Help Needed ASAP Please!!!!

fc123

how did you get on with the chat with landlord???

please post if you want more tips...did you understand the stock costs in relation to the turnover??...critical to get the hang of..the less stock you have, the less turnover comes in...i feel you probably need a turnover of around £4k per wk on average and you can build the business up to that in time but first you need to get through his difficult bit

have some ideas on FREE stock...my friend has a lifestyle store in a mkt town...have lots of ideas if you fancy making some easy, high margin items.

ksha

fc123 wrote: »

how did you get on with the chat with landlord???

please post if you want more tips...did you understand the stock costs in relation to the turnover??...critical to get the hang of..the less stock you have, the less turnover comes in...i feel you probably need a turnover of around £4k per wk on average and you can build the business up to that in time but first you need to get through his difficult bit

have some ideas on FREE stock...my friend has a lifestyle store in a mkt town...have lots of ideas if you fancy making some easy, high margin items.

Hello,
The landlord wasn't in, so had to write a letter instead - i haven't heard from him yet, will ring on Mon - i think he's away.
Any tips on anything would be great, thankyou so much.
Ksha

PasturesNew

ksha wrote: »

I've got what you could call, a 'lifestyle store'

eh? a what?

PasturesNew

Right.. read it all now
I really must do that more often before replying.

Anyway. Not sure if it's appropriate to your business, but, the issue of getting rid of stock that's not selling. It might be worth punting this out through ebay. At least testing some.

You can use ebay to: list/sell all your current stock anyway - various models for how you should do that/pricing etc. And/or just shift your bad lines. Things that aren't selling where you are might go like hot cakes online.

Where I used to live a guy had a discount sportswear shop. He started randomly listing some things on ebay - and ended up closing his shop down as ebay was more profitable for him.

It's worth looking into anyway as a way to shift your surplus/old stock. Whether you shift things individually - with a link back to your shop website so local people know where you are, or whether you shift your non-sellers as wholesale lots and "anonymously".

fc123

Hi, if you can bear it..an SOA on your weekly outgoings would really help me advise you (as one retailer to another)....get last yrs accounts and divide annual costs by 50 (NEVER 52....allows for 2 weeks off per yr for hols..one day!) to give AVERAGE weekly figures. The first yrs accounts will include shopfit etc costs but it is advisable to keep these IN the sums as you will need to re-fit / improve things every 3 yrs or so anyway to keep shop fresh.

I feel that you are not buying enough stock ( as no spare funds after fixed costs) but this WILL affect your turnover potential in a negative way. your turnover is DIRECTLY connected to the ammount of stock you hold in-store.

Is your store Cath Kidston (fake retro) ? or funky modern? Help me as I have a load of "making" ideas but they need to be appropriate to your store. What clothing labels do you stock??

My friends lifestyle shop has only survived as she works 6 days per wk, has no mortgage or debt of any sort (nor kids or hubby) and she sits in her store knitting cute fairisle knits, making peg dollies or retro bunting.....obviously she buys in a load of stuff "made in China" (we all do to support our true work) but she is surviving.

We deal in ladieswear and are "last man standing " in our area after 10 yrs........we used to compete with other independent clothing stores...they are now all gone (now the premises are Costas, Subways and chain clothing stores ...mainly Bauger owned.)

We have survived as we produce a small own label range, i design and cut the patterns...it is made up in Leicester and this stuff has no competition as the work is original and unique to us.....the rest of the stock is bought in but i work incredibly hard to only stock clothing exclusive to us in our city...this means we mark up a MINIMUM of X 3.8...usually X 4.......this is why we are the Last man standing...a retail mark up of less than X 3 is no longer enough to cover the current level of commercial rents / rates.
oh, and we also work 6 days (often 7 during busy season) and have no holiday time off at all..

What is your average mark -up?? pls remember i am not going to judge or criticise.......but it helps me give you the correct advice. My experience of Business link types is that, sometimes you get a retired person who understands ones field (but their experience is a bit out of date) , but mostly they are too ACADEMIC...and, remember, they work PAYE for a Govt body...they are no longer self employed....the self employed who are surviving / successful are too busy to work for Business link..............I used to lecture Princes Trust youngsters and another Govt scheme thingy for people wanting to work in fashion...but now I don't have the time...........but this late night post thing is handy as we don't have telly anymore.so i have an hour @ 11pm to help!!

Can you sew / knit...are you dextrous and creative......an original idea followed through into a saleable product will always beat a mass-produced Chinese import.

Incidentally, we are also in cashflow crunch at present as our sales have fallen off a cliff in the past 2 wks..............our past 2 wks were worse than a wet freezing February...yet our shop is packed full of yummy new season.......so our sums are all out of sync too........we looked back on our figures and this Sept has been our WORST for 6 yrs......I'm feeling a recession coming on................

