Why Should I Consider Opening a Small Retail Business

If you’re considering opening a small retail business it’s probably because:

1.  You have an extroverted personality and both need and enjoy constant contact with people.

2.  You enjoy sales and don’t mind working long hours indoors including some nights and weekends.

3.  You have worked in some other retail store – probably on a part time basis.

4.  You feel that you are ready to strike out on your own.

Retailers goods and services that just about all of us need – including food, clothing, auto parts, appliances of all kinds, electronics of all kinds, professional advise, skilled labor, and home improvement.  If you can think of it, there is probably a retailer somewhere that is ready and waiting to sell it to you.

We all are familiar with the large retail chains such as Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and the other “Big Box” stores.  And we are familiar with other large retailers that populate most of the major malls – usually anchored by two or more department stores such as Macy’s, Burdines, Dillard’s.  However, the small specialty stores and other small retailers represent the overwhelming majority of stores throughout the U.S.

Consider these statistics.

 There are over 24 million people who earn their living in the retail business in this sector of the U.S. economy.

The service and retail sectors of the U.S. economy continue to report the largest numbers of start-up companies. 

A huge number of these are family owned small retail businesses – commonly know in the retail trade as “Mom & Pop Stores” that are family owned an operated.

Retailing is a dynamic industry because of the constantly changing whims and vagaries

of their customers.  If you have teenagers, you will be able to relate.  Teenagers must have the latest style of jeans, tops, shirts, shorts.  They must have just the “right” brand of tennis shoes to be “in”.  And of course, this constant change in customers’ buying habits is not limited to teenagers.

As our “baby boomers” come of age (reach retirement) they are being catered to by all sorts of retailers specializing in that segment of the economy.  They will be more interested in home improvement items, vacation hot spots, and items that cater to those that are now retired or will be in the near future.

I spent many years in the retail business and I can assure you there are long hours and tough schedules to endure, but the nature of the business is really fun.  I don’t regret a day that I spent in the retail industry.  You get a report card every day.  The report card in the retail business is the daily sales report.  It’s usually compared to same day last year, and to the sales plan.  There’s no better feeling of accomplishment than “having a good day” or “having a good month”.  You get instant gratification in the retail business.

Of course that the downside of that is the feeling you get when you don’t “make your day” or your “sales plan” or “your month.”  So you work a little harder to get business going in the right direction so that  your “report card” will look better tomorrow.

It takes a special kind of person to be successful in the retail business, but if you have the right personality and a strong work ethic,  there’s not a better and more rewarding business to be in than retail.  So pick you niche and go for it!