I'm thinking of creating a shop

[Hangtight]

The reason that Nuprol can brand a cheap item and up its value is because they have spent a lot of time, effort and money creating that brand. You see 'Nuprol' and you think 'airsoft'. They go direct to manufacturers and spend a lot of money buying a significant proportion of their production at a cost that means they can make a decent profit on items that have their name on. Simply stickering an item with your 'brand' is absolutely worthless without the infrastructure to back the brand up.

[callumbagshaw]

Wow this has escalated quickly.

 

@Mos: I agree with most of the points that have been made regarding the issues you'll face (and I stand by that returns WILL be your biggest problem).

HOWEVER,

to call this a pipe dream is simply unfair - at the end of the day mate if you want to have a go at something, you have a go at it. And don't let anybody tell you that you're wrong for asking a question on a forum, it's not "wasting people's time", that is EXACTLY what a forum is for.

I work with businesses like this quite frequently, and it might give you hope to know that I've personally seen far worse ideas from far less informed people succeed, and make a lot of money.

 

Good luck.

[Hangtight]

Whatever you decide to do, go into it with your eyes wide open. Always make sure you can afford to bail out without leaving people chasing you for money (because that crap can haunt you for years). Remember that making any money at all is hard work, and at the end of the day if you can't meet promises you're the one who is liable. It might be the fault of a supplier but the buck stops with you. Don't forget you'd be running a business, so you have to comply with any appropriate licensing, legal and financial requirements.

It could work, but before you launch into anything you have to be completely aware of any and all pitfalls. And you have to be sharp. You could be the most honest, straight up guy out there, but there will be someone waiting to rip you off.

[Samurai]

13 hours ago, Mos said:

 

had a quick search, and saw on Amazon the lowest price for one of those lower face mask made from wire mesh and material (the half and half ones) was £11.98. I can pick the exact same one up for £8. 

 

You mean this? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tactical-Half-Face-Protective-Guard-Metal-Mesh-Mask-Cover-for-Airsoft-Paintball-/222448085109?var=&hash=item33caf06875:m:mw6xWgj_NMkmZC9WXWYM-zg

I can order it myself from ebay for £5.38. You can't compete with that. The only thing you do is that you collect the links to airsoft related cheap stuff into your website. But everyone can search ebay or google stuff. People won't pay you for that.

Nuprol invested huge money in advertising and rebranding sh*t. They make money on that.

I run a tiny business myself, it's not at all easy.

[warlord]

Do you know how many £8 masks you have to sell to pay your wages?

 

Without either a unique selling point or a captive market you're going to find it a hard up hill struggle with nothing at the end.

 

Selling Chinese stuff online you'll always be beaten by China. They'll sell thousands of items direct to ebay etc. for a penny just to cover the cost of a shipping container. If you're selling what they sell, you lose.

 

Now if you turned up at an airsoft game selling £8 masks I bet a few noobs like me would have bought one rather than use the hard plastic supplied. But you're not going to be a millionaire that way.

 

Somehow you have to create an interest and attract customers. Cheap isn't going to cut it whilst anyone can Google the cheapest and beat your prices, because you're effectively supplying what we can already buy. You have to add value. Can you deliver it faster? Probably not seeing as your drop shipper is probably supplying many others. So what do you bring to the party that makes me want to buy from you?

[Mos]

5 hours ago, warlord said:

Do you know how many £8 masks you have to sell to pay your wages?

 

Without either a unique selling point or a captive market you're going to find it a hard up hill struggle with nothing at the end.

 

Selling Chinese stuff online you'll always be beaten by China. They'll sell thousands of items direct to ebay etc. for a penny just to cover the cost of a shipping container. If you're selling what they sell, you lose.

 

Now if you turned up at an airsoft game selling £8 masks I bet a few noobs like me would have bought one rather than use the hard plastic supplied. But you're not going to be a millionaire that way.

 

Somehow you have to create an interest and attract customers. Cheap isn't going to cut it whilst anyone can Google the cheapest and beat your prices, because you're effectively supplying what we can already buy. You have to add value. Can you deliver it faster? Probably not seeing as your drop shipper is probably supplying many others. So what do you bring to the party that makes me want to buy from you?

 

you've missed one of the major points.

 

this is not going to pay my wage, I don't even have a wage. It's not designed to pay my wage, I don't even need a wage! It was just something that would be slightly cool and could maybe make a few pounds.

 

but as for the rest, you're completely right.

[warlord]

1 hour ago, Mos said:

 

you've missed one of the major points.

 

this is not going to pay my wage, I don't even have a wage. It's not designed to pay my wage, I don't even need a wage! It was just something that would be slightly cool and could maybe make a few pounds.

 

but as for the rest, you're completely right.

 

If your time is worth nothing. Then you have nothing to lose. But profit by any measure, financial, experience or pleasure is going to be required. Doing something for fun quickly gets old when all you get is a lack of appreciation for doing it. Trust me I know - I do what I enjoy as a job, but I still hate my job

[Mos]

Just now, warlord said:

 

If your time is worth nothing. Then you have nothing to lose. But profit by any measure, financial, experience or pleasure is going to be required. Doing something for fun quickly gets old when all you get is a lack of appreciation for doing it. Trust me I know - I do what I enjoy as a job, but I still hate my job

 

 

Yes,

 

looks like you haven't been on here for too long, but I'm 15 years of age.

 

A shop will most likely happen, just got to rethink drop shipping and what I've got to bring to the table.

 

Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither will my shop be built in a day.

[jcheeseright]

Dropshipping was made a lot of days ago and basically no one has ever made a profit from it. Definitely not a profit worth the bother. 

