How to Start a Micro Market Business - Lay a Strong Foundation скачать в хорошем качестве

How to Start a Micro Market Business - Lay a Strong Foundation

To start a successful micro market business, you have to start with a solid foundation. In this video, we will help you lay the proper groundwork by writing a business plan, finding suppliers, accounting for labor, and planning logistics. Writing a Business Plan It is essential to come up with a basic business plan to plot out how you want to navigate your micro market business. You must decide whether to setup an LLC, get your tax information in order, and project startup costs and expenses. We want to keep this series focused on micro markets in particular, so we won’t get into the nitty gritty of writing a specific business plan. However, we recommend you visit the link shown below to find best-practices on formulating a solid business plan: www.sba.gov/business-guide/plan-your-business/write-your-business-plan Finding Suppliers Once your business plan is in a good place, you’ll need to move forward with putting micro market specific ground work in place. First, you’ll need to find product suppliers. Micro markets are stocked predominately with food and beverage options, so you’ll need to know where you’ll be getting your product from. For food, we recommend finding snack and drink options from a local store like Sam’s Club or Costco. These stores provide low-cost products in bulk, and they should be the first supplier you reach out to. Once you reach a certain volume of purchases, you can find bulk suppliers that will deliver directly to you. For more specialty items, fresh food, and full meals reach out to popular local restaurants and catering companies. Micro markets are successful because you can sell high margin, diversified products through them. Unlike vending, you can sell salads, sandwiches, and fresh juices through a micro market. Finding these higher-priced specialty items are key to success. Accounting for Labor Once you’re comfortable with your product mix, you’ll need to consider labor. Initially, you will likely fill every role yourself. With one market, you will be your own route driver, warehouse worker, and salesperson. But as you grow, you’ll need to fill the following roles: Route driver - those who service your markets. Warehouse personnel - those who pull products and fill trucks. Salesperson - those who find and close accounts. Service Techs - those who focus on keeping your equipment up and running. Run a self-assessment and see which roles you struggle with. As you grow, these are the rolls you will need to fill first. Planning Logistics You need to figure out how you’ll actually service your micro market location. It is essential to find a vehicle to deliver product and a space to store product. Starting out, this might be a sprinter van and a garage. But you must figure out these pieces before you start your business. Moving forward, you’ll have to calculate how often to visit your location and what product to bring. Fortunately, good micro market partners provide management systems that have sales, merchandising, and inventory management tools to help you service your market effectively. We’ll cover this more in a later video. As your business grows, keep in mind that you’ll need to consider investing in a warehouse space to store products and additional vehicles to service more locations. Once you begin servicing your micro market location, you’ll get a good feel for how to fine tune your groundwork. But before you start pitching locations, you must consider how you’ll set up these core business functions.