| Italian deli, Japanese fish or gourmet cheeses
-- your business plan for a specialty food store will reflect you and your
clients.
KEY CONSIDERATION
This may sound obvious, but does the
clientele exist? Yes, you love gourmet chocolate. I do too. But is the
clientele there?
STRONGEST ADVANTAGE
You can carry products that large
supermarkets cannot begin to dream about. Personally, I'm looking for a shop
with a good tea selection. The mainline grocery stores have all cut back to
the same 20-30 tea types. All my old favorites are gone. If you had a tea
and coffee store, I'd be your customer.
This is part of the "long tail" of
marketing. Supermarkets can only afford to stock the most popular items.
Less popular items get tossed aside, no matter how good they are. Small
specialty food stores are thrilled to have a product that brings in $100 a
month; supermarkets would have discarded it long ago. Your business plan for
a specialty food store must detail just what it is that you will stock, and
why.
Capitalize on your specialty. Make your
store a destination for those who really like what your niche is, whether it
is organic fruit or imported smoked fish.
STRONGEST DISADVANTAGE TO OVERCOME IN
YOUR BUSINESS PLAN FOR A SPECIALTY FOOD STORE
Unless you have a real link into your
client base, it can be difficult building up the clientele that you need to
be successful.
OVERCOMING THE DISADVANTAGE WITH YOUR
BUSINESS PLAN FOR A SPECIALTY FOOD STORE
Prove that you have the experience to make
the store successful.
Experience in a big chain won't help you here. There's just too much
difference between "big" food stores and little ones. (I use "big" and
"little" reluctantly. In truth, your store could be as big as a chain
store.)
Prove, instead, your link to your client
base. Where is your connection to them? Do they live nearby? Do they have a
newspaper that they read? Is there a social club that attracts them? What is
the connection between you and your clients? If there is no connection,
think seriously about whether you can do this; if the connection is indeed
there, you've got a strong business.
Prove that you have the marketing
background and skill to make the store successful.
If you have a real connection with your
clients, your lender will be impressed. You probably know the market better
than anyone else, and know how to lure buyers into your store.
If that connection isn't there, it will
take a bit of fancy footwork on your part to convince a banker that you know
what you are doing. Locating and interpreting demographic information will
be critical. Demonstrating your own marketing skill will be equally
critical.
Be prepared to set out a whole marketing
plan, with ads drawn, advertising budget, map of demographics of the area --
the whole shebang. Strong documentation will make your case for you.
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FOR YOUR
BUSINESS PLAN FOR A SPECIALTY FOOD STORE AND YOUR SPECIALTY FOOD STORE
MARKETING PLAN
For basic traffic information on your
retail location, contact the owner/manager of the retail center. Also go to
your city or county planning department where you can get traffic counts and
information on housing and construction in that area.
You will, however, need to go deeper than
"basic". You are looking for a particular type of client. It is that type of
statistic that must be presented. You will need stats on both the INDUSTRY and on the
DEMOGRAPHICS of the area.
For statistical information for your
specialty food store marketing plan, with an emphasis on the particular type
of store you are opening, go to
BizMiner.
At the home page, look in the white box for
"INDUSTRY SEARCH", enter "food store". In the list that is displayed, you
will have a choice of:
- 96-400 Food stores
- 96-411.9901 Cooperative food stores
- 96-499 Miscellaneous food stores
- 96-499.01 Health and dietetic food
stores
- 96-499.0103 Vitamin food stores
- 96-499-9904 Gourmet food stores
If these don't seem right for your
business, go back to the home page for BizMiner. Look for the SIC DRILL
DOWN. In the drop down box, choose: Retail.
In the next page drop down box, Grocery
Stores
In the next page drop down box, choose from
- convenience stores,
- grocery stores,
- natural and specialty foods retail, and
- supermarkets.
As you click through, you will discover a
wide variety of food related stores to choose from, such as:
- Convenience stores
- Delicatessen stores
- Frozen food & freezer plans
- Grocery stores, independent
- Fish & seafood markets
- Meat markets
- Ice cream stores
- Bagels
- Bread
- Cakes
- Cookies
- Doughnuts
- Pastries
- Pies
- Pretzels
- Beverage store
- Coffee
- Juices
- Tea
- Water
- Dried fruit
- Eggs & poultry
- Spices & herbs
- Food stores
- Meat and fish markets
- Candy, nut and confectionary stores
- Dairy products stores
- Retail bakeries
- Miscellaneous food stores
You will be taken to a list of reports
specially designed for your area of interest. This is the information you
need to incorporate in your business plan for a specialty food store.
DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION FOR YOUR
BUSINESS PLAN FOR A SPECIALTY FOOD STORE
While you are in BizMiner, look at the
navigation bar on the left hand side. There is a link to "VIEW ALL REPORTS",
which in turn leads you to "AREA DEMOGRAPHICS". Take a look at that to see
if your demographic area has a report. If it does, it will be filled with
information that you need for your business plan.
YOUR LIKELY LENDER/INVESTOR
The
SBA is a
strong lender in the retail field.
If, however, you are looking to grow an existing business regionally or
nationally, you may want to look at venture capital firms. More and more
venture capital firms are making it easier for growing businesses to borrow
from them.
YOUR ONLINE STORE
You may be able to
sell online,
in addition to posting information about new products and sales. Take
advantage of that opportunity. The online market is growing by leaps and
bounds -- you might as well be part of that revolution. See the best web
host for more information on my preferred web host.
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