Selling stock you need to hold

[mtueckcr]

I have a general question:

I havent figured out yet what I should do if my product can only be produced in large quantaties, and there is no dropshipping.

For example if I have tested my market for self designed t-shirts and there is a demand, but I would only be able to sell one or two a day, but it cost an extra fee to change the plates and would be cheapest to buy 500 shirts at once. What should I do?
Also if I want to have a variety of t-shirts in my shop, lets say 5 different ones, How do I sell them without piling 2500 shirts at my workplace?

thank you for any helpfull responses and constructive criticism.

[Sven]

If it seems impossible to do things the way you want there are only two things you can do:

- Don't do it
- Find a different way to do things

Spending money on stock is useless when you want to sell unique items so do not go there!

[AlexMoen]

What do you mean self designed? As in you designed them, or as in your customers would design them?

For the latter, you can have the basic underlying shirt be the same (say 500 white cotton shirts?), then just factor in the costs of doing a different template or whatever for the shirts. The people should understand the cost will be slightly higher as they'll have a unique and new product and this could compensate for the plate changing. This way you (especially if you can figure out a cheap template creation/replacement mechanism) can make more money and you don't have to worry about stocking up 500 shirts per design.

You can do the same if you're just worried about developing your own personal design to sell to customers. Bulk order a single shirt type, and lay the template down for each design and deal with the fee for swapping. Eventually you'll get the numbers for which design(s) sell in what quantities, and you can go from there.

Before you sink all of your money in, test it. Get some template designs/drawings/whatever, get feedback on them, choose the one with the top results, and see if it flies. If your top shirt isn't profitable you don't have to worry about plate swapping fees because those won't sell either. If it goes well, get another bulk supply of shirts, and try out another design or two. Repeat until satisfied.

[mtueckcr]

I meant I design the shirts and then put them in my shop. So it would be unique, because my shop would be the only place you can get them.

Should I create a new brand for that and name my shirts to make them stand out, lets say like abercrombie?

So I am looking for an option get my shirts done and knowing how many I have to order before I make them. If I do testing and say in one week I get 30 orders, I dont want to wait two more weeks, to get enough to make a bulk order to get my shirts done. But I also dont want to get stuck with 170 or more shirts in the end if nobody buys after my initial 30.

So is there a way to manage orders quickly after testing to assure that the people who initially wanted to order still want to pay even though there was a delay?

And how do I assure short shipping times if I still have to have the product made?

The t-shirts were just an example, I just want to know how others do it with alike products, to know the procedure. I am currently not trying to sell t-shirts.

[kamakiri]

Dude - You are going about this the wrong way. LD and the 4HWW is not about having stock, or ordering products. First and formost, you need to be able to sell. Any idiot can buy stock, that is easy.

Selling is the key here. Not only the key to joining the NR, but also the key to your finantial success.

A close second is of course profitability. Here again, any idiot can sell a dollar bill for 95 sents. That again is easy. You need to have enough value added to make it worthwhile to the customer to the point where they will open their wallet and give you money.

Thinking about stock, forming an LLP, accounting, or just about any other aspect only pulls you away from your goal. Think abouty selling and the other problems will resolve themselves, and if they don't then you can pay someone to solve them for you.

[TimW]

Any idiot can buy stock, that is easy.

+1
Ask me how I know. :D

[AlexMoen]

I agree with Kamakiri, and not just because sales jobs were my first love in the business world, haha.

But anyway, first, no matter how solid your testing is, you're never guaranteed anything. You're taking a risk here by stocking up, and you can only hope your efforts pull through in the end. Your only peace of mind here will be that you know some people out there want your product (via solid testing- and you don't necessarily need the physical shirt to test the idea either).

Second, you can't really do quick shipping if you still need to create the product after- at least not as fast as the big companies who'll expedite it and have it on hand and shipped instantaneously. But, that too doesn't really matter- if your customers really want it they will wait a couple weeks.

But, how are you ultimately going to sink or swim? Sales! Remember Pet Rocks, slinkies, and the like? People got rich off that stuff and it's sure as hell not because it was an amazing idea. Learn to sell yourself and your ideas and the world turns into gold.