15 year old entrepreneur!

[Dream&Achieve]

Hey guys I'm so glad to be a part of this forum! I am a 15 year old female, and I really want my own shoe store and once I get there, I want to franchise them. I started collecting shoes when I was about 13 years old. I started doing research and found out about the Sneaker Community, and realized it is a very big community and there are many business opportunities in it. I found Storenvy, which is a free site where you can decorate your website with or without using code and I've been using that for awhile now. Once I got my website up I knew I needed products to sell. I bought 15 shirts from a t-shirt printing company with my design on it, those ended up being about $100 down the drain. I also bought a pair of Jordan's a few months ago for $200 and hadn't sold them for the longest time, the price was going down very badly and I knew I lost money on them too. Just last night I texted a man and sold the shoes for $120. After that I felt really proud, even though I lost $80, I'm still very happy that I sold them and didn't lose the full $200. That's all I had on my site, one pair of Jordan's and about 10 t-shirts left in stock. This morning all I have now is the t-shirts. I was set in a slump after I realized I was going to lose money on the shoes, but I'm back now and happy that I at least sold them. I plan on buying more shoes in the future and expanding my business. I've also started to learn some Code through a free training program I found online. With that code, I hope to someday be able to design websites or do something with marketing. I'm currently a freshman in high school, and next year I plan on taking a Marketing/Entrepreneurship class. Once I'm a junior, I plan on taking a Computer Science class where we learn code. Since I am young I can't do much as of right now, but that won't stop me from pursuing my dream.

 

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[jon.a]

Why did you buy the Jordan's?
Why did you sell the Jordan's?
What kind of Jordan's?
Were they going to go down?
What did you do with the $120?

 

[Lex DeVille]

Hey guys I'm so glad to be a part of this forum! I am a 15 year old female, and I really want my own shoe store and once I get there, I want to franchise them. I started collecting shoes when I was about 13 years old. I started doing research and found out about the Sneaker Community, and realized it is a very big community and there are many business opportunities in it. I found Storenvy, which is a free site where you can decorate your website with or without using code and I've been using that for awhile now. Once I got my website up I knew I needed products to sell. I bought 15 shirts from a t-shirt printing company with my design on it, those ended up being about $100 down the drain. I also bought a pair of Jordan's a few months ago for $200 and hadn't sold them for the longest time, the price was going down very badly and I knew I lost money on them too. Just last night I texted a man and sold the shoes for $120. After that I felt really proud, even though I lost $80, I'm still very happy that I sold them and didn't lose the full $200. That's all I had on my site, one pair of Jordan's and about 10 t-shirts left in stock. This morning all I have now is the t-shirts. I was set in a slump after I realized I was going to lose money on the shoes, but I'm back now and happy that I at least sold them. I plan on buying more shoes in the future and expanding my business. I've also started to learn some Code through a free training program I found online. With that code, I hope to someday be able to design websites or do something with marketing. I'm currently a freshman in high school, and next year I plan on taking a Marketing/Entrepreneurship class. Once I'm a junior, I plan on taking a Computer Science class where we learn code. Since I am young I can't do much as of right now, but that won't stop me from pursuing my dream.

Hey Nicole,

Welcome to the forum. It's great you're already on this path. You've got a lot of time to learn things and make things happen.

Sounds like you've already experienced your first fail/win - and you even made a sale so that's pretty cool too.

Have you looked into the possibilities for building websites in 2015? You don't need to know much if any code at all.

I started with Yola.com and later moved to Wordpress. Yola's easy to start with and most everything is drag and drop.

Anyway, there are lots of ways to move forward. Just a matter of choosing a path and walking down it.

By the way, what specifically is your dream anyway?
• If it's to own a shoe store and franchise it, how will you make it different / better than the mass chain stores?
• What other ways might you use shoes to solve a massive worldy problem?

 

[Dream&Achieve]

Why did you buy the Jordan's?
Why did you sell the Jordan's?
What kind of Jordan's?
Were they going to go down?
What did you do with the $120?

Why did I sell the Jordan's? I planned on selling them anyway but for a better price that would give me profit. They ended up going down in value and had to sell them for cheap.
What kind of Jordan's? They were Jordan 9 "Statue", after I bought them I realized they weren't very popular among the sneaker community.
Were they going to go down? I know a site that tells you what the worth of sneakers are going to be after they get dropped. The site did say that they were going to go down after a couple weeks or so, I knew it was a huge risk but I learned a lot and I'm glad I bought them, it feels like it was the start for my business.
What did I do with the $120? I have not done anything with the money yet, as soon as I made the deal and sent the invoice, it was about 11pm and I was exhausted so I just went to bed. This morning I just got on here to post my introduction and I will go to Paypal after this post and decide if I should transfer the money to my bank or keep it in there for me to buy other shoes in the future.

