Starting a kiltmaking business

[NorCalPiper]

Hi all-
I wanted to give some advice to all those out there to those who might want to take their business endeavor a step more by creating an ecommerce site for their business. As someone who worked in the technology field for almost 15 years, I had a little head start in getting on ecommerce solution going, but its a simple matter that sometimes discourages those that might feel a super huge investment is needed. Not so! and you can do it quite easily-Here's how-
****NOTE-I'M NOT ENDORSING ANY COMPANY, BUT SUGGESTING A METHOD THAT I FEEL IS THE EASIST FOR THE AVERAGE USER. ANY ADMENDMENTS TO THIS ARE PERFECTLY SUITABLE AND FINE*****

1.) I suggest buying a used Macintosh (I'll explain why in section 4). I know, I know-You've used a PC forever and don't want to take the time to learn the MAc OS. Guess what, you will learn how to use a MAc in a day its so easy, AND you will marvel at how it DOESN'T slow down after time, and how it doesn't get viruses etc. Today, most any software you use is available on the Mac. You can even run Windows applications on a Mac that has the new Intel processor. "But Josh, I don't have a grand to spend on a new computer". OK, well do what I did for my business. I wanted a Mac that would be dedicated completely to my business, but I didn't have enough for a new one. So I popped over to Craigslist, went to the computer section, typed in "Apple" in the search frame. No matter what city you are in, someone is selling their Mac for cheap. Macs that are at 1 GHZ or more are completely fine for today's use. I'm typing this on a Dual 1 GHZ Powermac that was made in 2002. Yep-2002, and it runs FLAWLESSLY. BTW-I bought this Mac for 90$.

2.) Get your company name going (Make it personal and relevant to you and your business) and go straight to godaddy.com. Register your company name for 10 bucks a year. Since you are a web based business, you don't neccessarily need to go to the court house and register a sole-proprietorship, but it will help you in the long run. If you don't want to take that step, fine for the moment-Just let your bank account know that you will be linking your personal checking account to a web based business. Don't forget-you have to declare this income at tax time!

2-a.) Problems with bank accounts. Some of you may not have a bank account for various reasons. You REALLY need to investigate banks that will work with you (I'll explain why having a bank account is absolutely necessary in a bit). For those that have been put into "Checks", or have declared bankruptsy there are many options. US Bank will open an account for you and work with you if you have these kind of problems. They are not the only ones, so do some research and get that account open!!

3.)Online merchant-Paypal, Google Checkout, Alertpay, Paypay, Paymate. These are all online payment solutions that enable users to access your webstore and pay you for merchandise with their credit card safely and securely. Once those funds are in your account, you can then punt them over to your personal bank account. Most "Big" web sites use a Merchant account paired with a shopping cart service. If you are doing less than 2,000$ a month in sales, this option is not for you and you'll need to go with one of the merchant services above.

3-a) The good, bad, and the ugly. OK-since most of you will not be utilizing big league shopping carts and merchant services, you'll have to go with the above all-in-one merchant services (Paypal, google checkout, etc.). The good thing about these services is that there are no monthly fees for services. They all take about 3% from items sold and thats it. Thats really great for small ecommerce sites. THE BAD AND THE UGLY-While these services are great for small businesses, THEY ARE NOT BANKS!! When you sign up and "Agree" to all their requirements, take some time to read what you're agreeing to. These companies can turn into cruel monsters at the drop of a dime. What I mean is, these companies can lock your accounts, hold any funds in there and not release them to you-EVER! Paypal is probably the worst only because so many people use them, thus complaint numbers will be far more than the others. Most merchants have no issue, however, so don't read too much into the horror stories.

**Why is a bank account important**--As you start relationships with the mills, you will want to set up accounts. Some are easy going, but others will require some account info as such-bank account being one of them.



4.)OK-You've done all the financial and biz account stuff. You've got a domain registered (example - www.I make sporrans.com). Now to build a web site. AH-HA-This is where people fizzle out. "I've got to spend 3k to have someone build a website". Nope. You've got that mac now, and macs come with an application called "iLife". In iLife, there is a program called "iWeb". This is a program that comes with premade templates that you arrange yourself and personalize. That means you open a template page, drag and drop pics and arrange, type in your own text and position it any way you want to. You can make customized store banners, links...Everything. Its meant for web design challenged people. Man-If my Mom can do it, so can you. You will not believe how easy and how good your work will look!!!! So build that site!!!!


