After you get all the legal stuff done, the fun starts! First, choose an e commerce platform. I won't bore you with the details of that on this post. LOTS AND LOTS of research. There were pros and cons lists. I will say that. We settled on the one that felt right for our business. The reviews boasted of easy 1 1/2 hour store design. That was definitely on the pro list. We both have college degrees. We figured we'd knock that out with time to spare. We grabbed some snacks, headed to Shelly's house, and set up our online boutique. It. only. took. about. eight. hours. It seems we over estimated our technology skills. I left there about midnight feeling slightly disappointed in myself. We were starting a computer based business, and apparently computers don't like us. But I was also excited that we had completed another step. I almost made it home that night, when I saw blue lights in my rear view mirror. Yep. I was getting too close to the center line (according to the helpful officer) and out past my curfew. Maybe I looked young enough that I shouldn't be out past midnight. Maybe I looked so old that he was trying to make sure I didn't need assistance! :) Either way we had a store (with nothing to sell). In the beginning we were really planning to start with mostly boutique clothing. We were still on the self imposed deadline that loomed a couple of weeks away. We weren't happy with any of the clothing wholesalers we had found. We wanted great quality. We ditched that plan and went with plan B. We did a full launch with jewelry as our main product line. We continued to research clothing wholesalers. We are still glad we did.
Starting a business is stressful! So is life!
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