Your pet store business plan
has a strong, strong advantage: who can say no to a wagging tail,
whether from poodles or fishes?
KEY
CONSIDERATION
It's hard to know whether pets are a luxury or a
necessity. Whichever they are, your job is to demonstrate how your
pet shop will capture your client base better than The Biggie Store
will.
STRONGEST ADVANTAGE
Pets are personal. KMart may have a lot of doggie
stuff, but for personal things for pets, from natural food to hand
made collars, it is the smaller store that will prevail.
STRONGEST DISADVANTAGE
Because you cannot compete with KMart et al, you
do need to locate in a place where people can afford your specialty.
You may have the most magnificent hand made aquariums in the world,
but if your business is in a non-aquarium neighborhood, watch out.
OVERCOMING THE DISADVANTAGE WITH YOUR PET STORE
BUSINESS PLAN
Really Promote Your Online Business
The more specialized your product selection, the
more important it is to create an online presence that really
sizzles.
And the more "average" your physical location, the
more absolutely critical your online business becomes.
You may have trouble shipping your rare koi from
country to country (although, in truth, this is probably possible),
but any hard product is very shippable.
In fact, the very strongest way to start your
business would be to start the online segment of it first. This is
relatively inexpensive in terms of leases, advertising, etc., and
can bring a big return. If you then want a physical location, you
will have a track record of success to set in front of your banker.
Prove that you have the marketing background
and skill to make the pet store successful.
It doesn't matter that you were vice president of
finance for a Fortune 500 company. It does matter that you were
manager of pet shop, and successfully so, for several years. In the
alternative, you need to prove your expertise with your online
business.
I worked with a lady a number of years ago who was
the manager of a large, privately held pet store. She was incredibly
proud of the fact that her sales staff was the best trained staff in
the business. "But", she moaned, "the owners won't give me the money
to run the store!"
There was something seriously wrong with her
thinking. The money should be flowing in the other direction. The
store should be giving money to the owners, not vice versa.
Stories like this are much too common in the pet
business. It is a business. Demonstrate that you recognize it as a
business.
OTHER PLUSSES FROM YOUR PET STORE BUSINESS PLAN
You personally will be judged as severely as your
business, so ...
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FOR YOUR PET STORE
BUSINESS PLAN AND PET STORE MARKETING PLAN
For 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. The pet shop
business proposal must include strong demographic information (see
below for more on demographics) as well as strong financials.
For statistical information on the pet industry
for your pet store marketing plan, or on any segment of it, go to
BizMiner. Having
solid statistical information is critical in your pet store business
plan. Bankers pretty much assume that you know your pets; and they
also assume you don't know business.
At the home page, for the Search box. Enter "pet".
You will get a lot of false hits, with petroleum and carpet, etc.,
so look for the "pet" related fields, such as
- Animal hospital services, pets and other animal
specialties
- Breeding services, pet and animal specialties
- Pedigree record services, pet and animal
specialties
- Showing services, pet and animal specialties
- Training services, pet and animal specialties
- Grooming services ...
- Vaccinating services ...
- Canned pet food
- Frozen pet food
- Horse and pet accessories
- Pet collars, leashes, etc
- Pet supplies, manufacturing
- Pet foods
- Pets and pet supplies, wholesale
- Pets and pet supplies, retail
- Health insurance for pets
- Pet sitting, in home
If your pet shop business plan focuses on a
particular type of pet, such as horses, search on that word instead.
Under "horse" you will find
- Horses and other equines
- Horse farm
- Breeding services
- Training services
- Horse and pet accessories
- Horse blankets
- Boots, horse
- Feed bags for horses
- Trailers or vans for transporting horses
- Horse trailers
- Carriages, horsedrawn,
- Hobby horses
- Rocking horses
- Horse drawn transportation service
- Horseshoeing
- Horse race track operation
- Racehorse care
- Dog and horse racing
- Horse shows
- Saddlehorse rental
... with lots more under every other kind of pet
or animal!
Your pet store business plan could focus on goats
or emus or tropical fish or cats or kangaroos, and the approach
would be the same: Find the Financial Analysis and the Marketing
Research reports that best suit your business. Study the daylights
out of them, and incorporate what you can into your pet store
business plan.
While you are at BizMiner, be sure to look at the
left side of that page for the LOCAL MARKET VITALITY SERIES compiled
from US Census statistics. This is the information that your banker
will be working with, so know what it says before you meet your
banker. Incorporate significant findings into your business plan for
a pet store.
ONE STEP BEYOND ...
To make a strong impression on
your lender, ...
