The production of building materials in Russia demonstrates sustainable development. In the country's manufacturing industry, this direction occupies the fourth or fifth position, sharing it with light industry, but skipping ahead mechanical engineering, electric power, and the food industry.
However, fluctuations in the demand for building materials are subject to the same factors that affect GDP growth. Recent years are characterized by a negative trend - a slowdown in its growth. After a “take-off” of GDP growth dynamics in 2011 (4.3%), its growth rate began to decline in 2012 (3.5%), and in 2013 this trend intensified (1.7%). The slowdown in development also affects the sale of building materials in general.
Building materials stores are part of the construction infrastructure
The question of how to open a building materials store is very relevant, because small miscalculations are fraught with high costs. The challenges of the economic crisis are forcing businessmen in this industry to more clearly build their relations with suppliers, pragmatically analyze consumption and carefully check their market strategy and market conditions.
On the other hand, the desire of people to improve their living conditions, to build new commercial and industrial buildings for various businesses forever. Therefore, entrepreneurship in the form of a building materials store continues to be promising. Although it should be recognized that the profitability of such a direction of trade is not the highest among the alternative ones. Its effectiveness is largely determined by competently delivered management, consistent with the business plan.
What should I worry about before opening a building materials store? What factors determine how profitable a business is? Answering these questions, we can distinguish several positions, the proper execution of which contributes to commercial success: the location of the store, the features of the premises, the level of cooperation with suppliers, the degree of advertising support for the delivered goods, the qualifications of the staff and, finally, the general level of organization of work.
Not the last role in the effectiveness of the sale of materials for construction is played by a well-balanced business plan of a building materials store. Which outlet is advisable to open? Let's figure it out. According to statistics, about one and a half thousand hardware stores operate in Moscow. Among them, four typical forms can be distinguished. But this will be discussed later. Let's start by asking where the store should be located.
Place for a building materials store
The most important organizational factor affecting the success of the sale of building materials is the convenience of shipping goods to customers who have arrived on their vehicles, including trucks. (As you know, a building materials store is not a bakery: you won’t take a shopping bag by whistling.)
The above is most critical for building supermarkets. However, one cannot say that convenience stores are insensitive to shipping convenience. Possible visits by customers will be maximized if your building materials business is universal and is located next to the main highways, the store has convenient entrances and a well-planned parking lot - a loading dock for customers' cars.
Having found a good place, we decide on the type of room.
A room for a building materials store and its equipment
A room for a building materials store should be carefully selected. Its layout should be convenient for maintenance and sales. It is desirable that the condition of the building does not require major repairs. Mandatory requirements should be recognized as the absence of dampness, good ventilation, lighting.
Not only should trading equipment for a building materials store be inexpensive. The "rule of the genre" is economical repair. Preferred for the placement of the store neat finish with modern inexpensive building materials. $ 10 per square meter of walls lined with painted drywall is fine. It is better to direct the saved money to the main activity, they will be useful for purchasing goods from suppliers.
Work with providers
A wide assortment of supplies is fueled by trade in building materials. Where to start the formulation of the principles of interaction? Reasonable tactics from the side of the store are important here.
A supermarket for full filling with materials used in construction should cooperate with 90-150 suppliers. And all of them are vitally interested in 100% prepayment. However, the entrepreneur (store owner) “breaks” their intransigence, gradually convincing them to work with him for implementation.
Such an activity involves a two-stage combination. To begin with, an entrepreneur seeks to purchase goods at a discount or with a deferred payment. Then, clearly and steadily following the partnership principles, it is agreed to receive building materials for implementation.
There is simply no other way. For 100% prepayment you will not work with all suppliers for a long time. In addition, the latter, realizing the stability of the building materials store as their partner, are also interested in the efficient functioning of its finances. In a word, compromises are possible here.
Mini stores
Mini-shops cover an area of up to 100 m2. Up to 20 items of goods are presented on their trading floor, the total number of articles is up to 200. Among them are often highly specialized. For example, wallpaper or implements ceramic tiles. Even large entrepreneurs, but newcomers to this business, not wanting to risk a lot of money, begin to gradually transfer their capital to the industry, having “trained” first at the mini-store and having trained the skeleton of staff for the future supermarket. Therefore, the issue of how to open a building materials store from scratch is relevant.
We will answer it. To open such a store, initial investments in the equivalent of $ 10-15 thousand will be required. The retail margin in them is up to 30%. Revenues, of the order of $ 7 thousand, make it possible to cover the labor costs of personnel numbering from 5 to 7 employees. The situation is ideal when the store premises are owned by the entrepreneur, as well as when an agreement is reached with suppliers on the supply of a 100% range of goods for sale. The net profit earned by the mini-store is not high - up to $ 300 in equivalent.
As we can see, the business plan of a building materials store with minimal investment requires, accordingly, minimal profit. And this really reflects the potential of such a trading company. There is another problem in achieving its profitability: based on the limited assortment, it cannot be universal. Therefore, the owner-owner should be very carefully monitored market conditions and rather quickly follow her.
