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  1. #1
    Member calvinabc's Avatar
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    to high street or not?

    we are thinking of opening a shop in the high street offering our services does anyone here do this/have done/tried failed? thoughts and comments please.

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    What service(s) do you offer?
    Does anyone else already do this locally?
    What are shop rents and rates like in your town - how many things would you have to make/sell before you made a profit?

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    Member calvinabc's Avatar
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    we do embroidery, vinyl printing, sublimation and engraving. so quite a few different things. we also do quite a bit of logo design work and work closely with a web developer. which is another service i would like to offer. and then probably look to add the pvc banners and flag banners. we dont do any marketing at all and stay relatively busy. but with more of a presence could be quite good i think. i dont want to give to much away on here re location just in case. but the small town is growing great new development with 150 homes starting soon. lots of small business already. fairly wealthy area. but would like to offer from business cards to engraved tankards the whole works.

    the shop i have my eye on has been empty for nearly 2 years. very good location. lots of footfall not set back or anything. large car park due to supermarket. but £13000/annum plus rates and service charge. we have 2 young children 1 and 4 and i run a dairy farm in my spare time.(Ha ha ha).

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    I think there is more business online than there is on the high street. Do you need to be there and pay all that extra rent? How many people will google for your local business vs how many will drive past?

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    Member calvinabc's Avatar
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    i totally agree GG. but are finding more of my customers do not necessarily use online. 1 of them even asked what was this 3d secure on checkout the other day.

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    Have you looked at what rates are payable - sometimes they can be as much or even more than the rent is.
    Think whether you need to be in a good part of town - are you wanting a shop front for passing trade, or do you just want somewhere they can come to in town- there may be other options with lower rent, and possibly no/low rates, if your local council are kind - ours has designated one part of our town as essentially no rates, and the rents are very low there too.

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    I have a shop and it works for me but like everything it is a risk, it sounds as though you are going ahead, and if you don't try you will never know. Do your homework, which I'm sure you have. Running a website alongside help but mainly I get orders through recommendations and word of mouth. These two ways are much better than advertisement, I have advertised and spent good money and only to find nothing comes of this. This could be just me but most people I have spoken to have said the same, and they have come come from hairdressers to butchers.

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    If the shop has been empty for 2 years, then you're in a very good position to negotiate terms - lower rent would be a start, or even a short 'trial run', if not a trial run, a decent amount of free rental period to allow you to get the shop fitted and established before you start paying etc etc.
    Is a shame you weren't looking at this 6 months ago, to negotiate your trial run/free rent period to be around oct-dec time though - good time to get the shop established and have money coming in.

    We're currently looking at getting our own shop (we set up a community art centre in partnership with a local charity, and are currently based there) and rent on the new shop (just across the way from the art centre) is only £5K per annum with no rates. It's two storey, so we'll have production upstairs, and downstairs will be the shop. All our products are our own designs though, we don't do personalised printing etc, so a different business model to most here, but can certainly see from our products sales in the arts centre shop that that rent us easily covered
    Last edited by pisquee; 06-12-2015 at 11:23 PM.

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    How do you run a dairy farm part time?

    sent using tapatalk on my Note4

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    Member calvinabc's Avatar
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    we-print. i was being sarcastic. the dairy farm is a full on 4am till 7pm job with 230 cows. then trying to grow and develop our business on the side. yes should be able to negotiate fairly well. and will ask for some free time like you said pisquee. where do you draw the line between expansion or just happy as you are. this is the dilemma/conundrum i am facing at the minute. with a young family and already very busy is adding a shop going to push us over the edge or should we embrace the challenge now? i am a believer in if you dont try you will never know.

    i do need to check on the rates. i know there is a quarterly service charge. are the rates business rates? would this be from the council? do small business not get a grant/relief from this?

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