After all is said and done shaping your retail idea with the right financing is probably the biggest challenge any budding retail business entrepreneur will face.
To raise money for the execution and/or development of your retail business idea’s is a constant battle. When  you have only a retail idea people will suggest: "come back when you’ve got the first retail store working". When you have the retail store operational and working they will tell you “it is too soon to know if your retail project is actually working and will have a future". A catch 22 if ever there was one!

Invest all you have of your own in your retail idea

It is without doubt a must that you invest all you have of your own before you can even think to ask anyone else to do so too. Banks – who seem to be somewhat reluctant to support old trade ideas such as retail will ask you to forecast at least 5 years ahead and also will ask you to tell them in a retail business plan why they should believe you. Background, passion and experience should therefore shine through in your retail business plan. It needs to be based on solid ideas and facts and figures but also needs to clearly reflect your vision and passion without becoming too vague and optimistic.Excessive confidence and optimism is always a negative... pessimism however is a natural no-no!
So here again you can see the dilemma that faces any entrepreneur with a great retail store idea and / or concept. So you have succeeded in raising the start capital?! What comes next …

Work, work, work to develop your retail concept into reality? Not so, I am afraid!

Raising more money to develop the retail start up! You will have to face up that looking for money will be a constant  task you have, for as long as you run the operation. As Howard Schulz (Starbucks) so neatly put in his biography:  "always looking for money, talking to investors and finding that the business always needed more money became my daily chore and took up lots of my time".

Make sure that you have a good partner or member of the team that is savvy with finances and/or administration . You are the ideas person HE/SHE needs to be able to talk and argue with banks, investors and other financiers . This must allow you to do the creative and motivational work that is so needed by a starting concept.

Retail Investors – help or hindrance?

“Success has many fathers, failure is always an orphan”
Never forget this saying as it is unfortunately too true .When your business develops well every investor will love to claim his contribution in the success. It is therefore clearly of great importance to ensure that you – as founder – remain in charge (or at least as long as possible). My unfortunate experience has been that when an entrepreneur does well, his business  always  needs more money to grow. Investors (especially the VC kind…) have a tendency to put pressure on you as far as speed and control are concerned… Be aware !

• Ensure clarity of Vision, make sure that all participants subscribe to the goals you have set …Only if all partners walk in unison the same road will finances achieve the required results.

• Don’t let financiers become controllers and or administrators! They supply risk capital You supply the ideas and the execution!

• Try to achieve synergy in money supply and know how. Try to get investors that share your passion and understand your ideas fully. Better one shareholder that does than 4 that only see $$$$$$ and are not really interested in your retail business idea.

I tried in this entry to maybe give any budding entrepreneur a little feel for one of the most challenging aspects of any new retail concept/business . Money is that challenge but not the “flat “hard cash you need alone to raise but money that supports, that encourages and that is "patient". That’s the kind of finance you need to find.

It is not easy but from experience I know that it is there …You just need to search and look for it .

Good Luck !

Visit our Retail Consulting Website for expert advice!

It’s the experience that does it. In line with their great Magazine and TV Channel now a great experience store! Perfect in its execution and mood …become a world explorer and traveler without moving …
Cool the testing room where you can test your camera or equipment in Arctic conditions! Great café with a super atmosphere of Livingstone and other explorers…


This is the experience economy in all its variety, yet still clear and focused on who it's for and what’s it all about... No Disneyland but real and honest !

Now in a number of world cities http://www.nglondonstore.co.uk for the London store and
http://www.worldwideretailstore.com for the whole National Geographic Store experience...

GREAT IDEA ! but can it it succeed?

This is a real treat! The Papabubble sweet stores. Papabubble the “candystore laboratory”

A magical world of sweet making. Colours and interaction – especially for Kids (and grownups that still feel like kids!) Discovered it first by us in New York and now also in Amsterdam, the Netherlands (and many other international cities)

The idea  though not entirely new, is great and should work well in many cities. The interaction between the sweet makers, their craft and the public creates an exciting experience for all.
One point of criticism though ... The store experience, the layout and the “drama ‘ could be much more poignant . It is in my opinion too tame and does not match up to the exciting  possibilities the concept promises.


A great idea does not always succeeds just by opening up in many places, it only succeeds if its promise is carried through in store layout, store quality and store experience...

http://www.papabubble.com

 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…

Visit our Retail Consulting Website for expert advice!

During the last time I have been asked many times what the “secret “is for the establishment of a successful new retail idea. In my experience , and I have successfully developed and started a new retail idea during the 1990’s there is no one secret , just a combination of factors that determines if an idea is mature and innovative enough to be developed to a real retail concept.

A good idea alone does not seem to be enough , though.

There are a number of factors that do count as important namely:

1. Innovation and by that I mean a new way or new method to offer an existing product.There are very few new products that are developed and that lend themselves to form the basis to a new retail concept.It is therefore more the how factor that determines the innovation than the what factor.



2. A vision .To decide on how to do it now is only a start .What is important in any new concept or idea is the entrepreneurial vision. That does not mean; goals or targets! A vision is a view into the future, such as the entrepreneur can envisage it for his idea, retail concept and staff as well as customers. This vision needs to be clear and “tangible” and must be so visual that everyone can identify with the vision. Again it should evolve around HOW and WHY rathet than that it focus is directed at WHAT and WHO!



3. The final aspect that seems to be very relevant is for whom. Unless the entrepreneur can clearly identify who will be his target customers , who would love to come and buy in his new concept and who he feels he competes with the idea is not more than a “flight of his own fancy”.The most frequent reason for failure in retail , even with great innovation and passion , is that the entrepreneur forget for whom he actually designed his concept.

We must never lose sight of the fact that there is no customer that wakes up in the morning with a feeling that his or her needs are inherently unfulfilled. They will only experience curiosity and a desire to explore any new idea if it is truly innovative and at the same time addresses latent and /or dormant desires that are not adequately fulfilled by existing retailers!

As an example I noticed recently e new concept store by Ferrari , Italy in London . Nothing really new under the sun but the way they did it counts here …A great example is also “Lush”, the soap story…



My experience has shown me that these 3 elements : Innovation ,Vision and For whom are the factors that need to be clear and tangible if a retail idea, that you might foster will have a chance .

Lets talk next time on step two of developing a retail store/concept….

Visit our Retail Consulting Website for expert advice!