If you are going to open your own plumbing store, then this article is for you. Today we will talk about what you need to pay attention to first of all, what permits you need to collect, what laws and regulations regulate this activity, and are there certain subtleties and nuances that you need to know about even before you open your own business? Sanitary engineering shop.

The article is based on personal experience with people who have a network of plumbing stores in a city with a population of about a million people. To be honest, among my good friends there are two brothers who have gone through the stages of business development from a point in the market, then a network of 8 stores. They now have a monthly net income of over $40,000 and are seriously thinking about expanding their business outside the city.

As you understand, the experience of these businessmen is very important for us, because they give advice and recommendations based on their trial and error, their attempts to make the business much better and more efficient. So, if you are going to open a plumbing store, then this article will come in handy for you.

Opening a plumbing store begins with business registration

The first thing you need to start opening your store is official registration as an individual entrepreneur. We will not dwell on this stage in detail, because, in fact, there are no difficulties with registration. You can find a list of required documents on the Internet, submit them to the registration service, and within an hour you will receive a certificate that you have the right to run your own business.

Also, to open a plumbing store, you need to collect other required documents:

• Permission and conclusion of the SES that everything is fine in the room that you are equipping for a store, and you can work in it.
• Permits for accommodation, which must be obtained from the authorities of Rospotrebnadzor.
• Production control program
• Contracts with organizations that are engaged in the removal of household and solid waste.
• Contracts for cleaning and disinfection of the premises in which your store is located.
• Contracts for the performance of works of deratization, disinfestation and disinfection;
• Lease agreement for the premises where you plan to open your store.

Also on the Internet, we found information that it is necessary to conclude an agreement for the disinfection of vehicles, and an agreement for the implementation of the process of recycling mercury lamps. To be honest, they did not find confirmation of the need for these contracts, and our friends who own a network of plumbing stores did not confirm this information either. If you know something about these contracts - write in the comments, we will supplement our article with fresh and relevant information.

Forming an assortment of a plumbing store

When opening any business that is related to trade and sales, you must pay due attention to the product range. A plumbing store is no exception, and a wide range of products is one of the components of a successful business development.

First of all, you must find reliable and trusted suppliers. You can try to reach manufacturers, then the price will be lower, and the quality will be guaranteed, or you can cooperate with regional dealers and official representatives of large companies. Please note that if you want to work directly with the manufacturer, you will have to rely on the purchase of large quantities of goods. Buying ten valves, five faucets, three sinks and a boiler will not work. With such "volumes" you will be sent to a regional representative office, or they will refuse to cooperate at all.

A lot of good and high-quality sanitary ware is brought from abroad. You will most likely not be able to establish direct deliveries. This is only possible for large chain stores and large hypermarkets. Here you will have to work with intermediaries, and agree to their margin (about 20-30% of the manufacturer's price).

The entire range of goods can be divided into several categories:

1. "White" plumbing, which includes bidets, toilet bowls, flush tanks, sinks, cast iron and steel bathrooms, various kinds of pallets, and other enameled products.
2. Engineering (installation) plumbing, which are used more often, and you need to buy more of it. It includes various pipes, taps, adapters, mixers, valves, bends, gates, various fixtures, and other products used in the process of installing and installing various plumbing fixtures.
3. Small things. A very popular commodity is a different trifle - nuts, bolts, gaskets, adapters, handles and closures. Everything that needs to be changed from time to time, and that often fails. This trifle is not expensive, but can give a good profit due to a large turnover.
4. Bathroom accessories. Here the choice is very wide, and there is much to turn around. You can sell everything from bathroom rugs and tiles, to mirrors, lamps, shelves and towel dryers.
5. And a separate category is elite sanitary ware - marble washbasins, exquisite taps, porcelain products that are made according to some design project. For this group of goods, you can select your own department, which will stand apart from the bulk of the goods in the store.

After reading the assortment of the necessary goods, many can grab their heads and start counting the money needed for this. But don't worry ahead of time. A complete assortment can be formed within a year, or even longer. It makes no sense to buy everything at once. At the initial stage, form the basis of the store, filling in everything you need, and then, studying the demand of consumers, supplement the assortment with the necessary goods. Thus, in six months you will understand what you need more, and what you can refuse altogether.

As our friends, owners of plumbing stores, note, the most popular products have been and remain cast iron and acrylic bathtubs, showers, standard sinks, faucets, valves, as well as all kinds of consumables, which we have designated above as "trifle".

The quantity of purchased goods, and its composition, is determined by several factors. First of all, in demand among potential buyers. Also, build on your real capabilities. It is better to buy various trifles and popular goods than to spend the entire budget on a marble bathroom and a dozen luxury toilets. Our advice is to explore the range of plumbing stores that are near you. See what they sell, what prices they set, find out what is in demand and what has been in the window for several months.

Features of goods storage

You need to take care not only about the variety of goods on the shelves of your stores, but also about the availability of it in warehouses. Experienced businessmen note that there should always be 2-3 times more goods in stock than the monthly turnover. Why such a reserve? Everything happens in life, and delivery delays happen more often than you can imagine. Especially if the goods are imported, then the delivery time may increase several times. It’s not good if the store has several toilet bowls, various small things, and a couple of faucets. It is necessary that there is always a varied assortment, and the buyer can choose the product that suits him.

