With Bogart: My Business Startup

Hello. I'm Gemma Prior and my project is to create a one-of-a-kind website - an online shopping platform, or Virtual Shopping Mall - and a business opportunity in the process.

THE IDEA

The idea for my website, With Bogart, came after years being laid low with a chronic illness. When I became sick, I sold everything that wasn't nailed down to help cover medical expenses. Then, when costs eased a little, I began to replace some items. Unable to shop in the usual way (...visiting a store), I did all my shopping online. I searched for the best stores and prices and recorded them in a spreadsheet (true!), so I could find them again in the future. 

As my list continued to grow (and friends and family began requesting shopping leads) I realised others would enjoy such a refined yet comprehensive collection of online stores. Additionally it presented me with a business opportunity and a new spark of hope for the future. 

And so With Bogart began.

I have spent thousands of hours working from the family room table supported on one side by a hearing impaired Poodle and on the other by a gluttonous Cavoodle. Focusing just on women's clothing at present, I have an international collection of thousands of stores, designed to rationalise the online shopping experience, and I am now ready to take this selection to the masses!

When using With Bogart you can select which country, or countries, you shop from, how much you spend and what styles you are looking for. You are then presented with a collection of stores reflecting these choices. You can also save your favourite stores so you can find them easily in the future.

New stores will be added to the site on a weekly basis so visitors have reason to return. Additionally, I will expand the site in the future to include men's fashion, department stores, swimwear and more.

With Bogart will also publish weekly fashion-related articles as well as image collections offering style inspiration suitable for shoppers in both the northern and southern hemispheres. 



THE GOAL

In time I hope to realise a base of faithful shoppers’ and offer listed boutiques a variety of advertising options to engage customers and draw them to their store.

The With Bogart project has me excited and optimistic, as I believe it is the first of its kind. My greatest hope is that I will create a successful business and an income to support myself (and who knows, possibly others) and modernise online shopping in the process.

It may not be a project to cure malaria or to end global poverty, but it is one that has provided me purpose and hope during some difficult years, and now I'm ready to take it to the next level: a business.

BEHIND THE NAME

The name With Bogart has profound personal meaning.

Just before becoming unwell I had completed training for my Commercial Pilot License: my dream.  Before studying I worked an office job to save for my flight training and generally used my lunch breaks to surround myself with all things airplanes. Much of the time this meant searching for antique aircraft online.

The Stearman was one of my favourites. I fantasised about spending my weekends soaring in my very own, exposed to the brisk, crisp winds, suspended in flawless skies.  In my imaginings, the Stearman appeared to me as would a debonair gentleman: decorous and poised, evoking images of screen legend Humphrey Bogart. So I decided I would call my plane, Bogart. And I would spend my fantastical weekends, With Bogart.

With Bogart is now a reality in a very different sense, but still one with great meaning for me.


HOW FUNDS WILL BE USED

Any funds raised will be used to help pay my web developer, purchase necessary computer programs, and assist with paying initial business maintenance costs. 

THE CHALLENGES

As with any new project the challenges are vast and varied: mystifying internet technology, sulky computers, endless information to absorb, ideas to modify, practices to refine, and dollars to find. However, I have done my best to prepare and will continue to do everything in my power to succeed. Your help will be a great and indisputable part of any victory and will carry with it a profound personal significance for me.

MORE INFO

Please visit my landing page at withbogart.com  or contact me through GoFundMe for further information about the idea.

Thank you so much for your generous help.
Gemma.