Do you want to start a shoe shine shop business with little money? Find here a detailed shoeshine stand business plan sample checklist for your ready reference.
Shoeshine shop is a very lucrative business even for new entrepreneurs. Additionally, the business ensures revenue generation from day one.
First of all, let us discuss what is a shoe shine shop business. Actually, a shoeshine shop provides the cleaning and shining services of the shoes. Sometimes, this kind of shop provides more services like repair, etc. However, most of the shops attract office or college-going customers.
Is Shoe Shine Shop Business Profitable?
The Shoe Repair industry has a low level of capital intensity. The industry is composed of companies that repair footwear and other leather-like goods. In the past five years, rising employment levels and a growing niche market for price-premium shoes have translated to rebounding revenue growth.
Basically, this type of business caters to a niche audience. Hence, it is easy to start and operate the business as a low-investment model.
Here are the 10 Steps to a Start Shoe Shine Shop Business
1. Understand the Market
Before starting any business, it is most essential to do market research and collect information about the local shoeshine market potential. It is important to learn more about the services offered by other shoe shine players, the level of competition, and the pricing band. All this information will help you plan better and exploit the gaps that exist as much as possible.
2. Create a Business Plan
Regardless of the size of your business, you must craft a business plan. First of all, study the local market. You must try to analyze the shoe-purchasing habits of the local population. Generally, people come to this type of shop for polishing their leather shoes.
According to your investment capacity and risk-taking ability, you must prepare a shoeshine shop business plan. Also, you can take the help of business plan software solutions. Clearly mention the services you want to provide, your target consumers, and your marketing policy. Additionally, calculate the startup cost and expected ROI.
3. Name Your Shoe Shine Shop Business
It is without saying properly naming a business helps hugely to create a brand personality. It also helps potential customers to relate to the products that you are offering. You can check our stepwise guide to know more about naming a business.
4. Select a Retail Location
Selecting the right location is the most important aspect of this business. Moreover, you have to find out a location where you can expect high footfalls from the shoe-wearing population. Basically, a location nearby offices, malls, airports, business centers, colleges, and the university is the perfect one. Generally, people look for this type of service in the way of their professional destinations.
5. Procurement of Equipment & Tools
Procure the shoe-shining machine first. It is the most important piece of equipment in your store. Check the available machines in the market. If possible, get feedback from the existing machine users. Procure the other consumables also.
Buy the most comfortable shoe shine chair for your customer. The chair must have a professional look and good quality. If you want to provide other services then you have to procure the tools depending upon the specific requirements.
6. Investment & Cost of Starting a Shoe Shine Shop
Basically, starting this type of business demands a premium retail location. However, you can start with a small space like 50 Sq Ft also. So, acquiring a retail space attracts cash investment. If you don’t have a space of your own, start with a rented one.
Additionally, you will need to have a shoeshine machine and consumables like cream, shiner, etc. The machine price starts at $150. And there is a wide range of machines available in the market. You can also search for online marketplaces for purchasing the machine.
And finally, you have to pay for some utilities like electricity, etc. Also, you have to calculate the manpower cost and other operational expenses.
7. Shoeshine Store Setup
Basically, the kiosk setup is most appropriate for this type of business. Additionally, a shop-in-shop approach is also good for starting. Otherwise, you can also consider opening a stand within the mall, college, or university premises.
Basically, you must design the shop according to the services you want to offer. Apart from the shining machine, determine the specific space for storage, billing, and keeping the cash. Use the right POS software for billing and stock maintenance.
Fix the different pricing according to the different services. The list of services may include regular shine, cream shine, suede renewal, and strip and shine service, etc.
8. Hire Manpower
In starting the business, you must have at least one employee. Try to hire an experienced one. Also, you can arrange on-site training for machinery operation. You can ask the machine supplying company for arranging a training session for your staff.
9. Create a Logo & Website
The first step towards building a brand is to create a logo. It is an important step because a catchy logo will immensely help in building a shoeshine shop brand.
Furthermore, in the present day having an online presence is almost mandatory. Creating a website is the most basic step in making your shoe line shop company visible in the online space.
10. Marketing & Promotion
Your show-shine company must have a brand name. Put a good-looking sign on the outer wall of the store. Basically, word of mouth campaign is the best option for this type of business.
However, you can distribute brochures, leaflets, or flyers to nearby offices or student hostels. Keeping the leaflets behind the car wipers is also a good idea. You can target the nearby car parking areas for keeping a leaflet. You can also offer holiday sales or happy hours to your shoe shine shop customers.
Editorial Team at 99BusinessIdeas is a team of experts led by Rupak Chakrabarty with over 25 years of experience in starting and running small businesses. Started in 2010, 99BusinessIdeas is now one of the largest free small business resources in the industry.
