Many New Years’ resolutions are sure to involve the pursuit
of enterprising ventures in a bid for a better work-life balance or to achieve the
dream of running your own business. With relatively low start-up costs, the
idea of setting up a sweet shop is often desirable and we know that many
prospective sweet shop owners will stumble upon Sweet Retailing. But is the
task of setting up and running a sweet shop for you? Here’s some thoughts to
ponder.
Kids. Do you like them? It might seem like an odd question
but an important one none-the-less. You see a sweet shop draws children like
bees to a honey pot and you cannot behave like Mr Grumpy when they rush through
the door. So if you can put a big tick against this point (and a permanent
smile on your face in the presence of youngsters), read on!
A sweet shop needs to be open at least six days a week and
it is more than likely that you, the owner, will be running the shop, at least
initially. Does your dream involve working in retail on a daily basis? Do you
like meeting people and engaging in conversion with them?
In the meantime you’ll have a business to run and this will
involve all manner of skills; some of which you might have to learn…fast! For
example book keeping, stock control, merchandising, VAT returns, food hygiene,
health and safety, security, buying, employment law and more. And this will all
have to weave around the fact that you have a shop to run.
How much do you know about sweets? It might be very little
initially, aside from your own personal experience as a sweet toothed consumer.
That’s ok as there are plenty of confectionery suppliers happy to educate you in the world of
sweets and online resources such as Sweet Retailing to embrace. It will however
take time and the more knowledgeable you are, the more effectively you can
stock your store and the more engaging conversations you can have with your
customers.
Display certainly sells and this is definitely the case
where confectionery is concerned. Window displays, in-store displays, pricing
and promotions are all important. They’ll require creativity and careful
planning. Plus a fair bit of trial and error combined with a dose of luck!
Finally, how are you going to get them through the door? You
cannot just put a sign up saying “open” and expect a queue! Your skills will be
required in carrying out local marketing and this will of course require a
modest budget unless you are a PR genius.
I’m not a sweet shop owner myself (I’m writing for SweetRetailing!) but many have told me it is an immensely rewarding way to earn a
crust. Like many business ventures, it comes with no shortage of hard work but
when it is your own business, that hard work is far more productive than when
you are employed. Or so it feels. So if you have not already reached for a pen
to scrub the idea of Sweet Shop off your potential businesses list, maybe this
idea could be a good one to pursue.
We have a couple of little ebooks that might help you
research your venture. The first is a write up Mr SimmsOlde Sweet Shoppe, taken from interviews with founder and owner of the chain, Martin
Peet. The second is a fun list of 192 ideas for Sweet Shop names. You can learn
more about both of these resources by clicking here.
about the history of
Good luck with your New Years’ resolution. I am pursuing my
own and eight days in, so far so good.
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