Ladies Career Advice: Start Your Own Lingerie Business!

Ladies, we have some career advice for you. Does arranging pretty, delicate undergarments sound appealing to you? Working with different colours, shapes, and designs to create a collection of amazing underwear sounds like a dream to us! If you feel the same, it could be time to start your own lingerie business. Ann Summers had to start somewhere!

Take a Look at The Competition

First of all you’ll want to research the local competition, then as you grow you can do more research on your bigger competitors. Visit local towns and shopping centres to take a look at the lingerie shops, and search online on sites like www.blossom-lingerie.com. This way, you can get an idea of pricing and the kind of items that are being stocked. You could maybe even think of a niche to fill a gap in the market.

Apply for the Permits You Need

There will be permits and licenses you need to start your own lingerie business. A business license, tax I.D number, and retailers license could be the things you need to get your business started. If you want to sell your wares at trade shows, you might also need special permits for that. Liability insurance is important too! Take a look on the HMRC website for more information on becoming self employed.

Stock Your Inventory

Now you need to select pieces to be a part of your inventory.You’ll want to contact wholesalers, private designers, and manufacturers to purchase your inventory and get a beautiful collection of lingerie. Make sure you have a full range of sizes, and include items that should satisfy every taste. You’ll want quite conservative pieces, as well as racier items. Novelty items, and items for bridal wear are always popular! You might also want to include items for men.

Market Your Business

Now you need to market your business! You could even begin before you have your inventory, by making a Facebook page with your business name, adding people and sharing posts relevant to the industry. Tell them that your range of lingerie will be coming soon to keep them interested, and ask for email addresses so you can sign them up to your newsletter. You can also use social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin to network, answer any questions, provide great customer feedback, and run competitions to drum up interest.

It’s also important that you have a well designed website that’s search engine friendly, so contact a professional designer to do one for you. By making your site search engine friendly, you’ll make sure that people who are looking for your products, find you when using Google. It isn’t just the design of a site that’s important, as no-one will be able to find you without learning a bit about SEO! You can even try PPC to get traffic and conversions. Don’t neglect offline methods of marketing either, like business cards, flyer drops, and giving away free branded stuff!

Now you know what to do, go and get your name out there!