 

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[jon.a]

Why did I sell the Jordan's? I planned on selling them anyway but for a better price that would give me profit. They ended up going down in value and had to sell them for cheap.
What kind of Jordan's? They were Jordan 9 "Statue", after I bought them I realized they weren't very popular among the sneaker community.
Were they going to go down? I know a site that tells you what the worth of sneakers are going to be after they get dropped. The site did say that they were going to go down after a couple weeks or so, I knew it was a huge risk but I learned a lot and I'm glad I bought them, it feels like it was the start for my business.
What did I do with the $120? I have not done anything with the money yet, as soon as I made the deal and sent the invoice, it was about 11pm and I was exhausted so I just went to bed. This morning I just got on here to post my introduction and I will go to Paypal after this post and decide if I should transfer the money to my bank or keep it in there for me to buy other shoes in the future.

You make your money when you buy.
You had a paper loss. You made that loss real when you sold.
Don't sell an asset at a loss unless you're pretty sure it's going to keep going down.
Don't sell an asset without a plan to re-deploy the cash into a better asset.
Cash loses about 3% per year to inflation. If your asset is losing less than that and you don't have better options to buy don't sell.

Now, study more and make your next buy a better one. Like the guy that just bought the shoes for $120 did.

 

[Dream&Achieve]

Hey Nicole,

Welcome to the forum. It's great you're already on this path. You've got a lot of time to learn things and make things happen.

Sounds like you've already experienced your first fail/win - and you even made a sale so that's pretty cool too.

Have you looked into the possibilities for building websites in 2015? You don't need to know much if any code at all.

I started with Yola.com and later moved to Wordpress. Yola's easy to start with and most everything is drag and drop.

Anyway, there are lots of ways to move forward. Just a matter of choosing a path and walking down it.

By the way, what specifically is your dream anyway?
• If it's to own a shoe store and franchise it, how will you make it different / better than the mass chain stores?
• What other ways might you use shoes to solve a massive worldy problem?

Wow! I'm definitely going to check out Yola and Wordpress soon. To answer your questions, I do want to be like a footlocker but in a different way. Shoes are expensive, most retail price is $150 and lots of them end up becoming worth a lot more. I read about this 17 year old somewhere on the east coast, he owns this store called SneakerPawn and he buys shoes for cheap and resells them for cheap, he makes some profit but he gives people a chance to buy shoes at a decent price. I've always liked the thought of helping people, I can't get many shoes because they are so expensive and I'm not old enough to drive and it's hard to get a job where I live. So I hope to bring the prices down somehow or if you purchase a pair of shoes for me for the whole month of August, then you'll get an entry into a giveaway and I'll giveaway one shoe each month. I hope to give back to my customers somehow and I really want to emphasize on my customer support and having cool workers. I visited a shoe store in Chicago a few months ago and as soon as I walked in I felt like I was at home. The first worker who saw me was like What's up, my name is Jordan and told me a little about himself and then he asked about me. The atmosphere of the store was just amazing. I want that in my store, I could stay in that store for hours. Now for the other question, my local VA really needs shoes and I hope to give them tons of shoes once I get a business up and running. I've seen videos of other shoe stores go out and give to the homeless, I've always been into helping others and hope to do that in the future.

 

[jon.a]

http://www.themillionairefastlane.com/download.php

 

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[Dream&Achieve]

You make your money when you buy.
You had a paper loss. You made that loss real when you sold.
Don't sell an asset at a loss unless you're pretty sure it's going to keep going down.
Don't sell an asset without a plan to re-deploy the cash into a better asset.
Cash loses about 3% per year to inflation. If your asset is losing less than that and you don't have better options to buy don't sell.

Now, study more and make your next buy a better one. Like the guy that just bought the shoes for $120 did.

I thought about buying shoes for cheap like the guy did with me and reselling them. I might have to start doing that for awhile till I get enough money to really start my business and get it going. Thank you for the advice and information!

 

[Dream&Achieve]

http://www.themillionairefastlane.com/download.php

I'm currently reading the book right now, it's great so far!

 

[Guest34764]

I was making some money from cleaning peoples shoes at school.Degrading,but makes some money.If you want to buy shoes cheap i'd suggest constantly checking on eBay for shoes.Every hour and always watch bids and try to snag them at the last moment.I also have used a sneakerbot that will automatically grab sneakers that just come out.It's expensive but it works.Anyways, welcome to the forum we're both 15 so if you want to do business i'll help

 

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[Dream&Achieve]

I've attempted to clean shoes, I use Jason Markk wipes, I've thought about buying Reshoven8er or however it's spelled. I've always wanted to try a sneakerbot but I don't know how they work. Do you have an Instagram or something? We should connect.


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[GMJimmy]

Hi Nicole,

It seems that you are a person who actually takes action and does something. This is the best way of gaining experience.
And learning, what you do too.

Find a need and offer value to the people that'll help a lot.

Looking forward to see your progress if you don't mind keeping us updated.

