Thinking of opening a guitar store. Am I insane?

therose789

Theres a guy who has opened a very successful guitar shop in middlesbrough. Most of the locals prefer it to the bigger chains, you get a really personal touch! So it can be done! 

The shop is called steven james guitars. If you're ever in the area have a run in! 

therose789

Also, to keep up with the way things are going you would be wise to run a webshop alongside your store 

d8m

What about a combination between a guitar shop and a library.

For example I pay a membership and borrow stuff in return.

Jaden

you know what they say.
if you wanna make a million in the guitar business, start with five

spacecadet

Well, I've started my business plan. I'm a couple of years away I think but I'm confident I can make it work. Registered the domain name too. Naturally, all you lot will be looked after when I'm up and running. ;-)

holnrew

I always believed in you.

John_P

Snap said:

I live in Sheffield, and there's a prime retail location called Ecclesall Rd. Full of independent shops and cafes, bars etc. Cool area. Consequently, the rents are huge, 20k a year and going some for a small retail space. Couple of years ago an independent guitar store, Wizard Guitars opened, and he's still going. they stock relatively rare second hand stuff, and the prices are not bad. You see all sorts of stuff I've not seen in years in there. It's a great shop, dead interesting, and something must be working cos he's still open. Lot of stock in it too. I think he has a second shop in Doncaster, which will be cheaper to run.

 I wonder if they have a better stock these days - I called in their shop in doncaster a couple of times and had an interesting discussion about guitars with blatantly fake decals - I assumed they had some connection with the infamous music ground chaps.  maybe they learned ways to make a guitar business work from them.

Good luck with the plans Spacecadet - I'm sure everyone here would love to have another favoured shop we can try to send our business to.

t1000

I find most guitar shop intimidating, if you could nail the shop that is relaxed and doesn't make customers feel like they have the technical ability of little wayne you may have a chance! 

stickyfiddle

therose789 said:

Theres a guy who has opened a very successful guitar shop in middlesbrough. Most of the locals prefer it to the bigger chains, you get a really personal touch! So it can be done! 

The shop is called steven james guitars. If you're ever in the area have a run in! 

But is it actually successful, or just busy? They're not the same thing!

Trouble is, cost of doing business in the UK is very high, and if you go north where it's cheaper, you also get less people with £3k to drop on the latest Gibson CS or boutique whatnot.