Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I have been in the process of opening a small boutique beauty supply store.  I have a very unique opportunity in my area to have space to sell my product in a high traffic area that just so happens to be a draw for the customer base I am seeking out.  In addition, the rental situation is a sort of pay as you go situation.  You only pay rent for the days that you are there and the rent is dirt cheap! 

My plan though had to be rethought after I took a long hard look at my financials.  I simply won`t have the money to purchase the items I need.  So I started thinking, how can I get the money to do this?  Perhaps I could sell something else...something that I could make for cheap and sell for a decent profit...hmmmm  One of my hobbies is making bath and body products.  I never really considered it to be a business option.  I couldn`t tell you why, accept perhaps there is still for me at least the financial barrier currently.  But now with this new retail opportunity available to me, I think it just might be profitable to reconsider. 

It would mean at the least, that I could start up my business within a few months!  I could afford it, I could grow at my own pace, and I could keep my 9-5 until I have saved up enough money/repaired my past credit errors, to open my store and feature my very own products along with others. 

I guess I am saying all this because I want to hear from others what you think of my idea.  Is it sound?  My initial investment would be under $500 and I have even started figuring the pricing per item of what I will sell.  BUT I still want to open my BBSS!  That is what my true passion is for.  To me this seems like a productive way to make this dream come true.  What do you all think?

Bath and body products are related to beauty supply so you could eventually transition into that business.  But if your initial focus is going to be on bath products, make sure that it will be lucrative enough to finance the transition.  It`s got to be enough to sustain the business as is, along with putting capital aside for beauty supply.

It would be good to make some projections of the sales and profits you need to make to accomplish this.

Would it be possible to sell your own products through some other distributor, and use that as extra part-time income toward your financial goals? It would save you the rent money and possibly get you where you want to go faster.

If your own products are organic/toxin-free, you can find a huge number of potential retail outlets at localharvest.org -- probably many nearby to you.

—paula

1. If you think bath and body product shop can make enough to open an boutique beauty supply store then why you don`t consider it to be a serious business?

2. If making bath and body products is your hobby then you like this, converting a hobby to business is always better.

3. Don`t think far, just start your bath and body product store - if you see the profit is rocking high then you might stick to this business rather than jumping to BBSS.

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paula -

True, if it is organic then you have a nice market for your product. You can always sell it through vendors like ebay.com, amazon.com and many more. You can save your time, money(rental expenses) at the same time.

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Small Shop Business Ideas

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Thanks so much for all the input!  To answer some of the questions, I never considered bath and body products to be a serious job because in the past, I didn`t know that they could be sold online.  I just assumed that I would need a retail store.  Now however, I have found this unique situation where I could pay rent that is only $25-$35 daily or $100 weekly.  Also, I would make my own hours and schedule so I wouldn`t have topay someone to be there when I am at my 9-5.  The space is a booth in a multi purpose public facility that has literally THOUSANDS of people coming through daily to shop.  Currently, there is only one person there (in a permanant spot) who sells hand made soap, but nothing else.

While the bath and body is my hobby, the BBSS is truly my passion though because the products that I want to sell are not readily available in my area, yet they are in demand.  While I feel bath and body can easily be found.

I guess my fear was that I was doing my usual unconsious sabotaging of my own plans KWIM? 

Oh, I see what kind of space you`re talking about. I love those kinds of markets, there`s one here in my town set up in an ancient movie theatre. Very cool.

Personally, I think it sounds like a great idea and a lot of fun. If you can figure out the money part and get things squared away there, I don`t see any reason why you shouldn`t go for it. There might even be microloans available for women entrepreneurs that are a little less strict about credit than a bank would be.

I don`t want to seem like I`m trying to tell you what to do, but if I was in your shoes I would take my plan to the local SBDC or meet with someone from SCORE to make sure everything`s all sound, and also to find out about microloans... they`ll have the scoop on that.

Definitely interested to hear how it goes, please keep us posted! Take pictures for us

—paula

Thanks again Paula.  I have met with SCORE already, but at the time, I hadn`t done any real financial research.  They kind of showed me how to do that so I guess it is time for a follow-up session then.  I didn`t think about Micro loans!  Last night I wrote up a fairly comprehensive list of supplies and ingredients needed and my investment will be more than $500 so I should look into that.  So you say that my local SBDC or SBA could steer me in the direction of those then?

 

P.S.  I take pics all the time, I have just been to lazy to upload them LOL

What is your expeected AOV? (Average Order Value)

If your rent is $25.00 a visit, can you sell enough product to profit MORE than $30 a day? And if you are only profiting, say , $35.00 a day and then putting $25.00 to your rent (leaving you with $10.00) is it worth the time and effort (and expenses) to make and market your products?

Don`t get me wrong, I am not trying to talk you out of it. I just want to make sure that you have written some kind of business plan and that it projects ALL of your expenss and all of your expected income.

I don`t recall Bath and Body products having a veyr high AOV. That means you`d have to sell quite a bunch to cover your rent each day. Not a lot of `dollars` at stake, but many `sales` are needed to get and stay ahead.

I think it is not worth to have a rented space to sell product only a few hours a day, unless the space is only populated then.

How about the soap stand right in that place. Could you produce the bath and beauty products and sell them right through that existing biz? May be even pay for the rent of the second space to expand the display offering but ask the soap biz to sell it on a cut of the profit. That way you can spend your evening hours to make your products and sell online and ship, etc.

If you absolutely want the touch of customers, why not offer the soap biz to switch roles on some evenings or the weekend and sell both product lines in the combined biz?

Just a thought.


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