A product, even if it is stored in a warehouse for more than one month, should always be beautiful and presentable. To do this, you must comply with some storage conditions:

1. Ceramic goods should be stored unpacked on shelves and racks, having previously sorted them into small batches.
2. Ceramic pipes are stacked, with wooden spacers placed between them. Under the bottom row of pipes there should be a wooden pallet at least 10 centimeters high.
3. Steel and cast iron products should be stored in dry and well ventilated rooms without heating. Also, sinks, sinks, faucets, taps, etc. are stored in such rooms. All this must be stacked on pallets, and avoid water ingress.
4. Polymer and fiberglass products should be stored without removing them from their original packaging, and in rooms with good heating.
5. If we talk about storing bathtubs, then they also need to be placed on pallets with stops that stand on a platform or rack.

Make sure that the rooms where your goods are stored are not damp, do not collect condensate, so that they are ventilated and dried after cleaning.

Selection of premises for a plumbing store

Let's start with the fact that the premises for a plumbing store need not be small. Bathtubs, showers, sinks, racks with faucets and valves take up a lot of space, and they should not be arranged tightly so that the buyer has access to each product, can touch, look, and evaluate everything. Therefore, the minimum size of a room for a plumbing store is 100 square meters. Stores with a size of 150-200 square meters can be called medium, and those occupying an area of ​​300-400 square meters - large. As you understand, the rent of such large premises will cost a tidy sum. The average space for a plumbing store costs 3-5 thousand dollars a month. Of course, a lot depends on your region and the situation on the real estate market. In provincial towns, a 300-square-square space can be rented for $3,000, while in major central cities, a medium-sized store will cost the same amount. It is best to create a warehouse at the store, as buyers do not pick up goods directly from the showcase, but receive them at the warehouse.

To work in a medium-sized store, 2-3 people will be enough, who are well versed in all the intricacies of plumbing equipment, will be able to help with advice, prompt with the choice of the right product. To work in a warehouse, at least one person is needed who will ship the goods and keep records.

Choosing commercial equipment for a plumbing store

Not the last role in sales is played by the correct design of the store and the competent supply of goods. Therefore, special attention should be paid to the choice of commercial equipment, and competent design of the premises.

Fortunately, a plumbing store can be equipped in hundreds, if not thousands, of different ways. At the moment, there is a huge amount of commercial equipment that will help make the interior attractive, and present the goods in such a way that the client will pay 100% attention to them.

Any plumbing store should have:

• Standard shelving. We call them "standard" although there are a huge number of varieties, colors, shapes. The price of such a rack varies from 70 to 170 dollars apiece.
• Showcases are also an integral part of any store. Their prices start at $200. On showcases, you can lay out both various "trifles" and more expensive goods. It all depends on your vision of design.
• Counters and shelves

This is a standard set of commercial equipment, but if you want to be qualitatively different from competitors and be more attractive, then we advise you to pay attention to such “accessories”:

• Stands for faucets and toilet bowls. Each one starts at $300.
• Beautiful fixtures and holders for sinks and bathtubs.
• Stands for installation of bathtubs, sinks, dryers.
• Universal stands for shower cubicles. They are interesting in that you can demonstrate the operation of the booth to the buyer right in the store, showing all its charms and advantages.

Also, do not forget about household appliances: a computer, a scanner, various equipment for trading and accounting. This will help make the sales process faster and more modern. And one more piece of advice - take care of the safety of your store by installing surveillance cameras, a fire extinguishing system, and a panic button with direct access to the security console.

Advertise your plumbing store

As the well-known proverb says: "Advertising is the engine of trade." When opening your plumbing store, you should understand that you need to spend a lot of money on advertising a business, especially in the early stages of development. Let's figure out which advertising will be the most effective and efficient, and where it is better not to invest money, because the effect will be zero.

• According to our experts, one of the most effective advertisements is publications in thematic magazines and newspapers, which are distributed on racks in large hardware stores and hypermarkets.
• The second most effective way of advertising is the distribution of business cards, leaflets, flyers at the entrances to the same building hypermarkets.
• Also pay attention to advertising on the Internet. We have already said that it is desirable to create your own website, where all the products that are available in the store will be presented. This site needs to be promoted according to regional requests such as "Buy a sink in Kemerovo", "Plumbing Kemerovo", "Buy a faucet Kemerovo", etc. You can make a list of the most popular and popular queries yourself using Yandex.Wordstat, or you can entrust this matter to professionals.
• Advertising on urban Internet resources. We are sure that there are popular general thematic resources in your city. As a rule, these are news sites that tell about the life of the city. You can try to buy advertising space for a month or two, and track its effectiveness. If the city has thematic Internet resources about construction and repair, then advertising there will be many times more effective.
• And the last type of advertising that is already losing ground is posting ads. You can use it in combination with other advertising methods. But do not rely on the fact that only print ads will give a good result. This is already the last century, and few people read the ads on poles or at public transport stops.

I would also like to say a few words about social networks. Many people know and understand that social networks concentrate a huge number of people, among whom are your potential buyers. But ignorance of the basics of advertising in networks, and the psychology of users, leads to the fact that many spend huge advertising budgets in social networks, but do not get any result. Social networks are not the place where you can advertise products from the construction and renovation industry. A person enters Vkontakte in Odnoklassniki not with the aim of buying something, but for the purpose of communication and recreation. Therefore, investments in this kind of advertising will be large, and the response will be small, if at all.

That, perhaps, is all that we wanted to tell in this article. Now you know more about how to open a plumbing store, and you will be able to make approximate calculations of the initial investment for a business in your city. If you still have any questions, then ask in the comments, and we will try to answer them as quickly and accurately as possible.