Opening Bathroom Showroom

[McNulty]

Hi all,

ive been thinking for a while now of opening up my own bathroom showroom in my local area, and As I'm a plumber i would be able to install the bathrooms as well. Now I've done my research with local competitors, commercial rental etc and nothing is set in stone about the idea yet, but I'm just wondering if anyone else on here has any success, failures or advice? What about dealing with wholesalers? How to get display bathrooms for the showroom?

Thanks

 

[Neil K]

Sounds like a proper pain in the proverbials if you ask me. Wouldn't be my cup of tea and I'm not the best person to give you any positive business advice on it. All I can say is the very best of luck to you and I hope you make a go of it!

 

[Gray0689]

Hi all,

ive been thinking for a while now of opening up my own bathroom showroom in my local area, and As I'm a plumber i would be able to install the bathrooms as well. Now I've done my research with local competitors, commercial rental etc and nothing is set in stone about the idea yet, but I'm just wondering if anyone else on here has any success, failures or advice? What about dealing with wholesalers? How to get display bathrooms for the showroom?

Thanks

The only person that could give you advice on this is RAY as long as your not in his areas I guess lol

 

[Ray Stafford]

Hi all,

ive been thinking for a while now of opening up my own bathroom showroom in my local area, and As I'm a plumber i would be able to install the bathrooms as well. Now I've done my research with local competitors, commercial rental etc and nothing is set in stone about the idea yet, but I'm just wondering if anyone else on here has any success, failures or advice? What about dealing with wholesalers? How to get display bathrooms for the showroom?

Thanks

Hi McNulty.

I'm not really an expert on the retail showroom side to be honest, but I have a more general thought for you.

Jack Welch, the legendary boss of General Electric said "If you don't have a competitive advantage, then don't compete".

Unless you live in a relatively small town that doesn't already have a bathroom showroom, you are going to have to compete. Presumably against someone who has greater experience and expertise than you have, and with an established business.

If I were you, I would be spending my time thinking where my competitive advantage lay?

And if I couldn't find one, I wouldnt do it.

Being a plumber no more qualifies you to run a bathroom showroom than being a cook would qualify you to manage a branch of Tesco. The materials may be the same, but the businesses are completely different.

Sorry to be negative. I reckon your best bet would be to team up with someone who already has 5 - 10 years experience in that field.

Good luck though.

Ray

 

[oz-plumber]

Hi McNulty.

I'm not really an expert on the retail showroom side to be honest, but I have a more general thought for you.

Jack Welch, the legendary boss of General Electric said "If you don't have a competitive advantage, then don't compete".

Unless you live in a relatively small town that doesn't already have a bathroom showroom, you are going to have to compete. Presumably against someone who has greater experience and expertise than you have, and with an established business.

If I were you, I would be spending my time thinking where my competitive advantage lay?

And if I couldn't find one, I wouldnt do it.

Being a plumber no more qualifies you to run a bathroom showroom than being a cook would qualify you to manage a branch of Tesco. The materials may be the same, but the businesses are completely different.

Sorry to be negative. I reckon your best bet would be to team up with someone who already has 5 - 10 years experience in that field.

Good luck though.

Ray

Gee Ray,

You give some good advice,

Not just on this topic but in general.

It's learned advice from your experiences dealing with businesses on a much larger scale than many of us would encounter, but at the same time, the advice you give is relative to any scale of business.

It's clear, unbiased and to the point.

Group Hug

 

[McNulty]

Many thanks for the honest and prompt replies.

I know I'm in the unknown as to the business side of running a showroom but I would be getting a lot of help, I also would be looking to take a business course myself. The misses was a bank manager so she knows a little about what start up money I would need etc.

I basically run a small bathroom installation business atm and I'm doing pretty well, so in the future the next step I would like to take is to possibly run a small showroom, little overheads as possible. Like I say this is in the future so just looking for more great advice from you guys really. Do any of you deal straight with wholesalers and cut out the middle man the plumbers merchants when buying bathrooms? Is this allowed if you are not a retailer? As I'm looking to kind of start doing this from home as and when I'm doing a bathroom and storing it safely at home. Because at the moment the local retailer I use is making money out of me for the same job I could do and also they mess up the orders most the time, so makes more sense to me for myself to order the bathrooms from the wholesalers...

There are a couple of other showrooms in my local area, one is part of a builders merchants and the other one has a very bad reputation as the guy who runs it has a real bad attitude, so I know there is room for me.

My thoughts on having a competitive edge is that as I already install the bathrooms, so then I will be selling and installing which will give me more income and hopefully a better reputation. As the other showrooms just recommend plumbers so they are not the full package.

I know it's a huge risk but I'm willing to do my research and like you say as long as I've got a competitive edge I will be looking to give it a go. Any other advice would be great. Thanks

I

 

[Ray Stafford]

Do any of you deal straight with wholesalers and cut out the middle man the plumbers merchants when buying bathrooms? Is this allowed if you are not a retailer?

(The term normally used in our industry is "distributor")

None of the reputable distributors will deal direct with you unless you have proper premises - a show-room or shop front.

Some of the distributors will not deal with any one who has any installation side to their business. This is less prevalent than it used to be.

Don't expect massive savings though. The discount structures in some brands are such that a major customer (like a national merchant or even a large regional merchant) can sell at a price lower than a small independent trader can buy from a distributor.

Remember that the two largest distributors belong to Travis Perkins and Wolseley groups respectively. And that internet dealers don't have show-room overheads.

The advantage in running the showroom is not that you can get such brilliant purchasing terms (the difference won't begin to cover your overhead). The advantage is that you get to establish your relationship with the customer much earlier in their journey from "thinking about a new bathroom" to "getting it fitted".

My advice, if the demographic in your area will stand it, would be to go upper-middle to upmarket. At the bottom end you will fighting B&Q and in the lower middle you will be fighting Victoria Plumb etc.

But seriously consider hiring an expert. We all know that hiring an expert, however expensive it may be, frequently works out cheaper than hiring an amateur.

Good luck.

 

[McNulty]

Great advice thanks