Opening up my own small boutique. Advice?

It sounds like you already KNOW what you are doing ...and you are just asking questions here to get a handle on what you already know.

You are a smart person...just take your business plan to an average lawyer who can get you the licenses and things you need to start. Since you are working on line your expenses will be lower so you will have more profit for yourself...or to invest in additional inventory items.

BUT because you are on line only - you WILL need to invest in marketing and Search Engine Optimization...and Advertising..of course.

So...start by looking at advertising costs and marketing costs...and see how much of that a smart person like you can handle. (since you won't be waiting on customers...you will have time to market your on line shop and make it very profitable!)

You want to be an LLC.

Go to the Fiverr website and one of the people there has a very good business plan (It is a sample plan, but one that you can actually use yourself) That plan lists vendors, costs, mark up and profit margin. I think you need that.

You cannot buy clothing by one manufacturer and then put your own tags in them and re-sell them as your own. You will be sued. That is the same as opening a restaurant and serving McDonalds food...but in your own packaging.

There are wholesale clothing districts in New York, Los Angeles and in North Carolina and Tennessee. You can go there and visit individual manufacturers and make deals. NOTE: THIS is where you can make arrangements for them to put your tags into a wholesale run of clothing.

Get an accountant to work with you and teach you things like Quickbooks Point of Sale system (or Clover). Read the sample business plans and then get your accountant to help you make one that will go with YOUR idea of a store. (basically don;t paint your store purple just because an on line plan said to do so...but DO pay your taxes because an on line plan said to do so. An accountant can help you with that.

Sole proprietorship means if anyone sues you they can get your house and car in a settlement. With an LLC your personal property and bank account are protected.

If you're asking about wholesalers like this, you're nowhere near ready to make a decision on this yet. You have a ton more research to be doing. Why would you relabel stuff with your labels? The label shows the manufacturer, that has to stay on. You didn't make any of it so your labels aren't needed. Your name ONLY goes on the price tag, not the clothing.

Now if you paired up with someone locally who's making a line of clothing, their name would be on it but you can put 'exclusively made for _____' on your price tags.

Have you done any retail work in this field? Have you talked to managers of boutiques to see how they function? Do you know which permits to get? How to rent a storefront? If you're responsible for the parking lot, utilities, roof repair, furnace? Business insurance? A bookkeeper? How to hire someone? Payments via different accounting processes for your suppliers? Shipment times for seasonal items? Where to get store fixtures?

There's a LOT of stuff you still need to research. I'd start with talking with your local SBA and/or SCORE offices who mentor new business owners, and start googling both 'opening a boutique' and 'marketing articles'.