Starting a used furniture / consignment store

[doodlemagic]

I think you need to decide if you want to be a thrift store or if you want to sell more high end nicer stuff?

Thrift stores though very popular these days are kind of a dime a dozen, especially after the whole storage auction crazy. By the way you may want to add storage auctions to your business plan. It's a way to get very cheap merchandise, downside is much of it is gonna be particle board crap furntiure.

We have a consignment store in my area which is more of a luxury consignment store so they wont buy in crap furntiture. Its more lightly used nice furntiure. For anything wood it has to be solid wood again not particle board pieces. They seem to do furniture as well as higher end womens clothes and handbags. They were so successful they expanded into the storefront next to them.

I think teh high end way may be the way to go, more of a niche, get return customers. That said your not going to find that type of stuff at flea markets and storage auctions most of the time.

Also, as for ebay, think about shipping costs, appliances are so cehap these days just the shipping on a blender would cost more than someone would buy one for secondhand, I dont think ebay is going to be a good use of your time for the type of items your planning on selling. If you do decide to go the storage auction route then yes you will wind up with smaller items you can flip on ebay.

If your interested in teh storage auctions checkout auctionzip.com or freestorageauctionlists.com to find auctions in your area both sites are free.

[d.wayne]

I think the best thing you can do when researching starting a retail business is to monitor a competitor or a business near your desired location that has similar walk-in traffic.
- Estimate your overhead, cash flow, and profit margin requirements. Specifically how much you need to earn a day to break even.
- Sit at that location with a hand counter. And count how many customers walk-in.
- Estimate that business' conversion rate and profit per customer and extrapolate to your anticipated business

I did this exercise once for a coffee shop idea, and I was stunned at how many cups of coffee I would need to sell to break even. Retail is a hard business.

Good luck - the more research you do now, the more likely you will have success in the future.

[doodlemagic]

Originally Posted by d.wayne

I think the best thing you can do when researching starting a retail business is to monitor a competitor or a business near your desired location that has similar walk-in traffic.
- Estimate your overhead, cash flow, and profit margin requirements. Specifically how much you need to earn a day to break even.
- Sit at that location with a hand counter. And count how many customers walk-in.
- Estimate that business' conversion rate and profit per customer and extrapolate to your anticipated business

I did this exercise once for a coffee shop idea, and I was stunned at how many cups of coffee I would need to sell to break even. Retail is a hard business.

Good luck - the more research you do now, the more likely you will have success in the future.

not only is retail hard but brick and mortar is especially hard. its nice when you can do solely online to start out or maybe even brick and mortar with an online aspect to the business. with furniture and appliances though everything is too big to ship which sort of handcuffs you on any online efforts

[oregonwoodsmoke]

There are two used furniture places in my town that seem to be doing well (looking in from the outside; I don't really know how they are doing).

Both of them are consignment. Neither one buys and sells. One takes better quality, the other has mostly lower quality, but not junk.

The lower quality store automatically reduces prices each week until the item sells. Obviously, the consignor has agreed to this before they consign the piece.

The other store doesn't do price reductions, but they will bargain a bit, so there is some flexibility that the consignor has agreed to. I bought a very odd piece there and was able to get a great deal off the price. It was odd and not the sort of thing most people would buy. After I bought it and had the receipt, I told the seller what I would be using it for and she did one of those foreheads slaps. If she had thought of it, she could have sold the piece for a substantial amount. All of which is a round about way to say that both stores have an agreement with their consignors that allows them to be very flexible.

[frbristow]

I'm in my early 60's and not financial prepared to retire. I have been having a hard time finding a job that pays a decent salary. So, I have been buying and selling furniture on Craigslist for quite sometime. It helps to offset my income. I'm interested in expanding this hobby / small business, that is what I call it.

Thinking of buying a Van with no windows in the back or sides so that I can keep items there until I get help to unload.

So far, I use my garage to store items and usual pay to get it delivered.

Ideally, I would love to get a small store space in a busy traffic area.

Any suggestions on how to keep my my overhead and build a little nest egg?

[viviennefisk]

I'm thinking of buying or leasing a small shop here in California, to sell antiques and other good's maybe having a small tea shop at the front of the store with cakes and sandwiches, I'm from the UK and we have many stores like this, I was wondering if this would go down well in the USA, I would be very grateful for any feedback on this matter, I was also thinking I could rent out space for consignments thing is I have no idea how much it would cost and where I go to find out about cost for everything info would be gratefully received.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

Originally Posted by viviennefisk

...........thing is I have no idea how much it would cost and where I go to find out about cost for everything info would be gratefully received.

I am saying this with kindness so please take it that way. You are nowhere even close to ready to be thinking about opening a shop of any sort.

There are small business administration classes offered at community colleges. I suggest that you sign up for some of those. Also take a bookkeeping and accounting course and an advertising course and something to teach you about income tax. You'll need to learn health and sanitation laws for restaurants.

Where do you intend to get to the antiques from? There is not much supply in California, which is a relatively young settlement, from an antique furniture point of view.

I don't know whether a British style tea shop would work or not. It might. If you do it, you are going to need to carry better pastries than those British tea shops sell.