Opening a Tack Shop

[EquestrianFairy]

- has anyone ever done this from scratch with no previous 'business experience'

There's a distinct lack of local tack shops in my area and I was looking (it's only at the thinking stage) of setting one up.

What things do I need to consider?

Thanks all

 

[rockysmum]

Find your local small business advice service, they will help you with finance, insurance, staff, business plan etc etc, and I think its free.

Location - somewhere cheapish to rent but easily accessible and where people will call in. i.e. not a farm in the middle of no-where. I also dont like town centre ones. They have too little space and every one which has set up around here went bankrupt pretty quickly.

Space, I personally think that selling feeds is the best way to get people in the door. I always browse for other stuff when I only went in for a bag of nuts.

Parking, I wont go anywhere if I cant park outside the door, carrying feed, rugs etc any distance is a no no.

Suplliers, where are your local wholesalers, certainly when you start up you wont be big enough to buy direct.

Customers, do some market research on their location and buying patterns.

Communication links, make sure you have good broadband and get a website, not all rural locations can support this.

Can you open on the back of another business, rent a unit at an equestrian centre or joined to an existing feed merchant. My niece did this and it was reasonably successful. She gave it up eventually though as she made far more money for less work taking her stand to shows and other events and selling on the internet. For that she only needed a barn.

 

[cremedemonthe]

Yes I did back in the middle 90's was a nightmare, SO expensive, we had theft, high council tax, no parking nearby ( not good when you sell horse feed as you have to carry it to customers car way down the road) & high rent even if the customers are thin on the ground the bills need paying!
I'd never have another and only sell my own products as well as selected bought in products via my website and other various sites.
Not having any business sense at all didn't do me any favours regarding a proper shop,I'm a craftsman not a businessman and I accept that is one of my many failings but it is hard work believe me!
BUT if you do go ahead I have performed most of the mistakes people are likely to make so can help you not make the same ones!
I can give you trade contacts to help you get started, pm me if you want a hand, Oz

 

[ex racer rider]

Westgate efi and snowhill trade saddlery are great suppliers and you not need to orfer a massive amount. Snowhill hasnt got a minimum order but westgate does, I think its around 100. But good luck

 

[zaminda]

Don't do it. I ran a tack shop with my ex, who had over 20 years of retail management experience. We had a great customer base, but they simply didn't spend enough. There is little to no mark up on feed, 50p-£1 but once you factor in credit card charges, and everyone pays by card, you make hardly anything. Getting accounts is difficult, they can be sniffy about setting up new people near other customers, and generally require a minimum first order of £1000 + including westgate who we dealt with, and they were one of the easy ones. You realistically need to have £20000 + of stock starting up, and finding suitable premises is very difficult. If you are near a big agriculture centre, you will not be able to compete with them on price, and will find, as we did, that people pick your brains, and use you for special orders only, and buy the majority of things online, or cheaply at the agri centre down the road.
Good luck, feel free to PM me.
Sally

 

[Hairy Old Cob]

Now is not the time you see so many failures and the established shops are doing little more than rubbing through at the moment.
Feed is sown up by the big players Countrywide SCATS and local farm feed traders just by economies of scale.
Most of of your prospective customers are really feeling the pinch at the moment and are only spending, the bare minimum when they have to.
There are a lot of people that would like to get out of horses at the moment but they cannot because No one wants to buy at present, because their is so little money around at the moment.

 

[Bosworth]

I did it from scratch, and it worked well for 2 years but then I got divorced and my ex destroyed my business. You need to compete against the online shops and ebay. what people use saddleries for is to get ideas, look and touch products, then they buy online from the cheapest source. So you become the shop window for the web based businesses.

 

[ischa]

I thought about opening one up where I am
But I say don't do it either
Majority of stuff such as rugs, saddles , bridles etc are brought online Ie eBay and equestrian clearance
The only thing people really go for are emergencies and feed
Even horse shops online are competing and making a loss
because there are other people out there who get exactly the same stuff and sell for half of wholesale price which makes me wonder where their profit is coming from !!
I use to sell on eBay again , the amount of stuff i was selling wasnt even covering Bay fees etc
So gave up on that idear to
Now I just buy for people who ask me to get stuff
If you are set on doing it , snowhill , westgate and trilico are good for stuff