Bridal Boutique Business Plan - Help Required Please

[Richiehan]

Hello, I am in the very early stages of setting up a bridal boutique and wondered if any of you had a shop up and running that could help and advise with figures for my business plan etc? I am a little new to business plans and wondered if anyone can give me some realistic figures for projected sales, forecasting and the rough mark up on a trade dress? Many thanks for any help that you can offer! Please feel free to private message etc! I really need some help! Many thanks!
I have my designers in mind and have the premises.

 

[promdressers]

Hello, I am in the very early stages of setting up a bridal boutique and wondered if any of you had a shop up and running that could help and advise with figures for my business plan etc? I am a little new to business plans and wondered if anyone can give me some realistic figures for projected sales, forecasting and the rough mark up on a trade dress? Many thanks for any help that you can offer! Please feel free to private message etc! I really need some help! Many thanks!
I have my designers in mind and have the premises.

Have you been to any tradeshows? They (the wholesalers) will happily tell you the expected margins, and you can find out who will actually supply you. Remember that most offer varying levels of exclusivity.

I am in the same position as you, but aiming to offer evening, prom and mother of the bride plus accessories. See my thread?

 

[Hollygirl]

As a very rough guide your outgoings to open up will be somewhere in the region of -

Rent - £9000 - £20000 depending on location
Water - £200
Rates - £1000-£2000 depending on location
Electricity - £400-£1000 depending in size of shop
Phone - £500-£600
Insurance - buildings £400 contents £500
Card processing fees - £500-£1000 depending on the level of trade
Website - anything from £50 - £200
Advertising - ? probably lots because you'll be new
Wages - ? depends on your staff
Opening stock - if you want a sizeable range of around 100 gowns = £ 35,000.

To open your doors you will need AT LEAST £40,000 - £45,000. That's just to open the doors. Then you will need to put aside at least another £5000 - £10,000 to restock as your designers insist on minimum orders per year.

There are hundreds of bridal shops closing and up for sale at the moment. Think very carefully about this.

 

[exceedmedia]

Website £50-£200 !!

That sort of quality/cost ratio would probably finish the business off before it even started... I would beware any company who could offer you a website for that sort of cost actually delivering something that benefits the business.

 

[Hollygirl]

Website £50-£200 !!

That sort of quality/cost ratio would probably finish the business off before it even started... I would beware any company who could offer you a website for that sort of cost actually delivering something that benefits the business.

I did say "rough guide". And from experience, any new bridal shop won't have a budget for much more anyway. You can spend £50, you can spend £5000 - and I was talking very roughly.

 

[Hoppimike]

I did say "rough guide". And from experience, any new bridal shop won't have a budget for much more anyway. You can spend £50, you can spend £5000 - and I was talking very roughly.

Plus it really isn't that difficult to just put together an online store

OpenCart is pretty amazing even "out of the box" lol

 

[Hollygirl]

Plus it really isn't that difficult to just put together an online store

OpenCart is pretty amazing even "out of the box" lol

Exactly!!!

 

[hgibbster]

You need to make sure you have a good cushioning of cash to help with cash flow once you have opened your doors.

Designers generally expect you to buy twice a year. You can easily spend £25000 each year on new buying alone.

Think long and hard before you jump in with both feet, Its a hard business to be in at the moment.

 

[herewegoagain.]

A good friend of mine *used* to have a bridal shop.... beware of one big thing.... the brides to be would come in, try on the dresses and the mothers, friends etc would photograph them, and photograph the label/scan the code - then buy on line.... using my friends shop as a fitting room ! think about banning cameras or someone taking notes, dont make the mistake she did ! good luck with your venture !

 

[oldoakey]

Website £50-£200 !!

That sort of quality/cost ratio would probably finish the business off before it even started... I would beware any company who could offer you a website for that sort of cost actually delivering something that benefits the business.

Mine cost me £65 to set up and then £25 per month, I have several ranges on page 1 Google with no marketing spend at all, all down to the platform EKM Powershop there are other platforms which may be as good but I have never used them so cant comment

In my opinion there is absolutely no need to go down the designed for me route for a website until at least the business warrants it.

 

[oldoakey]

A good friend of mine *used* to have a bridal shop.... beware of one big thing.... the brides to be would come in, try on the dresses and the mothers, friends etc would photograph them, and photograph the label/scan the code - then buy on line.... using my friends shop as a fitting room ! think about banning cameras or someone taking notes, dont make the mistake she did ! good luck with your venture !

Your best bet against this sort of practice could be to de label all garments and then rename them with your own names or add your own branding (you could offer to re attach the labels after final fitting and payment)

We do this with our furniture ranges and sometimes we get a customer asking whose make it is, you can tell when they are fishing. Makes me smile when I know they are going home to try to Google it.

 

[sunflower48]

Hi richiehan

I'm currently trying to set up my own bridal shop. Just wondering how far you have got and weather you would share some information with me.
Thanks in advance

Has anyone on here have information on opening my own store. I need to know how many dresses you sell a month. How many dresses to stock ect.
Any advice would be great.

