How to Open a Maternity Shop
A maternity shop is a retail establishment that provides clothing and other items for pregnant women. Opening a maternity shop is similar to opening any other retail store. You'll need to take several steps in order to open your store and become a successful business owner.
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Instructions
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Secure financing. You will need capital to open your shop in order to rent a location and secure inventory. You can obtain financing by using cash and other assets you have to finance the store. You can also find investors in the store, or apply for a loan. Your local Small Business Administration office may be able to provide you with a loan. A bank is another option. When you approach investors or lenders for a loan, you will need to show them a business plan that suggests how you plan to make the store profitable. This business plan should include costs and projected sales figures.
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Find a location. Ideally, the location should be in a place that is easily accessible to passersby and has good customer traffic. It is easier to open a maternity shop in existing retail locations, such as a strip mall or a standard shopping mall.
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Negotiate a lease. Ideally, you want to negotiate a lease of reasonable length, with option to renew the lease at the end of the term. Once you establish your store, you'll want to be able to keep it in the same location so customers will know where it is. A lease with an option to renew is usually the best bet for a new business, since if the business does not work out you don't have to keep the space, but if the business is successful, you will be able to.
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Decorate your store. You'll want the location to be inviting to women who are pregnant and seeking maternity clothing. The most important thing is to have a clean, well-organized store so customers can find inventory. You also want it to be inviting and have appropriate places to display the clothing you are selling. This means you'll want window displays to showcase your wares, mannequins to display your clothing, and fitting rooms so women can try on clothing.
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Secure inventory. This means finding suppliers of maternity clothing and/or any other products you want to sell, such as baby products. Online supplier directories can provide you with a list of suppliers that offer inventory to stores. Baby Shopping Magazine is one example of a directory of providers of maternity store inventory. Their website is available at http://www.babyshopmagazine.com/manulist.htm. You will need to negotiate with these suppliers to ensure that you have sufficient access to inventory. If possible, negotiate an agreement in which products you do not sell can be returned to the supplier, but this is not necessarily possible in every situation. You will need to either pay for this inventory upfront, or pay on credit, which means you have the inventory in your store and you pay for it periodically as people buy it, so your revenues can help to pay for the inventory.
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Price your items. There are several different pricing models you can adopt. You can decide on a set markup and price items this way. That means that you add a percentage of what you pay from your suppliers to every item. You can also visit other local maternity shops to get an idea of what items should cost, so you can make sure your pricing is in line with other local area stores.
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Market your items. This can involve sending out fliers or other notices of the items in your store. You can visit trade shows and local events targeted towards prospective mothers to market your wares. You can also buy mailing lists from marketing companies to target prospective customers, or use marketing tools available from the retail location that your store is in (i.e. you can list the store in mall directories and include your marketing mailings with any general marketing materials that the mall sends out to customers).
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Keep records. You'll need to ensure that you are submitting proper sales tax to your state. You'll also need to have profit and loss records to show investors and to claim profits or losses on your taxes. Usually, you will need the help of an accountant to deal with payroll of employees and recording profits and losses.
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References
- Photo Credit pregnant image by AGphotographer from Fotolia.com
