Retail ...... Yes or No ?

Hi Rick, welcome to the site!

You are certainly right to consider and calculate the overheads of using a retail shop. However, if you are thinking about buying/renting premises, retail or otherwise, there are likely to be overheads. It's all about weighing up cost versus benefit. If your business is one in which displaying the products to customers is important it may still be worth considering. If this is important but you are concerned about cost would a web based shop work for your business? This is certainly an option that more and more businesses are taking.

With regards to a retail shop, is it the kind of business which is going to rely on passing trade, in which case, will you be able to afford to rent in a prime location that will give you this trade? If you would like an idea of pricing, look for empty shops in your desired location and contact the agent to get an idea of whether this is feasible.

If you just want to search for shops more generally there are several ways that you could go about doing this: Letting agents' boards, newspapers, the internet and estate agents are all possible routes. Another way of finding a shop is to appoint a commercial agent or surveyor. You can find one through the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors at http://www.rics.org/uk.

Taking on a retail shop with the overheads it entails could be risky but it is possible to minimise the risk through planning and negotiation. You will need to do some sales forecasting for your first year of trading. With an idea of how much rent will be in the kinds of locations you are looking at combined with the costs of stock and other overheads you should be able to get an idea of whether a retail shop will allow you the opportunity to make a profit.

You can read about the way in which one business used planning and negotiation at: http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?itemId=1075431733&r.l1=1086951342&r.s=cb&type=CASE%20STUDIES.

Hope this helps!

Catriona