Starting up a market stall

DominoW

Ok, I've wanted to run my own shop for a while, specifically a retail clothing store.

I've worked in a large clothing store for several years now, and before that I volunteered in a charity shop as a designated volunteer (which meant I got to handle the paperwork, deliveries, collections, banking, payouts, etc...)

All hugely valuable experience and makes me know this is what I want to do, the main thing I don't want to do though is start off with a huge loan and then find myself struggling, working none stop, just to repay it.

I feel a market stall would be the most beneficial way of getting myself into the role, So I've been looking at my local area, and it's £30 for an outdoor stall on a Saturday (including the actual stall itself.)

I think starting off just on Saturdays would also enable me to keep working during the week too just until I get in the swing of things and make sure it is going to be viable.

Obviously I need to get a decent amount of cash saved up to buy stock, banner, pay for a logo design, rent the stall, and a couple of tabletop mannequins to display some product.

Now for my questions as I'm new to all of this.
1. How much stock should I start with, I was thinking possibly a hundred or so units, it's a pretty busy town center on Saturdays though and I'm unsure whether this would be enough. (I wouldn't want to run out of sizes.)
2. Markup price, what should I mark the prices up to, I can source for about £8 per unit judging by the research I've done so far, I was thinking at selling for £12 per unit, nearby shops sell similar products for around £15 per unit. Is £12 too low, some sites I've looked at say to aim to double your price, but then I fear my prices would be too high.

InsideInsurance

Evidently markup varies by what you are selling. Whilst double your wholesale price is a nice rule of thumb it is mainly for the bigger players who are buying in bulk not for a one day a week market trader.

How much stock is going to be difficult to estimate, it always is. You need to do your business plan which should have footfall, estimate of how many will stop and look, how many of those will actually buy. You then need to decide the diversity of ranges you want to stock and then what range of sizes for each range. etc

Most would expect to get a decent discount buying from a trader rather than a shop. You seem to have an idea of the shop retail price but what sort of prices are the other stall holders selling at?

Browntoa

have you checked you will actually get on the market at all , some have a limit on certain types of stall within the market , the day marketeers have to turn up with everything and hope the inspector chooses you if its full

I have done this many years ago , needed public liability insurance from memory

http://www.nmtf.co.uk/

has more info and public liabilty insurance with membership

I used to aim to do volume on the pricing rather than a high mark up and sell a few

DominoW

It's pre-booked rather than first come on the day, so if I do manage to get a place booked then that's fine.

I hadn't considered Public Liability, I'm going to get a little money saved before I contact the market stall holder though so will look into that whilst saving, I also have a few other locations as backup incase I don't get a spot.

They don't seem too picky as to what stalls they have there as it's more of a general market and has bits of everything, there used to be a clothing stall which specialised in gothic and band tee's but they moved elsewhere a while back, mine isn't this specific target audience or product, but leads me to believe that as long as there's space I should hopefully get approved.

But as I say, I have backup locations just incase.