We started a completely different type of business with a candle shop that makes candles for fundraisers. So our sales were generated by people who sold for us... teams, groups, etc that wanted to raise money... and they found us by word of mouth.
In our case we were able to keep overhead low, since we would have orders put together and money up front. In your case you might be fighting overhead demands if you are relying too much on foot traffic and on site sales.
One of our biggest wins was a fundraiser through a mid-size company... was great for us. You might need a few of those kinds of wins (I know you're not doing fundraisers, just you might need a break or two before you get really going) to get started if you don't have the cash or don't want to spend too much... but I can tell you that you absolutely must have a plan financially to get it running and keeping it running. And you won't get funds elsewhere if you don't have a solid business plan complete with financial projections.
Lots of businesses fail because they don't have the financial means to keep things churning during the startup phase. If you can't project what your startup expenses are and when you'll break even, you are just mucking along hoping all goes well. It might. It might not. Better to not leave it up to chance.
In our case, we networked and did small fundraisers to get cash and just progressed to bigger things. You need to network... I'm not saying you are looking too big, but you are talking about very different customers... low income and bulk business. You might want to focus on getting into one area really well, just as the retail shop might be something that strains you more financially at first than the build to order idea.
So narrowing your customer base and your focus might be a good start... because then you need to figure out how to reach them. Talking to small companies that are more flexible and that have less red tape might be a good start. Advertising around college campuses where people might want a decent, lower price product might help.
Talking to neighborhood associations in lower income areas, if that's your gig... and I'm telling you... the fundraiser/charity thing finds a way to sell itself. I'm not saying that you need to do that, but you do need to find a way for other people to sell for you. We did it by giving them a route to a goal... they had the money for a trip or a scholarship or whatever...
If you can get people to sell for you, or promote your business for you, then you'll be in a better place. If you aim for the lower income, you need to get in with the people who will contact them or that they will contact themselves. If its business, you need to do the footwork, make some contacts...
Don't know if this helped at all. Mostly rambling, but those are some things that popped up in my head.
Feel free to throw out more details or ideas about how you plan to go.
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