Website design question

Lathum · 01-31-2019, 09:51 AM

OK. So bear with me as I am a total neanderthal when it comes to this stuff.

I have an idea I am considering for an apparel company. With the explosion of legalized sports betting, I have an idea for a brand that I think people will actually enjoy and I am considering sticking my toe in the water.

It would initially be a side thing. I am not looking to get rich quick or build the next Nike. As a stay at home dad fortunate enough to have a wife who makes a very good living, my time is a bit limited, but have the finances to try this out.

What I am wondering is can anyone recommend a company? service? that I can build a website through that won't look like I did it myself or that it is from 2001?

Also does anyone have experience or know if it is easy to set up credit card processing? I could initially start with Paypal, but I know when I don't see a CC option I am always a bit leery.

One other thing. Anyone have experience with registering a Trademark? Is that complicated?

I am also going to do a google search for some of this, but there are a lot of really bright people here so I figured I would throw this up. Any advice is appreciated.

RainMaker · 01-31-2019, 10:52 AM

Are you looking to set up a store? Or just a website to talk about the company and products?

CC processing is easy. I can walk you through it a bit if you let me know what kind of site you're building first.

Lathum · 01-31-2019, 11:06 AM

Would be a store where you purchase apparel. Was also thinking at some point could include an area for bad beat stories, etc.

murrayyyyy · 01-31-2019, 11:31 AM

Why would you need a trademark? Assuming you are thinking about trademarking a phrase but I'm not sure that it is proprietary.

RainMaker · 01-31-2019, 11:31 AM

Shopify is used by a ton of smaller to medium sized apparel companies. Gives you just about everything you need. A ton of themes to work with, credit card processing, inventory management, etc. Its also rather cheap and scale-able if you grow. They have a free trial too if you want to play around.

Here's their themes: https://themes.shopify.com/ You can always create your own too but there is probably something that works for your site.

Otherwise you can look at some other platforms.

Ecommerce Software & Shopping Cart Platform | BigCommerce
Cloud Ecommerce Software Platform | LemonStand

I think Shopify is the best because its simple and there are tons of tutorials online to help people. I've done development work for and through a lot of these companies. Used to do work on Magento and BigCommerce a lot.

Don't have any clue on the trademark stuff though.

RainMaker · 01-31-2019, 11:33 AM

One thing I'd add is buy the domain you want if its available. Make sure you can nab a Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook handle too. You can sit on these things until you're ready to use them. A domain costs like $8 a year.

I would avoid .info and other weird TLD extensions. People feel more comfortable buying from .com or .net.

Lathum · 01-31-2019, 11:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RainMaker

One thing I'd add is buy the domain you want if its available. Make sure you can nab a Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook handle too. You can sit on these things until you're ready to use them. A domain costs like $8 a year.

I would avoid .info and other weird TLD extensions. People feel more comfortable buying from .com or .net.

Cool. I checked the domain and it appears available. As for a trademark wouldn’t I want to trademark my logo?

murrayyyyy · 01-31-2019, 12:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lathum

Cool. I checked the domain and it appears available. As for a trademark wouldn’t I want to trademark my logo?

Technically, you don't have to do that but it would probably be a good idea. Just not sure if it's worth it at the start. Probably around 300 bucks to trademark a logo I think.

Swaggs · 01-31-2019, 05:27 PM

I will throw out some scattered thoughts, as I recently started a small business and have been navigating some of these things.

Reddit’s small business sub has been really useful to me in navigating things and getting different perspectives: https://www.reddit.com/r/smallbusiness/

There are a lot of aspects to what you are proposing. I would take a good long time coming up with a thorough business plan and price things out.

I do think (from discussion on the small business sub) the clothing/t-shirt market is pretty saturated and can often be a “strike when the iron is hot” type of business with low margins. Think about trendy political sayings (plays on MAGA have been kind of popular, “She Persisted” and similar female empowerment sayings, plays on popular memes, etc.) You would need to think about whether or not to hold stock or do drop shipping? Sell on Amazon?

I probably wouldn’t worry about anything like a trademark, unless you hit it big, because, with something like t-shirts you probably would have trouble justifying legal expenses of enforcing it (if Chinese companies copy your stuff, you are pretty screwed trying to enforce US law).

The website/logo can cost very little if you use a company like Fiverr or similar. I would try to find a local company and see if they can propose a logo/website/stationary/business card package if you want to invest a little bit in the company.

Credit card processing (typically referred to as POS - point of service) vary in their benefits. Some take a percentage of sales (~2-4%, depending on volume) or can cost a monthly fee or be a combination. We use Square and it works well. Clover is another popular POS for smaller business. If you are planning to have a lot of transactions or high dollar transactions, different options may be more beneficial. There are POS salesmen that can help.

Sorry if disorganized, but super interested in following. I love seeing small business growth. Let me know if I can help with any questions.

Lathum · 01-31-2019, 07:08 PM

Thanks for the input!

CU Tiger · 02-02-2019, 10:52 AM

Ive got some random thought and actually some experience in this space.