5.) Getting the web site published. 2 ways. Apple offers a service called "Mobile Me". It is a myriad of services that are fantastic, and way to big to explain in this posting, but one of the benefits is your own hosted domain. So when you make that website in "iWeb", there is a button at the bottom of the window that says "Publish to Site". Just click that , and your web site is created and placed in your hosted address. Easy as that-you're online ready to make money!! The service is 99$ a year, and again, you get SOOOO much services (the hosted domain is just a fragment of the service), but as you use your mac more and start to fall in love with it, these other services will make that 99$ a year seem more than worth it. If you don't want to go that route, you can also by hosting space from godaddy.com for about 6 bucks a month. Doing it this way, you do your web site in iWeb, and instead of clicking the "Publish to Site" button, you just select "Publish to Desktop". Your completed web site will be published to a folder on your desktop that you just then upload to your godaddy hosting area and BAM-your online this way!!!! This step includes a couple of more steps, but its basically as easy as clicking a few more buttons.

5-a) Going the mobile me way requires an extra step. If you buy the mobile me, your hosted domain will be different then your registered domain that you made with godaddy. Here a better explanation. You registered your business www.imakesporrans.com and bought the mobile me subscription. When you by the subscription, you have to make a username which will become your mobileme username. Assuming you keep the same name imakesporrans, your mobile me domain address will be this www.web.me.com/imakesporrans How you remedy this (So customers go to your domain directly) is go to your godaddy account and click the "Web Forwarding" button. You type in your mobile me address and anytime someone types in "www.imakesporrans.com" it automatically redirects to your mobile me www.web.me.com/imakesporrans address.

If you decide to go the godaddy route for hosting, it will automatically pair your domain name to your hosted area-Both are a fine way to go.


6)Accepting Credit Cards is a must for ecommerce. Paypal is the industry leader in merchant services, so you'll probably want to go that route because everyone and their mother uses paypal, so paypments can be quick. The other options are fine also. No matter which service you use, they all have a "MerchantTools", or "Merchant Services" area. Log in and click on this option. You will see options how to make "Buy it Now" buttons. Super easy templates where you type in the item name, description, price and shipping. Once done, you click "Create code". A jumble of html will be presented to you to copy by highlighting all the text and then clicking copy from your menu bar or such. Open iweb and there is an option in the menu bar to "Create HTML snippet". Click that and paste the text into the box and hit apply. you will now see a nice "Buy it Now" button. Manually place this button under the pic of the item you want to sell. Price all your items and then publish to your mobile me or godaddy account. Guess what-You are now a merchant selling your own stuff from a site you created. All for about 250$.....Have fun!

[Beertigger]

With all respect, using something like iLife to base your business on isn't the best of moves. If you want to appear high in search engines, have an attractive functional site that converts those who are browsing into those who are buying, and be easy to maintain and update, using a professional is the way to go.

If anybody can make a website to use for a business, anybody can knock together a kilt and sell that too.

Or, you can use a professional who's practiced his craft for years (and in the web world, has stayed up to date with the latest technology).

If you don't have at least a few grand to put into a website for an online, mailorder enterprise dealing with high-end goods, you're not very serious. A reasonably complex ecommerce site can run into the tens of thousands.

Much as with kilts, you can develop different levels of quality in a website. There's the funky printed bath towel for pocket change, an heirloom quality masterpiece for big bucks, or the high quality, reasonably priced middle choice.

[Downix]

I feel like such the rebel, as I am paying my webmaster nothing...

I've been making websites professionally for 15 years.

[seanachie]

Hi all-

2.) Get your company name going (Make it personal and relevant to you and your business) and go straight to godaddy.com.

I will add one caveat as someone who had done email support for a good while. If you use GoDaddy as your registrar, one problem that can arise is that a lot of spammers and others have registered through GoDaddy and some of the anti spam services have a tendency to block IP address ranges from GoDaddy. It can be a real pain in the neck to get the domain unblocked. Your mileage may vary but I only mention that based upon experience. Take due care with you registrar. My current employer had an outside consultant register the domain years before I started. The company was cheap but the were a registering domains as a reseller and were located in Asia. It took me a few months to get control of the domain back and register it with an actual registrar. They made it very difficult and when your domain is critical to your business it is a very big deal.

[Beertigger]

GoDaddy's fine as a registrar, just don't use them as a host. There are a great many far better hosts that actually allow you to run real software, and aren't populated with vast swaths of linkbait that can indeed reflect badly on your site.

[seanachie]

GoDaddy's fine as a registrar, just don't use them as a host. There are a great many far better hosts that actually allow you to run real software, and aren't populated with vast swaths of linkbait that can indeed reflect badly on your site.

