Sales

[Fameosity]

I am in the middle of creating my financial forcast and to back up my research I am trying to find out an estimate on how much my kind of business would make in an average month.

The property size is 400sqft. Its a small business offering gifts to the local and passing trade. with your experience are you able to come up with a rough estimate on how much a retail shop makes in a town with a population of about 35000.

is it common for a new business starting up to actually ask a manager what their sales are who owns a simillar business to mine? or is it considered rude??

Thanks.

[Statler]

Hi,

Are you buying an existing business? If so, you can go through the accounts and find out how well/poorly the business has been performing.

If you are setting up a new business then sales forecasting is always difficult. You might find it useful to do best/worst case scenarios.

Will your business be subject to seasonal trends, eg between April and August there will be more tourists in the area? You may be able to find out how many tourists visited the town last summer from your local council. Your local tourist board will certainly know how many people visited the region as a whole.

If the business is subject to seasonal trends, how will you manage in off-peak times? Is it possible to diversify stock to meet the needs of the local population during these times?

On the subject of asking another shop how well they are doing - this will be quite difficult to do without arousing their suspicions as to why you want to know! However, if you know someone who once worked in a local gift shop, then they may have an idea of how well the business was doing. Ask your friends, and ask them to ask their friends - thorough market research is absolutely vital.