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Author Topic: Shop Front vs By Appointment Warehouse  (Read 1584 times)

Lee Wright

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Shop Front vs By Appointment Warehouse
« on: September 28, 2021, 06:27:29 PM »

We've been operating our business out of a self storage facility for many years.   It works well for us but I've been wondering if we're missing out on sales because we don't have it set up as a "shop front" where people can come to anytime to hire or enquire/inspect.   The way we're set up is that customers can come & see our gear but it's by appointment.   It's quite rare though.    For our dry hires people order by phone/email or online & we leave the gear in the storage facility reception & people pick up from there.  That system works quite well in that we don't have to have permanent staff & customers seem to quite like it.   The reason I've been thinking about this more is that we have a 3 competitors who started around the same time as us but they've grown to 2 to 5 times our size & they all have permanently staffed industrial units.    Our place would be fine to do that but we'd have to employ someone full-time (or close to it).     Appreciate thoughts of anyone who has had experience with this.   

Steve-White

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Re: Shop Front vs By Appointment Warehouse
« Reply #1 on: September 28, 2021, 06:37:50 PM »

Things aren't always as they may seem - your competition may be leveraged to the hilt.

My strategy/philosophy is to figure out my business model based upon what I want to do then optimize for that market keeping things lean and mean - gear paid for, etc.

If storefront/retail is where you want to go - go get it.  Hours there can be flexible such as noon 6 weekly and appointment only on weekends.

What is your bottom line for your business?  ROI and growth towards the retail/storefront end?  Mine is not and won't be - I offer a service by contract only.
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Lee Wright

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Re: Shop Front vs By Appointment Warehouse
« Reply #2 on: September 29, 2021, 05:07:12 AM »

Things aren't always as they may seem - your competition may be leveraged to the hilt.

My strategy/philosophy is to figure out my business model based upon what I want to do then optimize for that market keeping things lean and mean - gear paid for, etc.

If storefront/retail is where you want to go - go get it.  Hours there can be flexible such as noon 6 weekly and appointment only on weekends.

What is your bottom line for your business?  ROI and growth towards the retail/storefront end?  Mine is not and won't be - I offer a service by contract only.
Thanks Steve.   I do like the mean & lean idea.    It was so great that during the lockdowns I didn't have rent, wages or debt repayments.  That said though, if employing someone brought in enough extra sales to cover their work then it would save me a lot of work as they could do it instead of me. 

Bob Stone

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Re: Shop Front vs By Appointment Warehouse
« Reply #3 on: September 29, 2021, 11:05:24 AM »

Thanks Steve.   I do like the mean & lean idea.    It was so great that during the lockdowns I didn't have rent, wages or debt repayments.  That said though, if employing someone brought in enough extra sales to cover their work then it would save me a lot of work as they could do it instead of me.

Don't discount what that person could do even 4 hours/day 5 days/week besides having a retail like presence. Someone part time who can pack up gear, do maintenance on it, answer the phones, prepare rental packages, etc. could free you up to just do what you like doing or spend more time finding leads or elevating your marketing.
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Steve-White

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Re: Shop Front vs By Appointment Warehouse
« Reply #4 on: September 29, 2021, 11:19:13 AM »

Thanks Steve.   I do like the mean & lean idea.    It was so great that during the lockdowns I didn't have rent, wages or debt repayments.  That said though, if employing someone brought in enough extra sales to cover their work then it would save me a lot of work as they could do it instead of me.

Back in the early days, had been in business ~5 years.  I started with a DJ system that I ran by myself, to PA and doing bands in clubs, had a DJ that did the weekend weddings, another DJ that did a club for me.  They had a government program back then intended to help small businesses.  SCORE - Service Core of Retired Executives.  My then partner and I setup an appointment.  Sat down with a gentlemen with high expectations.  After an hour or so, we walked out with somewhere between nothing and everything.

I was asking much the same question as you are.  Also modeling questions, rates, depreciation schedules on gear and office equipment and so on.  He said in large part he couldn't answer them as he was unfamiliar with this industry.  I bought a mix of 14 used stage monitors from a contractor last year that was doing a COVID reconsolidation.  Liquidation of some gear and moving other stuff into long term storage.  He told me his rent was $7000 monthly.

Back at the time I met with the SCORE representative, I was partnered up and we had a shop in a commercial rented building.  We were fairly diversified and had a few dealerships, did some gear rental, custom shop work both fabrication and wiring and sound and light service, system installs for clubs and churches.  I've had dealerships that supported my operation and made some money with retail sales.  I've taken signature loans out to buy gear, lease to own gear over the years.

Today I operate from my own property, modeled after what another guy did back in the day to keep overhead low.  Rather than have 5 systems out on any given weekend, now it's two maybe 3 - many times just one.  No retail, no dealerships, no rentals, no installations.  A DJ system and a PA with enough lighting to see what's going on.  I targeted the high end of the DJ market with a $50K sound/light system that goes out for for $2500 on up for a wedding reception.  Hired gun DJ and crew.  Uplighting was added to the basic DJ system which is a plus.  That strategy came from both past experience and in running a landscape maintenance business.  You can build up a client base with lots of accounts and spend 1/2 your time driving around town from job to job.  Or, work in areas with larger yards and higher end houses, town homes, commercial properties - jobs where you're onsite at least 2 hours and up to a full day.

