Business Ideas | Small Business Ideas: Open a Bridal Shop

Friday, January 23, 2015

Open a Bridal Shop | Wedding Dress Business Ideas

A wedding dress or wedding gown is the clothing worn by a bride during a wedding ceremony. Color, style and ceremonial importance of the gown can depend on the religion and culture of the wedding participants. In Western cultures, brides often choose a white wedding dress, which was made popular by Queen Victoria in the 19th century. In eastern cultures, brides often choose red to symbolize auspiciousness. About 75 percent of wedding dresses on the market are strapless dresses or sleeveless, in part because such dresses require less skill from the designers and are easier to alter to fit correctly. However, the sleeved wedding gown as well as wedding gowns with straps have both become more popular in recent years. Many wedding dresses today have been based on Victorian, older styles, and the styles they wore in the 1900s through the 1990s.

Bridal shops play an integral part of a wedding. Those who use a bridal shop often rely on the bridal shop for more than just a wedding dress or tuxedo. A successful bridal shop will often play an important role in providing other services as well. For this reason, you need more than a business license, a building and wedding dresses to open a bridal shop that will be able to compete in the marketplace.

Business Plan and Financing

You'll need financing to open a bridal shop. Without it you won't be able to secure a location, buy stock or advertise. In short, you won't have a business. People get financing in different ways. Some people may have a savings account and can fund start-up on their own. Others may ask for investors, which will require them to get a lawyer to work out how these investors will share in the business. A more common method for getting the start-up financing is a bank or the Small Business Association. How much you need to start up the bridal shop will vary, depending upon how big you want to start. Before you approach any organization for a loan, you will need a business plan that includes not only your plans for operating the business, but a breakdown of costs you will incur.

Location and Furnishing

With financing secured, you need a location for your business. For a bridal shop, you want a location in a high-traffic area to give your shop the best visibility. If you can find a location near other businesses a bride-to-be may need, such as a bakery that specializes in wedding cakes or a print shop that can make invitations, this is ideal. Your shop may be able to work with these other businesses in providing a complete package for a bride-to-be. The building you choose should be large enough for you to display mannequins wearing bridal gowns. The building should have plenty of lighting, mirrors and dressing rooms. You will need chairs for customers to sit on, racks to display clothing, a cash register and a computer. Pens, paper and measuring tapes are other items you will need to have on hand, as well as a qualified seamstress who can make changes to gowns for customers on the spot.

What to Carry

The inventory you carry depends upon how specialized you want your shop to be. Bridal gowns and bridesmaid dresses are essential. Some bridal shops even offer tuxedo rentals for the convenience of the wedding party. You may also want to offer wedding accessories like custom photo albums and photo packages, wedding ceremony candles and flower arrangements. As your business grows, listening to customer needs can help you refine the products and services you carry.

Promotion and Advertising

A plan for advertising is essential. Advertising in the wedding section of the newspaper, in bridal magazines and on the Internet are some of the key areas. Working with businesses around you that provide wedding-related services is an effective way to network. Exchange business cards with photographers, cake makers and caterers to help promote each others' businesses.

How to Start a Bridal Shop

If you love weddings and have a sense of style, opening a bridal salon could be a rewarding and lucrative endeavor. Brides to be and their wedding parties spend a lot of money on bridal gowns and wedding supplies, and they are items that sell well even in a poor economy. Learn how to start a bridal shop to find out how much work is involved and determine if it is right for you.

Steps

Become an expert about wedding fashions and trends. It's important to know what sells so that you start off with the right selection of products and inventory and don't over-order items that won't sell.
Think about what you want to sell. Bridal gowns are the biggest seller in a bridal salon, but there are many other wedding supplies and accessories that brides to be and the wedding party purchase. Shoes, bridesmaid gowns, tuxedos, mother of the bride dresses, hair accessories, wedding favors and bridal party gifts are just some of the items you can offer. Come up with ideas that set your bridal salon apart from local competitors, or create a destination shop by offering everything the wedding party will need.
Locate a space. Location is important and will probably be expensive. Try to find a shop that is near other bridal items and wedding supplies stores, like bakeries, reception halls, and florists. Compare the costs of buying or renting an existing bridal salon to starting from scratch. Wedding consignment shops, traveling shows or a small salon where you order on demand are some alternatives for starting small.
Hire personnel for your bridal salon. You'll need a seamstress to do alterations and may need additional sales help depending on your traffic and location. A professional wedding planner could be another valuable resource to have on hand. You may be able to start with part-time help or consultants as your business grows.
Find suppliers and order inventory. Manufacturers can give you some direction about how to start a bridal shop and what sells, but be sure to get a few opinions. Ask about sales of various bridal gowns, veils, and bridesmaid dresses to find out what sells and determine what to order.
Arrange and decorate your bridal shop. There should be plenty of room to walk around, with gowns clearly visible. You'll need a large space for fittings and trying on lots of bulky gowns, and smaller areas for accessories and wedding supplies. The bridal salon should have a posh and luxurious look to appeal to brides to be.
Write a marketing plan that states how you will advertise and market your business. Advertise in local newspapers, bridal websites, and bridal magazines. Hold special events and trunk shows at other locations to attract more customers.
Talk to your county zoning and tax officers about what types of licenses and permits you need to run a bridal shop.
Meet with an attorney, insurance agent and accountant to determine how to open a bridal shop. Find out about necessary corporate structure, tax deductions, liability and property insurance, and other financial aspects.

Tips

Follow these practical tips and you will most likely find out that establishing your own wedding dress business is never an impossible thing:

Start your own wedding dress business now and be involved in one of the best businesses that continually get a lot of customers. As with many other businesses, this can be a very challenging business to start but the rewards are more than enough to be very satisfying for anyone who loves the industry. If you have good wedding dress designs, this could be a good start for you in many ways. When it comes to designing, there are also a lot of things to keep in mind since the trend for these wedding dresses seems to change faster than any other things. However, what you should focus on is to assure that products you sell are high quality so your clients could refer those that they know in the long run.

Now read some ideas if you are also someone who wants to access more details about how to start your own in the wedding business. First, you should carefully conduct a market research within your area. What this means is that you should find as much details as you can about the competition in your area. For example, what designs are available at a nearby wedding dress business and how much are these dresses being sold? Other than that, you should also consider the nationality of the designer because different nationalities sometimes tend to focus on trends that somehow represent the country where they came from. At the same time, you might also be interested about any offers and packages that different wedding dress businesses offer so you would also know what “twist” you can add to that.

Again, it is highly recommended in the business to have your own wedding dress designs. However, if you do not have the skill for that then you could also hire an expert who would do the task of designing dresses. There are many others who would want to simply work for entrepreneurs instead of opening their own wedding dress business, quite possibly because they do not have enough capital for that.

Once you are already settled with that, then your next task should be to introduce your business to as many potential clients as possible. For example, the wedding dress designs you have could be displayed online as you establish your own blog too. That way, even people from far countries would be able to find out about your website.

Other than that, getting some exposure for various related events could also bring you closer to business success. There are indeed a lot of potential clients that could possibly get in touch with you soon as you get the well-deserved exposure. In a short span of time, you will find that you will be busy answering inquiries about several wedding dresses you have been selling.

There are, of course, many other suggestions and effective methods for you to improve your business so as long as you implement the effective tips, you will most likely succeed on your wedding dress venture in the near future.

To obtain veils and other bridal accessories for your store, try suppliers that already supply a store or two, but are looking to expand into more stores. This way you can be sure that they have experience but at the same time are more likely to offer flexibility to start ups.

Reference

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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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