Setting up shop

[AotearoaBrad]

After 12 years on my knees, I with another tiler have decided to set up a retail tile shop. Our plan is to start slow and set it up as a showroom at first as we have most of the builders in town as our clients. We plan to extend the showroom into a full manned shop at some point within the year. Would be interested to hear some thoughts and ideas from anyone who's taken the leap themselves? Merry Xmas.

 

[Dan]

That's certainly the way to go about it mate. I've know a few shops setup in the last couple of years that way and they're still going now.

Make sure you get in with the suppliers. That seems to work in your favour bigtime.

 

[Bubblecraft]

I had a mate who was Manager at Topps. He left & started his own Tile shop. Lucky if it lasted a year then went under & TBH, if I thought of anyone who could start their on Tile shop, it would have been him. Even extended into Bathrooms & Kitchens but never took off.
He had it all under one roof. Trade Stuff, Bal, Mapie, hardi, Aquapanel, warmup, homelux, genesis, budget tiles, elegant tiles, ceramic, porcelain & natural stone.
Great looking displays & excellent customer service but just couldn't beat the big shop prices without cutting into his overheads.
I tried to promote his business as much as I could. Was a shame cause it was a great shop. I think the other hit was he was only about 4 or 5 miles from Hillington which hosts about another 15 tile shops.
It's a hard market out there. If you do it, I wish you all the best!
This was him:
http://www.paisley.org.uk/2011/05/paisley-tile-centre/
http://www.paisleydailyexpress.co.u...sters-doing-it-for-themselves-87085-27764795/

 

[Time's Ran Out]

Good luck.

 

[Dan]

I had a mate who was Manager at Topps. He left & started his own Tile shop. Lucky if it lasted a year then went under & TBH, if I thought of anyone who could start their on Tile shop, it would have been him. Even extended into Bathrooms & Kitchens but never took off.
He had it all under one roof. Trade Stuff, Bal, Mapie, hardi, Aquapanel, warmup, homelux, genesis, budget tiles, elegant tiles, ceramic, porcelain & natural stone.
Great looking displays & excellent customer service but just couldn't beat the big shop prices without cutting into his overheads.
I tried to promote his business as much as I could. Was a shame cause it was a great shop. I think the other hit was he was only about 4 or 5 miles from Hillington which hosts about another 15 tile shops.
It's a hard market out there. If you do it, I wish you all the best!

Getting too big too quick is a big killer. All that under one roof in just a year?! I wouldn't be surprised if he was getting a little more than trade discount from distributors.

If its going to work it needs to be a slow thing if its just one shop. Of you have money for a few then you have haggling power but of its one shop only then you need to concentrate on lease terms on property and just a couple of suppliers moreso than trying to get everything on the shelves IMO.

 

[Bubblecraft]

Getting too big too quick is a big killer. All that under one roof in just a year?! I wouldn't be surprised if he was getting a little more than trade discount from distributors.

If its going to work it needs to be a slow thing if its just one shop. Of you have money for a few then you have haggling power but of its one shop only then you need to concentrate on lease terms on property and just a couple of suppliers moreso than trying to get everything on the shelves IMO.

I fully agree. I think it was too much too soon. It's a shame to cause he put all his money into it. Think he panicked and brought in more hoping to expand sales quickly.

 

[ringw]

good luck

 

[fatboy]

Get on it mate ill have a trade card when your open and and stock sigma cutters ...... Brownie point for fat boy

 

[DTile]

It's always great to hear of any new business setting up, especially in tiles!
Yours already has 2 huge advantages to help you succeed, even in these hard times:
1. You clearly have plenty of experience of the products you'll be selling
2. There are 2 of you in it together. Apart from spreading the workload, the benefit of a 2nd opinion on decisions that need to be made and sorting problems that can (& will!) crop up is massive.

Best of luck with it!

 

[ifindoubtgrout]

all the best with it pal, try and stick with uk products at first and always on sale and return,hopefully the shop will grow then you can spread your wings, also one of you should carry on tiling this way you have some income.

 

[White Room]

I hope it works for you but do a fair bit of finding out what people/ builders etc need, as others have said take it slowly.

