Business Idea - Feedback Please!!!

Sounds good. Is it going to be local stockists only at first and then are you thinking of having a chain of shops when it takes off or is the brochure going to cover stockists further a field?

The reason i ask is my wedding car came from London and my cake from Doncaster.

Hi,

I think it sounds like a good idea and something I would have used if it was avaliable. Its a bit like going to a wedding fair but without the venue. I really would have liked to be able to see real favours instead of looking at them on the internet.

You could also have a couple of wedding planners who you could recommend obviously you would have to know they are good first. Thing is most women are busy these days so somewhere that has a bit of everything would be perfect. People could just come in and brose or could possibly make appointments with you and you could talk them through some options. As some new brides might not really know everything that goes into a wedding.

I would prob travel an hour at max if I had been recommended the shop by a friend or recent bride. It could also sell wedding magazines and books, first dance music etc. I could go on forever I LOVE IT. Think you should def go for it and invite us all to your launch party so we can spread the word.

Good luck x x

Hello,

Just trying to be realistic, so I hope this doesn't come across as bitchy! Whilst I think in theory its a fab idea if you can get a space large enough, it could end up seeming a little cluttered with stationery supplies, dresses, etc all under one roof. I visited a fair few local bridal shops, and they mostly had recommendations via word of mouth. Brides who had bought their dresses there and used certain suppliers and mentioned how good they were, or they had done bridal fairs with them, for example. So they just offered the information to me free of charge whilst we were chatting weddings whilst I tried things on. They also had a book from a locoal and reasonable printed wedding stationer and also a local and decently priced handmade stationer. I assume they charged commission.

So all I'm saying is, on paper it might sound great, but I think you may struggle to make the stationery supplies and the other elements (dresses, shoes, etc), work well alongside one another. So it might be an idea to scrap that idea and just stick to the bridal shop element. You could still stock handmade jewellery from well-priced companies, and have a list of local recommended companies, even keep the little booklet idea if you want to. Although, I appreciate that if you don't add the stationery element its not giving you an USP (Unique Selling Point), but I don't think this would necessarily be a bad thing if your area isn't overflowing with friendly, helpful bridal shops. You could still offer it all, the suppliers list, the samples in a book that brides can view, but keeping it classy and looking like any other shop. Word of mouth would spread if you offered a great service.

The main reason I say this is because most brides who make their own invites are savvy brides who want to save money in this area of their budget, or creative brides. Mostly these sort of ladies would find the stuff online, and unless you buy in huge bulk (which would mean you would need somewhere to store the stock you couldn't fit onto the shop floor), its unlikely you could compete with the prices of online stores that don't have the overheads of a retail premises.

I hope this helps!

Ps. Same with the favours, I think you could recommend someone and maybe keep a couple of examples for brides to look at if you really want to, but I'm not sure how something with all this under one roof would translate into the real world, if that makes sense? I'm not trying to be horrible, just helpful! I admire your drive and determination!

There are already shops like this - Kelly at The Wedding Village in Rayleigh does similar and has a website as well as the shop. Why not drop her a line and see how she goes about things? I think you can get hold of her at ****@*****************.***

Hope that helps

I think it sounds like a lovely idea. But I'll be honest, with the current climate I wouldn't open a shop for all the tea in China. Bridal shops and plenty of other businesses in the retail industry are closing left right and centre.

Web based businesses aren't suffering just as much because the overheads are significantly less. The set up costs of a shop like the one you describe would be pretty massive. Is there something similar you could do, on a smaller scale and web based? If it's proving a success then you could expand into premises and your 'name' would already be established.

Have you ever been past C***etti in Glasgow? I swear ecery time I've been by there in the last 3 or 4 months it's been completely empty.

Sorry to put a downer on it. You've obviously put a lot of though into it. Whatever you do, I wish you all the best. And you know me and Lyns are always on hand if you need anything.

x

There is something similar in Portsmouth. They also offer packages which include all the bits for the day (wedding dress, BM dresses, photographer, suit hire, cake, invites and cars) which I guess would be great if you were short on time?

http://www.eastplex.co.uk/house-of-weddings/default.asp

I think its got some potential ... it would have to be one big shop tho'!! A fair few dress shops will stock a few bits to compliment what they sell and charge the supplier commission for any sales, or for being the 'broker' of any orders... don't see why that shouldn't work for stationery like it does for tiaras etc... obviously, with stationery being my arena I'm biased but ...

You'd have to be very careful how you sold the idea to brides, so as to not make it look like 'jack of all trades, master of none' - i think the art of selling dresses is something very unique as its not just the dress you are selling - you become an adviser to the bride on what exactly is going to work for her shape, height, colouring etc.... and of course budget.

If its done well then it could have some mileage ... but its a very big thing to take on!

From the point of view of someone who has a wedding dress shop, my word of warning would be that you need to be careful that you don't become a jack of all trades, but master of none. That's not to say that it's impossible to do it, but I have found that just concentrating on the brides and bridesmaids outfits takes huge amounts of time and energy to do properly. To branch into other areas as well would be quite a big step.

