Opening a sweet shop in kent

[zo13]

Hello , I’ve had a small online seeet business for 3 years and it’s going well , i have to opportunity to rent a small shop great location with fantastic footfall all bills being £1k per month.
Give or take , I’ve never had a shop so o feel like a fish out of water.
Am i dreaming ? or could i make a good profit from this ?
I’m wanting to being the old retro shop ways with the new updated ways too
Any advice would be appreciated as i have to sign next week
Many thanks

 

[fisicx]

You could make a profit. But you could lose everything.

Have you worked out how many sweets you would need to sell to cover the £1k/month costs. Then add wages, insurance, refurbishment, POS tech, marketing, loses and the actual cost of the lease and do the maths again.

Is there any competition? Could the local supermarket steal a lot of your business?

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

I dont see to many sweets shops opening up or to many people asking for advice on one

I would guess that it would be a very challenging business

 

[fisicx]

There have been a few on UKBF over the years and they all seemed to struggle. We had one locally for a while and they closed despite being in a busy shopping centre.

@zo13 - what is this great footfall doing? Are they on their way somewhere or are they meandering along?

 

[zo13]

There have been a few on UKBF over the years and they all seemed to struggle. We had one locally for a while and they closed despite being in a busy shopping centre.

@zo13 - what is this great footfall doing? Are they on their way somewhere or are they meandering along?

There have been a few on UKBF over the years and they all seemed to struggle. We had one locally for a while and they closed despite being in a busy shopping centre.

@zo13 - what is this great footfall doing? Are they on their way somewhere or are they meandering along?

Thanks for your reply - Yes so lots and lots of children / parents walking to and from schools ,A small hospital and others small shops , gym , take away ect
The start up cost is quite minimal. Worst case i will lose £10 k but know i followed my dream.
My social media has been building well with orders. This shop just came up out of no where with no business rates being small and £500 pcm rent

 

[zo13]

You could make a profit. But you could lose everything.

Have you worked out how many sweets you would need to sell to cover the £1k/month costs. Then add wages, insurance, refurbishment, POS tech, marketing, loses and the actual cost of the lease and do the maths again.

Is there any competition? Could the local supermarket steal a lot of your business?

Yes i’m still crunching numbers worse case i will lose £10k which is what will be invested in the rent upfront for 1 years , insurances , and whole shop fitting. No competition as such , no sweets shops in the whole area , obviously convenience stores close by but no actual sweets shops. I will also still be offering all what i offer on social media too , thanks for your reply

 

[fisicx]

Thanks for your reply - Yes so lots and lots of children / parents walking to and from schools ,A small hospital and others small shops , gym , take away ect
The start up cost is quite minimal. Worst case i will lose £10 k but know i followed my dream.
My social media has been building well with orders. This shop just came up out of no where with no business rates being small and £500 pcm rent

Parents taking children to and from school aren't likely to pop into the shop to buy sweets. Secondary school children are different. In any case, this is very transient - twice a day for 30 minutes.

People going to and from the gym and hospital are also not your target customer - they don't have time to stop.

I'm also surprised there isn't a lease involved. Landlords like to have businesses locked in for a number of years which can cost you rent even if the shop closes.

It's great that you have a dream to open the shop but the reality is it likely to cost you a lot more than £1k each month. Unless you don't plan to have any time off ever.

Why did the last business using the property close?

 

[Mark T Jones]

You could make a living - 'good profit' is subjective, but yo make real money you'd need multiple stores or to franchise it.

On the other hand you could lose a load

The difference lies in research, planning and execution

A good starting point us always a cashflow forecast - done well it will help you with research and to ask good questions

 

[WaveJumper]

Personally I would say and sorry for being negative its not going to succeed, you will never turnover enough to cover your overheads let alone a wage.

Multiple sites as suggested above is / or was the only way, but even that is a big risk. You used to see many in shopping centres and you can't get bigger footfall than that .......do you see many now ?

My eldest had a string total nightmare, margins crap and he gave it up years ago.

 

[zo13]

It’s a 3 year lease contact with the option to release after 1.5 years
I have the initial £10k start up so all rent paid for 1 years and insurances so just utilities for the first 12 months.

