The state decided to help the unemployed registered at the Labor Exchange. Gives them free of charge 58,800 rubles, or even more, “seed capital”, if they provide some formal business plan based on the idea of their business.
Most often, the thought comes to the mind of such novice businessmen: I will start trading in the market (in the sense, in the bazaar). Of course, before that, a person dealt with the markets only as a buyer. A novice entrepreneur walks around the markets, looks closely, asks traders, negotiates with the administration about renting a place. The idea to trade in the market is increasingly fixed in my head and, finally, is embodied.
At the same time, most newcomers to the marketplace make 10 typical “strategic” mistakes and go bankrupt. Most, but not all. Approximately 1-2 out of ten successfully trade. Too bad, everyone could.
First mistake: you look at what the traders already working there are trading on the market, how they are trading, what is being sold more successfully and you want to be equal to them, trade the same and the same.
From an increase in the number of merchants, for example, sausage, the number of buyers of sausage and money in their pockets will not increase. You have a balance between the number of outlets for specific products and the buyer flow of the market. You will just sit on the same customer stream, "biting off" a share of the proceeds of the old merchants.
You will not receive your share, because you have not yet “overgrown” with enough regular customers. As a result, you will not even have enough from the proceeds to pay for the rent of a trading place. Moreover, the old merchants will play dirty tricks.
It is necessary: to trade not in what is already being traded, but in what is missing in this market for buyers who regularly come here. To do this, ask buyers, observe and think, think.
Three attractive stereotypes in relation to retail markets (bazaars):
- you can find everything here
- here you can safely bargain (discount immediately)
- here for each product there is a "own" seller who can be trusted
And in this “find all” there may be voids. Look for them. But remember: if something is not on the market, this does not mean that it should be traded immediately. Perhaps the old sellers tried it - it didn’t work. Feeling a promising void in the assortment, carefully find out if they have already tried to trade this here?
And one more thing: do you want to be “like everyone else”, becoming part of the “common pattern”, or stand out, be different from everyone? Guess from 2 times: who will pay more attention to buyers?
Second mistake: you want to trade in what you yourself like: “I want to trade in elite teas, sweets, cookies - it's so beautiful! My layout (range) will be better than those of these merchants.
Trading what you personally like is like death. It is necessary to trade in what the market visitors like. In this case, see the "First mistake".
Third Mistake: You want to trade something that you think is not on the market, or very little represented.
The decision should be based on the opinion of the buyers, not yours. To do this, you need to study the buyer, learn, observe him (see "The first mistake"). The desires of buyers may not be to your liking. What do you want: income or satisfaction of your opinion?
Fourth mistake: you do not adequately evaluate the features of the location of the trading place that you were offered for rent in the market.
There are places "through": usually closer to the entrances, on the central aisles; and "impassable": in the side aisles, along the periphery of the market, in dead-end aisles. Places can also be impassable along the central aisles, but at the end of the trading row. Buyers are no longer available. Passing places are always busy. You, a beginner, will be offered only impassable ones.
Everyday goods (gastronomy, bread, cigarettes, for example) or “impulse demand” (household items, stationery, etc.) cannot be traded in impassable places. But it is possible to trade, and successfully, goods of "special" demand and a narrow assortment. For example, "only Hunter knives”, or “everything for dog breeders”, etc.
But remember that in order to form the primary flow of "specialized" customers to your "specialized" place, you will need additional advertising already on the streams: a wall poster, a "clamshell", etc., but it's better not to be lazy and distribute simple leaflets at the entrances with advertising for a week your product and location. There is a plus: impassable places have low rents.
Fifth Mistake: You start trading without doing deep and detailed calculations of fixed costs.
Fixed costs are not just rent for a trading space. There is a lot more: a fee for various market services - the use of a cart, or permission to enter your car for unloading; payment to the veterinary laboratory, for the rental of commercial equipment.
Do not forget about the imputed tax once a quarter. So a decent amount is collected on trifles. Plus fines if payment is late for something.
Fixed costs do not depend on the level of your revenue. Even if you didn't sell it, pay it. Will your first month's income be enough?
Sixth mistake: you are guided by optimistic (and even rosy) forecasts for revenue and turnover.
Having polled, or somehow found out the level of revenue and turnover of traders already working on the market, you plan for yourself the same or even higher. Because you think you will be a better trader (see "Mistake Two").
