Opening Mini Showroom - Check List ?

[oakfurniture]

Good Morning Everyone,

Hope you all are doing well.

I have few questions to ask you please -

We are furniture seller and after working for last 8 years I have manage to save some money to open a small (mini showroom) as I hate turning business away. I am sure you will agree that it cost a lot of money and years of hard work to open a show room.

I wanted to ask valuable member of this forum what areas I need to look into so that I don't make regret not taking advice on this.

Please could you spend some time and let me know what areas I should focus:

1) Phone System (Currently we are on normal BT line - 2 Lines with standard feature) There are so many options available in the market, not quite sure which one is right. All we need is phone system and ability to transfer call etc.

I also have a major issue in regards to wiring, I have been told by the landlord as they are putting an office for us (at a cost of 3K) they want more money for phone wiring, they have called to ask us what phone line cables we need etc etc. My answer to that was we need a phone point at every desk. Currently 3 desk so I asked them perhaps 3 phone points in the office, do I need more than that or is there a special way for electrician to do the wiring?

2) IT System - We do need a small till in the showroom, again there is a vast choice, which one will be best for small business at a decent costs.

3) Interiors - I have no idea on interiors but will be working there over the weekends (flooring, wall paper etc my self to keep the costs down)

4) Coffee Machine - I want to offer free Tea/Coffee for customers, do you think this is a good idea? Any decent machine which is good value for money?

5) Security Camera -

6) Any other areas do you think I need to look into?

Best Wishes
SWJ

 

[oakfurniture]

Hi Everyone,

Just wanted to ask if BT is the right company for phone systems?

Thanks
SWJ

 

[OwnACoder]

HI there, I would say alot of this depends on the budget you have. You do generally get what you pay for so I think it may be worth setting the show room up correctly from the get go so you don't have to upgrade bits too soon. Can't say I have a lot of experience in phone lines etc but I have used a VOIP phone system before and found this to be a good experience.

Oh if your looking to offer free coffee to customers I think a pod machine would be most convienient (minimal cleaning, no grinding of beans etc) nespresso machines are great, you can buy one on ebay for a reasonable price and tesco etc are starting to do their own compatible capsules which are fairly cheap.

Hope that helps, hopefully someone with a brick and mortar store may be able to answer some of your other questions.

 

[oakfurniture]

Morning OwnACoder,

Thank you so much for your reply. I completely understand the point you mentioned hence I am working on all the details. I don't want to move in and have a feeling that I never looked in that .... if you know what I mean?

I am really making sure all goes fine and hopefully hear from more experienced individuals.
I will look into the points you have raised in regards to VOIP and I think you are right in regards to the coffee machine, this will probably work out cheaper but might create an issue if there is group of people who want a drink at the same time...

I will wait to hear in regards to other points, thank you again for your help, I wish you all the best.

Regards
SWJ

 

[oldoakey]

I would just buy a simple cheap till for now until you see how it goes, why spend a small fortune on a fancy till if you only ever normally have a few customers a week.

Keep the decor simple so the goods show up the most. Be careful with wallpapers because what you like others may hate and could detract from your furniture offering and date very quickly.

As for offering Tea Coffee I do not offer this as the customers can easily knock this over or spill onto your furniture or worse still spill hot Tea on a child. Think worse case scenario.

As for the security camera these can be useful deterrent although they are not the best at identifying a person from if you needed to take someone to court for theft for example. We do not have them.

You will also need some labels for pricing items.
A credit/debit card processing terminal.
Order pads with your terms and conditions on the reverse and a place for customer signature, be sure to draw the attention to the terms where the customer signs.

Invoice & Delivery pads for the goods to deliver and/or be collected from store.
Compliments slips and business cards.
A full page a day diary for leaving notes & reminders in, look at this every morning.
A way to capture address and email details this can be just a simple form you can easily create in Microsoft access.

Hope that helps some
Good Luck

 

[oakfurniture]

Evening oldoakey,

Thank you for taking time out to reply to me. I am in complete agreement on not paying over the odds for fancy till. I think you have given me another point to consider from Health & Safety point by offering tea or coffee can result in other issues.

We do have the other items currently so that should not be an issue, but thank you for helping me.
I think the main area is still unanswered in regards to phone etc.

I will wait to hear from other members.

Best Wishes
SWJ

 

[SamStones]

For your phones: Personally, I would get one phone line with broadband, get a VoIP system (I use voipfone) and a set of 3/4 cordless VoIP / landline phones. One on each desk, and only needing a power socket for each desk. The base station can go near the internet router / phone socket.

