opening a trendy boutique?

Strokesfan

similar to the bookshop thread - myself and friend as partners are going about opening a boutique aimed at 18 - 40 year old women. We love clothes and have already met our local enterprise board to get help with crunching our numbers. Just wondering if there are any former or current boutique owners that could help with pitfalls and distributor information. We are in the remote ruralness that is Tralee Bit of helpful advice needed, even in regard to items that would be a good idea to stock. We are already considering stocking scented candles, coffee table books, some shoes and accessories...

antoinolachtnai

The first thing I would consider is the location. You need a location that has a lot of foot traffic.

As regards product, I don't know the business, but I know that you will need to figure out what your target market is and what they are willing to pay. Are you talkin' fancy brands or something more cheerful?

I guess you need to start going to the tradeshows to really get a grip on who the potential suppliers are.

The biggest risk to you is that you will end up with a load of 'fashionable' stock in your back-room that you can't shift. You will show a paper profit but run out of cash. I don't know if sale-or-return exists in fashion, but if it does, it might be the option for you.

If you are interested in running a boutique, why are you thinking about stocking books? I would concentrate on one thing and try to understand it well, unless your target market says that it really wants to buy books in your store.

I would get in touch with the rest of the Tralee business community. I would see if any of the existing boutiques or drapery shops (do they still have drapery shops in Tralee) would be interested in working with you. At the end of the day, these businesses are all looking for ways to expand and many of the owners are getting olders and are looking for exits.

Best of luck with it!

Strokesfan

good advice thanks