Maybe you grew up helping your parents in their own corner store. Maybe you genuinely love customer service. Perhaps you make something super awesome and you want to build a business around it. Whatever the reason, you want to have your own business, but you’re not sure where to start. Here are some tips on various options available to you to start the business and how to get there.
Franchising
Franchising is a great option for people who really believe in a specific brand and who want to bring more of that brand to their own towns and cities. A lot of people believe that franchising is only for restaurants, but this is a myth. There are many different types of franchising opportunities out there. For some, the best franchise opportunities will be more service oriented, like a UPS store franchise. For others, something more fashion related is a better option. Whichever niche you want to enter, though, you can find a franchising opportunity or that.
The best part about opting for a franchising opportunity is that you don’t have to worry about building buzz from scratch. Instead, you’re serving an already enthusiastic market. A lot of the work is already done for you.
Going it Alone
If you decide that you want to build something of your own, from scratch, there are several factors that must be considered and decided upon before you can start building:
Do you want to sell other people’s products or your own?
Maybe you’ve always dreamed of opening up your own indie bookstore/coffee shop (we all miss Borders, it’s okay to admit it). If this is the case, a lot of your work is going to revolve around dealing with vendors and zoning regulations.
If you want to sell your own products, you will need to make sure that you can produce enough of your products to keep your shop stocked from day to day. You’ll also have to make sure you can legally sell what you make in a retail environment. There are laws about what kind of materials can be used and sold and where that sale can happen.
Do you want to specialize or generalize?
This will largely depend upon the type of business you want to run. For some, specializing in a specific type of product or genre of products is a much better option than generalizing within a larger niche. It is important to be objective here. Yes, generalizing might bring in more foot traffic but, realistically, which approach will earn you more sales? At the same time, if your genre/niche is too narrow, you might not be able to build enough of a customer base to pay your suppliers or cover the cost of your shop’s lease.
Do you want your own space or do you want to share space?
Yes, we all dream of being our own bosses and building something from scratch that is just ours and nobody else’s. Still, for some of you, the best course of action is to join forces with other hopeful retailers and build your own co-op. You’ll still own your own business, but you’ll benefit from your fellow vendors’ foot traffic and sharing the lease and utility fees goes a long way toward preserving your profitability.
If you’re confident in your ability to sell enough to pay for a location with some left over to turn a profit (or at least not go bankrupt), it’s a good idea to get your own solo space. Depending on where you live and the store you want to run, you might want to consider leasing space in a local mall or neighborhood shopping district. This way you won’t have to worry about whether or not you can convince people to travel to your location. They will already be there! Plus, this way, you don’t have to worry about whether or not you should offer parking.
These are all questions that you will need to answer as you put together your business plan (which is necessary if you hope to secure traditional funding and loans). They are also important for helping you figure out what kind of retail operation you want to run. It is easy to get overwhelmed by all of the different decisions that you will have to make. To combat this feeling, take the building process slowly. It’s better to go slow and steady than to rush and potentially make very costly mistakes as details fall through the cracks.
