Top five mistakes to avoid when starting an online selling business

Stick to your  projected start-up budget 

Start small with a site
you can draw yourself and pay a small monthly fee or if you use a designer brainstorm and look at other sites to get a feel of how they look and function.Speak openly and frankly to your designer about your needs. Paypal, Google and Vistaprint,Yola, Moonfruit all offer easy to build templates.

• Can you easily and speedily upload images? 
• Can you write text quickly? 
• How user friendly is it? 
• Speak openly and frankly to your designer about your needs. Paypal, google and vistaprint all have ability to build a website your self.  

This gives you after deciding to start an online business selling clothes,I searched high and low and eventually settled for maternity clothes to sell on my own site and also eventually on ebay. Although I had heard much about ebay,I did not think it would be really as credible as having my own site.After much contemplating,searching the net for web designers and products I proceeded. Looking back now,I wish I never went about things the way I did.

Here are some mistakes and what you should do to avoid them

 Save money on building your site

As obvious as this may sound to the new online entrepreneur, there is much to learn. I spend a hefty £700 on a site which looked good physically but did not know what questions to ask to get exactly what I needed. I later realised that I could not even update my own site to my needs withouth contacting the designer!. Needless to say, I had to pay extra to get him to update it for me. The site was slow to upload even a slug would have reached my bathroom form the garden!. I could not upload images and images quickly and in various styles. By the time I learnt about sites where I could revert it was too late.
Eventually I decided to drop my pride,take advice and sign up to ebay.I sold more on ebay. However, in order to make it worthwhile selling higher volumes at higher prices is necessary to make it profits.

So here is what you should do

ime to evaluate your selling progress and make decisions based on your experiences.

Save money and wholesale Buy locally 

From alibaba to esources and China to Thailand,I searched for clothing to sell on my website. I bought goods worth £500 and unrelated items for much more.  The trouble is most of these wholesalers have (MOQ) - minimum order quantity which can prove to be  unnaffordable for the first time and new buyer. Also check the rates of custom fees from various locations to the U.K.

Do not be surprised by high custom fees on arrival of your goods. An order from America for example may cost you more in fees if bought online. Add shipping fees to these costs and you will need to sell at prices higher than you had anticipated. This reduces your sales and leaves you holding unsold stock for far too long.

All online orders from abroad over a certain amount attract custom charges. Check the HM revenue and customs site for all details.If you have to buy on line try paying for items offline instead. That means negotiating with suppliers to buy lower stock as well.However, be wary of transferring money to unknown and established individuals or companies. Do your homework and research your suppliers. Speak to other businesses in your industry and forge partnerships. I was able to find a  competitors supplier simply by phoning her about her wholesale items!.

Observe sites in your field you may be surprised what information you can get by reading their blogs and looking at their products. In short do some competitor research.

If you are thinking of dropshipping for your business, it is more critical you do your sums and check out local options first which is cheaper.

Impulse purchasing, its possible in business too. 

Try to concentrate on a single lines of products

It became easy to get carried away with the wide selection of available goods from wholesalers.This can lead to impulse buying for your business. Eventually, you end up with more stock which is not in your line.
I started to sell shoes,children's clothes,lingerie,wedding dresses,ladies non maternity wear and more
If I thought it would sell, I bough it!. It takes a while to realise that one line of products means you are more focused,more organised with stock levels and better able to concentrate in following trends. Too much stock to deal with means less time to get organised,list products and can lead to lost motivation and sales.


I will be adding more to this list soon.