So, you’ve got a product or service to sell and you’ve got a business plan in place, maybe you’ve even been selling your product online already. But now it’s time for you to move your product or service to the high street and make it readily available for people to purchase on the day rather than needing to wait for it to be delivered. How do you do this? What do you need to think about? We’ve put together a list of things to consider when setting up a store.
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Location
This is an important aspect to think about. If you’re selling a high-end product then there’s probably not much use in your having a store around an area where there are a lot of bargain-priced stores. You just won’t get the customers you are after. Same goes for the other way around. It’s a good idea to conduct some market researchhttps://catalystforbusiness.com/how-to-create-financial-plan-for-startup/, try asking your customers where they would see our products and where would be best for them to purchase them from.
The Interior
Have a think about how you want your store to be laid out and how you’re going to display any stock you have. To you need store fixtures that suit different products or maybe you need a set of desks for staff who will be providing a service to sit with customers. You could consider drawing up a plan for how and where everything will sit in the store. Other things to consider would be your budget for the items you need and possibly how customers like to shop such as do they prefer to shop from shelves or stands that move. Again, conducting market research can help with this.
Payments
How are you going to take payments in your store? This is really something you should be thinking about before opening a store as there are so many factors that need to be considered. Such as are you going to offer card payments, the majority of people now prefer to pay by card rather than carry cash so it could be best to keep up to date. If you are going to be taking cash payments you should bear in mind that you are going to either not keep cash onsite overnight or have a safe with an alarm system. You will also need to give an arrangement with the bank for cashing money into a business account or maybe even having money collected by professionals.
Staff
When opening a store something that people may forget about is hiring staff. You may be the front of your store for a while, just while it kicks off but after a little time, you may want to take a back step and take control of the back running a little more. To do this you are going to need staff that are trusted and trained, the best way to ensure you are getting what you want from staff for a new store is to have them in from the beginning, they will get a really good sense of the company morales and mission from this and become an asset to your business.
Do you have any other things that should be considered when setting up a store? Please share them in the comments section below.