HI want to locate shop inside established store. Need help convincing bus. Ideas?

[tankman1989]

I want to locate shop inside established store. Need help convincing bus. Ideas?

I'm toying around wit the idea of asking a local business if they would allow me to set up a service/sales desk inside their shop. This place has a nice little store that has a semi private room in the back with an access counter that would be perfect to setup as a comp service counter. This place is a ustom audio/video shop that sells home theater and car audio equipment and accessories (among other things). I also just happen to have worked there for about a year, on and off but have been a customer since I was in 7th grade (I had an audio/music obsession back then and spent all my money on stereo equipment). I also have a long history with one of the owners and get along with the other owner pretty well.

The other information relavant to this issue is that there is another custom home theater place in this county that is much larger and they have a huge IT dept, so there is proof that this setup can co-exist.

Just to include as much as I can, This store used to have another business operating within it that sold cell phones/contracts and accessories so there is president to doing this.

Now what I would love to hear is any ideas about why this is a good idea for the business. I need reasons to persuade them into doing this.

I think my main selling point is that there will be increased traffic in the store. By hanging a small sign under his large LCD sign that says Computer Sales, Service & Repair or something. When I worked for him 8+ years ago he told us that he spend on average about $80 in advertising on very customer (which means that he is spending A LOT of money). So, All of my money that is spent on advertising will be a total bonus for this business because it will advertise "Located inside XXX Audio/Video" - and everyone who comes specifically for me has to walk through the whole store to get to my location which gives the sales people a chance to say high and offer assistance. WIN-Win-Win

I would be able to offer services which would go nicely with a home theater installation like networking, HTPC's, wireless, cabling, etc. I know that they weren't offering a lot of this stuff before so it would be an all in one stop for the customers.

Eventually I could either merge with the business or open a new location and maybe keep a drop off/ service desk within the store, depending upon the success.

So, can anyone see good or bad points of this?

 

[isqrd]

I think this is a great idea. You will have considerably less overhead than leasing your own space, and you may even get the space for free, if you bring in customers to the store for a lower cost than $80 a head.

I would try to find numbers (ballpark) as to how much traffic the service department at other stores make for the bigger organization,bring in and this would be your selling point.

The one sticky point is if you do get a lot of traffic for your services, but the owner doesn't see any returns from that you may have to start forking over some money for the space.

 

[tankman1989]

I think this is a great idea. You will have considerably less overhead than leasing your own space, and you may even get the space for free, if you bring in customers to the store for a lower cost than $80 a head.

I would try to find numbers (ballpark) as to how much traffic the service department at other stores make for the bigger organization,bring in and this would be your selling point.

The one sticky point is if you do get a lot of traffic for your services, but the owner doesn't see any returns from that you may have to start forking over some money for the space.

I'd gladly pay if I'm turning a profit. I figure advertising is the best investment while I'm just starting. The nice thing about this store is our products often interface with each other so it is a synergistic relationship. I just hope that the owners are open to the idea.