jane's wish list

[jane]

oooh lovely - where's the shop wendy??

[fabyon]

Wendy Don't do it !  Your tiny margin will be eaten by the rent of your small shop and the electricity (business rates are higher) besides don't forget you can declare a percentage of your electricity, heating and phone for tax purposes if you keep your business at home. Once you have to employ your husband three people and the cat  then you can move to a premise ! wink

[Donna]

Aww Wendy, a shop sounds wonderful but I can understand you being cautious at the moment, good luck with making your decision

[Marion]

Wendy, how lovely it would be to have your own little shop, but I do know what you mean about this moment in time.

The craft shop I used to help out in, the lady had a small shop and about six months ago she moved into a lot bigger premises, rent going from something like £700 a month to over £2000 a month.  A lot of money isn't it?

But where she gets most of hers from is from doing craft classes at the shop, and getting normal people that are good at something to do demonstrations for her in the shop.

I aren't saying go for it, its a big step to take.  You will know when the time is right.

[Donna]

Crikey Marion, that's a huge step up in outgoings, she'd have to run a lot of classes to cover her overheads

[Sue]

Wendy , i would say be cautious.We all love the thought of a shop but as Fab said all the rates, etc will be very high...you will sure need to sell a lot of things to turn  a profit over and would be hard work running a shop and an online business.I know soemone who owns her own shop and she couldn't take anything out of it for year..e.g wages. I think also it will depend on the area, i know one craft shop in our town is struggling without their classes they would be gone.

So think long adn hard before you make the decision

[Marion]

Going onto something Sue has just said.  The lady I know that has the craft shop, she reckons it will be another two years before she can pay herself any wages.

I must admit, its not something I could do, I would be worried stiff about owing all that money.

[Donna]

OMG Marion, she'll definitely be eating beans on toast 

[secretcrafter]

Jane the shop is just outside Halesowen, it's in a lovely position with lots of passing traffic and there are parking facilities.  It's only very small but I wouldn't want to go too big too soon anyway, it's lovely and clean and pleasant and ready to move into.  I woke up this morning thinking 'go for it' and then an hour later I was thinking the opposite.  I really don't know what to do.

[Donna]

Does it have a long lease or rental Wendy? if not you could give it a try, at least you'd have the internet side to fall back on if it didn't take off as expected

[Sandra]

...Just catching up with this thread

I wonder what decision was made.....?

[jane]

wendy now has a fabby shop - she's just "stocking" but is back to doing classes too

[Sandra]

Wow!! That's great news... well done Wendy

and thank you Jane