Hi

Set up an online shop!!.  A fraction of the cost, for the same sales.  If you just spent 300 pounds a month marketing your website in the right way, you would get the same results.  You may even be able to set up an agreement where your supplier ships straight to your customer, so you wouldn't need to pay for stock until someone had paid you for it..

I hope this helps

Jonathan

Chanel,

Opening a retail shop it a pretty tough thing to do. Apart from the obvious questions about experience (ie have worked as a manger or assistant and understand the trade?) Fundamentally do you have any capital? This is as you have identified a very big issue for a retail shop and you are quite right to be worried about it and the level of sales you need to achieve just to break even.

If you are opening a shop of this type you should in my opinion be able to fund from your own sources:

1. All start up costs
2. 6-12 months overheads (at least taking you to December in your first year of trading where most of the sales will be)
3. Opening stock (a lot of which you will inevitably get 'wrong' as you learn what sells, so don’t expect to make money on all of it!)
4. Your own living expenses for 6-12 months (ie not need to take any money out)

If you can do this you should have a decent chance of success as shops do take a long time to build trade although at least with a children’s shop the period of repeat purchases is higher than for a normal one. If you are doing this with heavy debt as many people do invariably it is a lot tougher to pull off and you are far more likely to fold and have debts to pay off after it all than if you are using up savings and have time to experiement and build up a customer base.

Online is a different game and a very competitive market to get into, especially for children’s clothes which seems to be a very popular option for mothers wanting a part time business. Also don’t forget that in terms of competition people like Woolworth’s and all the big supermarkets all are competing directly with you - which is largely why Adams has recently gone into difficulties but if you have a geographic advantage away from the majors you may have a chance. It is probably worth researching quite heavily about any other similar stores in your location that have gone out of business and why.

NB one small way to start up is with a market stall and then build up from there but this is of course not suitable unless you are aiming at the lower end of the market or your local town has a very "upmarket" market.

Hope this helps,

Regards

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James Smith
Chartered Accountant
www.jamesesmith.co.uk

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