Opening a health food/supplement shop questions

Colash

I'm strongly considering opening a health food and supplement shop in my local town , or in the nearest town . I've a back round in sports and fitness and I've always wanted to open up a shop which caters for health food and sports supplements . I've looked at a few premises and I'm happy with the sizes, rental prices and yearly rates . My only questions are , what to do next ? Do I compile a buisness plan and approach the bank for a buisness loan ? Or will I be laughed out of the place ? Or do I go it alone ? With my own savings ? There's a really good opening for this in my locality . The area I'm in has a large sporting back round , and cycling clubs , gyms , triathlon clubs and football teams are all present in the area . Any tips would be a great help

ladiesman217

Hi Colash. Yes a business Plan is a given for any new business, you will need to show banks and local enterprise boards that you have done your market research and financial projects. You will need to have a consistent and effective brand identity (the visual manifestation of your brand) e.g. logo, website. You need to ask yourself questions such as: what is my USP, how do I create customer loyalty. These are only two of many questions that need to be asked of a new business venture.

The very best of luck with it

Peterdalkey

Local enterprise boards are not interested in retail in terms of grants but you may be able to access advice services. My guess is that you will need to have free cash of roughly double that which you seek to borrow from them.
In this market landlords are very wary of giving leases to anyone in a startup and will seek additional guarantors who have means! However you may find empty units that they will take anything they can get in terms of rent. Do lots of research and you could save big time. Remember that you are going to have to invest in shop fitting that may be custom to the unit layout, so you will need some security of tenure.

Why not consider a home based, web and mobile model. Get a nice mobile shop trailer and visit the clubs/gyms etc, let them see your stuff. Have plenty of decent quality leaflets/ flyers to give out and a local address so they know who they are dealing with. Back it up with a proper well designed website. Once it reaches a decent volume of trade, perhaps then is the time for a bricks and mortar shop.

Colash

Peterdalkey wrote: »

Local enterprise boards are not interested in retail in terms of grants but you may be able to access advice services. My guess is that you will need to have free cash of roughly double that which you seek to borrow from them.
In this market landlords are very wary of giving leases to anyone in a startup and will seek additional guarantors who have means! However you may find empty units that they will take anything they can get in terms of rent. Do lots of research and you could save big time. Remember that you are going to have to invest in shop fitting that may be custom to the unit layout, so you will need some security of tenure.

Why not consider a home based, web and mobile model. Get a nice mobile shop trailer and visit the clubs/gyms etc, let them see your stuff. Have plenty of decent quality leaflets/ flyers to give out and a local address so they know who they are dealing with. Back it up with a proper well designed website. Once it reaches a decent volume of trade, perhaps then is the time for a bricks and mortar shop.

Thanks for your reply Peter . The mobile shop/trailer idea sounds very good to be honest . I may very well look into it more . I think my main goal at the moment is research and as much of it as I can possibly do