To open a shop with no idea how?

[PizzaBeerAndYarn]

I want to have my own shop. I have a fabulous idea and I am convinced it would work beautifully but I haven’t the first clue how to do it.

So where to start? Is there any sort of training/study to do? How would one go about it? How do you give up your job, pay the bills and have time to put into it? Also I think I’d need 150k to see me through the first couple of years.

Is it something you could try as an online venture to start with?

Find out what your costs are to buy/produce items and what you can sell them for without the expense of premises, staff etc?

Then work out how much you would need to sell in order to cover all the costs of running a property, filling it with stock(?) and - most importantly - paying yourself a salary (this seems to be the bit a lot of people forget about when starting their own business!)

If your shop is selling pizza beer and yarn I will be first in the queue!

You need to make a solid business plan,
do some a lot of research, scope out any competition and is there a demand for your idea.

Then look at rents, insurances, etc for a bricks and mortar shop. Will you get good footfall? How will people know you're there? Think about shortfall (ie people nicking from you) staffing, how you will source your stock...

Don't forget you still need to have an income to pay your household bills while the shop is starting up.

Be brutally honest with yourself about the idea and the market for it - plus the retail market in general. Does this idea really need a physical shop in the current climate, or could you run it solely online? Even if you do want a physical location, could you test the water with Etsy, Amazon Marketplace etc.?

If your idea is fabulous, why has no one else had it? This isn’t me trying to say ‘Obviously it can’t be that fabulous’ or anything similarly sarcastic by the way It’s a genuine question. Is it a genuinely unique idea? Or is it an idea others have looked at and thought ‘There’s a market for this, but it’s not enough to build a business on’? Or it could be that similar businesses exist elsewhere, but that it’s not the right concept for your location. The artisan breads and customised cupcakes that will sell in Ealing, Harborne or Hale won’t make you much money in Edmonton, Lozells or Moss Side. If you’re going to go to the expensive of a bricks and mortar location, choose that location very wisely.

What will you need in the way of staff? Are you planning on being a one-woman band? Can you afford to close up if you need a holiday or time off sick?

Most importantly, what will make what you do unique? Why would a customer pick you and not a competitor? A lot of people take the talk about wanting to use independent shops, but the reality is those shops need something extra to stay competitive ahead of larger retailers, and particularly online retailers.

None of this means you shouldn’t go for it, by the way! But go in with your eyes wide open, in the right location and with realistic expectations.