Tips for opening a store

[SCR]

I believe I'm finally going to take the plunge and open a store front in the next 6 months. What does everyone recommend that I stock (for display) and does anyone have any 'new store' ideas, something to bring customers in?

I'm coming into this with 11 years experience of repair and I've worked for many shops, but no one seems to be getting it completely right on the service side. Retail however, isn't my thing. Service/upgrades/being a geek is.

[Scuba]

Make stickers from thr type that you canot remove without destroing them. make them with the stor name, numbre, a placce to write the date, and the writing WARENTY VOID IF REMOVED !!!!!
every time you close a computer "Lock" it up with one of them.

For display you can put empty boxes that look good. you dont need the actual parts. you might want one computer to run games so the kids can come and play on it.

Don't let your costumers play with you. All costumers want a better price. Decide with what Brands you are willing to work, and Stick to this brands. If you are selling Toshiba CD Roms and the costumer want to save 5$ and buy some **** - he can go to the next shop. Expect that every time that you dont sell the Brands you normaly sell that they will come back with problems. This is known as Murfy's Law.

I Hope you will make it. <IMG SRC="smilies/smile.gif" border="0">

[sdrawkcab]

First you should decide the direction of your store... are you a service/repair shop or a retail/sales shop? There's more money in the retail market, but it's a tougher market (in my area anyway.) If you're going the service/repair route, reputation is everything... word of mouth and recommendations will make or break your business, so treat every customer right and take special care of special customers. If you're going the retail route, then the general idea is to push systems and product out the door as fast as possible, with less emphasis on service and customer satisfaction... advertising will make up for this in retail. It's a harsh reality, but in retail stores service really doesn't matter... look at the BestBuys and CircuitCitys out there, and you'll agree.

[Wayward Clam]

My advice would be to stock as little as possible. It's a truism that you can't make money by not spending money but nothing on Earth devalues faster than a Pentium IV sitting on your display shelf. Most good component manufacturers can ship in 2-3 days tops; if you do custom builds and upgrades, people are usually fine with this sort of delay.

DON'T BOTHER with people who ask you to haggle, price match, or anything of the sort. Politely refuse. Tell them you aren't the owner and you don't have the authority to negotiate pricing if they insist. They will then insist upon speaking to the owner, tell them you aren't allowed to give out his phone number. These people WILL account for a lot of your sales, so you must still be polite to them, but if you give them what they want, you are only screwing yourself.

DO budget for some form of advertising. Be selective as to what you do, as a lot of advertising ideas are complete ripoffs, but with no advertising, nobody will hear of your business, and you will never make any money.

[MacGyver]

Make sure you don't get killed on rent for the store and don't sign up for a long term lease if you can help it. If the storefront idea fails, you can bail out without the remainder of a lease hanging over your head. Get a big sign for the exterior with the store phone number and advertise advertise advertise.

[jbar1]

If I had it to do over again ????.Inventory can kill you. I dont know how much competition you will have. First and foremost.. Establish a good name and reputation. Dont promise what you cant deliver and back up what you service and sell. Customers dont want to hassle with the manufacture or Bill Gates. Be able to survive a year without taking much from the business as you will have lean times and a few fat times. The real money is in service and small independents can usually deliver more personal service than the bigger shops. We are primarly a service shop so we have quit handling software, Inks and a lot of hardware. Like people can buy printers, scanners and software at Costco cheaper than we can. We do keep memory, cables, modems, NICs, mice, keyboards, Cdroms(no Burners), a few HDs, CDs and floppies. Since we are so close to the Bay Area we can get stuff overnight. All special orders are paid for in advance. We have a bunch of laptop memory that we ordered over a year ago just laying around. About a $1000.00 worth. Keep good books and resist the urge to expand too fast. Try not to have any employees for the first year. As soon as you hire one person your problems and expense will multiply by a factor of 10. I am sure you will get many more post on this. Good Luck and beware of strangers bearing gifts... <IMG SRC="smilies/wink.gif" border="0"> <IMG SRC="smilies/wink.gif" border="0">

[artpego]

i had all the tech skills and sales kills to start with 1 room and 1 computer (8'x8' room).

now, what i did to grow:

-Empty Boxes Are Great Displays. Keep them on a shelf where they can be seen and not touched.

-Always follow through with your promises and appointments. 1 bad comment can go a long way.

-Check-In and check out sheets. Be sure and keep a log of it all. (don't forget to check the cd-tray for your software).

-just give the darn thing away if the customer feels beyond violated and has any point what-so-ever. it is not worth the hell they can cause.

-always pay your taxes and keep great books. every reciept, job, expense... learned that one the hard way when it came time to figure out what tax i owed uncle sam at the end of the year. an iron-maiden evil woman from hell makes a great billing contact and keeps your butt straight.

-smile, even when you want to shoot.

-every person that comes through your door is your ambassador to other clients. how you treat them is how you are represented to all the people they know who need something done with computers. even if they want to haggle prices, just tell them that you are not able to meet a price for a cheap piece of junk modem, but you do offer them a better alternative and tell them why. the worste is that comp-usa can sell them a system for 499.00, but they cannot offer a system that upgrades or has such personalized service and they may be required to sign some sort of contract with an ISP to get that price, etc... tell them why your solution is better. you may not make the sale but you talked with them, they will remeber that and will be back.

all i can think of right off the bat <IMG SRC="smilies/smile.gif" border="0">

[http://forums.windrivers.com/cgi-bin/forum1/noncgi]

Originally posted by Wayward Clam:
<STRONG>My advice would be to stock as little as possible. It's a truism that you can't make money by not spending money but nothing on Earth devalues faster than a Pentium IV sitting on your display shelf. Most good component manufacturers can ship in 2-3 days tops; if you do custom builds and upgrades, people are usually fine with this sort of delay.
</STRONG>

I agree with Wayward Clam here. I used to work for a small business that did retial to corporations. The owner carried very little in stock, and he did and is doing well still. Order the product when the customer orders it. I can't say it better than Wayward here. He's explained it very well.