For the DJ system it's one run out and back and one load-in/load-out and get paid well.  Much easier to manage with less brain drain.  Work with a wedding coordinator most of the time.  Setup to handle both indoor and outdoor or garden jobs.  The system is a full package, no renting more gear - don't mess with tables, chairs, stage, etc.  Do have uplighting that works indoors or outdoors under trees, gazebo's, etc.  Own 3 sizes of generators.

In the end it's really up to you what you want to do and figure out how to do it profitably.  Today I'm setup with a narrowed scope for a specific market and it's working out well.  Not suggesting you take that path, you may end up the WalMart of sound and lighting some day!

Probably the most important thing is where you seem to be headed - which is developing/having a solid business model.
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Steve-White

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Re: Shop Front vs By Appointment Warehouse
« Reply #5 on: September 29, 2021, 11:20:38 AM »

Don't discount what that person could do even 4 hours/day 5 days/week besides having a retail like presence. Someone part time who can pack up gear, do maintenance on it, answer the phones, prepare rental packages, etc. could free you up to just do what you like doing or spend more time finding leads or elevating your marketing.

Exactly.
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Scott Helmke

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Re: Shop Front vs By Appointment Warehouse
« Reply #6 on: September 29, 2021, 11:38:41 AM »

If you have a storefront it should be because you are expecting impulse buys/rentals from regular visits.  That seems unlikely in our business, unless you're moving a lot of random dry rentals or gaff tape sales.  I don't think it would make much sense, frankly. 

We're in a warehouse with appointment-only visits and prearranged will-call pickup of rentals and sales. There's a nice office up front, but no cash register and no merchandise on display.  Maybe very occasionally somebody wants to visit, I would guess mostly just to see if we actually exist and if we run a professional-looking operation.  But 99% of our business is all phone/email, while shows might involve a project manager visiting the proposed show venue to assess what gear and personnel to quote.
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Steve-White

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Re: Shop Front vs By Appointment Warehouse
« Reply #7 on: September 29, 2021, 11:59:22 AM »

If you have a storefront it should be because you are expecting impulse buys/rentals from regular visits.  That seems unlikely in our business, unless you're moving a lot of random dry rentals or gaff tape sales.  I don't think it would make much sense, frankly. 

We're in a warehouse with appointment-only visits and prearranged will-call pickup of rentals and sales. There's a nice office up front, but no cash register and no merchandise on display.  Maybe very occasionally somebody wants to visit, I would guess mostly just to see if we actually exist and if we run a professional-looking operation.  But 99% of our business is all phone/email, while shows might involve a project manager visiting the proposed show venue to assess what gear and personnel to quote.

Yes again.  Most times I don't meet client until we show up at the event.  For weddings there's typically communication with coordinator for color choices, event script and such.

Having a retail presence can be done several ways.  When we did it, we didn't stock anything it was catalog only back then - we basically sold cost plus 10% that way - sometimes a bit more on specialty stuff like McCauley speakers, Technics turntables.
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Lee Wright

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Re: Shop Front vs By Appointment Warehouse
« Reply #8 on: September 29, 2021, 04:37:29 PM »

Don't discount what that person could do even 4 hours/day 5 days/week besides having a retail like presence. Someone part time who can pack up gear, do maintenance on it, answer the phones, prepare rental packages, etc. could free you up to just do what you like doing or spend more time finding leads or elevating your marketing.
Yes that's exactly the work I was thinking of.   They could pack & return the online/phone/email orders but most importantly they could relieve me of the phone/email work which is quite time consuming.   I could then work on marketing/business development or even just go to a cafe with my wife without the phone constantly ringing.   

Lee Wright

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Re: Shop Front vs By Appointment Warehouse
« Reply #9 on: September 29, 2021, 05:07:13 PM »

If you have a storefront it should be because you are expecting impulse buys/rentals from regular visits.  That seems unlikely in our business, unless you're moving a lot of random dry rentals or gaff tape sales.  I don't think it would make much sense, frankly. 

We're in a warehouse with appointment-only visits and prearranged will-call pickup of rentals and sales. There's a nice office up front, but no cash register and no merchandise on display.  Maybe very occasionally somebody wants to visit, I would guess mostly just to see if we actually exist and if we run a professional-looking operation.  But 99% of our business is all phone/email, while shows might involve a project manager visiting the proposed show venue to assess what gear and personnel to quote.
As you suggest there wouldn't be impulse buys but we do get a lot of short notice enquiries.  For example "Hi, I need 2 x speakers & a mic to pickup this afternoon."    At the moment that means I have to call our warehouse manager & he drives half an hour over to the warehouse & puts the order out.   It makes orders under $100 uneconomic so I often just decline the work.   At the moment I just tell people there's no payment facilities at the warehouse & that works fine but it was also be easy to have an EFTPOS machine too.   

ProSoundWeb Community

Re: Shop Front vs By Appointment Warehouse
« Reply #9 on: September 29, 2021, 05:07:13 PM »


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