[warlord]

One important thing to consider, and will put off any prospective supplier and potential customer, is that being under 18 means you can't enter into a legal contract with anyone. In the eyes of the law you are a minor and have huge amounts of protection that means anyone you enter into any signed agreement with will always lose out because you cannot be held accountable.

[Tommikka]

34 minutes ago, warlord said:

One important thing to consider, and will put off any prospective supplier and potential customer, is that being under 18 means you can't enter into a legal contract with anyone. In the eyes of the law you are a minor and have huge amounts of protection that means anyone you enter into any signed agreement with will always lose out because you cannot be held accountable.

Only if they know.  That's the ability to have a full legally enforced contract, it doesn't prevent a transaction 

 

Tommorow I'm setting off for a long weekend on a number of stalls, and am picking up a selection of stock from a 14 year old business man because he can't be there with his own stall

 

He began selling sweets & pocket money toys at school fetes, upgraded along the way, got into 'teenage market' and became one of their poster boys.  His brother got onto the bandwagon of money making but preferred to stay in bed and was bought out by his younger brother

 

 

 

[warlord]

18 minutes ago, Tommikka said:

Only if they know.  That's the ability to have a full legally enforced contract, it doesn't prevent a transaction 

 

Tommorow I'm setting off for a long weekend on a number of stalls, and am picking up a selection of stock from a 14 year old business man because he can't be there with his own stall

 

He began selling sweets & pocket money toys at school fetes, upgraded along the way, got into 'teenage market' and became one of their poster boys.  His brother got onto the bandwagon of money making but preferred to stay in bed and was bought out by his younger brother

 

 

I get that, but if you're looking at distance selling you'd have to have some form of credit. You can easily purchase and sell, things at any age. But it will make life more difficult to pay a supplier along the way.

 

The negatives shouldn't stop you coming up with ideas and being enterprising in any way. But you need to consider how you're going to react to some of these challenges.

[Mos]

Reason why I don't want to dive into holding multiple items in stock is because I don't want to invest heavily in a shop when it's meant for something that is just a small side thing.

 

so drop shipping is my only way that would be economically safe.

 

Otherwise, it's just selling different things.

[Albiscuit]

As someone who works with teenagers I would say go for it. You clearly have the drive and ambition to attempt something and are not too bothered about it potentially being a waste of time or not making a worthwhile profit. Its great to see a 15 year old be bothered to try to do something!

 

However, yes as pointed out by many there are lots of pitfalls and by starting a business there are things which will need to be in place which will cost more than the £20 start up price you quoted and it will be hard work and potentially time consuming but do not let that put you off, nothing ventured nothing gained!!

 

Its doubtful you have thought enough through to build your own brand as it were but every great businessman started somewhere, Who knows maybe a store or brand will end up buying you out.

 

I doubt you would make good money from it, well enough that it is worthwhile keeping on top of everything but I would be more than happy to have been proven wrong!!

[Sacarathe]

Find something you like, that no one has buy a load and sell them.

 

I did this with http://www.evike.com/products/53002/

 

When I bought 2 pairs for myself in an order with other things, I also bought others to sell to pay for those. IIRC I profited around £25 - still got 5 pairs if anyone's interested (£15 posted @cost) - on the ones I previously sold, made about £2 on each.

 

It doesn't seem like much money but it means I got the two I used for free.

[lemon191]

Personally I would start local, sell to team mate's , local players etc that way you can start to build a good reputation and build from there. Online sales wise are you pc literate and can build websites ?as you will need a good quality website otherwise you risk looking dodgy and unprofessional  and most won't bother looking through your products let alone buy something, other things to think about are security and laws on handling people's data. As people have already said shipping time will be your biggest challenge , people can already buy dirt cheap China made products from eBay , wish , Amazon etc, all of which are well known and easy to use including phone apps. 

 

As for branding yourself that can work however you need a brand first, just sticking a badge on something isn't going to work , you need the brand to be known and trusted,think about how novritsch  has built his with his YouTube videos and  built a fan base then started selling basic stuff like patches etc and then moved on to branding more expensive stuff like parts, guns etc which he can now sell to the fans. The point is people are willing to buy his brand because they trust him because they have been watching hi's videos for along time. So maybe that's a route you could take ? Use the time you have as a 15year old with no responsibilities to pay for to build a fan base through social media then move into selling stuff once you have built some followers up. All kinds of things you can do especially with how much people rely on Facebook and YouTube for info and reviews etc.

[Sako]

My thoughts would be to just give it a try, if it works it works, if not then chalk it up to experience.

 

those who don’t take risk seldom prosper.

[Tommikka]

55 minutes ago, Sako said:

My thoughts would be to just give it a try, if it works it works, if not then chalk it up to experience.

 

those who don’t take risk seldom prosper.

Yes - Nothing ventured nothing gained

 

I had some private comms with the OP and had more detail on his plans

 

Personnaly I didn’t feel it would get anywhere, and with drop shipping as a method he had no ‘extra value’ to make him special to compete in a full market when the buyer can pick a UK, European or Far East supplier

 

But on the nothing ventured nothing gained front, there’s a little kid who started years ago with a table at his school fete selling wholesale sweets to a totally different commodity, taking gazebos to shows, 4 physical retail locations of increasing sizes in less than the last 2 years, and opening his own full shop in two weeks time.

Hes still at school, employs his mother to run stuff in the day, and his gran is down there today painting the shop!

[EDcase]

As said before, anything involving sizes will probably be more trouble than they're worth.

Other accessories like masks, pouches, etc could do well but the wait time will be hard for some to accept.

 

Whatever you decide to do Mos, kudos and good luck.

[Jedi_Master]

Member has not been on forum since June 2017, so locking topic.

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