A potential store owner posted recently, asking for advice on how to open a fine craft store. You can follow this thread on the American Craft Forum here:
http://www.americancraftforum.com/ (Click the title for the exact post.)
As an enthusiastic shopper, here is my take on the topic:
All the above advice is excellent, & I'd add three more words. If someone else mentioned them and I missed them, apologies!!
location, location, location.
Oh, and time, great hours, good financing, marketing and sales expertise.
From what I've observed there are two ways to build a retail business. Either define who your audience will be and make your biz a destination, or cater to who is in your immediate area.
The first will take time, time, time and money (at least five years to build if you are really eclectic) but will allow you to put more of YOUR individuality into your product/service selection.
The second is easier and faster (relatively), but quickly gets customer-driven. You may end up carrying work you don't care for at all, because that's all your customer will buy. That may or may not be important to you.... Some people thrive on the retail experience and it doesn't really matter to them what they sell. Or they learn to create a unique mix of the two.
In either case, location is important. You will still benefit from being where your customers can find you quickly, easily, and park conveniently.
If you pick a quirky "undiscovered" neighborhood or strive for "destination", make sure you have really extensive hours. Nothing in my shopping experience is more frustrating than to make a huge effort to seek out a store, make a special trip there and find their store hours are T-Th 2-5, F 11-2 and Sat 1-3. And it's Monday 10 a.m. And they are always baffled you can't seem to remember their store hours....
Learn everything you can about the art of selling. I've read everything I can get my hands on selling and the most succinct and concrete is still Bruce Baker's CDs on selling and his seminars. You can buy his CD from his website [URL=http://bbakerinc.com/]Bruce Baker's new website!![/URL] Make sure all personnel listen to this, too!! Nothing is more frustrating than bored salespeople and clueless employees. From time to time, ask your friends to "shop" the store to let you know how your customer service rates when YOU aren't there!!
Start collecting e-mail addresses from your customers and prospects IMMEDIATELY. Mailing costs can get huge, especiallly once your list gets into thousands of names.
Strive for the best in marketing and display. In our biz, it's the emotional connection between the artist and your customer that's crucial. You will be the marriage broker. :D Make sure YOUR people skills are as honed as they can be. Find out what works to create that connection--signage, trunk shows, gallery talks, special exhibits, featured artist or featured medium events, whatever--for your particular audience and your store.
Last, but in my opinion the most important—think about whether you really have the heart of a retailer.
It must be the universal human dream, to open a little shop someday to sell the stuff you love. I’ve seen many people try it over the years, with almost universally dismal results. I’m always astonished at how few people do the EXPERIMENT first. Here’s my best advice to those who would start a retail biz:
WORK IN A RETAIL BIZ FIRST.
Try it for a month. Actually, try it for a year. See if you like being in the same place ALL DAY, EVERY DAY. See if you like showing up every day, even if the weather is awful (or wonderful), even if you don’t feel like it, even if sales suck big time. See if you actually like dealing with the public. See if you are good with having employees. See if you like being constantly interrupted all day by a million things (including customers, buying or not) that demand your immediate attention.
I once toyed with the idea of opening a yarn store, so I worked in a friend’s yarn store. I’ve worked in retail for years and didn’t care for it. But I thought if I were selling something I loved, it would be okay.
But it wasn’t. I hated it. I hated not having time to work on my projects, having to drop everything to help customers who rarely actually bought anything, having to be in that store for a specific time no matter what. I’m better at short-term, free-form, impromptu, unscheduled and open.
But I have friends who LOVE this. They love their customers, they love their daily routine, they love their employees, they love the buzz AND the slow times, they just love having a store. They love their product, too, but you suspect they would be happy selling almost anything.
And even then, it took TIME for their business to build. And they are in a fantastic location for their product.
Whoops! As usual, my three words turned into hundreds. Sorry about that.