For background, my wife is "crafty" and about 15 years ago we bought an embroidery machine which led to stuff for friends, which led to a bigger embroidery machine, which led to vinyl, which led to screen print, which led to a full on promotion and business branding business. In 2017 as a stop the insanity we moved out of the commercial building we were in and put it all in our basement, scaled down dramatically and still do it but for very select clients. As many know this is in addition to our contracting business, our real estate business and farm business.

Serial Entrepreneur?

Anyway. Minor point of contention in something Swagg posted. POS *should* refer to point of sale, not point of service. This is a deception practice used by some vendors as Point of Sale is a legal term in many state laws (of course vary by state) a vendor selling point of service is likely, intentionally, trying to skirt obligations. Without de-railing this becomes especially pertinent in database breaches and your liability for ID theft of your customers because of negligence of 3rd party processors.

In a t shirt business volume is king. If you are paying someone to print and supply your shirts, and charging less than $25 each I dont see it ever being profitable. For a Grade A+ quality Tee with 10(unlimited) color screen from a 3rd party graphic (meaning I dont have time sunk in creating the graphic) I have a hard cost of $2.92 S-XL and 3.18 2-4X. Hard cost. Now I can go to an A or B quality Tee and cut that in half. But...Cap Ex, consumables and energy will more than double that number. For Q's less than 1,000 we wont wholesale a Tee less than $7...and that's marginal.

For day 1 - Square will handle your CC just fine until you get ~$5k month. At which point you get big enough for a true processor to WANT your business and make it worthwhile.

Shirts. Your single biggest cost and opportunity is shirt cost. Bought by the case of a given color and size they start to get stupid cheap. (I can get Gildan Premium or Sport Premium <- I.E. under armour material) for around .75/unit. But that requires 2,500 of one 1 color and 1 size. Ive got some give away promo shirts I can get down to less than $.10/unit...but they are darn near see thru and dont last) So if you can limit your shirt choices and invest in inventory you can increase your profits substantially.

The point in all that? Step 1 decide if you are going to manufacture or source your product first. I'd be glad to offer insight into the manufacture side if you choose to go that route.

Second, this is advice I give lots of folks thinking of getting into any business. Right now you have an idea. Proof of concept is next step. Then comes business. Meaning...dont waste a dime on org docs, payment processing, logo creation, fancy business cards, etc...YET. First see if anyone likes your product. Try to sell the damn things. If it takes....then worry about the other stuff.

Lathum · 02-02-2019, 11:03 AM

Thanks CU, really great insight.

Regarding your last line. My thought process, and I would love your opinion, is to outsource the printing of the shirts and possibly hats initially. Buy X number, in bulk, and see if they move.

If they do and there is a market for them then look into other options. Buying higher bulk, my own equipment, etc...

I figure that way my initial investment is the product, web site info, and some misc. If it fail, no big deal, we are more than comfortable, if it moves, then look to take the next steps.

CU Tiger · 02-02-2019, 11:12 AM

If it were me, and I was attempting a branding play (which I wouldnt, personally, its not my style - so take this with that qualification) I would try to partner with a local shop and take a brand cut and fulfill fee.

Depending on what medium you go with, pressed vinyl, for example, we print to order for some companies. In that space you become a drop shipper. Screen print, due to the inherent process nature that isnt feasbile. You will have to batch run.

But the world is moving toward order quantity fulfillment. Hell Amazon is now the largest publisher of books in the world and is printing them, yes even hardback bound, upon order with near zero inventory.

01-31-2019, 05:27 PM	#9
Swaggs Coordinator Join Date: Oct 2000	I will throw out some scattered thoughts, as I recently started a small business and have been navigating some of these things. Reddit’s small business sub has been really useful to me in navigating things and getting different perspectives: https://www.reddit.com/r/smallbusiness/ There are a lot of aspects to what you are proposing. I would take a good long time coming up with a thorough business plan and price things out. I do think (from discussion on the small business sub) the clothing/t-shirt market is pretty saturated and can often be a “strike when the iron is hot” type of business with low margins. Think about trendy political sayings (plays on MAGA have been kind of popular, “She Persisted” and similar female empowerment sayings, plays on popular memes, etc.) You would need to think about whether or not to hold stock or do drop shipping? Sell on Amazon? I probably wouldn’t worry about anything like a trademark, unless you hit it big, because, with something like t-shirts you probably would have trouble justifying legal expenses of enforcing it (if Chinese companies copy your stuff, you are pretty screwed trying to enforce US law). The website/logo can cost very little if you use a company like Fiverr or similar. I would try to find a local company and see if they can propose a logo/website/stationary/business card package if you want to invest a little bit in the company. Credit card processing (typically referred to as POS - point of service) vary in their benefits. Some take a percentage of sales (~2-4%, depending on volume) or can cost a monthly fee or be a combination. We use Square and it works well. Clover is another popular POS for smaller business. If you are planning to have a lot of transactions or high dollar transactions, different options may be more beneficial. There are POS salesmen that can help. Sorry if disorganized, but super interested in following. I love seeing small business growth. Let me know if I can help with any questions. __________________ DOWN WITH HATTRICK!!! The RWBL Are you reading In The Bleachers?

