Where to start of with this shop idea?

[cutiepie04]

Hello everyone

Well I want to open up my own small pet accesories store. Selling no animals but pet products and clothing instead.

I just wanted to know what's the very first thing I should do to go about trying to make this dream a reality:confused:

[Prickles]

I really don't like the whole pet botuqie (spell) thing, but each person has their own likes and dislikes. I'll respect that.

Anyways, you should open up some sort of online store first. It is alot less complicated to start then a "real' 'physical' store. If all goes well then maybe you could open a store. If you open up a store and business is bad, then you have to shut everything down and go out of business. If the online store does bad, then you just remove the website and stop paying the webhosting fees. In any case, you can just use the website for something else.

here are some websites that let you set up an online store:

http://www.netsuite.com/portal/products/neterp/webstore.shtml?promocode=g1111&gclid=COu2rvmqpoQCFTk3LAodziAAhw

http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/merchant/

[MTAussie]

I think it is a cool idea when their are pet shops geared toward a certain type of pet or activity. Like there is a cool dog store in Denver that mostly sells outdoor equipment and specialty foods. Very cool. I will find the site and put it on here.

[Dustin07]

I would research similar stores in surrounding towns/counties. See if the owners/employees will share info with you on product sales.

If you find that live animals are keeping their doors open, you may decide against it... but if it turns out differently then give it a go :)

there is a couple stores like this out here but they are in what I would call "ritzy" towns/neighborhoods. People do spend thousands of $$ on dog clothes. So the market is there, you just need to find those people.