New Partnership?!?!?!?

carla030698

Hi All

Just thought I would get some views on a venture im looking into at the mo.

Me and a friend are considering starting up a bridal shop and are currently researching if its a good idea, and how to go about it. I will be AAT qualified (hopefully) after the June exams, and my friend currently works in sales (all be it a totaly different sales area!) We have both worked in retail previously and have a few good ideas for the shop. Although we have never worked in the bridal industry we have decided you have to start somewhere and with our combined accounting and sales experience are hoping we will be able to use it as a start!

Does anyone have any useful info or advice on setting up the business??? :001_smile:

A-Vic

carla030698 wrote: »

Hi All

Just thought I would get some views on a venture im looking into at the mo.

Me and a friend are considering starting up a bridal shop and are currently researching if its a good idea, and how to go about it. I will be AAT qualified (hopefully) after the June exams, and my friend currently works in sales (all be it a totaly different sales area!) We have both worked in retail previously and have a few good ideas for the shop. Although we have never worked in the bridal industry we have decided you have to start somewhere and with our combined accounting and sales experience are hoping we will be able to use it as a start!

Does anyone have any useful info or advice on setting up the business??? :001_smile:

Put together a good business plan and also make sure you both sign a partnership agreement as soon as possible

CJC

Yep, a business plan containing a solid marketing plan and first year's cash-flow at the very least. Your local Business Link should be able to give you more advice on this and other aspects of starting your business - my one runs several useful courses as well as giving one-to-one advice. It's a bit sprawling and not brilliantly organised but their website http://www.businesslik.gov.uk) also has loads of useful stuff for starting-up.

carla030698

Thanks we have seen the business link website but have not had chance to contact them yet, but there is deffinatly some usefull info on there! :001_smile:

groundy

Just a quick point re: business link, my experience is that they can be useful for finding grants and funding available. However, I have had several clients badly advisd with regards to marketing ideas with retail businesses.

Might just be my area but we never recommend business link to our clients. Also I would be very wary of entering into a business that neither of you has experience in.

I have seen a few bridal shops accounts as potential businesses for existing clients to purchase and the one thing that stands out is the amount of stock required can be substantial and therefore its very important to get the cashflow right at the start.

Dont mean to sound all doom and gloom, I wish you luck in your new venture.:thumbup1:

carla030698

Thanks groundy, will take your advice on board. Have you got any recomendations as to where we should start in the business?
We are currently looking at the shops in our area to see if we can tell whether another shop in our area would work (also if there is anything that is missing from the area) but after that we are not really sure where to turn.
As you mentioned the stock is quite substantial and we are struggleing to put a value on what we will need.

Any advice will be welcomed! :laugh:

Jon_1984

I work for a wholesaler in a different industry. We have helped many retail businesses get going and we run courses on providing a lot of the essential info to our sector such as which licensing classifications for premises etc.etc.

The one mistake many people seem to make in their planning for running a retail business is expecting to draw an income from it in the first few months, before they have established their reputation. Make sure you have sufficent income to keep your home life going if you business plan turns out to be over-optomistic.

A-Vic

carla try out HSBC for their business plan packs they really good also help with projections and what you will need to do

Monsoon

groundy wrote: »

Might just be my area but we never recommend business link to our clients. Also I would be very wary of entering into a business that neither of you has experience in.

Agreed, the only thing I ever recommend them for is finding out about the current business grants/loans on offer.

I also agree with the comments about thinking it through properly, researching it, drawing up a business plan etc.

It is imperative that you get a partnership agreement. This is not a 'marriage' document, it's a 'divorce' document. This is not me being doom and gloom, this is an essential pragmatism - if the worst thing happens, you both need your ar$es covered.

Best of luck with it

carla030698

Thanks for all your posts, I have benn on the HSBC website and they have some brilliant advice on there so I think when we have our plan together and have done sufficient research we will def make an appointment with them! :thumbup1:

groundy

I am glad you found some useful info on HSBC website. When we started our business we used there business plan but that was 10 years ago. However, we left HSBC as the rates they charged at the time were double what we ended up paying at RBS and you can never speak to a branch manager, its always a call centre first.

Good luck with the business plan and remember to be realistic with regards to your needs.

If you are still keen on bridal, it may be worth checking out NEC or other exhinition halls for Wedding shows. I once attended an Accounting show at the NEC and it gave us some great ideas for our practice.