open up online store

Hey! I am really new to this forum but it looks GREAT! Anyway I want to open up an online Import store and was wondering if anyone can help me out with what I would need. Such as Tax ID number, Register a buisness name, and Where should I go to city Hall or something? And about how much do you think it will cost me like fees and everything.... if someone can help me out I would really appreaciate it... I really wanna get started on it and just have it as an online store.... thanks a lot guys!!

 

Geee... another online import stor...

 

Well, I know that without a good solid base of product and probably considerable financial backing it would go under pretty quickly. Unless you import stuff yourself, there's not going to be much of any way you can compete with the better-established online stores, in everything from product, to selection, to pricing. Frankly, I wouldn't do it if I were you. There are much better ways to lose money.

 

The best way these days is to start off selling on ebay and work your reputation...There are thousands of stores on ebay who are very succesful....

 

The market is saturated. Everone and their mom has a "hookup" through a friend who has an "online store." Don't bother. You'll go belly up in two months. That is, unless you have something unique to sell. If you're just going to sell Rotas and Eibachs, go eff yourself now and save yourself the hassle.

 

PM user tonyd0821 he does online sales and could possibly help you out with some of your questions. OR go to the bottom of this page. http://www.101deals.com/Forums/index.php?

 

the online store is gonna be a waste of your time and money.

 

I used to run an online store for my buddies import race shop four years ago.

Trust me, it is not worth it.

Our capital was somewhere in the range of 10,000.00 per month and we were BARELY scraping by.

This was before fast and furious got all the riceboys hyped up on imports.

I'm not making a big arguement against you trying your luck online, simply because it is what I do for a living and I firmly believe with hard work, gumption and a little bit of luck you can succeed.

You will first need a tax id number in order to buy wholesale. Simple enough, go to your local board of equalization and apply for one.

now comes the hard part.

There are two types of "wholesale"....

1. TRUE WHOLESALE
2. PRODUCTS SELLING FOR A FEW DOLLARS OFF RETAIL IN QUANTATIES OF 10 OR MORE UNDER THE GUISE OF "WHOLESALE" PRICES. ....in other words, a fucking rip off designed to pull in people who don't know any better and think they are getting a good deal.

In order to get "true wholesale" prices (unless you are fucking the daughter of the owner of the company....and unless you give her an orgasm every 2 hours of the day, you still wont get it) you need to do a "buy in"

A "buy in" consists of you shelling out "X" amount of dollars. (anywhere from 5,000-50,000+) Once you buy in, you are assigned to a certain tier. This tier represents the prices you will receive on the items you buy in quantaties.

This system is set up to discourage people who cant afford to invest serious cash (20,000 a pop)

There are hundreds of online companies with SERIOUS captial to invest.

www.nopi.com
www.optionsautosalon.com

to name just two.


Now, assuming you can bend over and turn your shriveled asshole into an atm machine at will, how will you get people to come to your site?

"advertising" on hondaswap.com will NOT get you there.

You need at least a million or so visitors a month.

You will need to attend trade shows, import drag races and promote your company. Not by stading in the crowd and passing out flyers, but by shelling out 1500-5000.00 for a booth.

Then you will need to shell out even more money to professional program and design your website. Dont know php? keep moving....

What sets your online website apart from other established companies that have built a solid reputation over the years?

In this point of the game, I can honestly say that if you wanted to break into the import online arena, you would need a crack team of corporate professionals by your side and even then it would be difficult.

So in addition to your advertising budget, "X" thousands of dollars to invest every month, you will also need to hire employees. Who is going to pack and pull and ship all of the items you sell ? (if you are lucky enough to get to that point)


So unless you got years of experience in running a business, and serious amounts of capital to invest, your only other option is to aim low. aim so low, nobody will care if you fail or not.


even this is highly difficult.


the amount of time and money needed to even make a few thousand dollars a month is staggaring.
yes you can advertise on hondaswap.com, but unless your prices are such that NOBODY else can beat.....you will go belly up in a matter of weeks if not days.

Im not trying to discourage you, by all means, if you got a dream (and still live in reality, not some fantasy "im going to be the next online millionaire) then by all means go for it.

But at this point, the import market is over saturated and not worth getting into.

Everyone and their momma has a "hookup" somewhere. Everyone knows someone else who owns a shop and can give them a bomb ass discount. If I ever needed anything for my car.....say a stereo, or maybe an exhaust, or ....whatever. all i would do is goto my buddy sal and he would give me the part for what he pays for it.


Now to address the ebay situation.


go onto ebay and do a search for "intakes" or "exhausts" or anything else import you can think of.