It’s an area where there’s a train station close by secondary school kids bus stops ect , i wasn’t clear in my last post.
The last shop was open 26 years ago would you believe! it’s sat there empty i actually know the owner who owns lots on that area and he just left it sitting there , he’s passed away now so it’s been taken over and they have renovated it and now it’s up for lease.

I agree on the times of sales - weekends and school holidays would be busier - normal week days would be mainly after school time up until 6 possibly.

Its a town so locals ect which is why i feel like it might stand a chance
Thanks again for your advice it’s very helpful as this is all alien to me

 

[PickandMix.com]

We considered opening a shop to supplement our online store and went through the figures but, as others in this thread have mentioned, getting people to visit your shop is difficult.

Sweets are mostly an impulse buy and you won't be able to rely on the passing school/hospital footfall in the long-term. Getting repeat custom from the same local customers may be difficult.

You may be more successful online as you can target customers across the country who are actively looking to buy sweets, rather than being limited to local customers in your town.

Best of luck with your venture

 

[zo13]

We considered opening a shop to supplement our online store and went through the figures but, as others in this thread have mentioned, getting people to visit your shop is difficult.

Sweets are mostly an impulse buy and you won't be able to rely on the passing school/hospital footfall in the long-term. Getting repeat custom from the same local customers may be difficult.

You may be more successful online as you can target customers across the country who are actively looking to buy sweets, rather than being limited to local customers in your town.

Best of luck with your venture

Thank you so much - I do have returning customers through my social media accounts and local people as i’ve lived here my whole life so feel like that gives some way into my customers.
I will also still be offering postage which i do at the moment so would potentially run online and the shop.
I’m stuck between fortune favours the brave and am i being delusional

We considered opening a shop to supplement our online store and went through the figures but, as others in this thread have mentioned, getting people to visit your shop is difficult.

Sweets are mostly an impulse buy and you won't be able to rely on the passing school/hospital footfall in the long-term. Getting repeat custom from the same local customers may be difficult.

You may be more successful online as you can target customers across the country who are actively looking to buy sweets, rather than being limited to local customers in your town.

Best of luck with your venture

I also offer and cater for birthday parties , weddings and bespoke items too not just pick & mix

 

[PickandMix.com]

I’m stuck between fortune favours the brave and am i being delusional

You're certainly not delusional, it's great to be passionate about opening a shop for your business. It's just important to run through figures and the viability of having a shop, as others here have mentioned.

If you have a hybrid store where you're operating online at the same time as having a physical shop, that should work well.

 

[Mark James]

Hi Zo

I say if your fine losing £10k worse case and living potentially off min wage or less for a year then 100% go for it as regret is possibly the worse feeling you could ever live with.

 

[zo13]

You're certainly not delusional, it's great to be passionate about opening a shop for your business. It's just important to run through figures and the viability of having a shop, as others here have mentioned.

If you have a hybrid store where you're operating online at the same time as having a physical shop, that should work well.

Thank you
Obviously i’ve never done anything like this before so it feels very scary but at the same time sometimes worth the risk.
I really appreciate your input

 

[Mark T Jones]

Thank you
Obviously i’ve never done anything like this before so it feels very scary but at the same time sometimes worth the risk.
I really appreciate your input

I know that all the business motivation stuff bangs on about thinking positive etc, however in the planning stage, you need to be thinking a little bit negative - more precisely, you need to be challenging and reviewing every assumption.

As I say to start ups, if your projections don't show a point where the business fails, you haven't done them properly.

Personally, I haven't set foot in a sweet shop for decades, I know very little about those who do, what their spending patters are, what draws them etc - this is the sort of stuff you want to be researching. Don't just assume that footfall = business.

 

[Shopclicks]

I think you possibly have an opportunity to create something good. But I think you need need more than just a sweet shop. I've seen a couple of sweet shops in my town close down because that's all they wanted to do and they thought their market was selling sweets. (The 'build it and they will come' theory). What they lacked was a diverse range.

By diverse range I mean the gift market and locally produced, handmade sweet lines (eg. fudge, nougat, ice cream, cakes, etc.) Ideally you make the shop a destination rather than relying on footfall. Chocolate gift hampers, special occasion gift wrapped chocolates and sweets, Easter products, Xmas products, Mothers Day hampers. There's no end to the diverse range you might offer. But give people a reason to visit, not just drop in when they are passing by.

