Just purchased shop 14 Celeste Harbour North and with the help of the Society will be trying to bring you goods at sensible prices! Firstly, thanks to KJ for his words of wisdom and advice on getting started. Secondly a shop is going to be big fail if it doesn't stock the items most needed by the community, any suggestions or request would be greatly appreciated in the run up to opening. Thanks in advance Gobi
Hey gobi, Gz on your acquisition. A couple of ideas for you. I have to say that weapons have good turn over, it's really worked for me. So if you can source the weapons people want at a competitive price that would be one way to go with your business. I also get a lot of people asking me about mining gear, whether its amps, finders or other. I've stayed away from that market since I don't know enough about mining to make good choices on what to sell. But it might be worth having a look at what is being stocked and getting in touch with arkadian miners to see what sort of gear they need. As I said in our conversation, you really need a business plan, a vision for the future and a road map of how to get there. Ideally people will know what they want from your shop before they walk through the door. A little bit of this, a little bit of that, is likely to leave people cold. So pick your area to focus on, get your product organized and start marketing. Regards, KikkiJikki
Gz on the purchase. I know the feelings you have right now as I'm a very new shop owner myself. Since I'm very new to this I do not have that much of advice and Kikki Jikki have already given some very solid advice. However, I think there is one question that is very important to answer. How will you compete with the auction? Some of the answers that I have come up with for my own shop is to have a better selection than the auction (I have quite a good range of arkadian fap's, and especially the combat fap's are not often seen on auction). Lower prices (not always possible unless I want to sell with a loss, which is not a good business plan). Importing things from other planets that are not usually sold on the arkadia auction (currently considering if I should import some fap's or stay pure arkadia). /Tancred
Congratz on the purchase and welcome to the world of virtual business! Firstly, if you've got Kikki helping steer you, you won't go far wrong. He's a top notch bloke and really know what he is talking about. I can honestly say, I've never seen or heard him give a bad piece of advise, so you will do well to listen closely to what he has told you. This is a very good question from Tancred, and it is something every budding EU business person should consider in the course of developing their virtual business.....BUT, the auction isn't the be all and end all in EU. Something Tim and I have learnt over the 7 years that we have run SFE is that you cannot compete with the auction, at least not in pricing anyway. People selling there are only looking for a fast turnover of items for peds and not at building a sustainable business model. What you want to do is work out a reasonable price that still allows you to remain sustainable and give you enough room to slowly expand as well. But, the key word here is SUSTAINABLE. People who chase the market price consistently find out that they cannot do this for long, unless they are supplementing their venture with some other income source. We have seen quite a few over the years and whilst they have come and gone, we are still here to tell the tale. Building a sustainable business model is the only way you are going to be in EU business for the long run. This is what we have done (granted, we have also deposited over the years too) and we now have 4 shops and 1 booth across 2 planets (not including apartments and our HQ on Arkadia) and a healthy business that sustains itself and allows up a small profit over time that we have used to further expand the range we present. However, the secret to it is not just PRICE but also SERVICE. And this is where a shop will beat the auction every time hands down. The auction is great, till people cannot get what they want when they want it. This then impacts on their fun as they don't want to spend their playing time hanging around hoping that the item they want at x price will pop up. It is at that this point that these same people will turn and look to shops and businesses to consistently fill the gap, and if you can fill this gap repeatedly then people will favour you over the auction time and again.
Thanks again for the sensible words! It seems like this is something that's going to have to evolve with the players who are providing the wares. Just the cost involved in attempting to provide mining amps is a little daunting! and catering for every level of player is also a challenge it seems! Having set up a business 6 months ago in RL, you'd think id know better 2 quick questions if any one has an answer: Are all the auction trackers redundant now? what happened to the custom fronts! email address returned as unknown on server?
