How to Start a Antique Furniture Restoration Business

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

How to Start a Antique Furniture Restoration Business

If you have a love for antiques, or truly enjoy finding old pieces of furniture and restoring them to their former glory, starting an antique furniture restoration business may be the perfect fit for you. This business requires knowledge of antique furniture periods, as well as the ability to professionally strip, sand, paint or stain furniture to return it to a sale able condition. It is also helpful to have contacts within the local auction community to source and sell antique furniture.

Step 1

Choose a location for your business. Ideally, this location should have an area in the back that can be used as a workshop for your restoration projects. If this is not possible, focus on apart of town that is well-traveled and conducive to your market. For example, a street that has antique stores and boutiques would be an ideal place to find your intended buyers.

Step 2

Secure a stream of antique pieces. If you don't already have contacts with local auctioneers, get in touch with them and let them know about your plans to start a local restoration business. Not only can they help you find pieces to restore, they may also be able to help you place your restored pieces once they are finished.

Step 3

Finish a few showpieces before opening your store. You need to be able to promote your antique restoration business by showing the kind of work that you can do. Display your favorite pieces in your showroom and next to them, display a photograph of what the furniture looked like before you began working on it.

Step 4

Contact the local media. Antique restoration always makes for a good human interest story and your local paper or radio station may be interested in doing a piece on your business. In addition, contact your local chamber of commerce to see if you can schedule a ribbon-cutting ceremony for your grand opening. This will help get the community interested in your shop.

Step 5

Schedule an open house. Let people tour through the showroom and show them some furniture pieces that you are currently working on. This helps get the local community excited and shows your customers what your work entails.

Step 6

Place local ads offering restoration services. Even if they don't have pieces they want to sell, people in your local community may have old antiques that have seen better days. Place ads in your local paper and around town to offer your restoration services to them. This can be a good way to supplement sales of restored pieces.

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Antique Furniture BusinessDecember 15, 2013 at 12:19 PM
Antique Furniture, Antique Furniture Business, Antique Furniture Restoration, How to Start a Antique Furniture Restoration Business
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Easy Tips and Ideas to Start Business

Although anyone can start a business, many people fail because of a bad product or improper research. If you want to start your own business, you can improve your chances for success before you even begin. In order to make your business successful, start strong and make sure that your idea will hold out for the long haul.

Have a Good Product

Ensure that you plan to sell something useful. Although you may think that your product is important or special, that doesn't mean the general public will agree. Ask friends, family and strangers what they think of your product. If they don't seem that interested, ask them why. With their suggestions, you can either improve the product or scrap the idea completely. According to Brad Sugars of Entrepreneur magazine, most small businesses fail because they sold a product that didn't have an adequate market. This also applies to small businesses that provide a service. A lawn-care business might be useful for part of the year in a northern state, but it is in-demand year-round in the south. Consider whether people will actually want to use your service and get constructive advice from those not afraid to give their opinion.

Research Local Businesses

Research local companies before starting up your own business. This will not only give you an idea of the amount of competition you will have, but it will also help you price your product or service. If you're looking to start a wedding photography business, you may find during your research that the market is over-saturated in your area. If not over-saturated, you should contact each business and ask them for a price list. Alter your prices so you can stay competitive with the competition in town. Researching similar local businesses will also help you decide where to locate your business location. Try not to start up a store or office close to another business of your type. If your small business is located away from similar business types, this will cause locals to choose you over businesses that are farther away from where they live.

Get Professional Advice

You may know someone who has started their own successful business. Ask him for advice and listen to his stories of how he started his company. You may gain useful advice on the good and bad ways to start a business. Local entrepreneurs can also introduce you to local product providers or advertisers that you may not have met without their help. Accept any advice with open arms, especially if the advice is coming from someone successful in the area.

How to Calculate Business Start Up Costs

Starting a business in no easy endeavor. It takes a great deal of research, perseverance and hard work. While sweat equity will make your small business more successful, you will most likely need real capital to get the business started. Before you start raising capital and/or investing your own funds, the first thing you need to do is determine the total start-up costs.

Step 1

Determine your costs of sales. For most small businesses this means inventory, the cost of raw materials, manufacturing equipment, shipping, packaging, and warehousing. However, not all businesses sell products. In this case, the cost of sales is primarily the direct labor involved in making the sale. For example, to open a small shoe business entails purchasing enough inventory ($10,000) to stock the store.

Step 2

Determine professional fees. Planning your business structure, i.e., limited liability corporation or general partnership, means hiring an attorney. There may also be the need to pay an attorney for help with establishing trademarks, copyrights, and patents. In this scenario, that puts total professional fees at an estimated $20,000.

Step 3

Determine technology costs. Technology can greatly reduce the cost of labor for small business if used effectively. Most small businesses require computers, printers, cell phones, website development, Internet access, software applications, information security, data storage, and outsourced information technology (IT) consulting. If the cost of technology is $10,000 to start, add an additional $5,000 a year for maintenance (hint: maintenance is not included in start-up costs).

Step 4

Determine administrative costs. This varies with business types and may include items such as business insurance, office supplies, product packaging, parking, rent, express shipping, desks, chairs, fax machines, phones, or anything else necessary to operate the business daily. A good estimate for start-up administrative costs would be $5,000 for the first six months.

Step 5

Determine initial sales and marketing costs. Now that you have your product, you need to let folks know about it. Sales and marketing costs generally include marketing materials for presentations, printing stationery, business cards, advertising, trade show events, and public relations. These initial sales and marketing costs can add up to $3,000.

Step 6

Determine the wages and benefits needed to secure a staff. This includes employee salaries, benefits, workers compensation, and payroll taxes. Let's put the cost of wages and benefits estimated at $20,000 for the first three months of business.

Step 7

Add all costs associated with starting the business for a total. Be sure to only include business start-up costs that will be incurred in the first three to six months of operations. For this example, the calculation is: $10,000 + $20,000 + $10,000 + $5,000 + $3,000 + $20,000 = $68,000.

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Tuesday, March 26, 2013