Looking back on my experiences there are some steps to take that are really important:

1. Get clear for yourself what the method is to establish the core values of your retail idea/concept.
2. Try to put in a short sentence what the most important characteristics should be that must be visible for the customer when in the store!
3. Use effects and not materials to make your concepts  statement.
4. Stay focused on the costs of the store fit out and fixtures .You are not building a monument for posterity but an effective translation of your ideas that attract customers.
5. Do not forget lighting as important element of the concept….Dont use lighting as a balancing post for the budget. 
6. Make the store interior duplicable, not unique but easy to duplicate. It might be a “god send”when your idea turns out to be great…

Here a great tip that worked for me when we designed the second generation of store look !
Spend some time with your key people that are party to your creative ideas. Take a room  and a roll of kraft packing paper. Tape strip of kraftpacking paper (the 50 cm wide variety) on all the walls of the room so it is all around you and your team.

Start from left to right (select a writer) and put on the paper strip all words , teksts , comments, pictures that y
ou all feel illustrates the concepts character and touch and feel. Get magazines (fashion, interior, living) to cut your pictures from. Lots of mags to start with.

This storyboard strip becomes your working  document . At the end of the day all the information needs to be  put into a summary schedule (always using the real words and pictures that lie at the core). Finally ask all participants to put in to or three words that look, feel and mood you want the interior of the concept / idea to radiate. ONLY three words should suffice .

Use the document and the  the kraftpaper  role with information to brief your store designer and/or fixture manufacturer as well as your lighting supplier .

Do it right and extensively and you”ll see that a great brief can appear from all the ideas and mixedup thoughts that haunt any entrepreneurs brain….

Go for it , GOOD LUCK
Next time we’ll talk on  finance and organization of your new idea…

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