Reply With Quotehi op. best of luck with your venture.
aye see u later hen. Jealousy ripping right out of you and you don't care who knows it pmslOriginally Posted by Morning Wood
Last edited by Gmtmastertwo; 3rd January 2017 at 18:08.
hi op. best of luck with your venture.
Turns out i live next to JK Rowling.
Braw.
I used to live a few houses down from Lily Allen. By these rules that makes her my wife, right?
Idiot gets banned, who'd have imagined?
Who needs mods when there's an Eddie about!
A great welcome to TZ-UK
TZUK Dragons Den gurus to the rescue! Oh wait..
Fas est ab hoste doceri
+1.......exactly what I was thinking. I'm struggling to get my head around spending that amount on clothes......if I was in that league I wouldn't be taking a gamble on a clothes shop and I certainly wouldn't be sharing this on an internet forum.
Kids climbing out of white Bentleys and spending £800 on jackets?........in Dubai perhaps!
Paul
I can see that sitting in his Mum and Dad's mansion playing Counter Strike is where he gets his tough guy attitude.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuN1BjFqCe8
Some sage advice in the thread, even with those that may appear to be negative.
If you want to give it a go, do so with your eyes wide open and with the expectation that you will be lucky to see any personal return within the first few years.
I had a shop for seven years with no prior retail experience (2008 - 2015). Stone Island amongst others refused to deal with us unless we had similar placed brands sat alongside them. Minimum season commitment was banded at £25k with drops in between. It was a non starter given the minimum order quantities of certain lines that frankly just wouldn't sell given the shops location. CP, Armani? Think they read our email, took our calls before promptly laughing and ignoring any further correspondence. That's not to say you wouldn't have better luck with proof of sizeable investment.
It was just as difficult securing the mid to lower end brands too. The likes of Jack & Jones, Boxfresh etc wanted a presentation, site visits, point of sale obligations that were laughable, but in the end I managed to get quite friendly with a UK agent who supplied a number of brands on favourable terms (G-Shock/ Lacoste/ Lyle & Scott).
Things that worked for us:
Set up as a Ltd company. 80% of the initial contracts refused to work with sole traders or partnerships. The other 20% wanted cash accounts or personal guarantees.
Identifying our target market/ demographic and adjusting quickly. We ditched the higher labels in favour of more affordable brands that were easier to sell. Margins still tracked at the industry average but volume was the order of the day. Several G Star Jeans vs one Stone Island jacket but the jeans sold every day etc.
If another local shop stocks a certain label, make sure you don't. The majority of brands profess to sell to certain stores only within a certain catchment area, but that "agreement" can quickly disappear without your knowledge. Often leads to local competition. Our nearest competitor used to literally cut his throat reducing his prices to undercut ours. Comical for a while but ultimately in no ones best interests when you are trying to run a business.
Approach other independents to look at some form of parallel buying. We didnt want 84 of the same tee shirt from Label A. Label A however mandated such. We had a number of similar shops throughout the UK that were happy to split the numbers and more importantly the cost. Less stress on the cashflow and allowed for fresh stock quicker than a stagnated competitors.
Network at fashion shows (Pure in Birmingham etc). There are plenty of shops/ chains that struggle to sell their stock and need a regular "dealer" outlet.
Look for unique selling opportunities. We did frequent out of hour events that were good earners for the sake of a few hours. New fashion line launch, clothes parties etc. It's amazing how many people came to these as people are too limited to visit us during work hours due to having kids/ obvious work commitments. Free local evening deliveries etc was also such a simple but successful idea that just seemed to work for us and our clientbase.
Make sure you have a really good theft system. I dread to think what we actually lost to the thieving scum bags!!
Look for the next new label. Easier said than done I know but we had Voi Jeans 18 months before they exploded. Enjoyed a further 24 months prior to their inclusion to the multi retailers which signalled our time to get out and drop them from our range. Timing is everything. A low end fashion brand I agree, but boy did they sell.
I was lucky to sell the business with zero debt and continued online with a very basic ebay shop using my contacts and a few trade accounts. New owner made a raft of changes and was shut within six months.
Bottom line. I didn't take a wage for half of the seven years I had the shop. This thankfully wasn't a concern as a previous redundancy payment and my other halfs salary, coupled with no dependents meant finances were never strecthed. If I needed an income to pay the bills, this venture certainly wouldn't have covered the necessary although I did secure dividends annually.
Regrets? Not really. Was an experience and one I'm glad I tried. I recovered my initial expenses so I guess my only losses were the difference in earnings had I been employed (and assuming I could have secured a similar paid job to the one I took voluntary redundancy from). Mind you, my other half always said I was too stressed and not myself in my previous role, so what price do you put on your health and happiness? Would I do it again though? No. Probably not.
A bit of a long winded post so congrats if you got this far. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.
Last edited by RLE; 3rd January 2017 at 21:56.
What an excellent post RLE.
This was the thought I was having. Shrinkage can get out of control really quickly, either because inexperienced staff can't spot shoplifters, or because the staff are stealing the stock themselves.Make sure you have a really good theft system. I dread to think what we actually lost to the thieving scum bags!!
Agreed. I've seen top charging freelance consultants set up with less than the contents of that post.
Agree. Trouble is, the OP asked for advice, but is not interested in listening to it. So in the end nothing but wasted time.
Someone who lies about the little things will lie about the big things too.
I'm in retail. The shift to online is crazy. If you're not there, you are going to die.
Getting your shops, website and distribution/operations up to scratch and joined up is expensive.
Customers do not want to pay for anyone's inefficiency and lack of scale. The likes of John Lewis and House of Fraser are already feeling the pinch as Amazon dominate internet sales, so becomes will have it even harder.
Best in class retailers will be between 35-50% online now and continuing to grow. Shops are used more and more like fancy distribution centers these days than actual selling outlets.
The idea of making a new shop for fashion retailing scares me a little. However, you have to speculate to accumulate, so if you know your geography and market maybe it's possible to make a go of if. If I had a high street location I'd be selling experiences, not clothes.
RLE - one of the most interesting posts I've read in a long time, thanks!
The Op has been banned so I guess we can put this one to bed!
I would just like to congratulate RLE on an excellent contribution.
I spent a couple of decades in business finance, more than long enough to know that the rag trade is not a sector for the inexperienced.
Was reading through his previous posts ( yes, I have nothing better to do). What a thoroughly unpleasant person. Not to the extent of a certain Bulova watch fan but unpleasant nonetheless. At post no 15 I thought "what a specimen" , after reading post no 22 I felt his days were numbered. By post 90 I was certain it's only a matter of time. Hats off to RLEfor taking the time offer sensible advice.
Imagine how well someone who is always right would run a clothes shop, and be able to deal with the general public.
Doesn't really matter, he could just spend his £3k a month clothes budget in his own shop. Luvly jubbly
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Great post rle.
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colourful thread...
need to dye it first!
Last edited by Steve B; 6th January 2017 at 21:25.
Die (duetsche) thread or "Die Thread Die" could be another optionneed to dye if first!
He is undoubtedly what would be referred to here in Scotland as a Bampot, or a wee bam.
Thanks for the great post RLE.
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