Our Business - About

We have been battling away with various ideas as to what to do with ourselves to support both our current lives and our dreams for the future.

So, we decided to look into selling things online.

We are very lucky as we have quite a lot of space (warehousing) and a very supportive family who are willing to help us in this endeavour (deal with our stuff spreading every which where).

Our first step was to identify a market and we did a lot of online research into clothing, art, books and sculpture.

As we are unfortunately not yet millionaires, we decided to look into a small test purchase of clothing and, after much to-ing and fro-ing we decided on the Abercrombie & Fitch brand as we both like their stuff and we have always liked their commitment to quality.

So, let the fun begin. My wife starts designing the business, looking into postage, packaging, marketing, photography (nice pics mean a lot in this business) and various other tricky businessy things. My wonderful mother has agreed to help us with the account books so that's one major headache out of the way. Now, my role....

It is my job to source the clothes for the right price and to get them here. I found an incredibly cheap supplier and almost signed on the dotted line when I realised that they were based in Australia and the shipping costs would way outstrip the cost of the clothes themselves! Oops, spot the amateur.

Ok, so, round two. I found thirteen different suppliers and basically played them all off against each other to find the best deal. I nibbled away at first the extra costs (shipping, insurance, etc), then on the cost of the items themselves (bulk discounts, exclaiming 'how much?' very loudly, that sort of thing.) Eventually I got a decent price from a decent, UK based supplier and a quotation number. This is where my most cunning strategy came to being. I hung up the phone and googled the company. I found out who the major players were and eventually managed to hunt down the name of the Managing Director (I won't name the company so please don't ask).

By approaching him directly I managed to squeeze a further few percent off my first order (a lot weighing on the promise of further, larger orders) and so to work.

I'd been a member of Ebay for quite a while, selling a few bits and bobs, family heirlooms, that sort of thing so I decided to upgrade to a business account with them.

The stuff has all been ordered and paid for and arrived in record time.

Now, all the stuff (or a large portion of it) is currently on Ebay and , from a 30 day listing, has 12 days left. Hundreds of views across the board and a few watchers here and there but so far only one sale. Well, patience has never been my strong point but my wife assures me that these things tend to start small so, we'll keep you all posted.

Here are the obligatory links to our Abercrombie and Fitch Ladies wear including some super sexy short shorts, stripy halterneck tops and some amazing tailored fit jackets. Enjoy!

A&F Stuff - Reduced Bargains, Brand new

So there we are, we've put ourselves out there and we'll keep you posted as to how we do.

Wish us luck!!!!!