Always consider "pessimistic" projections when planning any business when calculating revenue, turnover, and fixed cost levels. In most cases, in the first three months (place promotion, acclimatization) net profit zero. BUT fixed costs have to pay.
Have a reserve of primary capital in this case. Persistent traders sometimes take other jobs (in the evenings, weekends) to pay fixed costs from their salary while the place in the market is untwisted. And they do it right.
Seventh mistake: you do not adequately assess the cyclical nature of trading to start your business.
For any product during the year there is a cyclicity in trade turnover (by demand). In some months, very high revenues, in others, on the contrary, even a loss. It is necessary to focus not on income per month, but on the basis of the year. For some types of trade, 2-3 months "feed the whole year."
For example, fresh flowers. Experienced traders set aside a portion of the earnings of the "good months" to pay for fixed costs during the "bad months". As you plan your trading, carefully learn about the cyclicality of this commodity.
As a rule, opening trade at the end of spring at the beginning of summer is not profitable. But at this time it is easier to get a good (passing) place in the market and endure it with low trading until the revival in autumn. To give up in the hope of getting a “good” place in the fall is useless for a beginner.
Eighth mistake: you are a beginner, for the first time you open your trading place on the market, but you do not trade yourself, but hire a seller.
It is also like death. First, you will never learn to understand the intricacies of bazaar trading. Secondly, a hired seller is poorly motivated to "catch buyers" when promoting a new place, and generally keep a smile on his face.
The percentage that you promised him does not mean anything if the seller simply does not have the ability to promote the trading place. And sellers with abilities have long been attached. Thirdly, there is a whole business: to be hired by such newcomers in order to decently plunder and disappear.
The ninth mistake: you do not calculate the amount of working capital required, taking into account the "Parete's law".
Do you know such a law? Paret's law says: of all your products, only 20% of the assortment will bring the main (80%) revenue. The remaining 80% of the assortment provide only 20% of the revenue and can be sold for a very long time. But there is a paradox: without this allegedly unnecessary "ballast" in the form of 80% of the assortment, profitable 20% of the assortment will not be sold. abstruse?
Read thoughtfully several times. Experienced merchants explain this simply: in order to successfully trade, for example, only potatoes, you also need to put a wide range of all sorts of other things on the counter, up to nuts and bottled juice. But only one potato is not traded.
So, enough working capital is needed to buy both the main product and “for the assortment”.
Tenth mistake: you start trading business by oneself.
Without the support and participation of your entire family, or at least one person who loves you, you will not be able to cope. This is the main reason successful work in the markets of merchants of "other nationalities" - in the participation of the whole family, from small children to distant relatives.
This is the real business plan.
If you find solutions to avoid making the listed mistakes in your specific case, then these solutions will be a true business plan for you. It would be nice to write down these decisions (how not to make mistakes) and constantly look into the records, correct, supplement. And then you will succeed.
A well-thought-out advertising strategy usually works, but not always the desired reaction to it occurs quickly enough. There is an opinion that “the point needs to be filled”, and temporary losses are quite natural. Nevertheless, there are technologies for “high-speed promotion” of a store within just a few days. There are few techniques, they are all quite effective, but when applying them, it is important to remember that the more consistently they are performed, the higher the chance of success. The complex use of all elements practically guarantees the popularity of the store in the microdistrict and partly beyond it, even if it is located in a not very “passing” place. What measures do marketers offer?
"Locomotive Goods"
Most often, sales are undertaken when not very hot commodity stale in the warehouse and it must be "drained", resigned even to losses. Such tactics are justified, but not at the stage of conquering the market. In this case, the so-called offer is vital, that is, a certain product that is the main highlight outlet. First of all, you should notify as many potential buyers as possible about the availability of it for sale. It is desirable that the offer be as attractive as possible during the promotion period. There is no need to sell a hot commodity at a loss, but the minimum profit in this short, in general, period is quite acceptable. Lost profit will be returned with a vengeance. In addition, the offer will inevitably pull along, like a locomotive (hence the name of the technique), other goods, for which it is not necessary to make discounts. The main thing is that they will find out about the new store, which means that attendance will increase dramatically, and it will be followed by bargaining.
In marketing, there are 4Ps (price, product, promotion and place), without which sales cannot be built. If you guessed right with them, then everything will go like clockwork.
