This is the first article in ShelfTrend's Entrepreneur Series contributed by our Entrepreneur of the Moment, Heather Potter.
I started my business in the worst possible way – with no plan, no experience and no idea what I was doing. All I had going for me was that people had been jokingly saying to me for years, “You have so many shoes, you could start a shop!”
So I started Shoe Envy.
Six weeks later I was in China. And just over six months later, I had set up a full supply chain and was designing, manufacturing, importing and selling my own shoe label online.
At its peak, Shoe Envy was turning over in excess of $20,000 a month from my lounge room. Full disclosure, after seven years I closed up shop for family reasons but my lessons learned are valuable and applicable to anyone looking to get started with online selling.
I’m here to tell you, I’m not special. The only difference between me and anyone else is I’m willing to give anything a crack. Most things, once you get into them, are really not that hard.
Over the next several weeks, I’m going to share with you how I did it.
I’m working with ShelfTrend on this Entrepreneur Series because I see how our financial situations are more vulnerable and exposed than ever. We cannot just rely on our jobs anymore. Selling online is an excellent secondary or, if you’re really committed, primary income. All it takes is some gumption, good judgement and some sound advice from someone who did it the hard way (that’s me) and of course, really solid data from ShelfTrend.
If ShelfTrend was around 7 years ago when I started my business I would have saved myself so many expensive missteps on critical issues such as understanding the market, learning from and monitoring competitors and even pricing. I’m going to talk about some of these things in future articles so sign up for email updates and follow me through my crazy journey.
So how did I start? I already knew I wanted to sell shoes. I love shoes. I did zero research but I’m a real believer that if you’re working with something you’re passionate about, the market will make room for you. Plus you get a head start with all that knowledge and experience you already have with that product area you already love.
Do What Others Fear To Do - Start Doing
After three nights of Googling, I realised all the shoes I liked came from the same city in China. So my next step became clear – I must go there.
But like everyone else, I was overwhelmed at the idea of working with China and felt like it couldn’t be done and that probably everyone else was more qualified to do this than me. Then I had an epiphany.
If Bob from Spare Parts R Us can do it, then why can’t I?
I’ve got degrees dammit! So I did.
I Googled for a Chinese translator and booked a ticket to Guangzhou, China. Piece of cake. I wasn’t concerned about whether she was a shoe expert – I was the shoe expert. I needed her to be a getting around China and speaking Chinese expert.
Eat The Elephant
This is my life and business philosophy for how to deal with risk. Start small.
Some smart-mouthed kindergarten kid once asked me, “How do you eat an elephant?” I didn’t know.
“One bite at a time,” the kid laughed. It was so wise. I stole it.
Don’t ever stand back and look at the WHOLE task. You’ll freak yourself out and then you won’t do it. Just take it one step at a time.
Two weeks before my arrival there was a ginormous global shoe fair at the expo centre next to my hotel but I decided if a business could afford to exhibit there they were probably too big to do small potatoes deals with a tiny business like mine. So I went straight to the bottom where all the little guys exhibit.
Manage Risk By Taking Small Bites
My translator and now agent took me to two shoe markets. One was a sprawling open-air shed, something like Australia’s weekend markets, where exhibitors each had a small booth decked out with haphazard shelves full of shoes. The other was an indoor version that was slightly more up-market. It was shoe heaven.
I spent a couple of days walking up and down the booths, looking at shoes. There were thongs, hippy sandals, clomping black boots and “beige” corporate styles. And every now and again, fabulous, unique, colourful platform heels like what I wanted to stock.
Whenever I spotted styles I liked, we would stop and ask the critical questions:
MOQ – what’s your minimum order quantity? Some were industrial operators with an MOQ of 50,000 pairs per style, per size. This was clearly out of my league and was an immediate conversation killer.
Customisation – I wanted to design my own range, so I was interested in whether their styles could be customised or if they only sold off-the-shelf designs. Customisation could be white labelling (adding my logo) or full customisation, where I could choose colours, materials, heel styles etc.
Size runs – Australians have large feet relative to Asian countries so I needed to know if the shoes were available in “western” sizes.
Delivery – Does the purchase price include delivery to the shipping dock? This is important, otherwise you have to organise a local courier to pick up the product and deliver it to where you’re getting it shipped from. That’s a pain if you don’t have a very smart translator who can help you book a local courier at the last minute, which costs extra. No I didn’t ask this on my trip and yes, I learned this the hard way.
