How to Start a Store

Starting a Retail Business

There is a wide variety of retail stores you can start, so select a specific niche that interests you (for example, baby shower gifts, gardening tools, kiteboarding gear, stir fry cooking supplies). You can open an online store, start a brick-and-mortar retail shop or even launch a mobile kiosk or vending machine business.

Think about the ideal environment you’d like to work in – alone or with a team? Out of your home, in a shop or outdoors? Weekdays, weekends, evenings or flexible hours? Do you prefer working with a certain type of customer – age, interests, personality? All of these factors can affect how you set up your store and enjoy your line of work. Decide what you want before you launch your store.

You can even start an online store part-time, without having to purchase inventory up front. Work with drop shippers through selling venues such as eBay or Amazon, and you won’t even need to set up your own website.

With so many options, many retail entrepreneurs understandably have lots of questions, including “How do I start?”, “What are the start-up costs?” and most importantly, “How do I get customers to buy from my retail store?”

You don’t want to walk blindly into your new business. A smart way to go about opening your retail store is to learn from someone who has already owned their own retail store business, and follow in their footsteps. This can be as simple as going to your local library or bookstore and picking up a business start-up guide for starting an online store, a retail store business, mail order company, etc…

At Bplans.com, you can find over 100 sample retail store business plans (free) that let you see what other entrepreneurs have done. These can be very helpful when starting your own retail store business, whether it be online or offline. Business plans can even give you an idea of possible start-up costs and operating budgets in your specific niche market – before you launch your business.

You also want to make sure your business idea is viable, so find out as much as you can about your target market.

Start a Clothing Store

1. Get some experience. Whether it’s merchandising classes, a previous retail store job, volunteer activities or assisting others in the retail field – the more experience you have when opening your own retail store, the better.

2. Specialize in a niche. Don’t try to please everyone. Focus on a specific market and offer products exclusively for those customers. Ideally, you want to represent a niche in your local are that is not yet represented.

Some popular clothing store niches include mens clothing, antique or vintage clothing, bridal boutiques, discount clothing stores, fabric or sewing stores, consignment or thrift clothing shops and designer clothing. You can also focus on clothing accessories, like starting your own jewelry business.

3. Figure out your start-up costs. Start-up costs vary widely, depending on your store location, size, types of products, etc. I think a great way to see what your potential start-up costs would be is to look at what other retail business owners have spent. How do you find this out? You can view several business plans online for free, and often they have a financials section, including start-up costs and income projections.

4. Pick a location. Look at several location and local zoning and other regulations that may apply. Will the location bring in enough foot traffic to cover the rent – and does the area offer future growth potential?

5. Advertising. While keeping your ads simple, you want them to grab your customers’ attention and provide quality information about your merchandise or store events.

Sell Music Online

If you are a musician and want to promote your music products online, how do you do it?

ReverbNation and Audiolife have created what many artists think is the “Ultimate E-commerce Platform” for professionals in the music business. It’s called ReverbStore, and it’s already a popular marketing tool for over 450,000 musicians.

Using ReverbStore, artists can design their own physical and digital products online (like CDs, ring tones and music downloads, and then sell them through the website. What’s even better is that products can be offered without the requirement of producing tons of inventory – they are produced on-demand, and drop shipped directly to the customer when purchased.

Open a Gift Shop

People buy gifts year round. Even with thousands of websites and mail order catalogs, local brick-and-mortar gift shops still play an important role in gift giving.

Many gift-givers find themselves having to shop for gifts at the last minute. Gift shop businesses can supply cards, wrapping paper and supplies and even unique gifts that shoppers need immediately – and that websites and catalogs can’t provide.

Gift shops can provide items like helium balloons or bulky party supplies that customers don’t want shipped anyway.

That doesn’t mean that you don’t still have to compete with your online counterparts. People still shop for gifts online plenty, so it’s smart to consistently offer new and different items that customers will have a difficult time finding elsewhere. You may want to feature handmade work of local artists or include all-natural or organic products.

Read more… How to Open a Gift Shop

Selling from a Kiosk

Kiosks can be expensive to start, but when located in a high-traffic location, can generate substantial income and pay back their initial investment quickly. The key is to have a well-thought out business and marketing plan combined with strategically-priced products – ideal for “impulse purchases”.

Also think about whether you want to operate your kiosk business full-time or part time, or even run a seasonal kiosk business.

If you plan to operate your business from a kiosk or as a mobile service, here are some licensing issues you want to consider:

- You need to obtain a business license to operate, just as you would a non-mobile business
- If you haul a cart similar to a trailer, you must get a license from the Department of Motor Vehicles
- If you serve food, you’ll need a permit from the Department of Health

Another issue to consider: shopping malls often have carts/kiosks permitted and insured.

Sell Merchandise on eBay

Garage sales can make you some quick cash, clear out clutter, save on hauling costs and even provide a nice part-time income. Believe it or not, there are actually some great books published that show you ways that you can turn this casual hobby into a more profitable venture. If you are looking for an easy low-cost business to start, garage sale selling has some great benefits that you can enjoy, and can even be as fun as throwing a party – without the expense!

If you want to make money on eBay, you’re not alone. Lots of people get started every month trying to sell products on eBay, but not everyone succeeds. Selling on eBay is fun and can be very profitable at the same time, but you need to treat eBay selling as a business in order to be successful with it.

What is the difference that decides success or failure – and what do you need to know so that you’ll succeed? Get tips and guidance from en eBay Powerseller, or someone who has already successfully sold several items on auction sites. This will save you lots of time and money.

Start a T-Shirt-Selling Business Online

Start by getting a website. Save money by creating your own website with simple online design programs, or outsource the job to an affordable website designer.

Another option is to work with another company like Cafe Press or Print Mojo. These companies will warehouse your products, host your website, print your t-shirts and handle customer orders for you. You get to design your products and decide the pricing. It’s a unique business opportunity where you can create and sell a variety of customizable products with $0 unfront costs and $0 inventory investment. There are fees for sales processed.

For more new business ideas for small and home-based companies, visit The New Business Idea. You can also get over 200 business start-up guides and download the Home Business Start-Up Checklist free from www.HomeBusinessCenter.com.