Notice how many guys on there are selling shit.

I can relate the story of one guy who sells intakes and coilovers for 30.00 buy it now. how does he do it? he buys 10,000.00 worth of shitty ass coilovers from DNA (import mfg. plant here in so cali) and he BARELY makes 5.00 on each item he sells. This is a true story because I know the guy, I know the people who work at DNA and I also know what he pays for the and exactly how much he makes.

Not worth it.


Ebay is great, but if you are serious about owning an online business, try to think of something else you can sell (that you are INTERESTED IN <<key word>>)

I for one, sell clothing on ebay. I do excellent (when I get off my lazy ass to list.)
That in itself is a full time business, with marginal profits to be made.
I am in the process of saving up "x" amount of dollars to buy pallets of brand new consumer electronics (dvd players, ps2, xbox, home theater systems etc) to sell on ebay. There is a HUGE profit to be made, and since I been doing this for the past year and a half, I know exactly what I am doing and in turn am 100% confident I will make a good profit.

With time comes experience.


good luck.

 

Not if he does good business. These forums can wreck a businesses reputation in an hour. If you have cheap prices and awesome customer satisfaction you'll have the customer base to make money... fuck one person over and kiss your ass goodbye. I would suggest researching it extensively before making a commitment/investment and be sure you will have the ability to obtain these products at cheap prices and will be honest... and not bullshit the customer.

 

quite often, when people get the bright idea of going into business for themselves, they get caught up in the minor details of owning the business....

tax id number
business license
etc

what they dont take into account is that they need to do serious research into the particular genre of online selling that they are going into.

this should be their FIRST and PRIMARY concern.

if by using RATIONAL JUDGMENT in making the call that there is room for another "online store" then and only then should they be concerned about the details of day to day operation.

it is very simple to get caught up in the hype of owning your own business and overlook the fact your chances for success....

 

not hondaswap.com alone
not hondatech alone either.


you got to realize, that while there are thousand of people who view these forums, there are also millions that dont.


yes, good business is built upon reputation, but when you say: "not if he does good business"......this is putting the cart before the horse.

unless all the terms and conditions of which i stated above are not met, it doesnt matter if he flys the package out to the persons house, drops down to his knees after he rings their doorbell and sucks their cock and cradles their balls......


he still isnt going to make it.


"good business"
"tax id number"
"business license"

these and many more are all essentials of running a good business. but these are points that need to come after the fact of getting enough capital available to make a PROFIT, designing and maintaing a professional website, ADVERTISING and so on and so forth.

If he wants to do this "guerilla" style, and try and make it big by word of mouth and grassroots, by all means go for it.

but in my opinion, this is not the way to go.

you can accomplish the same (and even more) by attacking the situation like any other small business owner would.

 

Hey everyone thanks for all the replies... yea I know there are millions other online stores but I am not looking to make a living off of it... I know a lil about website design so I will design it myself and get some business cards made and hand em out at the track and car shows I attend.. but I am not expecting really anyone to order for me... It is basically a joint thing between me and my friends.... When we want something we can just order it a get a lil discount and sell the rest...I am from a lil community and most of the teenagers here are really riced out.. with the exception of some true racers... but most of them I know and I can sell lil things here and there but I am not going to expect to make thousands off it... I would be crazy... anyway can you help me with what I need to do it make it all legit... I know I need to register a business name, and get a tax id number but i dont know how to and where to and what else????? thanks

 

You didn't listen to a goddamn thing anyone, especially Tony, said, did you?

 

then don't bother

you will never be able to provide the elvel of sevice that we as consumers demand. end of story.

running abusiness is an 18hour day job with little to zero profit for 2 or 3 years

 

Dude sounds to me like you need to buy 5 intakes, 2 sets of wheels, 5 bolt on mufflers, and some clear taillights. put them in your garage/bedroom then walk around carshows/tracks with flyers listing your prices


BTW how old are you? I agree that it sounds like you are overlooking about 98% of what it takes to run a place.

Remember it takes money to make money.....

Unless you have a couple hundred grand laying around you might want to think about what I said up top. buy a bunch of rice things and sell them to local boys for a slight mark up. just think if you sale 20 items at a 5% mark up you might make 200 bucks

don't spend it all in one place!

 

yall are fucking retarded... i didnt ask a question wanting dr. phil to come here and tell me if i should or not...like i said IT AINT GONNA BE A REAL BUISNESS.... i dont plan on buying 20 of X thing and opening up a store... it is just a local thing around here since i am established here... my questions is what legal shit i need... not if i should do it... if you people are too hard headed and ignorant to understand me then will get help from someone else.... I dont know why you people keep thinking that i plan on running some big buisness...i do work full time and it will be a part time thing... anyway if you cant help me then fine...

