RetailBX.sg - Starting a retail business ...

I fully agree with Pretty Dress. I used to run a pet retail shop but I must say I was very lucky to have not lost all my $. I was also naive and jumped straight into spending all my $ into doing up a nice shop, to decorate, renovate EVEN!. All coz I was inexperienced. Location of my 1st shop was bad, I took it coz it was cheap but not very visible from the main rd. Also, I didnt not do a very thorough market situation in that area at all. That area is already saturated w pet shops, and w my slightly off main rd location, I lost out to many of those 'big boys'.

By chance I was given an option to takeover an existing pet shop elsewhere by introduction of my supplier. i was told the other shop was better off in terms of location and there are a readily pool of regulars of that shop. I took the plunge and bought over that shop. my current pool of $ was by now almost all gone and I even had to pay my current landlord a penalty for breaking an early bond. thats not the worst, thimking of all the reno $ that I had spent for just barely 6mths and its all down the drains. (new air cons including!!)

The 2nd shop that I took over was making $ every mth. and I operated it for almost 3yrs before selling it off to someone who was also interested. I was tired. Mentally. Pet Retail is a very labourious biz. And thinking back, it was not even my passion to own a pet shop to begin with! it was all hear-say that its a lucurative biz!!!

In a nutshell, to start a brick and motar shop,
1) start small. its very tempting to go ooh i wan to do this with my shop, have this look etc etc and spend $ on unnecessary renos and fixtures that is not going to generate $ for u

2) Do market research on your product (text book theory but something cant be emphasized even more)

3) to open a shop, u need to have at least 2 yrs (if ur lease is for 2yrs) of your rental as contingency fund, on top of your capital for day to day operations. that is a huge amt of $ and this is something that many of us fail to see. if not you will run into a situation where u cannot afford ur landlord if biz is bad for your whole of lease agreement and u r either fined heavily or end up heavily in debted.

4) do what is YOUR PASSION. its easy to say i like to open a shop to sell clothes. but when biz is bad, will you still stick by this thought?or u want it coz other people are flourishing in this biz. many fail to see if they are cut out for this kind of biz. coz ultimately, when the going gets tough, its only passion that can get the tough going

ok i have shared much about retailing. of coz if the kind of biz u r looking at doesnt involve a pound of ur flesh, its always the theory, u never try u never know. the school of hard knocks is not quite a bad place to learn life's best experiences afterall. it makes people wiser and sharpens your biz acumen for your next venture! like me, im on to what i love most since young, fashion designing!

Cheers!