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Opening a bike shop abroad

  • 18-01-2010 10:48am
    #1
    Cianos
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,850 ✭✭✭


    Hey folks,
    I don't have any specific questions but just wanted to share my plans and get some general advice and hopefully learn something along the way.

    I'm planning on opening up a small bicycle shop abroad in the coming months. We will be very niche-focused, only selling a very specific type of bicycle that is yet to become very popular in the local city, but is very big in Scandinavia.

    Similar models are available locally but they are priced very high, whereas we'll be selling a more affordable but still decent quality product while retaining a nice mark up for ourselves.

    The strategy of the business is based around being as cost effective as possible. The main reason I'm going for it is because it is minimum risk. We'll be taking a short lease and starting with a small amount of stock, so a lot of initial capital is not required. We hope to compliment sales in the shop with an online campaign to turn more revenue and expand our reach in to other markets.

    Our branding/URL is omnipresent between the shop, the website and the bicycles themselves.

    I don't want to go in to too much details yet, but that's the gist of it anyway.

    Thanks for any help, all input appreciated.


Comments

  • #2
    shoutman
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,924 ✭✭✭shoutman


    Which country will you be operating in?
    Will the website be a brochure site or will you be selling online as well?
    Presumably there is something special about these bikes?

    I guess the main things for operating abroad would be local regulations with regards to tax, employees etc. If you are not running it yourself and not able to make daily visits to the place, then having a very reliable person working for you is essential.
    This is all very common sense, so i'm sure nothing new for you in it but best of luck with it.


  • #3
    Cianos
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,850 ✭✭✭Cianos


    shoutman wrote: »
    Which country will you be operating in?
    Will the website be a brochure site or will you be selling online as well?
    Presumably there is something special about these bikes?

    I guess the main things for operating abroad would be local regulations with regards to tax, employees etc. If you are not running it yourself and not able to make daily visits to the place, then having a very reliable person working for you is essential.
    This is all very common sense, so i'm sure nothing new for you in it but best of luck with it.

    We'll be operating in Germany. We would like to use the site to sell online as well but our main focus at least initially is sales through the shop itself. We would like to get some presales maybe at a discounted price via the site if possible, in order to provide us with some more capital to work with.

    Yes, the bikes are quite unique, practical and eye-catching. They're not big in Germany yet, so our task is to promote the idea of the bikes as well as ourselves, or do one through the other.

    I will be there daily, probably not dealing with customers because my German won't be good enough. But my biz partner (who is German) will be able to do that and is also well versed when it comes to local bureaucracy.


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