Making the decision to open your own fashion or retail boutique

So you want to open your own retail or fashion boutique? Making that first step to build a better and rewarding career for yourself is the first step. Now that you have made that leap of faith you might have a lot of questions about what owning a retail boutique consists of and how hard or easy it will be to open your own store. This blog will tell you the in's and out's of owning your own store. I am writing this blog to help others in the biz. I myself have owned a very successful fashion boutique that still thrives today but went through a lot of pitfalls along the designer highway and would like to share that with you so you can learn from my mistakes.

We will be going over several steps along the way so you can do things correctly. It is very important that you follow all steps in order to build a strong business.

STEP ONE

The first step is making that decision and dedication that you are going to do this. If you are reading this information then I am fairly positive that you have already made this first important step. Keep in mind that you must have a budget set before you begin and stick to that budget (very important). A lot of important start up costs will come up in later steps that you never thought of so keeping your budget in check will be very important.

STEP TWO

A lot of people do not realize how important this step is so I am going to make it very clear. Step two consists of the naming of your business. When I first made the decision to open my own fashion boutique I thought long and hard about the name I wanted for my store. You need to make sure that the name is very unique, catchy, that you can build a concept behind it, it's not in use by anyone else, it is not trademarked and someone in your state is not already using it as a ficticious name. So many times I will have clients come to me telling me about this unique name that they came up with and in as little as a few minutes I can find someone else using that name for the same type of store. I always suggest looking at your states corporations, ficticious names etc. as well as looking up trademarked names online. It is fairly quick to do and can save you a lot of time and heartached as well as money if you find out after you have built your beautiful store that someone else also uses the same name. I always suggest an east to remember name but also something off the wall. The name of the store I had was called The Pink Polka Dot and it came to me one day while sitting on my porch. You don't need to rush the naming of your business as sometimes if you just let it come to you when you are not thinking about it then it will. Trying to hard to come up with a name sometimes will produce nothing at all. Once I had the name everything about what I wanted to do with the store came into play. From the design of the store to marketing I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Think about what you want to sell and the type of customers you would like visiting your store and the name should come pretty easy. Remember at Pink Concepts we help new retal and fashion boutique owners come up with unique concepts for stores and can helo you along the way with any help that you may need.

STEP THREE

Now that you have come up with that fabulous unique name on to step three. Step three is the backend of your business. You will need to check with the state that you live in and file the proper paperwork to get your corporation, sole propietership etc. You will need to discuss the proper options with an attorney or accountant if you don't know which is right for you. Once you have your corporation you will need to get your Employer identification number with the IRS. This is your tax ID number and is very important. You will also need to get your resellers certificate with the state you live in so you can buy goods at wholesale costs. If you decide that you would like to be a sole propietor you will need to register a ficticious name with the state in order to get a bank account using your new business name. Once you get all of this you will be able to move onto step four.

STEP FOUR

Location, Location, Location!!!! Has anyone ever told you that saying before that Location is the most important thing? Well it is very true. Unless you are purchasing a franchise and people already have heard about your store you will need to have a good location. It is the most important thing I can emphasize. I made the costly decision of opening my trendy retail boutique catering to women and girl's clothing in a town with an elder demographic and I paid the price. I had a great store with a great concept but was in a very small town. I was in the busiest shopping plaza in town but I did not have the clientel to keep me thriving. Because of picking a bad location I had to make up for it with lots of advertising costs. SO not only was I paying a high rent for my location but I was also spending a lot of money in advertising expense which I shouldn't of had to do if I would have just opened my boutique in a nearby city. Make sure you know the demographic of your town as it is very important. I would have been better off starting a medical supply store or a craft/needle point business in my town rather than a fashion boutique geared towards teens.