Forum Moderators: buckworks
The situation is: I want to sit at home, build a website selling goods and sit and watch the money rolling in...
I have an idea to locate cheap (but good) products ranging from pc hardware to general gadgets, add a decent profit margin on each good and mail the goods out when the user orders.
I have no transaction exprience on the web, so is paypal worth using for first few months?
Also is this above board? Am I allowed to just suddenly become an online retailer?
I work full time and will be setting up in my spare time is this a sinking ship or a money making flyer?
Thanks
been done many times before
however NOTHING in life is certain
and as you are in the UK< yes you can trade, but think about the following:
VAT
TAX
LTD co
this forum should give you lots and lots of help along the way.
and 1 question to ask, is there no one else doing what you are thinking of doing, if so, what makes you think you can do it better.
good luck
Shak
the beauty of web is you can take on big high street names and beat them. Ive done it.
Things to avoid:
Holding lots of stock.
Paying a fortune for packaging and shipping materials.
using paypal.
jacking your job in on day one.
Things to do:
Have a good clean quick loading site
Have a good credit card processor,
Have reliable supplier, whose goods are reliable and high quality
Mail out stock quickly and handle returns with a smile.
Answer ALL emails quickly.
Admit it when you make an error
Apart from that you can sell almost anything on the web.
Just over a year ago, I thought the same thing, and now have a fairly sucessful site. I used Paypal for the First few months, just to see how it went, now I use Worldpay.
Look at what Essex_Boy and Shak said, they talk a lot of sense. Follow all of Essex Boys tips, adn like Shak said, keep everything above board, especially TAx.
If yuo're in the UK, you will have to register as self employed (even though you work full time as well) with the Inland revenue, and file a tx return in every year (and as we are at the start of a new tax year, you won't have to worry about it for a year), although you must register within 3 months of starting your site. Also you won't have to worry about VAT until you hit £56,00 or are wanting to sell business to business.
Good Luck,
Craig.
