My friend is interested in opening his own clothing store in our area. Any Ideas? style?prices?target? NEthing

Question

Any ideas are welcomed thank you so much! I'm just looking to help a friend out with as many ideas as possible. Thank you

Answer 1

Any Business Start-Up

The requirements to a successful

business: Map out a plan. Ask

questions. Will your product or service

be received well? Don't start a business

with a, single, doubt. Set goals for

the business, in two years? Five years?

Do you have enough to finance it? It's

best to have more than the cost of your

business. An emergency fund? Why

are you starting a business?

The full post is on my blog.

Answer 2

it's probably the worst time in a long time to open a new retail clothing store - people are not buying, high unemployment - even Walmart is having problems - you are doomed to fail in the current marketplace

Answer 3

Before you go any further, I STRONGLY recommend you contact the Small Business Development Center (at your local community college) and talk to them; the counseling is free.  Then sign up for the NxLevel Entrepreneurial program...  it's a 12 session course that walks you through the ins and outs of starting or growing your business, and as part of that you will write a business plan.  At the end of the class your plan will be reviewed by a lending professional, and will be critiqued, telling you the strong points of your plan AND the weak points.  

Then you can work on the weak points and hopefully get it into shape to actually present to a lender and get the loan you need.  There is a cost for the NxLevel program ($375.00 last year at my SBDC), but it’s a lot cheaper than losing your investment.

Even if you hire a professional to write your plan, you should still take the NxLevel course.  It saved me from going into a business that would have failed within a year or so, taking my investment with it.  I realized by the third week of the class that I could not afford the business I was looking at and changed directions in the middle of the class. I ended up not going with the second business either, but for non-financial reasons.

Business plans may be a pain in the butt to prepare, but without one, your business is doomed to failure.  To start with, you won't know what your startup costs are going to be, what kind of income to expect, what your ongoing expenses are, who your competition is, and even whether or not you can make a profit.  Without a GOOD business plan, you will not be able to get a business loan to get your business off the ground.

Answer 4

The questions you've asked, style, prices, target are all unanswerable, because answer is going to depend on the market.  

If there is a great womens clothing store in the area with reasonable prices and great service then opening a womens clothing store would be a bad idea. Maybe there is no vintage clothing store in your area so it might be a good idea.  

The point is you need to do some market research and find the niche that isn't being filled and then decide what you can do to fill that niche.  Remember not to be too specilized or there won't be a big enough demand for your product to sustain the store.  

Develop a written business plan, and remember you shouldn't expect to make a profit for upto five years, so have plenty of operating capital.