02-02-2019, 10:52 AM	#11
CU Tiger Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Backwoods, SC	Ive got some random thought and actually some experience in this space. For background, my wife is "crafty" and about 15 years ago we bought an embroidery machine which led to stuff for friends, which led to a bigger embroidery machine, which led to vinyl, which led to screen print, which led to a full on promotion and business branding business. In 2017 as a stop the insanity we moved out of the commercial building we were in and put it all in our basement, scaled down dramatically and still do it but for very select clients. As many know this is in addition to our contracting business, our real estate business and farm business. Serial Entrepreneur? Anyway. Minor point of contention in something Swagg posted. POS should refer to point of sale, not point of service. This is a deception practice used by some vendors as Point of Sale is a legal term in many state laws (of course vary by state) a vendor selling point of service is likely, intentionally, trying to skirt obligations. Without de-railing this becomes especially pertinent in database breaches and your liability for ID theft of your customers because of negligence of 3rd party processors. In a t shirt business volume is king. If you are paying someone to print and supply your shirts, and charging less than $25 each I dont see it ever being profitable. For a Grade A+ quality Tee with 10(unlimited) color screen from a 3rd party graphic (meaning I dont have time sunk in creating the graphic) I have a hard cost of $2.92 S-XL and 3.18 2-4X. Hard cost. Now I can go to an A or B quality Tee and cut that in half. But...Cap Ex, consumables and energy will more than double that number. For Q's less than 1,000 we wont wholesale a Tee less than $7...and that's marginal. For day 1 - Square will handle your CC just fine until you get ~$5k month. At which point you get big enough for a true processor to WANT your business and make it worthwhile. Shirts. Your single biggest cost and opportunity is shirt cost. Bought by the case of a given color and size they start to get stupid cheap. (I can get Gildan Premium or Sport Premium <- I.E. under armour material) for around .75/unit. But that requires 2,500 of one 1 color and 1 size. Ive got some give away promo shirts I can get down to less than $.10/unit...but they are darn near see thru and dont last) So if you can limit your shirt choices and invest in inventory you can increase your profits substantially. The point in all that? Step 1 decide if you are going to manufacture or source your product first. I'd be glad to offer insight into the manufacture side if you choose to go that route. Second, this is advice I give lots of folks thinking of getting into any business. Right now you have an idea. Proof of concept is next step. Then comes business. Meaning...dont waste a dime on org docs, payment processing, logo creation, fancy business cards, etc...YET. First see if anyone likes your product. Try to sell the damn things. If it takes....then worry about the other stuff. Last edited by CU Tiger : 02-02-2019 at 10:53 AM.

01-31-2019, 10:52 AM	#2
RainMaker General Manager Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Chicago, IL	Are you looking to set up a store? Or just a website to talk about the company and products? CC processing is easy. I can walk you through it a bit if you let me know what kind of site you're building first.

01-31-2019, 11:06 AM	#3
Lathum Favored Bitch #1 Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: homeless in NJ	Would be a store where you purchase apparel. Was also thinking at some point could include an area for bad beat stories, etc.

01-31-2019, 11:31 AM	#4
murrayyyyy College Benchwarmer Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Las Vegas	Why would you need a trademark? Assuming you are thinking about trademarking a phrase but I'm not sure that it is proprietary.

01-31-2019, 11:33 AM	#6
RainMaker General Manager Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Chicago, IL	One thing I'd add is buy the domain you want if its available. Make sure you can nab a Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook handle too. You can sit on these things until you're ready to use them. A domain costs like $8 a year. I would avoid .info and other weird TLD extensions. People feel more comfortable buying from .com or .net.

01-31-2019, 07:08 PM	#10
Lathum Favored Bitch #1 Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: homeless in NJ	Thanks for the input!

02-02-2019, 11:03 AM	#12
Lathum Favored Bitch #1 Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: homeless in NJ	Thanks CU, really great insight. Regarding your last line. My thought process, and I would love your opinion, is to outsource the printing of the shirts and possibly hats initially. Buy X number, in bulk, and see if they move. If they do and there is a market for them then look into other options. Buying higher bulk, my own equipment, etc... I figure that way my initial investment is the product, web site info, and some misc. If it fail, no big deal, we are more than comfortable, if it moves, then look to take the next steps.

02-02-2019, 11:12 AM	#13
CU Tiger Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Backwoods, SC	If it were me, and I was attempting a branding play (which I wouldnt, personally, its not my style - so take this with that qualification) I would try to partner with a local shop and take a brand cut and fulfill fee. Depending on what medium you go with, pressed vinyl, for example, we print to order for some companies. In that space you become a drop shipper. Screen print, due to the inherent process nature that isnt feasbile. You will have to batch run. But the world is moving toward order quantity fulfillment. Hell Amazon is now the largest publisher of books in the world and is printing them, yes even hardback bound, upon order with near zero inventory.

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