Desire to open up my own shop, either on-line or locally?

Savvy_Sue

Ivy89 wrote: »

I've considered the princes trust, does that only help stores or will it help online aswell?.

Sorry, you'll have to do your own research there: I'm far too old to maintain a personal interest! :rotfl: However my quick glimpse when I searched for their website indicated that they may help with training or setting up a company: the best idea would be to focus yourself a bit IMO: you've talked about a jewellery stall, your new age interests, possibly holistic therapies, maybe a shop, maybe online - if I say it's all a bit woolly atm? Actually there's no real problem with that, better to throw out multiple ideas and see what might work rather than be definite that you're going to do X and we all say that's a really dumb idea (politely, of course!)

Prince's Trust may be able to help you focus in any case, but have a good look at what they do.

texranger wrote: »

I have looked at stores, but TBH the high street is dead , you need a regular footfall, so best in an out of town shopping centre rather than a high street.

See, I'm not sure I agree with that ... not that I'm an expert! But our nearest out of town shopping centre just doesn't have anything 'different' that I can think of at all, it's all chains. Of course I don't know whether that's because the rents are just too high, or whether 'independent' shops just don't 'work' there. And it may not be true of all out of town shopping centres: tbh I very rarely go to this one because it does my head in!

But the OP will be getting an idea of what's involved with running a shop and hopefully making a note of all the things you might not think about - waste disposal, for example, don't come cheap!

coupleuk

You mention that there are two similar stores near to you - how near?

What is the %GP on the goods you are planning to sell?

As you hardly have any money available, I would think about approaching these other two stores.....

If the profit margin is 40%, I would make them an offer - they loan you the goods (and you leave them a cash deposit) and anything you sell they discount at 15%.

Then, book in to fetes, car boots, markets etc and it will be a low cost way of trying the idea.

You would make 15% (less fuel, pitch fees etc) on anything you sell and can return any items not sold for a "refund".

This system will benefit both you and the shops - BUT they wont want you selling within (say) 10 miles of their stores as you will be taking their trade.

If they are ruthless, they might see that you are doing well and then just take their own stock to the markets etc - it's a chance you have to take but is far less risky than buying your own stock etc upfront.

Paul

motorguy

Ivy89 wrote: »

I have £600 in savings that I can put towards buying products and that. Do you recommend any on-line store providers or any other tips?.

The whole 'do i open a retail shop' is a moot point here.

The O/P has £600 of savings. Thats not going to open a retail unit - and even if the O/P had the funds, i wouldnt be recommending a retail unit anyway.


Dont 'assume' that there are large margins / less competition to be had online outside of ebay. I googled 'new age products' and it came back with 317,000 results. Most on the first few pages are very established and well organised online stores. How will you compete with them?

I think the way forward here, as others have suggested is a market stall / car boot sales and combine that initially with an ebay shop. That way you will have an online presence for £15 a month. You can then experiment and see what works and what doesnt work and take it from there.

paulwf

pgilc1 wrote: »

The whole 'do i open a retail shop' is a moot point here.

The O/P has £600 of savings. Thats not going to open a retail unit - and even if the O/P had the funds, i wouldnt be recommending a retail unit anyway.

Exactly - lets be realistic, you probably aren't going to get far with opening a shop unless you have access to funds (inc loans) or £30K as a very rough figure. Looking for a grant or loan of a couple of thousand will get you nowhere.

My concern with this type of business is how long the stock will be sitting there and will a proportion of it never sell? We've covered this before on this forum, I think a model railway shop was used as an example. You could sink £10K into various new age bits 'n' bobs and at the end of the year have £5K of it still there, but you still have to find money to replenish the stock that is selling. Dead stock is going to be a real concern.

As an illustration at the other end of the spectrum is a chip shop where you get the spuds delivered in the morning and sell them as chips in the evening. Instant turnaround. If the business is successful maybe you spend a few quid more on another bag of spuds each day. OTOH if your new age shop gets a good reputation you may need to sink another £10K into stock to increase your product range. All your profits could end up forever buying more stock.

yorksherpud

We are just going through the process of taking out a high street shop lease and I can tell you it is not as cheap as you think. The lowest rent we could get was £20k (we are on one of the main streets though). Should we want to be on the main drag the rents shot up to in excess of £60k. The landlord will require 3 months rent upfront as well as a further rent deposit of similar or equal value

Don't forget you have rates to pay on that too. You then have solicitors fees, shop fitting, insurance for building, stock and public liability. You need enough stock to start trading. Your business will also need a sign (a business with no sign is a sign of no business!) Then what about marketing, how will customers know to find you, advertising is not cheap.

If you are wanting to offer holistic therapies you may well do well looking to hire a room in a beauty salon or hairdressers. You have a ready supply of clients walking through the door - doing treatments on a market stall would not be practical.

Whatever you choose to do I hope you succeed

paddyrg

Does the spiritualist church (who sound like your chief target) have any space for a table where you can lay out stock and man when there are gatherings? Take the stuff to your crowd and it has 4x the footfall (assuming road has 2 directions and 2 sides!) and that may help you decide if you really do enjoy working crazy hours for small reward, or like the idea more than the reality!

Savvy_Sue

yorksherpud wrote: »

Don't forget you have rates to pay on that too. You then have solicitors fees, shop fitting, insurance for building, stock and public liability. You need enough stock to start trading. Your business will also need a sign (a business with no sign is a sign of no business!)

And you haven't mentioned waste disposal! which as I said before, don't come cheap.