Advice for Starting a Shop?

[cakiepop]

Could I get some advice for starting a shop? I?m kinda tired of lurking in retail farming TBT off people who just need a couple items or looking through long MoriDB lists trying to decide if I should get the buyer all of it or leave something for someone else to get them.

I want to start a shop but it?s such a daunting task. Especially with school starting soon. But I want to save up some TBT for collectibles and services for NH comes out. Could any of you veteran shop owners give me some pointers?

 

[MasterM64]

Could I get some advice for starting a shop? I’m kinda tired of lurking in retail farming TBT off people who just need a couple items or looking through long MoriDB lists trying to decide if I should get the buyer all of it or leave something for someone else to get them.

I want to start a shop but it’s such a daunting task. Especially with school starting soon. But I want to save up some TBT for collectibles and services for NH comes out. Could any of you veteran shop owners give me some pointers?

Even though I was in the collectible market of TBT mostly, I did however operate one of the largest collectible shops in TBT history (managed over 150k+ TBT in assets before closing up due to priorities in my life shifting) and I have sold some things in the New Leaf market as well. My biggest advice for you is to come up with a service that no one else offers that you enjoy as well (even if it is a subcategory/class of an already existing service that no one seems to be paying attention to)! Trust me, it is not worth starting a shop if it is no fun to operate. Additionally, try to offer qualities in your services that would make you hard to compete against (like offering reliable, friendly customer service or very good trading services for example). Depending on the volume of the market you are getting into, it also would be wise to be smart and creative on how to finance and grow your service/shop for long term operation (for my collectible shop, I had an investment program and Store Credit system that allowed my shop to grow while also helping others out in becoming richer in the process [essentially, a win win service for all parties involved]). I hope this advice helps you out a lot and I wish you the best of luck on your future shop! Feel free to reach out to me anytime if you need a secondary opinion for a shop operation or to simply chat. o/

I know there are many other people on here that would be more than glad to offer advice as well (my very dear and sweet friend RedTropicalPeachyFish would be an absolute excellent person to talk to about the New Leaf market for example)!

 

[cakiepop]

Even though I was in the collectible market of TBT mostly, I did however operate one of the largest collectible shops in TBT history (managed over 150k+ TBT in assets before closing up due to priorities in my life shifting) and I have sold some things in the New Leaf market as well. My biggest advice for you is to come up with a service that no one else offers that you enjoy as well (even if it is a subcategory/class of an already existing service that no one seems to be paying attention to)! Trust me, it is not worth starting a shop if it is no fun to operate. Additionally, try to offer qualities in your services that would make you hard to compete against (like offering reliable, friendly customer service or very good trading services for example). Depending on the volume of the market you are getting into, it also would be wise to be smart and creative on how to finance and grow your service/shop for long term operation (for my collectible shop, I had an investment program and Store Credit system that allowed my shop to grow while also helping others out in becoming richer in the process [essentially, a win win service for all parties involved]). I hope this advice helps you out a lot and I wish you the best of luck on your future shop! Feel free to reach out to me anytime if you need a secondary opinion for a shop operation or to simply chat. o/

I know there are many other people on here that would be more than glad to offer advice as well (my very dear and sweet friend RedTropicalPeachyFish would be an absolute excellent person to talk to about the New Leaf market for example)!

Thank you so much for the advice, Jared! (Can I call you that? Lol) I’ll try and apply it to my upcoming shop.

 

[MasterM64]

Thank you so much for the advice, Jared! (Can I call you that? Lol) I’ll try and apply it to my upcoming shop.

You're absolutely welcome Cakie, glad I can help! Feel free to call me Jared, it is much easier to type out. lol I look forward to seeing what sort of shop you come up with!

 

[Lavamaize]

When starting a business it is a good idea to explore the ideas on how to make your different, or unique from the other ones. An example is something such as a few lower prices won't cut it, but if everything is extremely cheap then it may. Another way to make it unique could be really awesome freebies, of just a really desired or new kind of service. Sometimes things that are unique enough catch peoples interest and make them want to try your business. A good idea is to include what makes your business unique in your title at the start such as ex. "Collectable Shop, Buy 3 a Flower Collectable Free".