A few things that I ve picked up from a couple I know who run a small music shop is that you should always be kind and courteous to your clientele (as a store associate always should). They ve always gone out of their way to help me get what I m looking for even if they don t have the product, for instance they ve special ordered two guitars for me even when they didn t carry the carrier brand.As far as advice goes, from what I ve learned from them, you have to franchise the brand names of guitars you sell on a year to year contract. For instance, if you start a new contract with Fender, you re required to buy a # amount of Fender guitars over the course of the year. My advice would be to research what brands are currently selling, and to use the most affordable models available (imports). If someone wants an American model, see if they be willing to wait for a special order. Don t start more contracts than you can handle. If this is going to be your first business, I d keep it smooth for the first two or three years with two franchise names such as Ibanez/Fender or BC Rich etc. (all affordable name brands). Once you figure out how the business runs, then you can slowly reach out into other areas like Gibson and Rickenbacker.I would also recommend specializing in just guitars for your first several years. If your goal is to sell varieties of different instruments, gradually expand each year until you meet that goal. Don t overwhelm yourself with products that you may be unfamiliar with (can lead to stress and poor customer relations).If you re going to be doing guitar tune-ups, just make sure you know what you re doing! That s not always an easy service to offer especially if you re trying to lower the strings.If you have the space, it would also be good to rent out a small room to a musician(s) who can teach people how to play guitar as their own business. That will also help attract people to your store.So in summary, be nice, keep it cheap (imports), keep it small for your first several years, expand slowly and try to build good relations with your customers (reputation/credibility). Don t be too ambitious and just have fun. Hopefully you re able to take something out of that :)Good luck!
You should check out The Small Business Administration (http://www.sba.gov/). This site will be your go-to site for understanding what is needed to start your own business. They provide instructions, guidelines and resources to get your business up and running.I know the thought of opening up a music store may be in its very early stages, but you may want to check out or bookmark this site, http://www.l-trondirect.com/ once you get it up and running. My friend recently opened up a small retail store in town and he was looking for barcode scanners to track his inventory and purchasing point-of-purchase equipment, like those electronic signature pads you find at many stores near the checkout. This site was a huge help when it came to equipping the store to manage the product sold, capturing payment methods of his customers and whatnot. You may find this site useful in time.Best of luck to you!
Good idea since it seems like a dying business.10 years ago i could buy guitars ,strings, plectrums etc in 2 shops in my small town(15.000 inhabitants ) and now i have to travel 50km for the nearest shop.Don t know if its such a good idea to open a shop like that but i would support you :)
don t do it
