Brick and Mortar...Been there, done that!

[HC_Charlie]

Do you have, or had a physical brick and mortar location for your retail business? After recently closing my store after five years, I'd like to put together some resources for other Sellers that may be just starting to plan or think about opening a brick and mortar location. Do you have any tips or suggestions that you found helpful, or wish you had known before your opened shop?

Some points that I wished I'd given more thought to include:

• Location! You've probably heard it before: location, location, location. And it really is true! I chose a very quaint store front in an enclosed walking mall, but the lack of road frontage exposure and other retail attractions became too difficult to overcome. I could advertise a TON, and it still was a challenge to get people to come visit, or even find the shopping center.

• Inventory costs! There's a retail concept called "open to buy" and I never really considered or understood this; the concept details how much inventory you can carry in your store, and how much you need to sell to turn over old inventory, so you can have funds available from those sales to purchase new inventory items. I was always struggling to pay off old inventory (so I carried debt) before ordering fresh, new seasonal items. I felt I needed to have a constant stream of fun, new items to keep regular customers coming back. But in the long wrong I wasn't selling enough to restock so frequently.

• Have a profit plan in place. If you don't make sure you pay yourself first, you'll never see a paycheck or see the benefits from all of your hard work. There was a great featured book in the Square Readers Book Club earlier this year called Profit First by Mike Michalowicz. You can read about it here; if you're not signed up for the book club, give it a try! The book helps you make a plan to set aside your profit before taking care of other expenses.

So, what is the best advice you'd give yourself if you were opening a brick and mortar location all over again?

[Twpchair]

Ohhhhh, it is all day every day phone calls booth 1 has more pictures than mine! 😆 🤣 😂 calls to the store what sold what didn't etc. I finally learned after 12 yrs. My phone goes off at 6pm. There is nothing so important it can't wait until tomorrow! We are open 7 days and I would love to have a couple of hours with my husband and mother in law who has dementia and moved in with us last year. She loves to come in and dust and sweep and honestly look at the antique part of it and she the hand built items her son does. So it has been a blessing and curse. 

[AdamB]

Your good location would also help with events if you go that route if the events have a lot of walk-in appeal and flexibility.

[DinaLRosenberg]

I have a brick & mortar and I would say the #1 piece of advice I give to people looking to open a physical location is that you need to be a destination and draw your own customers. Sure, foot traffic is great- but you can't always rely on foot traffic- it can change depending upon weather, construction, special events, etc. 

We knew early on we'd need to harness the power of social media to draw customers. 

[HC_Charlie]

definately agree @DinaLRosenberg being your own destination is key. You cannot depend on other stores or surrounding attractions to pull customers in for you, especially if, like me, you are located in an area that does not have a lot of other shopping. Events can be key too, but that's related to creating a whole experience for your customers.

[DinaLRosenberg]

Events are GREAT - we produce a local event that did quite well last year and we are bringing it back this year and launching a 2nd event. 

We're always looking at experience .. and I think that's why people travel to get to us 🙂

[tranguyen]

Let us know how the second event goes @DinaLRosenberg 🎉!

Curious as well, how did you start hosting these events locally 👀?

[Jessica-Gaucher]

So many good things here that I completely agree with.  Here are a few additional thoughts:

If you are going to hire people, make sure you are interviewing diligently to find the right people. Hiring warm bodies to sit in a chair that don't provide any other value than opening and closing the door might be doing you more harm than good. Train your team to answer questions the way you would answer them. 

Setting up an inventory management and tracking system upfront is time consuming but you'll spend countless hours fixing problems later down the road if you aren't thoughtful and consistent in the way you name and classify your products. 

Just because you buy a product for your store doesn't mean its going to sell. You really have to get to know your customers and what they are looking for and let that help guide your product assortment. 

[sgiani]

Hi great Advice. Where is the Open to Buy concept? I own two stores but am struggling to balance the orders and getting inventory and still keeping enough for a payroll for me and to pay rent etc.

Thank you