here in Belgium maternity leave is actually quite short, but you have the option to extend it for many months albeit at a reduced pay (provided by the govt). Not everyone can afford to extend it. Dads can also get paternity leave, up until the kid is 12yrs old.

Gender roles are changing a lot, paradoxically me as the father / chauffeur of the family is the one who has to leave by 5:30PM every day to get to day care on time while my partner doesn't have that limitation on her working hours.

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