 

then, you're breaking US laws, frauding tax, and well, you'll never get any business from any of us with that attitude.

then how do you expect to make a profit?
most companies that manuafactuer stuff have $5000-$10,000 buy ins to become a dealer. if you don't have that, you end up buying your stuff from yet another middle man, and then your prices go up to reflect that, and well, you don't get any business.

in what way?

the problem is ANY business is big business.

you will need to LLC youself, get a tax Id, and provide all other sorts of things. I suggest you visit your states' website or take a trip down to city hall and talk to some one.
then, get a lawyer, write up your business plan, and see if they approve you for your tax id.

if you plan on selling 2-3 things a month, its not worth your time, or your customer's money.

 

ok well i guess there is one point i failed to address.....


"doing it small"


i think he means that he wants to buy a SMALL amount of parts per month, then resell to his buddies and hopefully make a profit.


aint gonna happen /george bush sr.


where are you going to get your parts from? like pissedoffsol says, unless you got 5,000-10,000 MINIMUM......you will NOT be able to purchase parts at a price good enough to make a profit.

You will be buying from another middleman, who invests 10,000.00 a month in parts and turns around and sells them to you ....

lets look at it this way:

Coilovers. Brand "X". DNA Mfg. makes a generic coilover. (lets completely forget about TEIN or H&R or any real company out there....because they cost more)

So it costs DNA Mfg. 2.50 (a tad more if you take into consideration advertising, shipping and demurrage charges from china to america and everthing else....but lets just say 2.50 for arguements sake) to make a complete set of coilovers for a 1998 honda civic. They manufacture their own parts over in China.

The coilovers retail for 79.00-125.00 in the stores. (suggested retail price)


This guy who sells on Ebay buys 100 sets of these generic coilovers every month from DNA. Since he buys in quantaty, his cost is 25.00 (give or take a dollar or two) per box. Allready DNA has made a 23.00 profit.

He in turn goes on Ebay, lists the coilovers and sells them for 30.00.

not much profit as you can see.

Now, assuming that you CANT shell out 2300.00 a month to buy a minimum quantaty of 100 coilovers from DNA, then you would not be able to purchase them at a discount.

Just because you got your tax id number, business license and formed a LLC, does NOT mean that wholesale companies will be beating a path to your door with fantastic deals that would allow you to buy parts for only 100.00-500.00 a pop.

It is alot harder than you think. I would advise you not to do it. Even if you do live in a small town, there is no way in hell you would be able to make a small profit off selling to the kids in your town.

Aint gonna happen.

Bottom line:

It takes money to make money

or my personal favorite:

Scared money makes no money.



Let us know how it turns out, so someone else can benefit from your experiences.

 

OK numbnuts... let's get some things straight here... I run a company- www.nesteggstudios.com and have been through all the LLC shit, along with some other stuff that's way over your head, so I think I kinda know what I'm talking about here.

The first rule in Business is THE BOTTOM LINE. First rule. OK? Good.

The second rule in Business is that THE BOTTOM LINE dictates all your decisions.

The third rule is MARGIN, which fluctuates from month to month.

That's it.

What's THE BOTTOM LINE? THE BOTTOM LINE is the net profit or deficit at the end of each quarter (or month, or whatever you chose).

In my corporate world there is no grey area. You're either making money, or you're not. Some times, even if you are making money, you may not be making enough, therefore, negating the fact that you are indeed, making money.

Let's use you as an example here, because, after all, it's about you, and not us (and certainly not my company, because that's NOYFB). You buy DNA coils for $30 on Ebay. Then you sell them for $40. That's a nice 33% profit. Actually, that's outfuckingstanding, because the average retail profit is between 5% and 15%. Yes, the margin is that thin. So anyway... You make a cool $10 on some shit springs and all your homies are on your jock because you're the big ballin' Import Tuner. Then we come into taxes and...

Wait, why the fuck am I explaining this to you? Get the fuck out of here, you mouth breathing stump fuck. We've explained it to you, laid it out on the line, and you have neither the mental capacity, nor the desire to even BEGIN to comprehend one iota of how a business runs, small or large. Fuck off. Go sell your shit to your fuckfag friends and be a local hero. You'll never get anywhere, you'll never be anything, and you'll have to make up some excuse to hide the real reason why you went under. Piss off, dick.

 

BAHAHAHAHAAAA, by the honkey !!!!!!!