Office Space Expenses

$0

$7,000

Employee & Freelancer Expenses

$151

$352

Website Costs

$223

$7,215

Business Formation Fees

$5,600

$20,400

Inventory Expenses

$350

$9,750

Training & Education Expenses

$0

$1,000

Software Expenses

$162

$3,094

Advertising & Marketing Costs

$0

$1,400

Total Startup Costs

$6,486

$50,211

Hobby Lobby

hobbylobby.com

7,516

Spotlight Australia

spotlightstores.com

20,512

Mood Fabrics

moodfabrics.com

32,454

ajkerdeal.com

ajkerdeal.com

33,772

Dunelm

dunelm.com

37,057

Online Quilting Fabric Store

fatquartershop.com

82,681

Online Fabric Store

onlinefabricstore.net

96,119

Robert Kaufman Fabrics

robertkaufman.com

165,995

Fabricville

fabricville.com

205,853

SwatchOn

swatchon.com

217,035

Quadrille Fabrics

quadrillefabrics.com

237,272

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.

Ability to start your business from home

It's not necessary to have a physical storefront or office space to get your business started. You can do everything from the comfort of your own home, at least in the beginning!

Little startup costs required

The cost to start a online fabric store costs significantly less money than most businesses, ranging anywhere from 62 to 50,211.

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.

Quick build time

The average time it takes to build your product is quick - typically around 8 months. This will allow you to bring your product to market faster.

You are your own boss!

With starting an online fabric store, you are the one to make decisions for almost all of the operations. Calling the shots can be empowering and liberating!

Crowded Space

Competition is high when it comes to your online fabric store, so it's important that you spend a good amount of time analyzing the market and understanding where the demand lies.

Finding The Right Supplier

Most businesses in this space go the supplier/manufacturer route, which isn't a bad thing! However, finding the right supplier can take a lot of time, energy and trial/error. If done properly, this process can save you months (if not years) of time and energy. More on this below in the "finding a supplier" section.

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.

You may need to charge sales tax

If you are selling your products in various states, you may be required to charge sales tax. Although this may not impact your financials specifically, it can be a headache to create a process and procedure for this. To learn more about sales tax, check out this article

Work can be repetitive

You may find creating the same product over and over repetitive and tiresome. One way of avoiding this is to diversify product lines and revenue streams - this will keep things interesting!

Time commitment

With starting an online fabric store, all responsibilities and decisions are in your hands. Although this is not necessarily a negative thing, work life can take over at times. This can place a strain on friends and family and add to the pressure of launching a new business.