A owner wrote about his experience, the owner of Rider Boot Co. I think its more relavent to a brick and mortar store tho
"A couple of points: 1) Unless you have a reputation (experience), none of the brands mentioned will return your call - let alone sell you. 2) Before you can get great merchandise, you have to have a great environment. We just built our third store here in Richmond; 8000 sq. ft. cost $600,000 to build out. 3) Whose going to do your tailoring? Got to buy sewing machines, pressers, boiler...not to mention the people to run these machines. 4) Payroll and rent will take away 30-35% of your sales. Assuming, of course, you don't want to work alone. And this does not include what you have to pay on the note to build out the store. Again, the 'best' brands generally don't sell mom and pops. 5) Don't assume that the stores with big reputations are succeeding - one of the big names just mentioned just got cut off by one of their principal tie vendors who did most of their private label work due to their inability to pay LAST years invoices. Another has lost 30% of it's volume over the last couple of years, and has turned to South American production to help improve the margins. A very well known shoe store with multiple locations in the SW and W of the US placed an order with a manufacturer at the show in Italy with one of my vendors in September. Before I was done, the Director got a call on the cell phone from the Insurance Credit carrier declining to accept the order due to payment issues. 6) If you are new, and somehow able to develop a relationship with a well know, high-end brand, you better be right, all the time, from the get-go. Your hands are tied on price so you won't be able to discount your way out of mistakes. You'll be told what you are going to sell and for how much. 7) Credit will not be available to you from a vendor - you will pay up-front. Our store has been in business for over 30 years and has NEVER paid an invoice late. We pay our bills on the 10th of the month no matter what - and it still took 5 years of paying 30% at the time I placed an order and 70% before the order shipped before I was finally able to get terms from Italy last year. 8) You've heard the saying 'good help is hard to find'. Well, that's wrong; good help is virtually impossible to find. And it will cost you if you do. And this is what I think off the top of my head - if you wan't to go through all this, and take the huge financial risk, you better LOVE what you do - otherwise you don't have a chance. And when I say love, I mean love it 18 hours a day. Our owner came to America from Italy when he was 16 years old. He is now 63. He has not taken a day off (outside of buying trips) in all the days in between. Not one. No Sundays, no Thanksgivings', no Christmas', no New Years Days', not without going to the shop for at least a couple of hours. Shoulder surgery..it gets done at 6am so he can be back at the shop in the afternoon. Kidney stones...they can come between fittings. Kid's birthdays...schedule them in the afternoon upstairs in the stores' kitchen. That's owning a retail store. At least one that pays the bills."
"A couple of points: 1) Unless you have a reputation (experience), none of the brands mentioned will return your call - let alone sell you. 2) Before you can get great merchandise, you have to have a great environment. We just built our third store here in Richmond; 8000 sq. ft. cost $600,000 to build out. 3) Whose going to do your tailoring? Got to buy sewing machines, pressers, boiler...not to mention the people to run these machines. 4) Payroll and rent will take away 30-35% of your sales. Assuming, of course, you don't want to work alone. And this does not include what you have to pay on the note to build out the store. Again, the 'best' brands generally don't sell mom and pops. 5) Don't assume that the stores with big reputations are succeeding - one of the big names just mentioned just got cut off by one of their principal tie vendors who did most of their private label work due to their inability to pay LAST years invoices. Another has lost 30% of it's volume over the last couple of years, and has turned to South American production to help improve the margins. A very well known shoe store with multiple locations in the SW and W of the US placed an order with a manufacturer at the show in Italy with one of my vendors in September. Before I was done, the Director got a call on the cell phone from the Insurance Credit carrier declining to accept the order due to payment issues. 6) If you are new, and somehow able to develop a relationship with a well know, high-end brand, you better be right, all the time, from the get-go. Your hands are tied on price so you won't be able to discount your way out of mistakes. You'll be told what you are going to sell and for how much. 7) Credit will not be available to you from a vendor - you will pay up-front. Our store has been in business for over 30 years and has NEVER paid an invoice late. We pay our bills on the 10th of the month no matter what - and it still took 5 years of paying 30% at the time I placed an order and 70% before the order shipped before I was finally able to get terms from Italy last year. 8) You've heard the saying 'good help is hard to find'. Well, that's wrong; good help is virtually impossible to find. And it will cost you if you do. And this is what I think off the top of my head - if you wan't to go through all this, and take the huge financial risk, you better LOVE what you do - otherwise you don't have a chance. And when I say love, I mean love it 18 hours a day. Our owner came to America from Italy when he was 16 years old. He is now 63. He has not taken a day off (outside of buying trips) in all the days in between. Not one. No Sundays, no Thanksgivings', no Christmas', no New Years Days', not without going to the shop for at least a couple of hours. Shoulder surgery..it gets done at 6am so he can be back at the shop in the afternoon. Kidney stones...they can come between fittings. Kid's birthdays...schedule them in the afternoon upstairs in the stores' kitchen. That's owning a retail store. At least one that pays the bills."
