how do i find a business partner to get a boutique going?

Question

I would like to get a boutique going. I would like the downtown area of La verne where the new stores just opened up. I would als be featuring some arising new artist and their clothing lines. I guarantee this will be a success. I am a single mother of four wonderful boys and need help to get started. Please let me know if you have any helpful info for me.

Answer 1

Try to get a grant to start it up. When you get going you can find a partner

Answer 2

Business partners RARELY work out.
The best "partners" will be your banker and CPA.
Spend the money to incorporate asap.
As far as fashion and guarantee, there are none, ask Gap or Ruhl. The public is a fickle mistress.

Answer 3

Don't you will have an accountant that handles your entire profits? Employ any one who might act in your behalf if you happen to are living a long way from your online business. Talk on your accomplice and arrive on specific contract concerning your online business earnings.

Answer 4

Try advertising for one on craigslist.

Answer 5

i suggest you can sell those fashion things. try this:
fashion.bulkbuy.cn

Answer 6

Go to the business section of the biggest nearby library possible and explain to the business librarian briefly what you are trying to do. She/he will direct you to reference books that give you standard percentages for running that sort of company, i.e. what percentage of income should go to mortgage or rent, how much to utilities, how much to advertising, how much to salaries, etc. This is dry stuff, but these are the sorts of things bankers are going to want to see in your business plan. With this and some of the following information, you will be able to figure how much you need to sell per month in order to stay in business and make a profit. The library should also have directories of vendors for your business with contact information.
Call the Small Business Administration and the local Chamber of Commerce. One or both will have mentoring programs available, usually retired business people who have been there and done that and who can give you a world of practical information. Chances are good they may have a small business incubator, that is an office area with phone and fax available to help you put your business plan together.
Talk to commercial real estate people to see what rent will run per month, how long the leases are, what the options are should your business fail. (It's not unusual for a commercial lease to be 3 years+ and if you go belly up after 1 year, you don't want to be on the hook for another 2 years of rent.) Also find out who pays for the finish out of the space. Usually the renter pays for the inside configuration of walls, lighting, painting, floor covering etc., but some leases will have a finish out allowance. Essentially this is a loan from the landlord allowing you to pay back the cost of the finish out with part of the rent up to a certain amount per square foot.
Call the utility companies to get an estimate for what utilities will run year round.
Talk to a marketing company and see what sort of advertising would be best for your type business in your community and get cost estimates. Having said this, it is worth every dime to have a good graphic designer design your signage and logos, especially if you are talking about something as high fashion as emerging artists and their clothing lines. (If you have great graphics, even a very simple, austere shop can seem very chic.) If you can't afford the marketing company contract, consider hiring them just to do p/r for your business opening and your first big selling season. (Don't know where La verne is, so the big time may be Christmas, it may be a resort season.) You're doing all the behind the scenes stuff, you need customers to know you are there and to want to come in.
Factor in the professional fees of an accountant to help you select and set up a business format, (corporation, partnership, etc.) Even if you plan to do your own bookkeeping, you will sleep better at night having the accountant look over things monthly or quarterly to keep you on track with record keeping and taxes.
Talk to an insurance agent for the cost of the standard business insurances against fire, flood and theft. Price a business interruption policy. (If your business neighbor has a fire, you may have to close briefly to repair smoke damage.) Figure in a disability policy for yourself. Buy a life insurance policy that will cover the debts of the business if something happens to you. This should be in addition to a policy that helps to support your children.
Talk to a lawyer about what you want to happen to the store and it's assets and debts if something happens to you. Your banker will want this information. (The bank will probably require a policy to cover your loan in the event of your death or inability to work.)
Consider mixing in some larger vendors as fill-in. If your suppliers are start-ups as well, they may not be reliable in producing merchandise as fast as you need it. (If source A can make 5 garments a week and source B can make 3 and you can sell 10 per week, you run the risk of them burning out and having nothing to offer while you scramble for new sources.)
You will need at least one or two employees, part-time or full-time. You can't buy, sweep, count, sell everything alone. Finding employees and managing them is a whole can of worms, again you will find shelves of advice from the library. (Hint, if you have a college nearby that teaches fashion merchandising, students could intern at your shop very inexpensively.)
If you have time, most colleges offer some sort of non-credit evening business start-up classes. These would be well worth your time and effort. At the very least, you will learn how to formulate a business plan in order to sit down with bankers to get the loan to start this up. (You will need funding and or a line of credit for at least 6-12 months of operation. Your salary MUST be included in your start up costs and it must be commisserate with what it would cost you to hire someone to do your job. If you shortchange this number in your business plan, the banker will see it as short-sightedness.)
All these start up costs, the cost of merchandise, plus the fixed costs of your overhead, will tell you how much you need to mark-up the merchandise and how much of it you need to sell per month. New business owners tend to underprice the merchandise and underestimate how much they need to sell each and every month, year in and year out. Then they have no wiggle room for the first thing that goes wrong. And something will go wrong, it just a matter of when and how much an obstacle it is.
This sounds like a lot of work, it sounds like drudgery, it doesn't sound fun. It needs to work on paper or it will never work in real life. Better to find the holes and weaknesses and try to fix them before you sign on all those dotted lines and open to the public.
Just another hint. If you have never run a business like this before, consider renting a portion of an existing business to give your business idea a 3-6 month experimental run first. Find another business that is compatable--perhaps a shoe store or an art gallery or even a real estate office. Offer to rent a small space within their space. Other new emerging businesses might be very open to having that monthly rent guarantee to help them get going.
After a trial period you will see what clients like and don't like, you will see if the actual running of a business is something you have the temperment and energy to do on a long term basis. It will also give you a track record with your banker and suppliers and help you negociate more favorable rates if you then move on to your own larger space.