Cost £200-£300 up front
Monthly < £10 plus line rental and calls

 

[Spapro]

We are a small office and our telephone/broadband is through voipfone.

We have a Gigaset (formerly Siemens) base station (Model: N300aIP - with answerphone) which plugs into your broadband router and 4 x wireless phones (A510 models) which just need a mains power plug to recharge the handsets via their stands so no cables to run to each phone.

Not sure exactly on the distance range of the handsets but I can leave our office and go out to the carpark and still talk on the phone so I am guessing a good 20-25 metres from base station without any problems. When the phone rings all the handsets ring and anyone can pickup and then transfer the call to another handset. While one person is on the phone another can receive a call or make a call etc.

Best to speak with Voipfone for specific advice.

Voipfone didn't sell Gigaset phones when we set ourselves up so we bought the base station and hardware elsewhere but they still helped us with a bit of support to set things up and not had any problems to report in 3 years since.

Looks like Voipfone now do a package of gigaset base station plus 2 DECT (wireless) handsets - you could add up to 6 handsets I think in total:
http://www.voipfone.co.uk/shop.php?method=view&pid=57

Hope this helps and the best of luck with your new showroom.

 

[oakfurniture]

Good Evening Samstones / Spapro,

Thank you for taking time out to reply. I really value your comments and help.

I will speak to this company and discuss the requirement.

Regards
SWJ

PS: What happens to existing number?

 

[SamStones]

If you have an existing number on the landline going into the office and someone calls that number the phones in the office ring as normal and can be answered by anyone and passed around the office by call transfer etc. the same handsets also ring for the VoIP calls. You only have one landline tho so if the line is in use anyone else gets the engaged tone etc. you can have someone on one set taking / making a call on the landline and 2 other people on their handsets taking / making calls on the VoIP lines.

HTh

 

[Spapro]

You may be able to port your existing 'real' number and convert it into a 'virtual' number with Voipfone. This would mean any calls on the 'existing number' are handled across voip and would allow for multiple calls to/from this number at the same time.

Voipfone can answer that one - some numbers are portable, some are not I believe.

 

[SamStones]

You may be able to port your existing 'real' number and convert it into a 'virtual' number with Voipfone. This would mean any calls on the 'existing number' are handled across voip and would allow for multiple calls to/from this number at the same time.

Voipfone can answer that one - some numbers are portable, some are not I believe.

I didn't know this, but this would be useful for me....

From voipfone.co.uk > Support > Telephone numbers >

Porting Your Number To Voipfone

We can transfer any BT and Virgin Media (ex NTL & Telewest) number (01, 02, 0800, 0845, 0870, 0871 etc) onto our service.

 

[oakfurniture]

Morning Everyone,

I am still looking into this, although if we go for VOIP phones, what happens when there is a power cut or no internet?

We are in a industrial estate so internet does go down once a month (sometime few times a week).

Are people moving away from tradition phone systems? I understand they costs £££'s as compare to voip phones?

Have a nice day everyone
Best Wishes
SWJ

 

[oldoakey]

I would opt for an all in package for your phones that include calls. We have Talk talk for our broadband and phone line with this all calls are included in the monthly price, this has saved us a lot of money on what we were paying previously.

 

[Spapro]

Morning Everyone,

I am still looking into this, although if we go for VOIP phones, what happens when there is a power cut or no internet?

You can set a few diverts up in the online control panel so in the event of a power failure any incoming calls are diverted to a number of your choice - most likely your mobile number. So any incoing calls to you virtual number are received by your mobile while the power is off.

 

[oakfurniture]

Afternoon Everyone,

I think Voip is a good option. This forum has been extremely useful and I can't thank enough to everyone.

I very grateful to everyone.

Best Wishes
SWJ

 

[oakfurniture]

Hello Again Everyone,

Please does anyone has a good accountant to recommend on Oxfordshire ?

Thanks
SWJ

 

[oakfurniture]

Good Morning Everyone,

Thanks to all wonderful people I have now got a new accountant and I really pleased.
More so we are now moving in to new showroom in 2 weeks time, I just wanted to ask if you could spend couple of minutes to recommend a CRM system for small businesses.

Thank you once again for your time.

Best Wishes
SWJ

 

[oakfurniture]

Morning All,

Hope everyone had a great weekend.

