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Unless you’re a sole proprietorship and linking your personal and business accounts (a risky move), you’ll need a business account.  Once obtained, customers will be able to make checks out to your business and you can deposit them in the account.  First, obtain a tax ID number.  You’ll need a federal and a state tax ID number.  The federal ID tax number is issued by the IRS.  You can obtain one by filling out IRS Form SS-4 (https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fss4.pdf). The state tax ID number can be found by contacting your state treasury, revenue department, or tax office.  Use the list at http://www.statelocalgov.net/50states-tax-authorities.cfm to locate the appropriate authority from which you can obtain a state tax ID number.   The bank in which you open a business account will need to see your articles of incorporation, corporate seal, and/or licenses and official registrations which prove you are the proprietor of a business. A merchant account is a bank account which allows businesses to process credit card or debit card payments.  Merchant accounts can only be established at merchant acquiring banks (also known as acquiring banks).  These sorts of banks exist specifically to process credit or debit card payments for merchants. A merchant account is easier to get after you’ve been in business for a while.  Merchant account banks like to see that you understand your business, the risks you face, and can prevent or reduce fraud (especially credit card fraud). A merchant service aggregator is a third-party service which provides the processing capabilities of a larger merchant account bank on a smaller scale.  PayPal and Square are two of the largest merchant service aggregators.  PayPal processes payments to and from bank accounts and credit cards for both individuals and businesses.  The service makes it easy to process payments online.  PayPal makes money by subtracting a percentage of each sale you make. Square, similarly, processes credit and debit card payments for shop owners digitally and in stores.  Unlike PayPal, they provide a credit-card reading device which can transmit data from a point-of-sale credit card for processing.  The device easily snaps into many smartphones or tablets.  Visit https://squareup.com/compatibility to check compatibility with your device(s). Use market feedback to set prices.  Look at similar items of clothing from competitors and mark your clothing with prices within the same range.  Mark everything clearly online as well as in direct sales through physical stores.  Do not make up prices on the spot, or you will appear unprofessional and unprepared. .  There are a variety of online outlets through which you can easily sell the clothes you made.  Ebay and Etsy are probably the most famous sites for purchasing clothing online through small producers.  Ebay is an online auction house.  You can offer your clothes at a minimum price, and allow people to compete with each other to obtain them.  Whoever submits the highest bid for a given item at the end of a designated time period will get the clothes. Etsy is not an auction house, but rather functions as a distribution hub of custom-made goods of all kinds -- candles, magnets, art, scrapbooks, as well as clothing.  Through Etsy you can distribute your clothes and reach new consumers easily. Other similar sites include madeitmyself.com, depop.com, and storeenvy.com.  All allow you to sell (and buy) independent clothing and apparel. When you’re starting out, farmer’s markets and local festivals are a good way to go.  If you want to get an official stall at the farmer’s market, you may need to inquire with the organization which hosts the market and pay a small fee.   Other local places that might be willing to carry some of your stuff include local coffee shops and cafes, which often offer local products for sale.  If even farmers markets entail too much formality for you, you can easily set up on a busy public street in many municipalities.  Take your clothes and lay them out on a blanket or small foldable card table so passers-by can browse.  Bring a chair, a good book, and a lockbox (to collect money and make change) and wait for business to roll in.  You can even send out an email or social media blast in the form of “I’ll be selling skirts, shirts, and summer wear this Saturday at the corner of Third and Main.  Be there!” Find a good time to sell your clothes.  Weekends and evenings are usually your best bet. Carry promotional materials -- business cards, flyers, or catalogs -- everywhere you go. You never know who you’ll run into or when an opportunity to promote your clothing business will come up.  Many local businesses, libraries, restaurants, and the like have community bulletin boards in their entryways.  Ask to post a one-page flyer on these boards to increase local buzz about your clothes.  If you have a quality color printer and a decent graphic design suite like Photoshop, designing your own flyers and promotional materials should be easy.  If not, enlist help from a friend proficient in graphic design and run a bunch of copies off at your local print shop. Cultivate a social media presence.  Use sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest to show off your designs and newly-made outfits. Get a proper website.  There are lots of template sites like Tumblr and Squarespace which allow you to set up a professional website without knowing a thing about code.  Alternately, you could enlist help from someone who is more familiar with web design to build you a website from scratch. As you become more proficient at what you do, take on apprentices and new employees so you can ramp up production.  Enlist help from creative individuals with an eye for fashion to design new outfits and styles.  Finally, as your business grows, you might want to consider opening a boutique of your own. Do not make the decision to transition to a proper storefront lightly.  The associated costs -- rent, taxes, and utilities -- may make the effort more expensive than its worth.  If you’re set on opening your own shop, take your time looking at potential spaces.  Find one located in a high-traffic area that your target market can easily access.
Open a business account. Set up a merchant account for credit cards. Use merchant services aggregators to make sales. Set your prices. Sell online Sell locally. Promote yourself. Grow your business.