Kitchen Showroom?

[bloorino]

I have been trading for six months now and things are going really well so far. Work booked in till march, so its all good at the min. Recently i have started getting calls off people asking if we have a showroom. I'm reluctant to get one because of cost but realise if im to grow my business then its something i will have to look at.

A friend of mine own a barbershop in a town 15-20 mins from me and behind the shop he has a massive space which needs some work which need cant be bothered to do. I'm sure if i do the work he would let me rent it for next to nothing. Its not the ideal location but would be a start.

Also in the town has no trade outlets to buy kitchens so could be a good add on.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated

 

[oldeagleeye]

I know of a bathroom retailer that converted an old warehouse at the backof the shops. It was cheap to line and perfect for different layouts. Sign at thecorner of the service road and he even got the casual shoppers. Go for it.

B & Q and Wickes got crap displays and seveal of the other main players have thrown in the towel.

Good luck

 

[MASSEY]

I wouldnt bother.

We show our customers books from howdens the pictures cover everything.

Theres only so much involved for the average customer when it comes to kitchens and bathrooms. Color of tiles, worktop and doors.

Howdens actually have mini showrooms that you could take the more awkward customers to and show them. They dont have prices on stuff either so you can pretty much take situations financially where ever you want.

If you want to grow / get more business you advertise more in the newspapers and bobs ya uncle.

 

[bloorino]

We supply our own kitchens which we have made to order so i wouldn't be happy with taking my customers to Howdens. Also Howdens would want their cut of the money and if we've got the customer and designed the kitchen i don't want to give them any of the profits.

I would start by using the place for storage and put a few displays in and have viewing by appointment and on Saturdays.

I wouldn't be considering this if wasn't for the fact i'd be getting the place mage cheap.

 

[MASSEY]

Howdens only take off you the purchase of the kitchen. They do alot of legwork for nothing.

It sounds ok as your getting it at a cheap price, and if you use it as storage then it has more of a purpose.

 

[bloorino]

I have just opened an account with Howdens which i plan to use for doors, what kind of % discount do you get on the kitchens? it might be something i have over looked.

 

[MASSEY]

I have just opened an account with Howdens which i plan to use for doors, what kind of % discount do you get on the kitchens? it might be something i have over looked.

You can get pretty good discounts. They obviously put the prices higher in the first place, But you can get as much as 75% off.

And a little trick is to inquire about a certain kitchen and get a price, leave it for a few days and they will phone you with a better price if you tell them the price is an issue.

You can also get the £50 quid delivery charges knocked off aswel after you have ordered a reasonable amount off them.

Its a good service, the units come pre-built also.

 

[Tw Installations]

Why would you want a showroom if you are booked up to March?????

The showroom should be seen as a marketing expense - Ie if we invest xxx amount of money then our break even would be x amount of kitchens, it does not sound like you would need the showroom to help you sell kitchens.

I have no idea why you would be booked up to March and why people would wait that long?

if its in the private market that is and if its not why would you want a showroom?

If you are getting that amount of business then why would you not just employ more teams to get through the work quicker?

Oh and Howdens are not the place to buy doors there margins are huge for doors only, why not just go direct to the source?

Pws, burbridge, ormarod, O&S, Browns etc,etc,etc

Tommy

 

[bloorino]

I currently deal with PWS which do offer a great range. Its all private work, no contracting. We are booked till March as 90% of our work comes from recommendations, we pride ourselves on the quality of our workmanship and because of this people are happy to wait.

Also i've got customers who want work starting next year. I just that having a base where if people wanted to look at some of the stuff we do they can (solid surface).

 

[Tw Installations]

I currently deal with PWS which do offer a great range. Its all private work, no contracting. We are booked till March as 90% of our work comes from recommendations, we pride ourselves on the quality of our workmanship and because of this people are happy to wait.

Also i've got customers who want work starting next year. I just that having a base where if people wanted to look at some of the stuff we do they can (solid surface).

Bloorino,

I am not having a go by the way - We do quite well ourselves in the kitchen market.