You will need to be big on social media, posting images & reels 3 or 4 times a day on Facebook, Instagram & TikTok. Learn how to optimise your posts and how to photograph your products. Join your local Facebook Groups, join your local chamber of trade or business association. Any public page that can share your content.

Good luck.

 

[Fagin2021]

@Shopclicks is spot on with his post.

I too have seen someone open up a local town centre sweet shop (the large jars of boiled sweets variety), struggle for a year then close down.

If you want some ideas take a look at The Teddington Cheese shop - where I used to live. Ignore the fact that they have the world's worst website.

The Cheese Shop is located in a side road off the High Street where the only footfall is from people who are lost. It opened in an old coal merchants premises and has thrived (online and offline for over 30 years).

If you want a block of cheddar you don't go there, but if you want a cheeseboard for a dinner party you do. The staff are knowledgeable and offer tastings to help you make up your mind. To complement the cheeses are a range of wines/port etc and again, the staff will guide your selection.

Whether these lessons can be applied to sweets I don't know - but good luck.

 

[WaveJumper]

Don't just focus on the rent, think about your utilities (commercial rates) who is going to be standing in the shop all day (and you may want to be trading odd hours if by train station) who is going to get stock etc, who will look after shop when your out running around attending to your online business

Make a very long list of all possible outcomes, then run it by someone else, but I still think you will be making a big mistake, however wish you well

 

[Mark T Jones]

@Shopclicks is spot on with his post.

I too have seen someone open up a local town centre sweet shop (the large jars of boiled sweets variety), struggle for a year then close down.

If you want some ideas take a look at The Teddington Cheese shop - where I used to live. Ignore the fact that they have the world's worst website.

The Cheese Shop is located in a side road off the High Street where the only footfall is from people who are lost. It opened in an old coal merchants premises and has thrived (online and offline for over 30 years).

If you want a block of cheddar you don't go there, but if you want a cheeseboard for a dinner party you do. The staff are knowledgeable and offer tastings to help you make up your mind. To complement the cheeses are a range of wines/port etc and again, the staff will guide your selection.

Whether these lessons can be applied to sweets I don't know - but good luck.

The risk here is that it reverses priorities - the key priority is to work out who the customer is, and what is going to bring them to you. If they are school kids I can pretty much guarantee that local produce won't be the answer.

Conversely, if you want to start with the product you have to go find the customer

 

[zo13]

I think you possibly have an opportunity to create something good. But I think you need need more than just a sweet shop. I've seen a couple of sweet shops in my town close down because that's all they wanted to do and they thought their market was selling sweets. (The 'build it and they will come' theory). What they lacked was a diverse range.

By diverse range I mean the gift market and locally produced, handmade sweet lines (eg. fudge, nougat, ice cream, cakes, etc.) Ideally you make the shop a destination rather than relying on footfall. Chocolate gift hampers, special occasion gift wrapped chocolates and sweets, Easter products, Xmas products, Mothers Day hampers. There's no end to the diverse range you might offer. But give people a reason to visit, not just drop in when they are passing by.

You will need to be big on social media, posting images & reels 3 or 4 times a day on Facebook, Instagram & TikTok. Learn how to optimise your posts and how to photograph your products. Join your local Facebook Groups, join your local chamber of trade or business association. Any public page that can share your content.

Good luck.

Thank you so much for your comment very helpful.
Yes that’s my aim as i’m already offering some of these items supplying for parties and i even supply a large cardboard box company twice a year with over 60 kg of sweets each order.
Thats why i feel like my foot is half way through the door and in order to build a grow why not a shop.

Local produce would be absolutely amazing again this is so thing ive been thinking about too

 

[Chris Ashdown]

My first worry is you feel pressured into signing in a week, don't do anything until you are happy and your plan is well thought through

Online you are most likely selling in larger quantities than casual buyers passing by will order

Have you considered selling drinks in bottles and also a automatic coffee machine to add for a reason to come into the shop

Consider a 3 year lease with one year break clause.

Most important is to get a solicitor involved to understand fully what you are signing, especially dilapidation's and the fine print

Insurance can be expensive for you and also you will be required to pay for the landlords insurance incase you burn the building down

Cat a estimate on how much and how long the shop fit and tills etc will cost plus time, you could negotiate a free setup period

Guess you can run the online at the same time from the shop but have to close for dispatching online orders

Good Luck but take your time

 

[zo13]

Hi Zo

I say if your fine losing £10k worse case and living potentially off min wage or less for a year then 100% go for it as regret is possibly the worse feeling you could ever live with.

