Opening a new store is a major decision, it is a life changing event. Working in children's clothing is an exceptionally rewarding career since the majority of your customers are there because they want to find something that their children will love to wear. It is fun helping grandparents choose something special for a beloved grandchild; unlike many jobs, owning your own store gives you great opportunity to interact with people - and they appreciate the time you spend with them.

When you start a small business, you have to put in a lot of research to make sure that your new boutique is a long term success, and your planning for the store opening must be meticulous - think of it as the world's longest Celebrity Apprentice challenge, but this one is for keeps, and you are investing your own money.

Every year we work with people to help them open new kids clothing stores, and we've followed them through the planning process, helping them choose a store opening package from our inventory, the big launch day itself and onward through operation of their stores as we work with them on inventory top-up orders.

Here are some of the factors to consider when opening a kids clothing store

• Who will be your competition? Find every store big and small within twenty minute's drive of your intended location and go visit them.
  • Do they have many customers (if possible check both midweek and weekends)?
  • What size is the store (less than 30ft x 30ft, more than 40ft x 60ft)? - just guess, it is probably best not to use a tape measure or ask!
  • What do you think of the price and quality of their inventory?
  • What is this store's main strength and main weakness, and how are you going to compete against them?
• Location, location, location
  • The 'passing traffic' figures for a location are irrelevant if they are just commuting to work and back - it is the 'stopping traffic' that forms your potential customer pool.
  • Look for an established 'anchor' store adjacent to potential store sites - somewhere that draws a lot of traffic throughout the day all week and at weekends too. This should not be a direct competitor! There should not be a major road between the 'anchor' and your site location.
  • What is the major demographic of the area that you are investigating? The fact is that you are going to compete on style and service, not price - you can't match Walmart's pricing (not this year, anyway...). If most of your potential customers will be looking for the cheapest possible clothing, you're in the wrong area.
  • An ideal location will have a good base level population, with a strong tourist influx at holiday times. Tourists like to spend money! You can leverage this by using theming in your inventory selection - camouflage and greens & browns for outdoorsy areas, sailboats, nautical themes and blues, whites and sunshine colors for seaside or lakeside locations.
• Start Small
  • A large store requires a lot more inventory to fill.
  • An empty-looking store discourages customers - they will look in, feel uncomfortable and walk out!
  • Tying money up in inventory reduces your ability to grab closeout bargains or stock up on the latest 'fad' clothing when it becomes available.
• Be Prepared
  • We'd love to be able to provide everything you need to open your store, but realistically you are going to have to have perhaps three or four suppliers, each of whom covers part of your stock requirements very well. You should also check stock liquidation sites to see if there are wholesale lots that would work in your store. Beware - this is not a good option for clothing except packaged underwear; if it has been in a store (or worse, is made up of store returns) it is likely to be in very poor condition. Think about all the different products that you saw when you were doing your Competitor Research:
    • Bassinets
    • Toys
    • Hairbands and other little accessories
    • Underwear
    • Books for babies and young children
  • How are you going to display your products?
    • Racking
    • Hangers (most pieces come with plain plastic hangers, but good quality hangers look better)
    • Mannequins, body forms
    • Point of Sale display stands & display units
  • Make sure your merchant bank account and credit card processing system is in place at least two weeks before your intended opening date. The credit card processing company will need to do some background checking, and it takes time to ship the card swipe machines to you.
  • As soon as you have storage space, start buying inventory. You will need to steam most of the products you receive before you can put them on the shop floor, and you also may need time to program your Point of Sale devices
  • Publicize!
    • Let people know that your store is coming
    • Use every medium you can think of - local papers, radio, mailshots, store opening day coupons, blogs, craigslist
    • Make a big deal of the store opening day, remember to put up banners whereever possible, employ a couple of sign wavers at nearby intersections, think of special novelty giveaways that you can hand out to remind passersby to come back