However, my thoughts are that nobody in this market should be booked up for 6 months, if you are then there is something wrong with your business model.

Either your too cheap or you could be employing more teams and getting the work down to a couple of months ahead.

We work off a 6 to 8 week waiting time, which means anyone looking to get a kitchen done from us would have to wait 6,7 or 8 weeks before we could do it, most will wait, some might not but if when it starts to kick into a 10 week to 20 week waiting time then thats a lot to ask of any customer and for me that would be the trigger to employ another team.

I would not just keep putting them to the end of the line.

Assuming your fitting 1 kitchen a week and March is about 20 something weeks away ( Including a couple of weeks off at christmas) then thats about 20/25 jobs you must have booked in and if that was the case then I dont think you need a showroom especially if most of your work is from recomendations.

Know what I mean
Tommy

 

[bloorino]

Are jobs usually last 2 weeks, as we do all the plastering, tilling etc. But we have got a couple of massive jobs coming up which will last 4 weeks each.

I know you weren't having a go, we obviously have different businesses. Your company i'm guessing is quite big where as mine is new and small. Any advise you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

 

[LicensedToTrade]

Are jobs usually last 2 weeks, as we do all the plastering, tilling etc. But we have got a couple of massive jobs coming up which will last 4 weeks each.

I know you weren't having a go, we obviously have different businesses. Your company i'm guessing is quite big where as mine is new and small. Any advise you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

I wouldn't jump straight into hiring more teams to clear the backlog, if you grow too quickly you run the risk of your service and quality levels dropping and for a business like yours which relies heavily on recommendations this would be a very bad thing indeed.

Is it normal for you to be booked up 6 months in advance or is this out of the norm? You could carry out some research to identify the reasons for this surge in business and work to protect these motivating factors. Bigger doesn't always mean better if you aren't ready for it.

As others have suggested, you should only set up a showroom if there is a clear business reason to do so. If it is all cost and no return then why bother?

 

[bloorino]

I def don't want to start employing teams, as you say the standard of workmanship would prob drop and possible damage company reputation.

I suppose it is unusual to be booked up 5-6 months, but like i said we have got to BIG jobs in front of us, plus i hope to have the best part of 2-3 weeks off at christmas.

After what people have said so far i will hang off on the showroom idea i just thought it would give the company more kudos. We do use Articad for the design work so we can give the customer a realistic picture of what they are getting.

 

[estwig]

i hope to have the best part of 2-3 weeks off at christmas.

Your joking? The 3 weeks directly after Christmas day is your busiest time of year. The whole country goes 'home improvement mad'. Your phone should be ringing, dawn till dusk!

 

[bloorino]

I plan to have 2-3 weeks off, but if your right and the phones ringing then we will do the work, we never turn down work. We are about to have our second child and because of the work load at the moment thought it would be nice to spend time with the family before going hard at it in 2011.

There's no way my missus would let me sit at home if there were jobs to quote, oh and should have mentioned that while i'm off i will be putting a new kitchen in my house, so not all fun and games.

 

[MASSEY]

Im amazed people are willing to wait so long for your services.

If we have say 2 kitchens and a bathroom on the go we have to flip between them doing the hard bits and sub the easier stuff out. Women in my experience once they have decided they want a kitchen they want it finished in one day

 

[Tw Installations]

I def don't want to start employing teams, as you say the standard of workmanship would prob drop and possible damage company reputation.

I suppose it is unusual to be booked up 5-6 months, but like i said we have got to BIG jobs in front of us, plus i hope to have the best part of 2-3 weeks off at christmas.


If you put in the right processes then the standard of work wont drop.

If the guys cant do the job to the required standard then get rid of them and find someone who can???. The better your company gets the better class of fitters you will attract, also you should only need 1 new main fitter for every team - the rest of your team would still be the same, ie plasterer, tiler etc. You dont need to upset everything or take a hit on the standards you would only need a couple of really good guys.

I just think if you keep thinking like this ie putting work to the end of the line and doing it all yourself then your business cant grow, You have created a job for yourself not a business.