Back to your store. pls answer my Q's when you have time as i can post and help specifically rather than rant on and on..............................

ksha

fc123 wrote: »

Hi, if you can bear it..an SOA on your weekly outgoings would really help me advise you (as one retailer to another)....get last yrs accounts and divide annual costs by 50 (NEVER 52....allows for 2 weeks off per yr for hols..one day!) to give AVERAGE weekly figures. The first yrs accounts will include shopfit etc costs but it is advisable to keep these IN the sums as you will need to re-fit / improve things every 3 yrs or so anyway to keep shop fresh.

I feel that you are not buying enough stock ( as no spare funds after fixed costs) but this WILL affect your turnover potential in a negative way. your turnover is DIRECTLY connected to the ammount of stock you hold in-store.

Is your store Cath Kidston (fake retro) ? or funky modern? Help me as I have a load of "making" ideas but they need to be appropriate to your store. What clothing labels do you stock??

My friends lifestyle shop has only survived as she works 6 days per wk, has no mortgage or debt of any sort (nor kids or hubby) and she sits in her store knitting cute fairisle knits, making peg dollies or retro bunting.....obviously she buys in a load of stuff "made in China" (we all do to support our true work) but she is surviving.

We deal in ladieswear and are "last man standing " in our area after 10 yrs........we used to compete with other independent clothing stores...they are now all gone (now the premises are Costas, Subways and chain clothing stores ...mainly Bauger owned.)

We have survived as we produce a small own label range, i design and cut the patterns...it is made up in Leicester and this stuff has no competition as the work is original and unique to us.....the rest of the stock is bought in but i work incredibly hard to only stock clothing exclusive to us in our city...this means we mark up a MINIMUM of X 3.8...usually X 4.......this is why we are the Last man standing...a retail mark up of less than X 3 is no longer enough to cover the current level of commercial rents / rates.
oh, and we also work 6 days (often 7 during busy season) and have no holiday time off at all..

What is your average mark -up?? pls remember i am not going to judge or criticise.......but it helps me give you the correct advice. My experience of Business link types is that, sometimes you get a retired person who understands ones field (but their experience is a bit out of date) , but mostly they are too ACADEMIC...and, remember, they work PAYE for a Govt body...they are no longer self employed....the self employed who are surviving / successful are too busy to work for Business link..............I used to lecture Princes Trust youngsters and another Govt scheme thingy for people wanting to work in fashion...but now I don't have the time...........but this late night post thing is handy as we don't have telly anymore.so i have an hour @ 11pm to help!!

Can you sew / knit...are you dextrous and creative......an original idea followed through into a saleable product will always beat a mass-produced Chinese import.

Incidentally, we are also in cashflow crunch at present as our sales have fallen off a cliff in the past 2 wks..............our past 2 wks were worse than a wet freezing February...yet our shop is packed full of yummy new season.......so our sums are all out of sync too........we looked back on our figures and this Sept has been our WORST for 6 yrs......I'm feeling a recession coming on................

Back to your store. pls answer my Q's when you have time as i can post and help specifically rather than rant on and on..............................

Hello, Thankyou so much for all the time you have spent advising be! I know what you mean about all the business link people! Although the 'mentor i did see did kind of get it... although questioned my intent on selling belgian chocolates - one of the best selling things in my store!!
Any way, back to your questions, my rent is £15000 pa, i will do an SOA for you - i'm planning on doing it tomorrow.

It's quite a quirky shop, but we sell modern and contemporary things, wooden toys, burts bees, suzy smith bags - may help you? The clothing is on a small scale but by a company called ashasia - one size knitted items, going down a storm at the mo! The main thing is I HAVE TO BE DIFFERENT!! I can't stand clone stores and the few brands we do do are unique to us in the town and are not in massive chain stores.

Incidentely, I have just ordered wool and habadashery/craft items to turn part of my upstairs into a 'craft floor'. It's something we are always asked for and something that will hopefully make the upstairs pay a bit more.

I am a very creative person, textiles and art are my forte so i am interested in your ideas- I can sew and knit. i've also had an offer to design my own products by a local fair trade african company.

My average markup is 2.35 - 3 for bags and jewellery and clothing, i have been known to mark up 4 times though for clothing we had before!

Since i first posted trade has really picked up and i believe that it is all to do with a few new items we've had in - it's hard to invest in new items when you haven't yet paid for others but i've always believed that a full shop is a happy shop - as it were!