Invest in Trusted Business Relationships
When I met my translator, I knew I would want to work with her ongoing. This would require a strong relationship, trust and respect – which doesn’t happen by accident.
Via email, we had agreed a daily fee (plus transport) for her services. But each day, I took her to lunch and we ate together as colleagues and at the end of the day I overpaid her by about 10%. She attempted to refuse every day, and every day I explained to her, “I’m not paying you for your time, I’m paying you for your expertise. Without you, I can’t start my business.” She was delighted to be trusted and valued. By the end of the week, she told me, “I hope we will be more than business partners but also friends.” We are friends and she has done so much for me over the years as my on-the-ground agent.
Not everything goes to plan when you’re a small business working with huge overseas factories so having a local representative is critical. Here are some of the pitfalls I encountered:
First, something I didn’t know at the start was to negotiate a quality control clause into your contract and have your local agent do the quality check.
I ordered from two different factories on my first trip and the quality was great but one factory downright lied to me about their ability to produce western sizes. When the product arrived in Australia, I discovered my Australian size 8.5, 9 and 9.5 were all exactly the same size – an Asian size 40 (Australian 8.5) – just marked with different numbers.
These were completely unsellable except as seconds. All contracts include a “no return once you accept the product” clause, which means once you take it off their hands at the port of origin, it’s yours. So you must have quality check in-country.
Another time I ordered shoe boxes from a supplier and the payment terms were 50% up-front and 50% on completion of manufacturing. He contacted me to let me know the boxes were complete and I could send the second payment but something didn’t feel right so I insisted on sending my agent to do quality control.
The man dithered. “I have a very small factory, I’m embarrassed. It’s very far away...” After about a week of fierce phone calls from my agent, he finally relented and drove her to a shed in a tiny village where his own relatives were scrambling to put together the unfinished boxes. It was clear he hadn’t made them at all. Always insist on a final quality inspection.
My main supplier is really excellent and I worked with her for many years with no issues but, on one occasion there was a single colour in a single shoe style that had slight bubbling on the material finish. She decided to pass it through quality control but my agent wasn’t happy with it during her spot-check and sent it back to the factory to be re-made.
This small decision in an otherwise perfect large order saved me thousands of dollars on what proved to be one of my most popular styles. A style I would otherwise have had to discount heavily due to manufacturing faults. Always have an independent quality check by someone who is not being paid for the product – no matter how long you’ve worked together. Accountability is key.
I found my best supplier on about day four of my first buying trip to China but didn’t have time to order before I left the country so I placed my first order by email from Australia. I subsequently designed fully custom shoes with her for seven years – all entirely by email.
I worked with the same two people with no issues because I treated them respectfully and always paid them a bonus at the end of the job, thanked them for their hard work and told them how important they were to the success of my business. In return they took amazingly good care of me.
When Covid-19 hit, they both contacted me to see if I needed masks and offered to send me some of their family’s personal stash for free.
Get perspective with some real data
Looking back, I really should have done more research prior to getting to China. Other than a spot-poll of my friends and family, I trusted my instinct and although it kind of worked, it did cost me my first $20,000 investment. It was an expensive lesson learned.
To get some real data on sizing, colour trends, and what product lines are popular with customers, it would be better to have used a product like ShelfTrend. ShelfTrend draws on live data from eBay to show what millions of customers are actually spending their money on in real-time – far more reliable data than the handful of people I asked.
In my next blog article, I talk about building a merchandise strategy. At the heart of it is knowing your customer and the market. The best way to do that is to have your finger on the pulse of live marketplace activity, so monitoring the data is crucial. It is also the best way to get ahead of trends and find a niche. Stay with me over this Entrepreneur Series – I promise, it’s a story that is worth reading especially if you’re considering starting an online business.
For now, get researching. Don’t wait for someone to tell you it’s okay or give you permission – just do it. Just do something! Look around and get comfortable with the data, start looking through existing inventory to get some ideas. When I look back I don’t regret the decisions I’ve made, I only regret not acting on them faster. Fortune favours the brave! Be brave.
Heather Potter
Heather is a journalist-turned-Public Relations extrordinaire to digital communications specialist. Having worked around the world for big brands in the commercial and NGO sectors, she decided to try her hand at building her own ecommerce business - and it worked! Although she had to close Shoe Envy for family reasons, she remains passionate about ecommerce and small business, especially enabling others with the same entrepreneurial spirit toward online success with engaging content and communications. Find her at Chilli Dog Consulting - she'd love to have a chat.
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Troubleshoot business issues by checking yourself against others selling in the same space.
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