I just wanted to see if you can recommend a CRM system ?

Perhaps you have used one and think this is perfect for a small business?

Thank you for your time and have a nice day.

Regards
SWJ

 

[nsmithwsw]

Think I could give a bit of advice here:

1) Phone System (Currently we are on normal BT line - 2 Lines with standard feature) There are so many options available in the market, not quite sure which one is right. All we need is phone system and ability to transfer call etc.

We have two showrooms and a warehouse, we use a VOIP system that is very cheap and we have more than 15 phones in all premises and this allows call transferring and internal calls to any of the phones on the network. Compared to the wiring etc cost, VOIP is an absolute no-brainer. We use Buzz Networks, give them a call they are very helpful.

2) IT System - We do need a small till in the showroom, again there is a vast choice, which one will be best for small business at a decent costs.

We don't use tills in our showrooms but I know there are some good systems you can get that are a tablet connected to a till draw. The tablet can connect directly to your accounting software and create paid invoices whenever someone makes a sale. Search for tablet POS systems.

3) Interiors - I have no idea on interiors but will be working there over the weekends (flooring, wall paper etc my self to keep the costs down)

Interiors are never something we thought much about, want clients focussing on the displays! We usually go for quite plain walls and a timber/laminate flooring. Nice and tidy, not cluttered or busy.

4) Coffee Machine - I want to offer free Tea/Coffee for customers, do you think this is a good idea? Any decent machine which is good value for money?

We don't have one of these, in all honesty we don't get a huge number of customers through our door but we know they work. For example, before we opened our second showroom we used to do huge marketing campaigns in the area but around 5% of our sales came from that area. When we opened a showroom, this increased to 45% in that area. Yet only 5% of customers ever visit the showroom. We find that a showroom is two things, an advertising tool (get your company name and number plastered all over the front) and it gives customers confidence in your company. If they need to come and see you, they can. If a customer does come into the showroom, I offer to make one, much nicer to sit down with a mug and have a chat than a paper cup.

5) Security Camera -

Search for Belkin NetCam, about £70 for each camera in HD. These can be viewed live, online or via the app. You can then opt for about £80 a year for all motion detected clips to be saved online for 14 days if you do ever need to go back and check.

 

[oakfurniture]

Good Morning nsmithwsw,

Thank you for your reply.

I really appreciate your help.

1) Phone System - Thank you again and everyone else, I have managed to get a VOIP system based on everyone's recommendation. I will also call Buzz as well.

2) Till - I will now search for Tablet POS system. This is mainly for customer who want to buy in the showroom. As we are so far online based company, this is all new to us and learning as we go along. At the same time very stressful as you can imagine.

3) Interiors - I have paid for carpets etc and now it does look better than what we have (I will send a image shortly, not sure if I can send image on this forum?)

4) Coffee Machine - I will stick to your advice and personally make sure I make them a drink when they do visit us.

5) Camera's - This is something I will now spend time on and see which one is the best one for us. Do you think its better than a traditional system. We currently have Securix CCTV with app on my phone to see everything with a touch of a button. We would need at least 5 or 6 cameras do you think its worthwhile going for Belkin or stick to what we have (although this needs an upgrade now).

6) CRM System - We are in desperate need of a CRM system, can you perhaps recommend us one? What do you think the of Microsoft CRM System?

Again, I am very grateful to everyone here.

Look forward to hear from you.

Best Wishes
SWJ

 

[nsmithwsw]

With regards to cameras; Belkin works well for us. I can go on the app or the web page and view the cameras (bear in mind you can't view all at once, one at a time), hear what is being said and even speak back through the built in speaker. It's exactly what we need. Nothing too fancy, just does the job.

CRM - We use a cloud based product called Podio. It is great in my opinion. You create different "Workspaces" for your teams etc, then within these you can create "Apps". Now it may seem a bit confusing and technical but it is designed to be incredibly simple. You tailor the system to exactly how you want it and what you want it to do. We have been using it for 2 years now and as the business grows, develops and we learn more, we adapt the system accordingly. It stops you being tied down by your CRM system. We don't just use this for CRM, we use it for suppliers (they have access), we track all orders on it, all HR and PR. It's great and all for about £9 a user a month

PM me if you want more info on it or some help setting it up etc

 

[oakfurniture]

Dear nsmithwsw,

Thank you for your reply. Apologies I have had some issues so could not reply back. I will send a PM to you.

Regards
SWJ