Office Space Expenses

$0

$7,000

Employee & Freelancer Expenses

$151

$352

Website Costs

$223

$7,215

Business Formation Fees

$600

$4,700

Equipment & Supply Expenses

$63

$200

Software Expenses

$162

$3,094

Advertising & Marketing Costs

$0

$2,550

Total Startup Costs

$1,199

$25,111

Leather Hide Store

leatherhidestore.com

45,765

Status Anxiety

statusanxiety.com.au

51,817

Tandy Leather, Inc.

tandyleather.com

124,921

Portland Leather Goods

portlandleathergoods.com

170,224

Homemakers Furniture

homemakers.com

179,741

Leather Furniture Expo

leatherfurnitureexpo.com

249,904

Leather Company

leathercompany.co.uk

284,243

Popov Leather

popovleather.com

335,417

Galen Leather

galenleather.com

338,189

The Leather City

theleathercity.com

356,528

Becker Furniture

beckerfurnitureworld.com

357,012

Flexibility

You can put as much time into the business as you'd like. If you like the work and have some initial experience, you can start small and manage all aspects of the business on your own.

Meaningful business connections

You never know who you will meet as a leather business. This could be the start of an incredible business opportunity!

High customer retention rates

Once a customer invests in your product, they've invested their time and energy to utilize your product/service which is highly valuable to them. Typically, your product or service becomes indispensable to your customer.

Easy to encourage "impulse buy"

In the leather business, you have a much higher chance of encouraging your customers to buy on impulse - you can easily alter the price, placement, packaging, and promotional value to influence the decision of your buyer.

Control of workload

With starting a leather business, you have the unique ability to choose how little or how much you want to work. You also have the freedom to decide which projects you want to work on, and can turn down the ones that do not interest you.

Gain exposure and experience

This career allows you to gain experience working for multiple different businesses - which will benefit your resume and also keep things interesting for you!

Motivation of employees

If you plan to have a sales/content team on board, finding creative ways to motivate them can be a challenge. It's important that you're able to offer great incentives and a good work environment for your employees.

Low margins

The gross margins for your leather business are typically around 13%, which can make it more challenging to incur new expenses and maintain profitability.

High employee turnover

In the leather business, employee turnover is often high, which can be quite costly and time consuming for your business. It's important to try and avoid this as much as possible by offering competitive pay, benefits, and a positive work environment.

Taxes

As a leather business, you typically pay self-employment taxes which can be quite high. It's important to understand what you will be paying in taxes each year so you can determine if the work you're taking on is worth it.

Niche Market

A niche business is not necessarily a bad thing, in fact, it can be the key to your success. However, it can be more challenging and time consuming to find the perfect niche market and target audience.

High overhead expenses

With starting a leather business, there are overhead expenses that come with selling a physical product. You will want to make sure you strategically budget for these overhead costs. We discuss this more in the startup costs section below.