How much to set up own Tack shop?

[loubymay]

I am currently looking at opening my own smallish tack shop, I've got prices for things such as the premises and I've got a wholesaler who been in contact with me and I've also got a meeting with my bank on Tuesday - but I just wondered how much on average to stock up my shop - won't be doing things like saddles to begin with and my premises isn't huge its about 330sqft - but just an average idea on what you think would be great xx

 

[daydreambeliever]

Couldn't begin to guess how much you would need but good luck with your new venture.

 

[Bens_Mum]

What are you hoping to stock? Rugs would be very expensive due to the size range required, if you don't get all sizes in the wholesalers often sell out of certain ones so ordering from them as people enquire can be hard to do when the season starts.. Is it low end or high end brands your hoping to stock?

 

[loubymay]

Well the company I'm using is an irish company - and they arnt a recognised brand in england yet but they are in ireland so im hopefully using them but they they also supply low end stock aswell - i'm hopefully like trying to open a shop on a budget for people but obvs not stupidly cheap. But yh rugs hopefully.

 

[SNORKEY]

Hi, I looked into this about 3 yrs ago, I got a business start up plan guide from HSBC and looked at how much it was to rent a shop, and contacted Snowhills, who are a big wholesaler, I worked out just to stock up with the normal stuff inc rugs, it would cost me about £5k, but it will be very hard to make any money for a while, you wont be able to hire any staff at the begining,not until you start earing a profit.
With the cost of shop rental in the South od England I worked out I just couldn't do it.
The shop rental will be your biggest draw back so finding a suitable one with good parking, and in a obvious place for a good price will be your most important thing.

Good luck

 

[loubymay]

Thanks thats really great - I've found a perfect spot - its a great shop with great parking and has recently been refurbished and had new windows etc and great security and in a really busy area for £5000 a year which for up here int bad =) x

 

[Echo Bravo]

Parking, and rotation of stock and keep it dusted, nothing worse than going into shop after trying to park and finding dust everywhere. Small selection of bits , grooming kits etc:- jodhpurs and it seems the herbal stuff and fresh carrots, horse feeds have a small margin profitwise, rugs headcollars leadropes and wellies,yard muckers, riding boots, mostly adults and bridles and the browbands with diamonties are in at the moment. Best of Luck.

 

[royal]

I was invovled in setting up a shop a few years ago as I was the Manager...just for stock, not including saddles, but selling bits, leatherwork, small amount of clothing, riding wear, lotions & potions, feed, supplements etc cost around £11-15K - and we looked under-stocked (it was a small shop).
Then there were things like the contents insurance, alarm system, till, card machine, computer, safe, decoration, advertising, phone lines, fax machine (needed for suppiers) etc, he probably spent nearly £30K.

You probably won't get credit at first (no reflection on you, this is just how the suppliers work), so will have the first 3-6 orders having to be paid up front.
We also tried using 1 supplier but very quickly had to take on more to satisfy customer demand ie: people wanting Shires/Weatherbetta etc.

Feed is a loss leader - ie: you don't really make anything on it, but it gets people in the shop...

Our profit margin wasn't bad, but we made sure we were lower than our competitors.....We made no profit at all in the first year purely due to getting known and getting customers thru the door (I can give you an idea of % mark up if you are unsure - just PM me). Make sure you include VAT ontop of your profit mark up, but don't register until you hit the threshold...(that way your regular customers don't get a hike in prices to cover it all of a sudden!)

The owner (who just looked after the financial side, had a heart attack (not fatal!) and gave up the business

If you need any advice or help, just PM me!

 

[mrdarcy]

Good luck! I hope it works out for you. Try to find some niche products that no one else in the area is stocking and make sure you go to the BETA trade fair next year where all the new products are shown for the first time. I would also consider buying things like mirconised linseed and magnesium oxide in bulk then bagging yourself and selling. Bit of a pain but you get a decent mark up and people are always asking me where they can get both things from.

 

[SNORKEY]

£5k a year is very good, its that a month where I live!

 

[loubymay]

Thats loads of help - its just hard going through a couple of catalogues and counting everysingle thing i need to give a rough price and i need like a rough figure when i'm going to the bank - but thanks yh i might take u up on the offer of advice if anyone knows of anymore suppliers that would be great as well - the one ive got is great but yh i agree on using others aswell x

 

[DragonSlayer]

I just love rooting through baskets and shelves of stuff, so don't be too tidy!

Good luck!

 

[Dubsie]

Amazingly cheap rent! Don't go for anything without parking very close by.
I run my own mail order business, and also do small business advice.
My top 5 tips for you are
1)Plan to succeed. Vitally important you write a proper business plan. Most of the banks will give you advice/free business plan calculators where you enter all the information and costs. Remember turnover is vanity, profit is sanity.
2) Choose a name for your shop that is alphabetically before those of your competitors eg Apaloosa Tack as opposed to Zulu Tack - you'll always appear at the top of the list, and people will tend to look to you first
3) You need to allow in your budget for a website with online shop - 2 reasons a)will get customers in your shop and b) will bring in some sales direct. It's worth spending on this as all too often these days people will google for tack shops in their area, and you need something attractive to draw people in.
4)Do make sure you have a facility to accept credit cards from the start. People like to spend more than they've actually got, and you need to encourage this
5) Make sure you attract publicity for your store eg competitions in the press (free mags especially), do press releases to announce your arrival, make sure all the farriers, vets, local yards, riding schools etc any equine practitioners have your information. You could also look at sponsoring classes at local shows or advertising in programmes, ideally with offers to get people in to your shop.

Hope that helps - and good luck ! Your rent is soooooo cheap I am quite envious (pay lots more than that for a lot less and it's not a shop!)

 

[loubymay]

Thanks - Thats really great advice - am so busy at the moment - doing budgets and alsorts, but you've all given me really great advice. Thanks.

 

[MinskiKaii]

I used to work in a tack shop which was a third who for a large local company. it was just being set up.

A few of the things we did, advertised in the local papers, put leaflets in the store, so if someone provided details of another potential customer they got some vouchers. I had fun going round all the local horse shows leafleting all the cars and boxes and chatting to people and of course watching all the horses

 

[Kaylum]

We set up an online tack shop in 2002 and we traded on ebay before the market was flooded with rubbish. The online market is very very competitive now but we were lucky as I made a 200 page catalogue and it cost us the grand total of £15 for server space and thats how we started. I never ever recommend going to a web company that does not do hand over. i.e. they charge you everytime you need to update anything. It does not work and is very expensive.

Order to order if you can. i.e. the customer wants something and you put in an order each week, if you put up a notice saying anything not in stock can be ordered and your onto a winner, if you can get a catalogue for them to look through even better, its better for the customer as they can just come in an order it and collect it rather than waiting for the parcel post. Take a tip from the shops as thats what they are all doing now. They can also ask you questions about whats in the catalogue.

Dont spend a lot on advertising its not that affective and you can do nearly all of it for free, i.e. get on forums, add free adverts, and go round livery yards and riding schools leaving a poster or business card. Word of mouth is the best way of doing things. We spent a couple of nights going round yards and we also had tack parties i.e. like body shop parties. You could hold these either on your premises or a large livery yards for their clients. Brilliant way of first of all getting to know your potential clients and secondly your market. Also get a very very big notice board. People will come in an look at it and put notices on it, its a brilliant way of getting people into your premises.

We had a free business account for 18 months so no outlay there.

Beware the biggest problem we had was rug returns. Horse had quite clearly ripped them and customers would try it on with you.

I did a bit of business consulting after we sold the business so if you need to know anything just pm me.