Starting A New Business

ta2kev

Hi all,
I'm looking for some advise / opinions. I'm interested in starting up a music/record store. I live in a town with a population of approximately 5000 - 6000. At present the only place to buy a cd is in a small electrical store which has a couple of revolving stands. I've spoken to a lot of people about it and the overall reaction has been very positive. I'm thinking about selling CDs, DVDs and games, I've also spoken to a guy who has a musical instrument shop about 20 miles away about using a wall of the shop to display and sell some of his stock.
I'm very eager to do this but very nervous about taking the plunge, as i have a mortgage and a child so I can't afford for this to be a failure. My plan was to continue working in my present job and let my partner work the weekdays in the shop. Has anyone else been in a similar position and how did it go for them? I have approximately €5k capital but I could release more by downgrading my car. Loans are out of the question as I'm maxed out after re-furbishing my house. I'm only 22 so if it did all go belly up I have plenty of tiime to get back on track. I'm also looking into getting an enterprise grant off my local enterprise board.
Also any information on setting up or running a music shop would be very much appreciated.
Thanks very much for any advise you can give me.
Kevin.

shepthedog

I would say carry out extensive market research on this before taking the plunge.
You have to find out why no one has done this before you, and also why no large chains have opened, althought the relatively low pop might explain this.
Also got to take certain factors into account, like how far are you from large town/city, do people travel to shop there or shop locally.
Perhaps monitor the local area on a Saturday to see footfall etc.
There are extensive books/magazines on this subject and the internet is invaluable source of info..
Definitely talk to local enterprise board, they will be able to advise you of your local situation better than anyone. Not sure of grant situation for retail stores.
Another option would be to look at franchising from one of large chains but this has drawbacks aswell as advantages..
Either way best of luck and keep us posted on your progress.

ronbyrne2005

think a lot of people are buying online nowadays,how many cd's dvd's can you reasonably expect to sell? you may have to offer other services like selling tickets for local gigs rent dvd's etc .in a small town of 6000 people how many are likely to buy from you in a year ? 500? 1000?how many items will each customer buy a year?? do a lot of market research and financail projections before commiting to this.

onedmc

Some research is really important.

It takes a long time to get a shop off the ground so some time spent (6months to 1 year) doing REAL research is important.

Some real experiecnce would also help, in a town of 6000 your footfall is going to be quite low and you need to measure this. Eg sit on the street for a week and count the number of people that pass the proposed premisis.

Watch a similar store in another town or even better get a job in a similar store, this is the best thing you can do. You will find out suppliers, what products sell etc. Dont say this isn't a runner coz you have a job there are plenty of ways around it.

betterthanyou

ta2kev wrote:

Hi all, I'm looking for some advise / opinions.

try this course
http://www.enterprise-ireland.com/StartBusiness/EnterpriseSTART+Programme.htm

TabulaRasa22

ronbyrne2005 wrote:

think a lot of people are buying online nowadays,how many cd's dvd's can you reasonably expect to sell? you may have to offer other services like selling tickets for local gigs rent dvd's etc .in a small town of 6000 people how many are likely to buy from you in a year ? 500? 1000?how many items will each customer buy a year?? do a lot of market research and financail projections before commiting to this.

Thats a very good point, not to mention music piracy is very widespread right now. When someone can download just about any song they want from kazaa or edonkey, the long term prospects for a record store don't look good, recording industry antics notwithstanding.