help on opening new shop (help)

[Rick]

I plan to open a new gallery in San Antonio, Texas this year. I used to own one in Corpus Christi, Texas, but the market just isn't worth sticking it out down there. Where I was leasing had a bad roof leak that was too expensive for the leasing company to want to fix so I managed to weasel out of my lease. I learned how to frame in S.A. and know the market here pretty good so I want to re-open here.
I guess what I'm asking for is any pitfals or tips I should keep an eye on. I made many rookie mistakes in Corpus Christi and really can't afford to make them agian.
This site gives me as well as everyone a chance to avoid the mistakes others have made. It's not like we are competing with each other so we can be truthful about what does and doesn't work.

For example; one of my major mistakes in Corpus Christi was when I opened my shop, I never considered when the new yellow pages would be sent out and opened two months after the dead line for that year. That meant I would be out of the phone book for almost a year. With all the other things going on all at the same time, it never crossed my mind.

One thing that did work for me was giving my client wholesale prices on prints if they framed it in my shop. Trust me, this works. If you charge them your price of $20 on a $40 print, they will more times then not buy two and frame both of them with you.
The way I went about it was charge them retail and give them the option to have them shiped to my gallery or their house. If they don't come back, you made money off the sale and if they came back, I took the difference of the framing order. You can't lose.

 

[JPete]

Possibly the profit off the print is one mistake. Would you do the same on $150 print. We did give a percentage of the print toward framing as a promotion but not wholesale. Giving away old stock makes some sense.

 

[Jim Miller]

Rick:

Make a detailed business plan. That's the best way for a person without direct experience to make a good, clean start. Consider, for example, that if you had made a detailed plan for your first store in Corpus Christi, you would have realized the Yellow Pages deadline months in advance, instead of just a little too late...and many other things that you had to deal with reactively instead of proactively.

Most of us don't know how to make a business plan, but help is easy to get. Consult your banker, your accountant, your insurance agent, your lawyer, and the leasing agent for your prospective new locations -- ask them all for suggestions about your business plan. (That's a way to find out how much they know about doing business, too)

Most important: contact the nearest office of the Federal Small Business Administration. Their S.C.O.R.E. (Service Corps Of Retired Executives) counselors have a wide variety of business experience, and some of them -- certainly not all of them -- can help you. SBA has handy forms and guides for those of us who don't know where to start. So, start there. It's free.

One more thing: Keep up your education. Jay Goltz's publications & classes come highly recommended, and there are other very good ones at all of the trade shows.

Good luck.