What if it didn't work? So you didn't guess 🙂
Last time I wrote about product and a bit about price, today it will be about place. In this article, the main mistakes in choosing a room for a store.
Choose an impassable (impassable) place
An auto parts store should be where there are a lot of cars and car enthusiasts. And not the place where they go, but the place where they stop. Nearby should be garage arrays, parking lots, auto shops, car washes, gas stations.
Count the number of cars that stop there in different time day, on different days of the week. Consider why they do it. These are your potential customers. Some of them will come to your store.
For non-automotive stores, the place must be accessible (constant and large flow of people who go to buy).
Choose a place that is not associated with your product
There are several places in your city that are associated with your product. Home loans in icici bank go there first of all. Your store should be there. For example, clothes are bought in mall or at clothing market. Such a place is easy to identify by the presence of several competing stores. In the beginning, I opened in a mall. There were almost no buyers.
If you have a car, imagine where you will go to buy a battery or oil in your city. Here is the first place. Ask all your friends where they would go for auto parts. You need to look for a room in the place that is often called.
Rent a room
When you open a store, you are firmly attached to the premises. At first, you spend a lot of money and time getting people to buy from you. You build relationships with them. I talked to one, advised the second, did the third personal discount, the fourth wrote out documents for a different cost for the advance report loan interest calculator. They recommend you to friends, relatives, colleagues. You adjust your assortment to them. A year or two passes, the store begins to make a profit.
Imagine that you are renting this space. I hope you have already understood that moving is the death of your business. You, most likely, do not have the contacts of your clients, and even the time to call everyone, send each letter or postcard. You have already invested a lot of money in radio advertising, signage and flyers.
The landlord also knows that you are doing well. He knows how to count how many people enter and leave. He thinks it's unfair that you're making more money and the rent is the same. Rent increases can easily turn profitable business into a loss. But that's not the worst thing that can happen.
This is how one landlord opened and promoted a car wash. It was a graceful two-move. He had a car wash space, as well as a permit to drain water into the sewer. He rented it out to another entrepreneur for a year. He invested a lot of money in advertising, set up a car wash. People are used to going there. A year later, it was already a successful business. And the landlord refused to renew the lease. 3 days after the tenant left, the landlord's car wash started operating at the same loans for income tax refund place. Everything ingenious is simple.
Well, you already figured out that your balls will be tenderly clenched in the fist of the host. I felt uncomfortable in this situation. And this was one of the top three reasons for closing the store.
How often do I hear this old expression. And by the way, I totally agree with him. Recently, during a webinar, one of the listeners also wrote to me in the chat: “If the store is located in good place- Success is a must. "
It's hard to argue, so we're looking for a good place.
But if you think about it, few people rent premises for a store, spend money on opening, and at the same time believe that the place they have chosen is bad. So why do I hear so often from entrepreneurs the sacramental phrase
« We got the wrong place."
The fact is that the word "good" is an abstraction. To assess the suitability of a retail space, specific quality criteria must be adopted, and each store concept will have its own criteria, with their own hierarchy of their importance for the success of the store. If the entrepreneur does not have such a set of criteria, then there is a high risk of making a mistake and opening a store that will not be visited enough to become profitable.
What kind of mistakes that can be called “typical” are most often made? Especially if the future owner of the store thinks that this place is “good”, simply because, for example, there are a lot of people in this Shopping Center, or commercial premises located on a very busy street. There is a lot to say here, but if you generalize such errors, you get the following:
- Probably the most common and most dangerous mistake - the concept of the store does not match the characteristics of the flow . That is, the number of people passing by the store is large, but the proportion of your potential buyers among them is low. You pay high rent for this amount, but in reality, these are not your people. For example, you have youth clubwear, and your store is located on a very busy business street with offices. Among the clerks and managers there are not many regular buyers of this kind of clothing.
- The store is in the "right" location, but for some reason it's hard to get into. This may be the entrance from the side of the building, in the case of a separate store. Or the third floor of the shopping center, or some other "barriers" between visitors and the entrance to the store. Quite often, entrepreneurs cannot assess the seriousness of the impact of such a “barrier” on future store attendance.
