How to Start an Antique Business

Video Transcript

"So you're looking to start an antique business and you're not quite sure what to do. I'm Blake Kennedy with Kennedy Brothers Estate Services, and I'm here to help. Starting an antique business can be a lot of fun, but a lot of work also, just like any business. The thing that I would suggest starting off to, try and get in to an antique mall first. That's always a way to start out well part time as an antique dealer. But you get into the malls and that way you know what kind of stuff to buy and how it's working, and what your price points are, how much you're buying it for, how much you're selling it for and you have somebody else there working the shop. And then once you start making a lot of money in the antique malls you can sort of say I'm going to go look for an antique spot myself. You might want to look for an area that there's already antique shops, and try and get in to like what they call like a little antique village, that way it saves you on your advertising because people are already coming to these established places. You might want to start off with a small shop but you know be open five days, six days a week. There's even some that are open seven days a week. But when you're buying antiques to fill that shop to sell don't just buy the things that you like, because you'll learn that the hard way because you won't sell as much when you are buying the stuff that you like. Go out there and buy all kinds of things whether it's antiques, whether it's collectibles, fill that shop up with lots of stuff. The more stuff you have the more you're going to sell. The little things that you don't think you're going to sell always seems like the first thing you're going to sell. I always say the little things pay the rent, and the big furniture is your profit. But make sure you start off in the antique mall, and move yourself up into a smaller shop. You might need a part time employee to help you out if you can't be there all the time, but get somebody that's friendly and outgoing. Opening up an antique shop is a lot of fun, but a lot of time is spent going out trying to find the merchandise. You don't have a factory saying hey I need five more dressers. You gotta go out there and hustle, you gotta go out there and get pickers that are bringing you the merchandise, you gotta be able to pay well for them. You gotta keep it full, cause once somethings sold you gotta put something else in there. So you gotta get up early to go find your merchandise. Good luck doing that. I'm Blake Kennedy."