I was always on the wholesale side of the retail trade. Not to be a Debbie Downer - but there's no way I'd start a retail business without having adequate capital to fund the inventory. In a wholesale business you can sell your receivables (I never did but that avenue is available) at a discount to fund yourself.
You need to sell the inventory to pay rent - salary - overhead etc.... and you need to REPLACE that inventory at the same time... There's no way you can catch up if you don't start out with 100% of your inventory out of your pocket.
IMHO you'll need to also have enough capital to pay all your living expenses for at least 6 months because the business will have all manor of unaccounted for expenses for the first few months and that will have to come out of cash flow or capital. People never allow enough for this. You'll have plenty of miscellaneous expenses that will be double and triple what you allowed for and like building our cars --- things tend to get the "well... as long as I'm here...." Such as shelving - walls - fixtures - lighting - signage - office equipment - deposits for phone and other services - expenses for legal (skip this at your own peril).
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