As exciting as the idea can be to have a physical location for your customers to shop at, what’s more exciting is reveling in the possible success your brand will bring you. If you are a business owner, you more likely than not have wrestled with your thoughts about opening up a storefront. At the same time, you don’t want to jeopardize any momentum you’ve gained. Therefore, this decision should be well planned out. There are tons of planning involved throughout the various stages of this journey. But to begin, you’ll first want to consider whether owning a storefront will truly bring your brand more success. You can determine this by asking yourself these questions.

Are your online sales alone not profiting as you’d hoped? Does the product or service you are selling provide a unique experience that would be better received in person?

If you come to the conclusion that a storefront would bring additional success to your brand, then the next step would be determining what expenses there will be and how you will fund this venture.

You’ll need to be able to afford the added expenses of owning a store. It’s an absolute guarantee that owning a storefront will naturally incur extra fees. To start with, factor in what the rent will be and any maintenance that is needed. There will be initial costs for setting up the store, such as licenses with the city or state. You’ll need to invest in items to furnish and decorate the store. You’ll likely need to hire more hands to help the store run smoothly. And your Marketing expenses will likely need a makeover.

After establishing what this number will look like, you need to show how this will get funded. If you don’t have the funds to cover these expenses, which most of us don’t, begin applying for numerous small business loans available. 

One additional factor that remains of the utmost importance in this process is determining your store’s location. You will want a store that generates a reasonable amount of foot traffic, as this will be critical to your success. It wouldn’t make sense to open a store along a path where the passerby has zero interest in the products you are selling, right? Finding the ideal location is vital to the longevity of your store. Size up what, if any, competition is in the near vicinity. That way, you know what you are up against and can devise plans for handling this.

A physical location opens up better chances for your brand to be discovered. Consumers immediately walk away with their products; in this day and age, instant gratification is what they are looking for. It eliminates the guessing game for consumers. They can visually inspect and, in some cases, sample the product to determine how well it is liked before making a purchase.

Before going all in though, consider giving it a test run. Try a booth at a local weekend market or find a shop owner willing to allow you space in their store for a brief period. This way, you can test the waters with local foot traffic and get a better idea of how well it would do without breaking the bank.