Business idea: trade in building materials. How to start your business?

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

In the current economic climate, the idea of starting your own business is becoming more and more popular. The fact is that a personal enterprise opens up a number of advantages that were not available before. At the same time, you should not hope that your own business is devoid of any difficulties and unpleasant moments. From the very beginning, you need to understand that in order to achieve any positive results, it will be necessary to make a lot of effort. Today, building materials trade is almost the most popular business idea.

Relevance

Demand for construction products is quite high among domestic consumers. The thing is that a fairly large number of people make repairs in their houses, apartments or country houses. That is why they often turn to the building materials retail industry for help. On the other hand, there are individuals or legal entities that are engaged in a large construction site. Given the large volumes, representatives of the second group can be found in the wholesale trade in building materials.

Buy or build from scratch

People who decide to trade in building materials quite often have the following question: should I buy a ready-made hardware store or is it better to create it myself from the very beginning? Although both options have their advantages and disadvantages, buying a ready-made business is considered a more profitable solution to this issue, since in this case it will be possible to assess the profitability and profitability of a particular store in a particular area. Thus, it is believed that buying a ready-made store and re-registering it for yourself is the right decision. In addition, experts say that the costs of both the purchase and the creation of a store are approximately the same. For those who have decided to start their business from scratch, it would be useful to remind you that you need to register a legal entity to trade in building materials. LLC can be called whatever you like. The main thing is that this name does not repel potential customers.

Types of hardware stores

Fortunately, for a simple consumer, the number of places where you can buy various types of building materials is now very large. The whole set of points of trade in building materials according to the proposed assortment and trading area can be divided into the following groups:

• small shops up to 100 sq. m with an assortment of about 200 items;
• large stores (construction supermarkets) with a total area of about 200 sq. m, offering their customers 5-15 thousand articles of goods;
• stores-warehouses with an area up to2500 sq. m. and a sales range of up to 1000 articles.

At this stage, you should immediately determine what type of store you are going to open. Here it is very important to correctly assess your own strengths and existing demand in order to avoid possible financial problems in the future. For example, if you have a dream to open a construction supermarket, but in a territory where there is no strong consumer demand for construction products, then it is better to give up this dream. It is much more profitable to open a small hardware store to balance supply and demand.

Hardware store location

This is how we smoothly approached the next important aspect in opening our own building materials trading business. The location of your store is one of the most important factors affecting its profitability. Naturally, the place of the outlet will directly depend on its type. However, the most versatile is the one that is located next to new buildings or not far from a busy highway. It is this location, as well as convenient access roads, that guarantee the store a decent flow of potential buyers in advance.

It is also worth noting that it is undesirable to make a building materials store in a residential building. In this case, there may be problems with the fire department regarding the sale of flammable substances.

If you decide to open a warehouse store, thenit would be useful to equip it with access railway tracks so that it would be possible to transport large loads in different ways.

In general, when it comes to choosing the best location, a compromise must be found between a good location and rent. The fact is that landlords also understand the importance of the location of the store, and the cost of rent increases proportionally with the improvement of this very place.

Appearance

Once you have found a suitable location and premises for your store, you should start designing it. Appearance should be given special attention, because it is on it that visitors will draw the first conclusions about your business. So, the store should be attractive in a general sense and have the right sign from a marketing point of view. In addition, do not forget about the need for parking, which is also very important for your future customers.

Interior view

Your store should have a welcoming environment that makes customers want to stay and come back. First of all, you need to make sure that the internal appearance matches the external one. Here it is necessary to use the same color scheme, the same design techniques, the same fonts and the like.

The following is a list of the most important things to pay special attention to when designing a store from the inside:

• good lighting;
• large areas;
• easy access to goods;
• clearprices;
• product indicators;
• grouping goods by accessories;
• favorable temperature.

These were the most general requirements. If you are running your own business for a long time, you will need to determine a number of other requirements that will be special for you.

Another important aspect when designing a store is the correct placement of goods. The most important thing here is to put to the fore the products that you consider the most sold, that is, promising building materials for trade at a particular moment. For example, if you know that a strong hurricane has recently passed, then roofing and glazing repair materials will be promising products.

Assortment

What is the most important element of a hardware store? This is an assortment. In a building materials store, it must be very large. The best option is when you can offer your customer almost everything: from a nail to a dishwashing sponge.

It is also very important to provide goods from different price groups. For example, if you are selling imported timber at a crazy price, it would be quite reasonable to also have a cheaper analogue.

In addition, do not forget that the store must keep up with the times. Firstly, you need to constantly monitor the replenishment of the assortment with various new products, and secondly, in summer, focus on one product, in winter - on another.

Other highlights

In addition to all of the above, there are a number of other points that can be decisive when it comes to the profitability of your building materials store. First of all, it concerns advertising. If you want to get a decent flow of customers from the first days of work, you should not save on funds to promote a new business.

The next aspect is the careful selection of staff. Particular attention should be paid to how this same staff will serve customers. Any manifestations of rudeness or rudeness to customers should be stopped immediately.

Another point that can attract more buyers is the provision of additional services. For example, the delivery of purchased products or the presence of teams of builders who could assemble, assemble, repair what was purchased. This may be an additional advantage of the new store in the eyes of the target audience.

The final point is taxation. Trade in building materials, like any other type of commercial activity, is subject to taxes. This point must be taken into account from the very beginning when running your own business is just an idea in your head.

Conclusion

This article mentioned the main points that you should pay attention to when opening your own building materials trading business. Naturally, this list is far from complete, but careful study of each of these points at an early stagemakes it much easier to start a business. Don't be afraid to take risks, then everything will work out!