[Nicksyb]

How much realistically (a really rough ball park figure is fine) did it cost you to set up your shop?

I have an idea for a shop of my own (something I have dreamed about forever) but need to think about how much I should be saving to go towards this dream.

You have the rent, stock, insurance, advertising, and consumables i.e. carrier bags etc anything I am missing?

And did you receive any help to set the shop up?

I'm thinking I may need tens of thousands of pounds to do this.

[Indizine]

utilities, legal fees, rates, accountants fees (unelss DIY), fitting it out during the set up, so fixtures and fittings, carpets, etc.

Perhaps make up two lists -

how much to set up and how much to maintain each year (to a total equivelent to the lease committment, say 3-5 years minimum).

[sally]

The initial set up for my last shop was:

I owned the building so no lease fees to pay.

Fixtures, fitting and decoration £1500 (my Dad did all the work so just paid for materials)

Stock £8,000 (it wasn't enough but all I had and over the first few months I just ploughed all the profit back in - bear in mind it was a saddlers and anything for horses costs a fortune)

Insurance and legal fees, etc £1000

Total £10,500 and sold it for a bomb a couple of years later

[Chubster]

Your two biggest costs from the off will be Solicitors and initial Landlord deposit / insurance

We spent £6500 on Solicitors and then a further £3200 on the deposit (3 months rent and insurance)

Obviously these figures are just guidelines as it depends on the lease terms, complications in the lease etc.

The next biggest cost will be fitting it out. If you are lucky and have to do nothing other than tidy it up, ie paint, you will still have cost for shelving, display units etc. Ours cost us £1200 but this enabled us to slatwall the whole shop.

TIP. try to find a shop that needs as little amount of work as possible. We were lucky as I am in the building trade, as are my friends...so total cost for labour, a few pints. Ours used to be a William Hills betting shop so we had tons of work to do.....if you have to get builders in £000's ??.

Then your initial stock and bits and pieces till etc...that could be anything but we spent about £5k

You will need to setup a merchant account...around £200 initial set up costs, cheaper if you are with FSB but they cost £130 initially

Biggest on going running costs will be the rent, we pay £10K per annum. then the other costs arent that bad. Around £800 pa for rates, £300 for rubbish, £350 insurance. Electricity and Water pretty much negligible for the year.

You might also want to put some money aside until you get going???

[sally]

Chub what the hell did your solicitor do that cost that sort of money?

I forgot about solicitors costs, mine were £700 ..... Chub you need to move up North mate

[yourlocaltrades]

Originally Posted by sally

Total £10,500 and sold it for a bomb a couple of years later

What are you going to do with the bomb sally?

A friend of mine had £16,000 for his first year-it is an ink shop-recycle/re-use or buy new type thing, has printers/paper etc in there too.
He said just the other day, that they just scraped through with what they had.
I suppose it all depends on what stock you need to start with, you seem to have everything else covered above in the posts.

You already have experience i see, so this should really give you the edge.
Good Luck!!

[Chubster]

Originally Posted by sally

Chub what the hell did your solicitor do that cost that sort of money?

I forgot about solicitors costs, mine were £700 ..... Chub you need to move up North mate

that included 6 months deposit

[Alvin]

Originally Posted by Chubster

Your two biggest costs from the off will be Solicitors and initial Landlord deposit / insurance

We spent £6500 on Solicitors and then a further £3200 on the deposit (3 months rent and insurance)

The solicitor cost more than all your other setup fee's put together.

how do they get away with it.?

Alvin

[Chubster]

Originally Posted by Alvin

The solicitor cost more than all your other setup fee's put together.

how do they get away with it.?

Alvin

And they were carp and it took months And then we had to pay them for the privilage

[Alvin]

Originally Posted by Chubster

And they were carp and it took months And then we had to pay them for the privilage

sounds like there was something fishy about them,

A