Setting up shop

[AotearoaBrad]

After 12 years on my knees, I with another tiler have decided to set up a retail tile shop. Our plan is to start slow and set it up as a showroom at first as we have most of the builders in town as our clients. We plan to extend the showroom into a full manned shop at some point within the year. Would be interested to hear some thoughts and ideas from anyone who's taken the leap themselves? Merry Xmas.

 

[Dan]

That's certainly the way to go about it mate. I've know a few shops setup in the last couple of years that way and they're still going now.

Make sure you get in with the suppliers. That seems to work in your favour bigtime.

 

[Bubblecraft]

I had a mate who was Manager at Topps. He left & started his own Tile shop. Lucky if it lasted a year then went under & TBH, if I thought of anyone who could start their on Tile shop, it would have been him. Even extended into Bathrooms & Kitchens but never took off.
He had it all under one roof. Trade Stuff, Bal, Mapie, hardi, Aquapanel, warmup, homelux, genesis, budget tiles, elegant tiles, ceramic, porcelain & natural stone.
Great looking displays & excellent customer service but just couldn't beat the big shop prices without cutting into his overheads.
I tried to promote his business as much as I could. Was a shame cause it was a great shop. I think the other hit was he was only about 4 or 5 miles from Hillington which hosts about another 15 tile shops.
It's a hard market out there. If you do it, I wish you all the best!
This was him:
http://www.paisley.org.uk/2011/05/paisley-tile-centre/
http://www.paisleydailyexpress.co.u...sters-doing-it-for-themselves-87085-27764795/

 

[Time's Ran Out]

Good luck.

 

[Dan]

I had a mate who was Manager at Topps. He left & started his own Tile shop. Lucky if it lasted a year then went under & TBH, if I thought of anyone who could start their on Tile shop, it would have been him. Even extended into Bathrooms & Kitchens but never took off.
He had it all under one roof. Trade Stuff, Bal, Mapie, hardi, Aquapanel, warmup, homelux, genesis, budget tiles, elegant tiles, ceramic, porcelain & natural stone.
Great looking displays & excellent customer service but just couldn't beat the big shop prices without cutting into his overheads.
I tried to promote his business as much as I could. Was a shame cause it was a great shop. I think the other hit was he was only about 4 or 5 miles from Hillington which hosts about another 15 tile shops.
It's a hard market out there. If you do it, I wish you all the best!

Getting too big too quick is a big killer. All that under one roof in just a year?! I wouldn't be surprised if he was getting a little more than trade discount from distributors.

If its going to work it needs to be a slow thing if its just one shop. Of you have money for a few then you have haggling power but of its one shop only then you need to concentrate on lease terms on property and just a couple of suppliers moreso than trying to get everything on the shelves IMO.

 

[Bubblecraft]

Getting too big too quick is a big killer. All that under one roof in just a year?! I wouldn't be surprised if he was getting a little more than trade discount from distributors.

If its going to work it needs to be a slow thing if its just one shop. Of you have money for a few then you have haggling power but of its one shop only then you need to concentrate on lease terms on property and just a couple of suppliers moreso than trying to get everything on the shelves IMO.

I fully agree. I think it was too much too soon. It's a shame to cause he put all his money into it. Think he panicked and brought in more hoping to expand sales quickly.

 

[ringw]

good luck

 

[fatboy]

Get on it mate ill have a trade card when your open and and stock sigma cutters ...... Brownie point for fat boy

 

[DTile]

It's always great to hear of any new business setting up, especially in tiles!
Yours already has 2 huge advantages to help you succeed, even in these hard times:
1. You clearly have plenty of experience of the products you'll be selling
2. There are 2 of you in it together. Apart from spreading the workload, the benefit of a 2nd opinion on decisions that need to be made and sorting problems that can (& will!) crop up is massive.

Best of luck with it!

 

[ifindoubtgrout]

all the best with it pal, try and stick with uk products at first and always on sale and return,hopefully the shop will grow then you can spread your wings, also one of you should carry on tiling this way you have some income.

 

[White Room]

I hope it works for you but do a fair bit of finding out what people/ builders etc need, as others have said take it slowly.

 

[John Benton]

Good luck it's not the easiest of times to be setting up a business. What I will say is no matter how much you trust your partner, keep a close eye on the finances. My cousin and his best friend of 25 years setup a business together. His partner looked after the money side of things whilst my cousin looked after the front of the shop, customers, marketing etc. It was only when his partner went away on holiday for two weeks that he was dealing with suppliers and paying bills and found bills hadn't been paid and suppliers stopped supplying. It was food retail and if you haven't got any food, you can't sell it. It ended up in court, costing him thousands and he nearly lost his house over it.

Be very careful, you may think you know someone, until it comes to money !!!

 

[fatboy]

When your open try and get a trade day together and drum up some supplters

 

[Andy Allen]

i had a tile shop 23 years ago, and one thing i learnt is you make very little money unless you import the tiles yourself, you will never compete whith the big boys...

 

[afright]

My brother who was a tiler as well (he is now retired who I worked for ) supplied, but ran everything from his garage which was stocked to the ceiling with boards,addy and grout, did not have to pay for shop rent he made a killing on the supply he always said that he would not open a shop. but good lucky anyway .