 

[John Benton]

Good luck it's not the easiest of times to be setting up a business. What I will say is no matter how much you trust your partner, keep a close eye on the finances. My cousin and his best friend of 25 years setup a business together. His partner looked after the money side of things whilst my cousin looked after the front of the shop, customers, marketing etc. It was only when his partner went away on holiday for two weeks that he was dealing with suppliers and paying bills and found bills hadn't been paid and suppliers stopped supplying. It was food retail and if you haven't got any food, you can't sell it. It ended up in court, costing him thousands and he nearly lost his house over it.

Be very careful, you may think you know someone, until it comes to money !!!

 

[fatboy]

When your open try and get a trade day together and drum up some supplters

 

[Andy Allen]

i had a tile shop 23 years ago, and one thing i learnt is you make very little money unless you import the tiles yourself, you will never compete whith the big boys...

 

[afright]

My brother who was a tiler as well (he is now retired who I worked for ) supplied, but ran everything from his garage which was stocked to the ceiling with boards,addy and grout, did not have to pay for shop rent he made a killing on the supply he always said that he would not open a shop. but good lucky anyway .

 

[Concrete guy]

A few pointers

1. Don't borrow money, this must be self funding. The margins won't be big enough to service debt.

2. Import as much as you can yourself.

3. Negotiate a rent free period on the lease and do not sign anything beyond 3 years (assuming you're leasing and not buying a shop).

4 Make sure people can park at your shop.

5. Try and run the retail/trade side in conjunction with installations, don't just stop fitting and start selling, there's a dead period in between ending one and starting the other that could cripple the new venture.

6. Try and find something to sell/offer that other people don't.

7. When setting out your range of product, you need an inexpensive product line that sells in volume, a medium cost product line the sells occasionally and an expensive range that has a nice margin on it that's the cream. You'll need variety to survive, the inexpensive product line should run the business, the profit will come from medium and expensive.

8. Overheads kill business, people, vehicles, premises, insurances etc etc - keep a tight rein on these - they eat profits and an alarming rate.
Good luck.

 

[C&S]

Good luck with the new venture. I have friends who started about 4 months ago, their theory is, if they can break even in these tough times, they will make money when things pick up. It is fair to assume that you may even loose money in your first year, most people do. Break even in your 2nd and hopefully in 3 years time, things will be a lot different in our industry, you should see a turn to profit.

 

[n8rbos]

Get out there and do your market research, find a niche/something others don't do/offer.do a massive flyer drop, advertise on your van,cars etc, give stickers to customers and hopefully they will puton their windscreens. If you get the chance do something to get you and your business in the local papers. If you don,t hold the tiles in stock ensure you can get them when you say,even if it means over stating the date. Get a coffee machine in even if it costs 10/20p for a drink . God luck.

 

[Peter]

If you give tilers good rates on materials then it's amazing how many will recommend you to customers. Especially if you do discount kickbacks too. All the best with it.

 

[Aston]

best of luck mate, hope it all goes well for you..
1. do you research
2. pay that bit extra to be on the busiest streets.... location location etc
3. and do everything that bit better than the rest and i'm sure you'll do well

the only one thing i can think of that might stand you out or give you a different proposition is...have a service that shows the customer how to do the job. ie for £90 you set out the job, hire out a tile cutter/tools and give them some tips regarding cuts/grouting etc

now before any of you think i am mad, hear me out. if the customer is going to do the job and not use the tile shop, then you might as well make an extra £90 out of them and a few extra brownie points rather than them buy all the gear off you and pick up the local rag/ipad/phone etc

its also a great way of connecting with them and helping them and a great way of putting the fear of god into them too!! chance are they'll come back the next day and say we are a bit nervous of ruining these tiles so we've decided to let you do it because you've been so helpful...

thats the only angle that i can think of and its one in the eye to the tile training centers too!! ;0) bonus
best of luck

 

[DTile]

...have a service that shows the customer how to do the job. ie for £90 you set out the job, hire out a tile cutter/tools and give them some tips regarding cuts/grouting etc

its also a great way of connecting with them and helping them and a great way of putting the fear of god into them too!! chance are they'll come back the next day and say we are a bit nervous of ruining these tiles so we've decided to let you do it because you've been so helpful...

:lol: what a devious devil you are!