Retail Turnover

[paulrenda]

Hello,

I'm putting together a business plan, but I need to find information of what is the turnover profit of similar shops to mine in a Enfield area in London. Anyone know where I can get this information online?

Also is there anywhere online where I can find the average cost per sq meter rental commercial (retail) property in London?

I apologies if I'm not using the correct terms, but I'm still learning.

All help appreciated.

Thank you.
Paul

 

[Chris Ashdown]

Most small independent traders do not have to publish turnover numbers to company house so all you can do is basic fact finding, like go into a similar shop and see what you would consider a average price of sales and then maybe spend Saturday counting how many people go into the shop and how many come out with a shop bag

Realistically its nothing to do with turnover of other shops its what you consider you can do, you know all your overheads and also your product costs, so take a truethfull guess at what you think you can sell each day work out how much profit you will make and then see if it would make a profit after all costs. this is the most accurate way, you can play with the figures but probably fool yourself into better sales

London prices like anywhere else are street level and what end of street so you need to find a location and then get the details from estate agents who will supply rent and rates numbers

 

[k100danny]

simple answer is nowhere for you first question. unless you've worked in a similar shop and know roughly the taking for that shop that is the only way you can get a rough idea but their turnover mean nothing compared to what yours will be. basing your sales on similar (or what you consider to be similar businesses) is very risky as these are established businesses usually with loyal and repeat customers.

as for the second one you can look for commercial properties online, work out your business rates from the rateable valu which is usually listed in the advert and this will give you your overheads for that.

 

[paulrenda]

Thanks both of you, help very much appreciated. It is difficult to write a business plan with actual figures, because it is all subjective. I can only base with imaginary figures and hope to the best of my knowledge these will either be equal or better, but always keep the values down (for the worst).

 

[cjd]

Thanks both of you, help very much appreciated. It is difficult to write a business plan with actual figures, because it is all subjective. I can only base with imaginary figures and hope to the best of my knowledge these will either be equal or better, but always keep the values down (for the worst).

The only way is to do it backwards.

Work out all your actual costs in detail - don't try to fool yourself, take the most conservative figures you can - then when you've finished add at least 10% for the things you haven't thought of.

The most important numbers are your rent and rates, employee costs and your stock purchase costs. You need to know these exactly.

Once you know your fixed (rent, wages etc) and variable costs (stock cost etc), you know how much income you need to break-even, then make a profit big enough to live off.

You then need to see if it is possible to sell enough of whatever you have to exceed your costs at a realistic price. This is where most people try to fool themselves: be extremely cautious, you are very unlikely to sell much in the first years so you need to have funding to survive passed that, particularly if you've already had to find significant set-up costs.

Pricing depends on your competition, it's unwise to attempt to sell things either much below or much above your competitors unless you have lower costs or a much better product.

The key is to focus on what YOU can do and not try to guess at how other people's businesses work.

 

[GelatoChef]

Try to find industry research reports that have been done for your particular industry and

 

[GelatoChef]

A lot of the time you can find paid ones online but can also get access and the information at discounts