Please send me any other questions that will help you - you don't know how much this means to me!
Thankyou once again, I hope that your trade picks up this week!
K

fc123

Fantastic that you can sew and knit...this is the way forward!

free stock for now;
do you know anyone with any herbs? Rosemary etc.
Pick fresh mixed bundles, tie with vintage cloth ribbon cut with pinking shears...trite i know, but these will sell, basket on the counter 50p (or more).....my friend does a killing on this but you have to renew them every 3 days as they dry out.

lavender bags...find a bush and harvest it, dry out and make cute bundles out of vintage cloth.

Cards; do your own custom range (my friend does pressed wild flowers that she picks herself) but i'm sure you can think of loads of diffrent things ...make whilst shop is quiet and nearly the whole £2 (or whatever) is yours excl paper/ envelope cost.

Shetland wool is available on-line; if you can do fairisle etc from old patterns people WILL pay a premium for a UK made item from UK bred sheep. Simple scarves would be a good start.

Cover notebooks etc (bought wholesale see market trader magazine) with vintage cloth.

Cushion covers are also a good, simple item...no zip but a folded flap at back.
try to find old curtain fabric fron charity shops / boot fairs., ebay.

UK leisurewear ltd (google) do basic tees and kids babygros etc for traders only.find a printer who will do small ammounts and think up some slogans etc
obvious ones are things like "my mummys a yummy mummy" etc whilst the slogan isn't an original idea, with a good bit of artwork and nice packaging you should get a good return on stuff like that........nicer than he tat sold in Peacocks etc.

Aprons...she makes aprons (!) and they sell so well as there\ are not many choices\ around...she taps into career types who like to dress the part on their days at home...honest! good presents for grandma too.

Jewelery; all the SOHO (london) cash n carries sell stuff that is EASILY marked up by 4.


Your rent v turnover is just about survivable...but i reckon you will increaee to £3k average pwk within 12 months if you keep the store fully stocked all the time. Upstairs sounds\ a great idea though how will you staff it?...i know when we had a store with 2 floors, the stock loss from upstairs was BAD as staff didn't always run up after a customer. mark up on ribbons etc is LARGE (...try TRAYNORS (google)in the East End.one of the last cash n carry haberdashers left in london...his min spend is only £30 excl vat.

try to increase your margins on some stuff (be BRAVE there ARE people out there with £££ to spend) esp on items exclusive to you....just lifting mark up from 2.35 to 2.5 will make a big difference. An item that sells for £8 will still sell at £8.50.

Can you get he card debt onto 0%? if not 'phone them and say you have hardly any income but wish to pay off your debts...offer £100 pmth ...you should get a 0% deal for 6 months but you will have to persevere...then the interest can go on stock.

Your overdraft is big in relation to your turnover, but you will need the facility for the next year then you can attack it month by month. TRY to keep within it. Bank charges are a killer and a total rip off....please try and void.....have minimal direct debits, pay for stock on debit card NOT cheque as you never can be sure when it's going to land in the account.

Do you have any shop COSTS that can be cut back??

And today was a bumper day for us!! strange..the Northern Rock thing is settling down now...i think it set a cautious mood amongst a certain type of customer.

fc123

what was the issue with the chocolates??

The mark up sums are so important.
If the average mark up is 2.7 with 65% sold at full price (the remainder sold on mark down + 8% write off) it costs £1000 IN STOCK ONLY to turnover £2000. this leaves £1000 per wk (on average) to cover ALL the other overheads.

The sums on an average mark up of only 2.4 come in at approx ; £1000 to turnover ONLY £1700.

This can be the difference in surviving or not (or affording a decent wage at end of week).

You may have to cull lines that only get 2.35 AND don't sell that well /quickly EVEN if they give character to the store............next lesson will be the cost of each sq ft of selling space in your store.

ksha

fc123 wrote: »

what was the issue with the chocolates??

The mark up sums are so important.
If the average mark up is 2.7 with 65% sold at full price (the remainder sold on mark down + 8% write off) it costs £1000 IN STOCK ONLY to turnover £2000. this leaves £1000 per wk (on average) to cover ALL the other overheads.

The sums on an average mark up of only 2.4 come in at approx ; £1000 to turnover ONLY £1700.

This can be the difference in surviving or not (or affording a decent wage at end of week).

You may have to cull lines that only get 2.35 AND don't sell that well /quickly EVEN if they give character to the store............next lesson will be the cost of each sq ft of selling space in your store.

I thought Id up date you all on my progerss, currently nearly finished my business plan, and hopefully this is geting me somewhere.
I'm still having cashflow problema, trying my best not to be foreced in to a managed loan but we are busy.

Culling majority of gifts to make way for wider range of jewellery and a new dress agency - not stock to pay for outright!!

I could still do with soe tips but i think 2008 could be the turning point, although currently i have 101 bills to pay and not very much money to pay them with!
Hope you are all well,
look forward to hearing from you again,
Kshaw