The other aspect to consider is the financial one, and the large investment you would have to make. Your bridal samples alone (without any bridesmaid dresses, accessories, shop fittings, computer equipment, furniture, packaging, etc) will require a large amount of money. If you're then adding all of the above, AND stock to keep other sides of things going as well, like your stationery, then that's an enormous initial investment. And because of the nature of bridal retail, you also have to make sure you have enough money to keep you going until trading picks up, which can take a good bit of time. So obviously you'll need lots of money, and need to do masses of research to put together a cash flow forecast etc.

Your financial risk is obviously much greater as well, if you're diving straight in with everything. You'll need big premises (probably bigger than you'd imagine), which will mean higher rent and rates. You'll need to make all aspects of the business as successful as possible, to justify the outlay in stock. This might mean higher advertising costs, because you might find you need to adveritise in more than one category. You'll need additional staff to ensure that you are able to offer service to brides who pop in to look at stationery as well as brides who are in for dress appointments. And if one aspect doesn't work out, you're lumped with a big shop with high rent, and lots of dead stock, paying staff to do nothing.

The other thing I would say is that most of the time, in my experience, lots of brides who are shopping for their dress are doing just that - shopping for their dress. They sometimes find it hard even to think about veils and shoes at that point, let alone stationery and favours. So it doesn't necessarily follow that they'd get everything under one roof. You might just need to work harder than you think to get them to!

If it were me, I think I'd probably want to concentrate one one thing to start with, let that establish, and then (if I still wanted to) branch out into other areas.

I'm not saying it can't work. Please do lots and lots of research though. I know how much financial outlay and risk is involved just in opening a 'normal' bridal shop which specialises in the brides and bridesmaids outfits. If you're going a few steps further, it's another huge outlay, and you'd want to be sure it was going to be worthwhile.

Just to add, having read DSH's post ... yes, the ££££ outlay would be hoooooge. I'm a little sole trader, I work from home, I'm starting small and ive spent probably £6k on my business so far just on website, marketing, 4 fayres, stock, advertising ... i'm only 5mths old business wise, so a way from making that money back .... and thats with having a good pile of orders and some excellent leads....

One of the shops I supply to is running a similar business to what you are thinking of but they started out very small and worked their away up. Initially they made cakes from a small studio at home and as they got more successful managed to buy a fab studio and still concentrated on cakes but went into stationery, jewellery and tiaras as well. The studio was big enough for expansion as it has an upstairs so after 18 months that is a bridesmaid studio and has expanded the range of shoes and accessories.

It is a very successful business but it has taken years of hard work to build up a reputation and the financial backing I assume. They work with an appointment only system so they can control the level of custom and ensure they always have adequate staff.

I agree with BWC in that this isn't the best time to be starting a business especially one that is covering so many aspects. My own business is going better than I could ever have hoped for and I don't even need to advertise so that has saved me heaps of money but even just for jewellery the amount of money I have spent is a bit scary so you might be surprised at how easily the budget necessary would soon add up. DSH is the best person for advice since she runs a very lovely dress shop and I can only imagine what it would cost to buy all the dresses!

If after researching into it more I would still start small and work my way up and therefore reducing the risk.

Good luck

Lynsey

I think you need to concentrate on one area first and now is not a good time to be opening a shop. I am just intenet based I have invested £10k in my business in the first 2 years and now in year 3 I am seeing a return on that. You would need a HUGE amount of capiatl to do what byou are planning and the chances of getting a business loan at the moment are slim.

Thanks guys, for all the feedback - shall take it all on board. I'll definitely be doing a lot more research and pulling together a business plan - I'm an accountant so hopefully I will realise if the figures do or do not stack up once I do more digging around. Really appreciate the practical feedback from the business women amongst us and on the other side of things also really appreciate the feedback from the B2Bs, i.e. potential customers!

Shall keep you informed on how things go and whether we decide it'd be a goer or not. Hubby may take some convincing even if it is, as obviously wouldn't be profitable straight away and I don't think he expected to be "keeping me" just yet haha!

Claire

x

I can only echo some of the comments made already in that you would need a huge amount of capital to carry this type of business. Speaking as someone who has already owned a shop and then given it up to work at home, I understand your passion totally. As the others have said, I don't want to sound negative but there is so much competition doing the same thing and the biggest of all facing a one stop shop is the internet. Some of the other competitors which spring to mind are Hobbycraft, Confetti shops, Cash and carrys etc. Admittedly, they don't sell the gowns but they do sell most other things and I don't feel that people wanting craft kits for making their own stationery would think to look in bridal shops if you see what I mean.... It's incredibly hard trying to compete with the high street giants - they often can sell things cheaper than small businesses can buy them for wholesale because of their huge buying power. This is what happened to me as an independent florist, I couldn't compete with a Tesco Superstore on my door step and when my lease was up, I let my shop go.

I know of a couple of shops who did the same thing as you are thinking of and eventually resorted to just specialising in the wedding gowns although sadly both of them are now out of business. I think people are also wary of businesses that do a "little bit of everything" rather than specialising in one area. Jack of all trades and that.

What most bridal shops do is have a small section in their shop dedicated to other wedding suppliers where they have business cards, leaflets etc for customers to help themselves. I do this myself where I have bouquets in some shops and brochures in others. It works on the basis of "I'll scratch your back etc" In return, I send out their business cards with my brochures and this generates business for both of us.

Hope this doesn't sound too negative - not meant to be honest! Just trying to give advice from someone who's been there.