How to Start a Cologne Business
Just as the application of perfume is an indispensable beauty ritual for some women, so is cologne a part of many men's everyday grooming routine. It lightly scents the skin and lends its wearer a feeling of being attractive, clean and completely dressed. For these reasons, cologne is a desirable and sometimes costly item, and the cologne business can be a lucrative one. Hundreds of new fragrances are introduced each year, and consumers never seem to tire of buying them. If you want to capitalize on cologne's popularity, use these guidelines to start a cologne business. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Familiarize yourself with the fragrance industry. Learn how fragrances are created, produced and marketed. Read informative books, such as "The Perfect Scent: A Year Inside the Perfume Industry" by Chandler Burr and "Perfumes: The Guide" by Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez.
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Smell as many colognes as you can. Find out what types of scents are available, who makes them and how much they retail for. Be able to describe a variety of colognes with ease. To sell a product, you must first possess a thorough knowledge of it.
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Decide whether you want an Internet business or a brick-and-mortar store. Online shops have less overhead, but it may be more difficult to build a costumer base.
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Make a list of all of the colognes you want to sell. Offer a diverse assortment from different fragrance families, including colognes described as leather, tobacco, floral, and herbaceous. Use fragrance industry websites, such as basenotes.com, to learn about the most popular and best selling colognes, and include these in your inventory.
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Contact the distributors of the colognes you wish to sell. Visit a website such as wholesalecentral.com to find a list of fragrance distributors. Pay the distributors wholesale prices for the colognes. Build up your inventory until you have enough product to confidently begin selling.
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Establish a retail price for each of the colognes you will sell. Price the colognes high enough for you to make a profit but low enough to be competitive with other cologne sellers. Charge at least twice as much as the wholesale cost of the colognes; you must earn back enough to cover your business's overhead costs and reap a profit.
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Create a dynamic website if you're running an Internet-based cologne business. Include images, detailed descriptions and prices of every cologne you offer. Arrange to receive payment through an online payment system and ship orders promptly.
If you opted for a brick-and-mortar store, select a good location. Arrange the store in a way that is pleasing to the eye, and display the colognes prominently. Hire a salesperson who is knowledgeable about all of the products offered, or work in the store yourself.
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Advertise your cologne business. Place ads on perfume blogs, which are heavily visited by fragrance lovers. Put ads in fashion publications or in the lifestyle section of your local newspaper.
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Tips & Warnings
Although cologne is traditionally worn by men, many women like to wear it as well. Women also buy cologne for the men in their lives. Keep this in mind when advertising your business and describing the fragrances.
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Comments
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I like cologne and I hope someday I will become distributor.
