A few years ago Jill and I decided to put our passion for treasure hunting into a little side business. We had both accumulated a lot of great pieces and were running out of room in our homes to put them. Jill even started storing hers in a bonus room above her garage that her husband affectionately called the “hoarding room.” We both had other commitments in our lives – me a full-time career and Jill a mom of very active teens. We decided opening a booth at an antique mall was probably the best option for us…so the Beck & Jill shop was born. We ran our cute booth for 3 years and learned a lot about managing a creative business. We plan to write a couple of blogs on this topic so we can share a little about our experience, some do’s and don’ts and tips for success for anyone that might be interested in taking a shot at booth ownership. Here we will talk about getting started.
Location, Location, Location
This is the truest business advice you’ll ever hear when opening any type of retail business…and it’s no different when selecting the right location for your booth. It’s important to pick the right Antique Mall for the type of merchandise you’re selling because its key to attracting the customers you want. It’s better to wait for the right location than to open up your shop in the wrong one.
We researched several antique malls in our area and decided Livingston Antique Outlet (LAO) in Howell, MI was the spot for us. This was 2015 and they had recently received a People’s Choice Award for Best Antique Store. And it was clear to us that they curated their vendors rather than renting booths to just anyone selling old junk. Each booth at LAO was carefully merchandised and presented as its own little business. We put our names on a waiting list and after a couple months, got the call that two spaces were opening up. We lucked out that one of their largest, most prominent spaces became available and we took that one.
Branding Your Booth
Now comes the fun part – deciding what to sell. In other words, here is where you establish your brand. You want customers to understand what your booth offers and what they can expect to find, so they’ll want to buy and keep coming back. The last thing you want is to have your small space look like a hodgepodge of garage sale stuff that doesn’t make a statement.
Jill and I have pretty eclectic tastes, but we each tend to focus on different things. I love paintings, vintage chairs and old books. She likes vintage bakeware, old lamps and needlepoint. So for us it was a matter of creating a cohesive style, deciding what would be our staple items and communicating about any themes or trends we were seeing that we wanted to incorporate. We ended up having a sought after booth that always had a pair of vintage chairs right at the front, cool vintage lamps, affordable art and we always worked in seasonal and holiday items.
Move in Day and Merchandising
This is the most exhausting but critically important day for your business. You will need to cram A LOT of merchandise into a tiny footprint and the decisions you make here will have an impact on your sales immediately. Most booth sizes are around 10×10 (ours was 12×12), so you’ve got to get creative to maximize the space and get the most amount of merchandise in without looking cluttered. There are lots of tricks to use – like stacking chairs on tables, tables on tables, bins under tables, and using all available wall space for hanging art or shelving that can house even more product.
It’s also important to demonstrate how items can be repurposed for customers. Most people won’t have the same vision you have for something – like a mid-century toolbox as a floral centerpiece – so show them.
Always keep in mind that your booth should be inviting and reflect your style and your brand. This is what will attract people and keep them coming back.
Running the Business
Once your shop is up and running, you’ll want to keep up with merchandising and tracking sales:
Merchandising – Things get moved around a lot as customers shop, so restyling and adding new merchandise will be needed to keep things fresh.
Tracking Sales – When we were running Beck & Jill, we loved getting reports at the end of the day listing what sold. The antique mall your shop is in should provide you with an ongoing accounting of items sold, fees incurred and sales tax collected. This will help you see what’s selling and what’s not, so you can make decisions on marking things down or moving them out.
Keeping Good Records – On your end, you need to keep track of each item purchased for the booth, how much it cost, how much you’re charging for it, when you place it in the booth, when it sold and for how much. And always record the amount spent on supplies and mileage so you’re ready at tax time. This is certainly not the most fun part of the business but paying attention to all of this helps you to make informed decisions, so you can ensure you’re running a successful and hopefully profitable booth.
Closing up Shop
Our journey as antique booth dealers came to a close after three years. As much as we loved our little shop, it just became too much to handle with our busy schedules. We learned so much about operating a business, and the investment of time it takes – even if you’re operating a small space that doesn’t require daily staffing. Antique booths can be a fun, profitable business, but it isn’t for everyone which is why it’s so important to do your research before taking the plunge. We will be back with more blogs on this subject that might be helpful in deciding if opening one is right for you. Although ours was only open a short time, we enjoyed it so much and wouldn’t change a thing.
~ Beckie