Office Space Expenses

$0

$7,000

Employee & Freelancer Expenses

$151

$352

Website Costs

$223

$7,215

Business Formation Fees

$600

$4,700

Retail Business Expenses

$1,250

$11,650

Inventory Expenses

$350

$14,750

Advertising & Marketing Costs

$75

$4,786

Software Expenses

$150

$2,420

Total Startup Costs

$2,799

$52,873

Nike

nike.com/

389

Nordstrom

nordstrom.com

991

StockX

stockx.com

1,071

Zulily

zulily.com

2,444

JCPenney

jcpenney.com

3,120

Neiman Marcus

neimanmarcus.com

4,455

Finish Line

finishline.com

5,723

Vans

vans.com

6,711

Converse

converse.com

10,546

ALDO US | Shoes, Boots, Sandals, Handbags and Accessories | ALDO US

aldoshoes.com

18,837

Attention Required!

loozap.com

19,796

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.

Scalable

With businesses and processes changing daily, there will always be demand for new features, products and services for your business. Additionally, there are several different business models and pricing tiers you can implement that will allow you to reach all types of customers.

Meaningful business connections

You never know who you will meet as a shoe brand. 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 shoe brand, 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 shoe brand, 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.

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.

Longer Sales Process

A shoe brand can be a big time and money investment for your customer, so it's important you plan and predict a longer conversion funnel and stay in communication with potential customers.

Low margins

The gross margins for your shoe brand are typically around 46%, which can make it more challenging to incur new expenses and maintain profitability.

Taxes

As a shoe brand, 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 shoe brand, 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.