ForumsFinancing Tips

It sounds like you have a great product line and plan in mind, but that the scope and pace of full-scale production implementation is beyond your funding capability. In effect, it's like trying to shove a wonderful plate of food into your mouth and swallow it all at once. Try to look at your plan in bite-sized chunks.

For example, what's your most creative, unique, or attention-getting product? Think about how you could produce a few of those (maybe even just one) and get them in front of customers (eBay, swap meet, consignment shop, or whatever is appropriate). Then take the profit from that sale and expand -- produce more and place them in additional markets. Keep doing that until (a) you have built a business credit history (by paying for your supplies on time), and (b) have built a sales history that shows lenders or investors that as fast as you can produce it, people are buying it.

If you're starting with nothing (as you said you are), you'll find it difficult to obtain outside funding to launch a large-scale idea that only you understand and believe in. It will be much easier to get funding to expand a business that has already proven on a smaller scale that its product is in high demand. (By the way, I gave similar advice to an aspiring dress designer in a workshop a few years back. She started with one of her many designs, bought the fabric, had a local seamstress cut and sew it, sold it on eBay, and grew from there -- to a net profit of over $300K.)

I hope that helps. Best wishes.

No one else is producing the line you are planning? Hmmm. In these times capital is both scarce and costly. You can try by selling a few pieces of e-bay or even direct sales in your city. You could try and sell your whole project to someone in a partnership, that way you would get capital. Best.