- The quality of the premises itself does not allow for sufficient comfort for customers. No ventilation, no air conditioning in the south facing room. Often, when deciding on a lease, entrepreneurs do not pay attention to it, thinking that its positive aspects (that is, a large flow), its location, outweigh these "small" disadvantages. But for successful business customers should not only enter the store, but also buy in it. In stuffy, hot trading floor if there is not enough oxygen in the air, the conversion drops seriously. Yes, and sellers can not normally work a full shift. And no amount of motivation will help. Hygiene factors are very important.
- No showcases. I remember very well how we rented a room in a very good Moscow shopping center, with high attendance, but the entrance to the store was through a short corridor. It was not even a corridor, but rather a wide and short hallway, but there was no shop window. And although we carefully designed this “entrance hall”, and the rent was much lower than in neighboring normal premises, we agreed on the placement free advertising store in the shopping center itself, we did not manage to send ENOUGH visitors to the store. After some time, the store had to close. Also a strong effect on recoil retail space renders the shape of the trading floor.
- Your customers are driving and you have nowhere to park. Sometimes it's more difficult. Your product suggests that you need to come by car for it. For example, you sell flowers in pots. Few people will buy flowers to carry them in their hands. And it's hard to get to you . For example, there is no exit from the highway.
What is the resume?
Well, firstly, before signing a lease agreement, it is imperative to conduct an examination of it for the presence of all sorts of "traps and ambushes." In order for you to be able to do it yourself, I have made
Secondly, first develop a set of criteria for the correct assessment of the premises. This set is designed based on the characteristics of your target audience, situations of consumption of your goods, basket of consumption and other essential elements of the concept of your future store. I talk about this in detail at the seminar.
I recorded a special video (see below) in which I gave recommendations on how you can get more customers. Read and watch carefully.
The most frequently asked question of my subscribers and students:
How to attract customers to the store if it ...
- Out of the way
- Around the corner (entrance on the side of the street)
- On the second (third) floor of the shopping center
- Far from the main entrance of the shopping center
If you are in a similar situation, then this article is for you. But before I get into any advice, I want you to understand…
70%-80% of all stores are at a disadvantage relative to competitors.
It is a fact. As they say, the neighbor's lawn is always greener.
Only 20%-30% of stores do not need new visitors. But,
More traffic and better placement does not guarantee high sales!
A more advantageous location of the store does not solve all issues with the profit of the business. If you feel jealous of your competitors because they have a better place, stop doing it.
Good news for you.
Attracting visitors is only 1/5 of successful sales.
There are more (besides the incoming flow) that directly affect the profit of your business:
- Conversion (from visitor to buyer)
- (and the number of positions in the receipt)
- Repeat sales (frequency of repeat purchases)
- (profit from sale)
And because I'm more focused on solving a specific issue in a specific situation, rather than finding a new rental place, I'll tell you about the methods of getting traffic.
Of course, if your boutique is on the “red line”, right next to the market or on the ground floor of the shopping center (and even near the entrance), then, as a rule, there are no problems with incoming traffic. But there are few such stores.
Why is your store in an impassable place?
If your store is located in an impassable place, most likely you rented it on the basis of the principle:
- there was not much choice (vacant seats)
- rented a place that was available in the shopping center
- cheaper than rent
- very much and quickly wanted to open their store
- turned up by accident when the previous tenant moved out
And now the question arose of attracting customers. Let's solve it.
Watch the video right now (click on the "play" button in the center of the video):
If what you are watching is helpful,
click the button and keep watching
What to do to attract customers to the store?
1. Stand for 1-2 hours (or more if needed) to determine the flow of people. Pay attention to where people go most often, where they look ...
2. Determine the places where you can and should place your external: posters, pillars, signs.
4. Naturally, use other advertising methods (flyers, promoters, radio…) until you have a base of at least 1000 customers (customers).
5. If your store is in a mall, go to the landlord to change the terms of the lease, because you are investing in not only your store, but the mall as a whole.
6. And the most important advice - do it.
Valery Dubinetsky.
P.S. If you have a super-specific situation, contact me personally (), we will analyze your business and you will receive specific advice to attract customers and increase sales.
Falling sales? Don't know what to do?
Hundreds of my students who own clothing stores have already increased their sales from 20% to 300% using simple technology. There are a lot of reviews on this site.I am sure you also want to increase sales or figure out what to do in your case in order to guarantee a result.
Get a personal consultation. Get clear action clarity and create your business growth plan.
.With faith in your success, Valery Dubinetsky.