[techguy13]

I wish you luck Stewart. I would suggest distinguishing yourself from other mom and pop shops with products and service. The most successfull tech shop in my city of mere 180 000 people caries a vast selection of hardware,see www.techtronics.sk.ca. In three years they have moved into larger buildings three times. As for the service end they are open 7 days a week and open to 7:00pm during the week. Another thing of note about this shop is that its merchidise is displayed with live demo PCs and the range of monitors they carry, motherboards are shrink rapped to the box and on an open shelf. Another must is timely turn-out of new systems a different local shop takes days to weeks to assemble new systems and they are getting a bad reputation that will take years to correct. Hope this helps.
<IMG SRC="smilies/smile.gif" border="0">

[DANIMAL]

spend some money at the start. Don't be scared. there is nothing worse than going into a new computer store and seeing nothing but a sales man and some flyers. People want to see the goods working in there face. Have at least 2 running systems 3 preferably. 1 with music playing another with a high graphics game (lots of Movement to show off the video card) and the third with the the Desktop and a real fancy background.
1-power user
2-gamers Sys
3- Business sys

another thing is if you can't get the systems in right away load up big time on all the little gadgets, CDRW's speakers, headsets, keyboards, cables,and lots more
rember the customer is either coming in to get something small like a mouse or mouse pad or air can.
these things keep them coming back for those that have systems already.
for the others that have no system, they want to see lots of things and a working system.
Don't leave a system sitting on display with a BSOD or error message. Believe me I have see this more than once at a radio Shack.
otherwise be PATIENT with the customers and good luck.
PS> Write out a policy and post it on the wall and stick to it .

[BIGGS]

a bit of advice from experience

- take as many forms of payment as you can
cheque, cash, visa, master card, debit ...

- keep a basic stock, middle line equipment
that you know is reliable, ie ati video
cards

- keep little stock

- on custom builds or any build or order for
that matter take a small deposit.

- allways stress on the phone free estimate

- treat all customers the same, just cause
someone dresses ratty doesnt mean they
wont drop 3 grand on a system, ive seen it
all to often

- when you get part from the manufacturer
take a piece of tape and label the part
with the invoice number from the company
it shipped from. making rma's a snap

- when building a system record the part no.
and invoice no. of where they came from
both inside teh computer and on the
invoice.

- never promise any thing, leave leaway if
possible ie, it should be here in the
morning.

- encourage customers to shop around, tell
them to look out for certain things like
intergration. offer to match/beat prices
this will build trust

- when you get an order for a system after
you order it and get a deposit, shake
their hand

- get a wide range of suppliers, it will
give you a bigger price margin for parts
and a larger selection.

- give follow up calls, if a customer has
trouble and you give them phone support
give them a call back later on to see if
everything is ok

- stay open late at least twice a week, for
people who work odd shifts

- when going out on service calls, or just
back at the shop, always dress and look
professional

- on call outs, you can never have enough
tools or software, you look unprofessional
if you have to go back to the shop for
something.

- keep a low margin on full systems ( 10 to
15 %) the real money is in the service

- charge a flat rate for service, ie 65 an
hour

thats about all i can think of now. good luck. and most importantly have fun

[DANIMAL]

Originally posted by BIGGS:
<STRONG>a bit of advice from experience


- keep little stock

</STRONG>

I couldn't disagree more .
when you go into a book stor to find something to read you want lots of selection.
when you go into a canadian tire you want a huge selection of parts for you car, and why not pick up an air freshner too (If you know what I mean).
when you go into a coffe shop you want to have a selection of different drinks and donuts. if there is nothing new you may not get anything with your coffee.
think about it. stock is everything. spend some money and do your customers a favor.

[Cygnus]

If you are planning on going into service alone then I would recommend operating out of home for the first year or so (if you have the space to do it). If you dont have enough people that want your service yet it will be a great debt killer till you have better traffic. My business does end user service only by word of mouth with no advertisement, or store front. Our main business comes from multiple government and business contracts that were all built up over time by just two people. Currently my boss an I handle all these contracts as well as the enduser machine builds that come from users at the business ourselves, and with a great deal of success. The two of us run everything out of his two car garage that has been converted into a shop. Its nice for the pay and its real easy on the stress as well.

if your going retail this idea wont work at all but I just thought you might like that setup....I sure do.

[ShadowKing]

I think you guys are attacking different angles of the problem.

Wayward Clam was right. Whatever is on your shelf IS getting old.

However DAnimal had a very good point: Stock stuff that doesn't age, that people will be coming in to pick up. Keybaords, Mice, Mouse Pads (Sell the ones with your logo on it for real cheap or free), Canned Air, A little bit of memory, those kinds of things.

In other words, stock the stuff that doesn't age and order stuff that gets old quickly.

[BIGGS]

what i meant by keep little stock, is that you are just opening so you dont want to over extend, keep a few of the basics, ram, video, mobo, processor, nic, but dont try to be future shop over night kinda thing