How to Start a Teacher Resale Store
Teacher resale stores provide educators with easy access to economically priced teaching materials. These stores benefit teachers, as they allow them to sell their gently used teaching goods and purchase second-hand supplies for use in their own classroom. Running a teacher resale store is relatively simple and, if done right, can be quite profitable.
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Instructions
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Secure a location. Rent or lease a small stand-alone or strip mall business space to house your teacher supply store. Look for vacated properties, since they may still contain fixtures, which can be a major cost savings to you as you can re-purpose the space to fit your needs.
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Acquire fixtures. If the space you select does not have fixtures in place, shop for fixtures to meet your needs. Be creative to save money by re-purposing items not originally intended to be retail store fixtures. You can also search for gently used fixtures and acquire them at a discounted rate.
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Decide if you want to purchase items from teachers or offer consignment services. If you elect to purchase used goods from teachers, you buy them outright for a flat fee. If you elect to consign, you simply take goods and offer them for sale, giving the teacher who owns the goods no money if the item does not sell. Consignment is the safer of the two options, as you avoid the initial financial commitment, but it does take significantly more organization to properly organize a consignment store.
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Pick a pricing structure. Generally, you do not want to sell used teachers goods for any more than 50 percent of their retail price. If you charge a higher percentage, you are unlikely to attract bargain-hungry teachers. If you are selling goods for 50 percent of their retail value, you will likely buy goods outright for 10 percent of their market value, or offer consignees 25 percent of the market value. Set up a price structure in advance so your employees understand the system and can follow the directives associated with it.
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Advertise at local schools or through the teachers union. Get the word out about your store. Ask local schools if you can put up advertisement flyers in their teachers' lounges. Also, contact the local chapter of the teachers union, since they regularly send out notices to teachers, and they may be willing to include information about your new store. Initially, advertise for teachers to bring in goods to sell, so that you can build up your inventory before you open the door to sales.
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Set a grand opening date. After you have built up your inventory, select an opening date. Hype your opening date, sending out flyers and perhaps even discount coupons to entice educators to visit your new store.
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