“How to Start a Shoe Business?”
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i am a marketing consultant and can help you with your decline in sales, if you are about to launch your product, starting a new business, maximizing profit, entering new markets etc. my fee is affordable and negotiable. please contact me on dk_pyne@hotmail.com

BJ, I have over 39 years experience in providing production of private label made in Italy.

Hi All, We run a women shoes factory in China, exported over 200 thousand to USA, Canada, Europe and Australia. Please contact me if you have any question. No matter order or sample making. Welcome beautybuild-shoe@hotmail.com

I have over 12 years experience in the footwear industry in both athletic and fashion footwear with well known brands. I have experience in manufacturing (sourcing,fit, and development), brand marketing, and retail operations. I am now a consultant for both retail and wholesale footwear startups and can help with finding factories,inventory concerns,retail concerns and offer advice. If you are interested in hiring me as a consultant please contact me at mtel2002@yahoo.com.

WOW, pretty great information here. I am waiting to launch my line but am planning a feasibility study to where I will visit China (first) to get an idea of the warehouses/manufacturers. I have a unique idea for the shoes's components which keep them priced medium to very expensive. By trade, I am an international grant proposal writer which simply means that I help people get money to fund their dreams. My designing of jewelry and soon shoes is just another one of my passions. A good feasibility study can be done for around $25,000. There are grants available to assist with these costs. Please feel free to call me at 517-204-4197 or email me at info@tanyabates.com. Here to our Success

Mr Craig we can offer a professional modeling shoe designer & maker at the same time with huge imagination and big experience. with him you'll need nothing except sitting back and watching your business growing up.if interested pls contact me at my email morsad@hotmail.com

12 years experience in Big Box Shoe Sales. 6 years experience in shoe buying. THE SHOE BUSINESS IS FLOODED.. when I say flooded I mean way to many wanna be designers who dont know the first thing about design or business yet wasting $$$ without the first clue.. I highly suggest you reconsider if this is truly your dream or if you just heard high profit margins(which by the way is questionable if not just plain false)and decided you think drawing a few shoes would be easy.

if its just a get rich quick idea, i'd look elsewhere before you fall victim to the fact that this is a ROUGH business not for the faint of heart, many people lose there life savings trying to make it in this industry. Also understand that if you plan to sell your product wholesale you are going to need to spend thousands on getting into expos, thousands on prototypes from multiple groups for quality checks, thousands on manufacturing costs, THOUSANDS ON INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING<<--- IN MANY CASES THE SHIPPING COST MORE than the product does to make... and unless you have pre-orders to fulfill thousands of shoes, if you order at MOQ (minimum order quantity) then you will be high balled to get the manufacturing done and thus more than likely be pushed out by other competitors simply out pricing you(selling their product at a lower cost than you) for similar or even better products.

IF you do succeed to gain orders by keeping your prices at or under most.. your profit margins most likely will be minimal at best if you order MOQ (your markup will probably only be x1.33-x1.5 to stay price competitive vs. a traditional business model for success of x2.2-2.8) and you will need to sell at least 1,000 pair per color per style and at at least 16-20 styles to pull a decent profit that could be considered worth while, or your make it your new career.. and at that point you probably would have employee(s) costs to add to the mix.. Also remember many boutique owners only buy in season, the ones who buy ahead often cut their pre-orders in half, many cancel all together, others just cant pay on time or at all leaving you holding the bag potentially to take a loss all together on that/those style(s). With the big box retailers, they will usually expect in their contracts with you when you are new that they will put a small deposit down, if any, to get your merchandise and will only have to pay after 30-90 days.. so your floating them money that you've devoted into the shoes as a loan for 30-90 days.. and they usually include with new vendors in their contracts that at anytime they can typically decide they no longer wish to carry your product and RTV(return to vendor{vendor=you})them back to you and now your stuck with potentially thousands of unsold shoes that you have no buyer for and may even have to pay the shipping to get back or forfeit the product for free to the retailer.

My suggestion,unless you have gobs of cash, a good attorney, a good business contract that you can sell as signable and legal, AND an amazing product at a reasonable price.... KEEP YOUR DAY JOB! THAT being said, again if it is truly your DREAM by all means do the research and raise sufficient capital and I wish you the very best!