Yeah, thanks for the clarification, that is what I meant just the end of the day I did not articulate it well. The mail servers at GoDaddy linked to the domain.

[denmcdough]

Hi Barb! Not being a kilt maker, myself, I'd say you hit most of what I would probably say if I were one.

I've ordered four kilts from Wally Catanach, and he's and amazing guy...engineer by day, professor at Penn State by night, and Lord knows where he finds time to make kilts. Needless to say, Wally does this for the love of kilt making, and he's good at his craft. I doubt he's doing it for the money. Something to consider if one is trying to make a 'real' living at the kilt thing. Oh, and it helps to be really good (it's really a necessity) at one's craft!!!!

[Barb T]

And actually I had originally made my post thinking that I was mostly talking to people who would be thinking of doing it "part time", i.e., not trying to make a full-time living at it. That was the impression that I'd gotten from the XMarker who PMd me (although I might have misinterpreted).

And yes, being really good at your craft is critical, as is being professional, honest, fair (and legal). And better to start small and do it right than to over-reach and jack it up.

[Alan H]

Crunch the numbers before you even think about this. I've done it, and I know for a certain fact that I could not make kilts and afford to live where I do, in California.

HIGH END STUFF.

"pros" make a tank in 20-25 hours according to several professional kiltmakers on this board. That means if you do *nothing* but sew, for a 40-50 hour work week, you can make two kilts a week. That means you can make eight kilts a month. We're talking TANKS, here, OK?

The labor charge for a custom kilt according to several kiltmakers on this board, is between $200 and $250 per kilt.

eight kilts a month at $250 per kilt = $2,000 a month income or $24,000 a year.

This does not include ANYTHING ELSE that occupies your time besides sewing, and that includes everything about your fancy-pants website, shipping, ordering, going to the post office, fixing the sewing machine, and so on.

MACHINE SEWN

Rocky and Bear have both said that they can crank out a kilt in 8 - 10 hours, machine sewn. I'm not sure if Rocky's is a USA Casual or a Semi-Traditional. Let's pretend that it's a Casual model.

OK, so if you can crank out a kilt in ten hours, then in a forty hour work week you can make four kilts. That means sixteen kilts in a month. Let's pretend that these kilts are made out of Marton Mills polyester-viscose. PV costs about $15 a meter, if you buy if from Marton Mills. You'll need 2.5 meters for a casual kilt. So that's $37.50 just for the fabric, for each kilt. Call it $38.

Now lets crunch the numbers....sixteen kilts a month, remember... let's say that you charge $150 for these kilts. That's in the ballpark. Go look up what USA Kilts charges for it's Casual model. Remember that $38 of that is what you pay for the fabric, though. So that means you are actually making $112 for each kilt that you make. Sort of.

16 kilts a month X $112 per kilt = $1792

Call it $1800 a month that you make by working 40 hours a week, cranking out machine-made kilts. Of course, it will be less than that because you have to muck around with the website, answer the phone, take orders, pack orders, ship orders, fix the sewing machine, buy your fabric and so on and so forth. Oh and don't forget the velcro, or the buckles or the leather or whatever else you put into this kilt. OK, so call it a 60 hour week.

For working a 60 hours week you make $1800 a month, or $21,600 a year.

Better think twice about going into this business.

[Alan H]

A few of you will remember my EarthKilt project, where I was going to buy a hemp-recycled polyester fabric and have it make into kilts in El Salvador, then shipped back to the USA.

I gave up on the project because it became obvious that:

1. I wouldn't save a dime over having them produced locally until I was literally having thousands of kilts made and buying thousands of yards of fabric.

2. The details are killer. For example, hang tags. Hang tags are the little cardboard/paper tags with the company logo on them and some federally mandated information about what the garment is made out of, that hangs from each item of clothing. You HAVE to have a hang tag if you are going to sell clothes off of a rack in a store. do you have any idea how much those things cost? How about the little labels inside the garment that has the company logo and the size on it? Got any idea what those cost?

3. It became clear that there was no way in the world I could be a kilt importer without a.) visiting the maquila in El Salvador and b.) making it a full-time job c.) dropping about $7-10 thousand dollars up-front. I COULD start it with two or three thousand dollars, but that would produce maybe 120 kilts. There are no volume advantages at that point.

4.) When the day was done, the product that I would bring to market wouldn't really be any less expensive than a Utilikilt. It would be less expensive than a Freedom Kilt or an R Kilt, but not a Utilikilt or an Alphakilt. If I can't beat the competition, then what's the point?

Better think twice about going into this business.