B.t.w what like is your margin on the bigger Jobs?

You might need to watch this as for us to commit to a whole month of our time the profit would need to be extreemly good. Even with 1 team we could easily put out 4-6 jobs so thats 4-6 lumps of profit versus 1.

The turn around would be quicker and the cash flow would be better too and the risk would be offset. Also, if it's recomendations your after then thats 6 possible referals vs 1 also.

You will might also hit the vat threshold very quickly - if you havent already.

How are you costing your jobs? by price per day, price per unit etc or by margin %

Are you holding deposits for the 6 months away jobs?

How can you be certain the prices for these 6 month away jobs will remain the same if no deposit has been taken?

If you are not vat registered just now how do you know you wont be in 2 months time- therefore affecting your prices?

Ps, Estwig is right with Jan, its sometimes not a good time for being busy "doing work" which is why a lot of tradesmen think Jan is bad and they foolishly keep bits and bobs held especially for this time just so they can keep themselves busy doing something.

If your marketing is working for you then you should get a ton of enquires in, make the absolute most of it who cares if your not "busy" doing odd jobs. Go out and sell, sell, sell.

This January I landed £150k worth of business and we were flat out feb, march and a bit of april - all from January enquires.

get this right and you will get off to a crackin start to the year.

Tommy

 

[bloorino]

Its the customers who have set the dates, i suppose im just lucky that i have 2 customers, 1 big job 1 medium that dont want to start till the new year.

 

[bloorino]

Thanks for the info tommy, i agree with you and if i get anymore jobs i will have to get another fitter on board. Its just with being a new business i didnt want to run before i could walk.

I think i will be hitting the VAT limit by the end of the year.

How do you generate your business if you dont mind me asking? if im going to think about getting another fitter will need to generate more work.

On the bigger jobs the margin is pretty high, but i understand that doing 3-4 smaller jobs can be just as profitable.

 

[estwig]

I'm gonna emphasise the point about Christmas again, You will get 10x more enquiries in the 3 weeks after Christmas day than you will at any other time of year. All the big players know this, the telly and the papers are full of kitchen, bathroom and bedroom companies. This filters down to builders, sparks, chippies, etc.

Don't take a holiday or faff about fitting a kitchen in your house, start preparing now to take your share of the pie in January.

 

[bloorino]

Ok, extended holiday now on hold. The missus isn't going to be happy about the lack of new kitchen.

I didn't realise quite how busy it will be after xmas, thanks for the heads up and i hope your right about the 10x more calls. Hopefully i will be able to take on 1-2 more people and start to grow my business.

 

[estwig]

I been in the home improvement game, in one flavour or another for almost 20 years. I noticed this trend some years ago and then noticed the number of ads for home improvments there are at the end of December, beginning of January. So plenty of others cottoned onto this before me. The telly ads stop in the middle of January, you can set your watch by them.

 

[bloorino]

I suppose i just didn't realise how busy i could be. Looking forward to a busy Jan, hopefully the big boys will do the leg work and i can pick up some extra sales.

 

[nana_hercules]

are you interested in sliding door system for kitchen decoration? If yes, i will be happy

 

[nana_hercules]

are you interested in sliding door system for kitchen decoration? If yes, i will be happy to supply you the product

 

[bloorino]

just to let you know i'v found a good solution to my showroom problem. My carcass manufacturer has told me i can use there showroom as and when i want, it's nice not massive but having some new acrylic door displays put in as they manufacturer there own. There is never anyone in there and they do very little with the public so its normally very quiet in there. So not perfect but a good cost effective alternative.

 

[LicensedToTrade]

just to let you know i'v found a good solution to my showroom problem. My carcass manufacturer has told me i can use there showroom as and when i want, it's nice not massive but having some new acrylic door displays put in as they manufacturer there own. There is never anyone in there and they do very little with the public so its normally very quiet in there. So not perfect but a good cost effective alternative.

It sounds ideal mate. Try to make the most of it and monitor any impact on your sales. Sometimes the best things in life ARE free.