Medium Stores
Medium stores have a larger total area - up to 200 m2. Usually, trading area their professionally designed by designers. On the shelves - goods - up to 5 thousand items. To open such a business, you will need to initially invest up to $ 60 thousand.In this case, the business plan of a building materials store is best “tied” to the activities of several partners - contracting construction organizations that are steadily working in the market.
The "accumulated" economic ties, up to the delivery of building materials by the store directly to the place of their use, play an important role in the steadily high level of turnover of an average trading enterprise. However, with this kind of business relations, the first-class business reputation of the building organizations and the clear frequency of their payment are important. Risking recklessly, of course, is not worth it.
The monthly revenue of an average trading company reaches the equivalent of $ 30 thousand. With a competent statement of the business, net profit reaches $ 2000 in equivalent. Therefore, for entrepreneurs for whom the opening of a supermarket is "unbearable", the question of how to open a building materials store from scratch will be answered without slyness: "Medium."
Supermarket
The next popular category is large stores. Spacious - up to 2000 m2. They allow you to sell about 100 types of goods to 15,000 items. Initial investment in such a supermarket is about $ 300 thousand in equivalent.
The business plan of the building materials store, which has such versatility, involves, in addition to regular trading, pre-planned sales, thanks to contracts concluded with construction organizations. Effective long-term cooperation with developers is the key to profitability of such a supermarket.
The monthly turnover of such organizations reaches $ 120 thousand, and net profit - $ 5 thousand. A wide range of such a trading company, of course, represents a significant convenience for customers.
How to combine building materials stores?
As a rule, the owners of several building materials stores in the future try to unite them in a network. This is one of the techniques of a modern corporate merger strategy. We all have the experience of visiting such enterprises with a single logo, company design colors, trademark.
Even if you visit such an organization for the first time, it seems that we went to visit an old friend. The name of the building materials store is the same throughout the network. This is undoubtedly a progressive process. After all, it becomes possible to standardize accounting and, saving on costs, introduce centralized accounting, centralized supply.
Equally important is the possibility of consolidated centralized procurement from suppliers (each article of goods is immediately purchased for many stores). The logic is simple: more wholesale - less purchase price.
Online stores
“Is it possible to establish a hardware store without a trading floor at all?” You ask.
Of course, if this is an online building materials store. The business plan of these innovative trading enterprises is specific. After all, they, these sites, are interfaced with universal payment systems. They allow you to technologically serve the solvent demand and quickly make cashless payments.
What costs should be made to open such a trade? First, you have to register the small business itself. You will have to pay about $ 700 dollars for this.
Next is the purchase of a domain ($ 20) and hosting ($ 100), and secondly, the development of a store engine, which will require costs of $ 2000-2500. The last “abstruse” wording means that specialists design the site’s interface, “revive” it by programming, and, finally, present products on it. The online store successfully competes with the usual "offline", thanks to a lower retail margin.
Often, customers, wandering around the city and visually evaluating the required goods directly on the shelves, return home and make their final purchase on their PC.As a rule, the assortment of a building materials store on the Internet is extremely wide, and the selling price is much lower.
By the way, if you do not have office equipment, then its purchase will require costs of about $ 2000, network installation - $ 200, installation and debugging of the necessary programs - another $ 100.
Thus, for the opening of an online store of building materials you should pay $ 5-6 thousand.
But what about the current costs that need to be paid monthly? If you are guided in accounting yourself, you can save on the salary of an accountant ($ 200). In the case of placing an office at home, you do not have to pay $ 300 for a rental. Periodically, you can save (but do not recommend) advertising on Yandex.Direct, Yandex.Market, Rambler. Purchases. These services, as a rule, are used by entrepreneurs as the main “bait” in “fishing” for customers. However, you can experiment with other types of online advertising, focusing on the result of revenue growth. We recommend that you do not get carried away and limit yourself to $ 100 in such experiments.
Finally, a monthly payment for site support will cost you $ 100-200 and clerical expenses - another hundred. Accordingly, your monthly costs will amount to $ 1.5 thousand.
When can a site be considered profitable? For cost recovery of at least 100-150 goods per month, the sale of building materials should be determined. The business plan of the online store should take into account the trading margin, which is not recommended to raise above 20%. To achieve traffic to your site by buyers with an intensity of 100-200 people per day (and this guarantees the above sales volume), the resource should be optimized for search engines.
Conclusion
Developing the business of building materials, especially in times of crisis, planning is crucial. Coming to us from countries with developed economies, it has firmly established itself in the field of stores, considered in this article.
However, one should not forget that one of the most important levers for the development of this business is the store staff. His dynamic work should be adequately stimulated. At the same time, the salary of the director of the supermarket is in the range of $ 400-600. The staff of such a store has 40-45 people with a monthly wage fund of about $ 5000.
A qualified sales consultant for a building materials supermarket, advising a client, must have extensive knowledge. As an architect, he outlines the best option for the buyer to implement his plan. Like a foreman, the seller determines what and how much to buy building materials. Psychologist’s skills help him to combine effective sales with strengthening the team spirit of his colleagues. Each section of the supermarket involves its manager and 2-3 sellers.
A high-quality business plan for an entrepreneur is characterized by effective incentives for staff with a premium fund. An indicator for this is the increment in revenue.
