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.
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