 

[Guest34764]

I've attempted to clean shoes, I use Jason Markk wipes, I've thought about buying Reshoven8er or however it's spelled. I've always wanted to try a sneakerbot but I don't know how they work. Do you have an Instagram or something? We should connect.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I don't use social media unless it's for business.So unfortunately i don't have instagram.I have a facebook for my shoe cleaning but i use kik a lot.So PM me if you want to Kik.Also Sneakerbots do work if you buy the expensive ones and you shouldn't use wipes.I use Jason Mark in the bottle and i have various tools to scrub and stuff.

 

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[mikeobi]

When I was your age I was doing the same thing but honestly, it's not a good hustle unless you buy the shoes at retail. Sometimes resell value on some releases aren't high, but releases like the Supreme 5s or Metallic 6s can make you a killing if you had a bot or were really fast at checkout. A bot, though, doesn't guarantee you get the pair, and that's because a shit ton of people use them. The best way some people are still making money in the sneaker market is good connections with people who can supply them with multiple pairs of the shoe at retail without the competition on release day or consignment (selling sneakers for other for a fee). Selling sneakers is a good way to make SOME money but for the long-term it's VERY difficult to make a living off it with all the established competition already.

 

[Guest34764]

When I was your age I was doing the same thing but honestly, it's not a good hustle unless you buy the shoes at retail. Sometimes resell value on some releases aren't high, but releases like the Supreme 5s or Metallic 6s can make you a killing if you had a bot or were really fast at checkout. A bot, though, doesn't guarantee you get the pair, and that's because a shit ton of people use them. The best way some people are still making money in the sneaker market is good connections with people who can supply them with multiple pairs of the shoe at retail without the competition on release day or consignment (selling sneakers for other for a fee). Selling sneakers is a good way to make SOME money but for the long-term it's VERY difficult to make a living off it with all the established competition already.

Agreed.Bots are good like i said but a lot of people use them.A lot of luck is involved in snagging them before anyone else.

 

[Dream&Achieve]

I understand what you're saying, I hope to have a shoe store someday and expand it into many other locations


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[mikeobi]

What you CAN do now is go through eBay, Craigslist, FACEBOOK forums and Grailed, and look for shoes that you can flip. I used to do this alllll the time. Lots of sneakers are undervalued in these places and you can just snag em and relist them on any platform you choose (the best being eBay and Grailed I think). It's a good way to get your feet wet as a young teen and potentially make a good chunk of money if you are constantly on the prowl and can find those deals.

 

[Dream&Achieve]

Thank you very much!


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[Dream&Achieve]

I don't use social media unless it's for business.So unfortunately i don't have instagram.I have a facebook for my shoe cleaning but i use kik a lot.So PM me if you want to Kik.Also Sneakerbots do work if you buy the expensive ones and you shouldn't use wipes.I use Jason Mark in the bottle and i have various tools to scrub and stuff.

How do you send a PM? I'm fairly new here, I've searched around but not sure how I start a new conversation.


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[STiiiZY]

How do you send a PM? I'm fairly new here, I've searched around but not sure how I start a new conversation.


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I'm also very new to the forum, but I think you,
1. Click Inbox
2. Start Conversation

I'm wishing you all the best in your venture.

 

[Dream&Achieve]

Thank you very much!


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[ToniLene]

What's up with the tongue Nicole? I know you're young, but along with learning to create a business, our personal image is also important.

Find yourself a mentor in a field that you care about. Intern for the summer. Here in DC they have Summer coding camps for teens and all types of different programs in sciences, business, etc... There is probably something similar in your town.

Best of luck.

 

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[HarvestMoon]

Hey guys I'm so glad to be a part of this forum! I am a 15 year old female, and I really want my own shoe store and once I get there, I want to franchise them. I started collecting shoes when I was about 13 years old. I started doing research and found out about the Sneaker Community, and realized it is a very big community and there are many business opportunities in it. I found Storenvy, which is a free site where you can decorate your website with or without using code and I've been using that for awhile now. Once I got my website up I knew I needed products to sell. I bought 15 shirts from a t-shirt printing company with my design on it, those ended up being about $100 down the drain. I also bought a pair of Jordan's a few months ago for $200 and hadn't sold them for the longest time, the price was going down very badly and I knew I lost money on them too. Just last night I texted a man and sold the shoes for $120. After that I felt really proud, even though I lost $80, I'm still very happy that I sold them and didn't lose the full $200. That's all I had on my site, one pair of Jordan's and about 10 t-shirts left in stock. This morning all I have now is the t-shirts. I was set in a slump after I realized I was going to lose money on the shoes, but I'm back now and happy that I at least sold them. I plan on buying more shoes in the future and expanding my business. I've also started to learn some Code through a free training program I found online. With that code, I hope to someday be able to design websites or do something with marketing. I'm currently a freshman in high school, and next year I plan on taking a Marketing/Entrepreneurship class. Once I'm a junior, I plan on taking a Computer Science class where we learn code. Since I am young I can't do much as of right now, but that won't stop me from pursuing my dream.
[/QUOTE!

How's progress been? As a 15 year old myself this sort of content is really enlightening for me