How to Start Something You Know Nothing About

More of a reddit question but there are more intelligible people here...

Say you want to start a brand or company on the grounds of something that really interests you on a consumer level, but logistically you know nothing. Example being: I really like golf apparel and would like to start my own brand. But I don't know where to begin since all I understand at this point is that I want to have my own brand. Where do I start with merchandise, marketing, getting my feet under me, etc?

What would you all suggest? Reach out to those doing similar ventures and see how they got off the ground? Read books?  Would love to hear it.

5 Comments
 

What do you actually want to pursue?

It really depends on the industry, but if you have a business degree you should be able to analyze what you’re offering and the market for it. A SWOT analysis might be a good start.

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assuming you've gone through a SWOT analysis, considered upside/downside, TAM, and so on, I'd move to kicking the tires on your future competitors. I'd approach it like a lot of things, informational interviews. find people in your target industry, potentially those who have already left and therefore don't feel they're telling secrets, call them up (I still prefer phone to email), ask them for a few minutes. also, if you were starting golf apparel in the US, I wouldn't call up a buyer at Travis Mathew, they may view you as a future competitor and not give you the time of day. I'd look at the whole supply chain, call up retailers, go visit wholesalers/warehousers, see what the marketplace is currently doing and what they don't have from their current suppliers, things like that.

full disclosure - I had a few friends consider this exact path, this business is like running a restaurant. it's glamorous and can give you some nice visibility, but it's also incredibly difficult to survive, and because of competition/offshoring/little differentiation between products, not very profitable. do with that information what you wish

 

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