 

[warnie]

As a very rough guide your outgoings to open up will be somewhere in the region of -

Rent - £9000 - £20000 depending on location
Water - £200
Rates - £1000-£2000 depending on location
Electricity - £400-£1000 depending in size of shop
Phone - £500-£600
Insurance - buildings £400 contents £500
Card processing fees - £500-£1000 depending on the level of trade
Website - anything from £50 - £200
Advertising - ? probably lots because you'll be new
Wages - ? depends on your staff
Opening stock - if you want a sizeable range of around 100 gowns = £ 35,000.

To open your doors you will need AT LEAST £40,000 - £45,000. That's just to open the doors. Then you will need to put aside at least another £5000 - £10,000 to restock as your designers insist on minimum orders per year.

There are hundreds of bridal shops closing and up for sale at the moment. Think very carefully about this.

So there you go £45k, plus another £5-£10k fitting out the shop. With a small contingency fund and rent deposit your talking £60k plus?

Put it this way, if I had little knowledge and had to ask basic questions on setting up the business on here, there's no way I'd risk £60k on it

 

[sunflower48]

Hi warnie
Thankyou for your reply. Are you in the bridal business yourself.

I do know a lot about setting up a business but my question isn't about rent electricity, ect... I know all that... My question is about the actual bridal retail market and what dresses cost sample and retail and sales monthly. The best way to get accurate information is to ask someone who knows this area.

I have to do research first and then become confident and know my business before investing in it.

That's the whole journey of becoming a business owner.

If anyone in the bridal scene can share some knowledge I really would appreciate it.

Thankyou.

 

[warnie]

Hi warnie
Thankyou for your reply. Are you in the bridal business yourself.

I do know a lot about setting up a business but my question isn't about rent electricity, ect... I know all that... My question is about the actual bridal retail market and what dresses cost sample and retail and sales monthly. The best way to get accurate information is to ask someone who knows this area.

I have to do research first and then become confident and know my business before investing in it.

That's the whole journey of becoming a business owner.

If anyone in the bridal scene can share some knowledge I really would appreciate it.

Thankyou.

Hi Sunflower, sorry I wasn't replying to you, but to the comment by Hollygirl.

My point is that £60k is a hell of a lot of money to risk not forgetting the fact you can be tied in to anything between 5-10 years on a shop lease, which even at £10k a year is £50-£100k on top of the £60k.

So with that in mind I would be dam sure I knew the business inside out before I'd commit. That is all.

 

[ClareC]

Hi

I am new here and this is my first post. I too am researching the viability of setting up a bridal boutique in my local area.
I have found premises and am putting together a detailed budget, however I am struggling to ascertain how much it costs to buy in dresses from designers to use as the samples. I'm in the process of contacting designers and setting up meetings, but in the mean time if anyone has a rough idea it would really help with my budget plans.
Thanks.

 

[sunflower48]

Hi Clare c
I'm still at the same stage. I know shops are asked to sell dresses at a minimum 3x markup because they don't want their brands associated as cheap. Some designers I contacted sell there dresses to the shops at 300 to 400. You can sell at what ever price you want. I'm based in Ireland and shops here are doing 5x markup. So your average dress, you pay 400€ and sell to brides for €1200 to €2000. What I still want to know is how many dresses a week, month a shop sells?

Have you got any further yourself. All advice or info would be appreciated.

Regards

 

[ClareC]

Hi Sunflower

That seems a very generous mark up! I'm looking at stocking high end designer dresses which even at wholesale prices are pretty costly and they have minimum initial orders that have to be placed. Having now received a response from a designer it looks as though my initial estimations for wholesale prices were about £500 lower than they needed to be. It's starting to look as though this might not be a viable business!

Which designers have you contacted?

I have based my projections on selling an average of one dress per weekend/four per month and four bridesmaids dresses per month. I expect to have busier as well as quieter periods so have just worked on an average number of sales over a 12 month period. I think it is better to underestimate than overestimate!

 

[Hollygirl]

Hi Sunflower, sorry I wasn't replying to you, but to the comment by Hollygirl.

My point is that £60k is a hell of a lot of money to risk not forgetting the fact you can be tied in to anything between 5-10 years on a shop lease, which even at £10k a year is £50-£100k on top of the £60k.

So with that in mind I would be dam sure I knew the business inside out before I'd commit. That is all.

Which comment was that?

 

[hgibbster]

Unless you know without a doubt that owning a Bridal shop is what you want to do, I'd avoid for now. It is such a tough time for established bridal shops at the moment, never mind starting up from scratch! I know I sound very pessimistic but I'm not, I'm being real. I own a bridal shop and I love it but I don't love the financial stress it has brought this year. You need to have at least one very well known label to bring people in through your door and as I have said earlier have a good cushion of cash to help you through the first couple of years. If you sell well, you will likely need to take into account being VAT registered too.

 

[The web design girl]

Hi! I must say you have been given some great advice. My company is based in Southend Essex and there are bridal shops popping up and closing down continuously on just my little high street alone! You need to think so carefully. I regularly design web sites for wedding services such as photography, flowers e.t.c and they do quite well. Boutiques on the other hand often struggle. My friends who were married recently bought the most beautiful dresses from Ebay at less then £100 each. Some of their brides maid dresses were as little as £30. That s very hard to compete with. X