I agree 100% that’s why i’m kind of thinking - it’s now or never

My first worry is you feel pressured into signing in a week, don't do anything until you are happy and your plan is well thought through

Online you are most likely selling in larger quantities than casual buyers passing by will order

Have you considered selling drinks in bottles and also a automatic coffee machine to add for a reason to come into the shop

Consider a 3 year lease with one year break clause.

Most important is to get a solicitor involved to understand fully what you are signing, especially dilapidation's and the fine print

Insurance can be expensive for you and also you will be required to pay for the landlords insurance incase you burn the building down

Cat a estimate on how much and how long the shop fit and tills etc will cost plus time, you could negotiate a free setup period

Guess you can run the online at the same time from the shop but have to close for dispatching online orders

Good Luck but take your time

Thank you - yes we have a 1.5 year clause and if we’re struggling before that he’s said we can start the process to leave early , I’m not signing until i’m sure don’t worry it’s just the shop will get snapped up.
Also yep drinks are on my list i’ve already looked at fridges as these are a good seller , coffee machine is a great idea.
All this advice had been fantastic i really do appreciate it
Thank you
Zoe

 

[UKSBD]

so just utilities for the first 12 months.

The fact you say "just utilities" is a bit frightening, have a read of some of the stories on here about utilities costs and especially what happens when an initial contract expires.

Edit to add example - See this post as an example - https://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/threads/electric-standing-charge.425472/

 

[fisicx]

@zo13 - if you can afford the loss then that’s ok.

But getting a unit in a business park and developing the online store may be far more lucrative.

A lady near us does boxes of random goodies . You never know what you will get until it arrives. It’s not just sweets, it has biscuits, crisps and so on inside.

Now imagine you could do local deliveries, offer cakes and whatever. All without having the worry of running a shop.

 

[Shopclicks]

Conversely, if you want to start with the product you have to go find the customer

Yes, that's how retail marketing works.

 

[Russ Michaels]

Hello , I’ve had a small online seeet business for 3 years and it’s going well , i have to opportunity to rent a small shop great location with fantastic footfall all bills being £1k per month.
Give or take , I’ve never had a shop so o feel like a fish out of water.
Am i dreaming ? or could i make a good profit from this ?
I’m wanting to being the old retro shop ways with the new updated ways too
Any advice would be appreciated as i have to sign next week
Many thanks

I would setup an online shop as well to give you an extra income stream.

If you are happy to DIY, then I am a fan of ECWID, which is really easy to setup and manage if you are non-technical.
If you really want to start with with something simple and cheap then kopage.uk is also a good website builder for startups. The shop is very basic, no bells and whistles, but you can also use ECWID with it as well.

If you want a custom solution built and managed for you, then I recommend antropy.co.uk

 

[WaveJumper]

From my son's experience you will sell more bottle of pop, slush puppies, crisps, echolocate bars etc. The sweet side of things took a back seat although he did pretty well on party boxes, gift boxes (customers could pick out their favourites and fill plastic boxes) and suppling weddings.

 

[Russ Michaels]

Have you Considered a pop-up or o mobile shop, this would be a cheaper and less risky way to do it.
A mobile shop also gives you flexibility to try different locations, shopping malls, town centers, schools, office buildings, parties and events etc.

 

[MarketingQuote]

Difficult to predict.

Here in Basingstoke there is a 'Ye old sweet shop' that never has any customers in it, in a v busy shopping centre. They have been there for many years though, so it must work some how despite rent being sky high.

Above was suggested a pop up shop which seems less risky

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

all bills being £1k per month

then

I have the initial £10k start up so all rent paid for 1 years and insurances so just utilities for the first 12 months.

So which is it?

Shopfit to a decent standard? £10k? 20k? £30k?

Staff - how long will you open? Will you be there 10 hours a day, 7 days a week?

Probably no business rates (SBRR), but check.

If you go ahead, make sure that you have Plan B, C & D in place now, just in case. Look at other products e.g. ice cream, cakes, biscuits, luxury chocolates.

Bottom line, if you know your figures and are prepared to take a loss after 18 months (do all your calculations based on the minimum lease time), go for it. Having the additional liabilities may actually make you focus more on building the online side!