How to open a convenience store?

1. Hardware equipment investment In the early stage of convenience store preparation, hardware equipment investment needs a lot of money. Shops need to carefully analyze and demonstrate from a financial point of view. The hardware equipment of convenience stores mainly includes infrastructure and commercial facilities. (1) Infrastructure ① Decoration: In the decoration design of a convenience store, the owner should first consider the customer group where the store is located. Convenience stores should meet the needs of consumers to buy enough goods at one time, and the business area in the store should be at least 50 square meters. In store decoration, it should be as popular as possible to meet the preferences of most consumers. 2 refrigerator: refrigerator is a very important basic equipment of convenience store. At present, there are mainly two kinds of refrigerators: refrigeration and freezing. What type of refrigerator the shopkeeper chooses depends on the customer structure in the nearby business district. If the surrounding customers are more mobile, or the proportion of teenagers is higher, we should consider adding more refrigerated refrigerators; If the surrounding houses are dense, it is necessary to increase the number of frozen refrigerators. ③ Air conditioning: By adjusting the indoor temperature through air conditioning, customers can stay in the store for a long time and buy more goods. The air conditioners used in convenience stores are mainly ceiling air conditioners and vertical air conditioners. The advantage of ceiling air conditioning is that it does not occupy floor space, and it can increase the number of shelves in the store, thus increasing the turnover. The disadvantage is that the price is high and the height of the building is high. Vertical air conditioners are relatively cheap, but they need to occupy a certain area. If the store is not big, it will sometimes affect the layout of the shelves. Generally, a 50-square-meter storefront needs at least 2 vertical air conditioners. (4) Water and electricity: Water and electricity are the most complicated and demanding items in the store. During the construction period, the quality of all processes and materials should be strictly required from wiring, piping diagram, switch box installation, lighting and power supply, water supply and drainage, fire safety and other links. Let the whole store meet the standards of safety, beauty and use. ⑤ Shelves: The function of convenience store shelves is to display goods, so that consumers can easily find the goods they need in the store. Shelf combination includes single-sided shelf, double-sided shelf, front protective net, side protective net and back net. Signboard: among the reasons why consumers choose to enter the store, the brightness and color of the signboard are one of them. Therefore, when designing and installing a signboard, we should consider whether its color can be accepted by consumers, whether its position is obvious and whether its brightness is bright. (2) Operating facilities ① Frozen carbonated drinks machine: Teenagers prefer carbonated drinks, with high gross profit and fast capital turnover, so as long as they are in the business circle dominated by teenagers, they can consider buying them. ② Coffee bar: It is a popular food. When the sales of drinks are generally poor in winter, the products provided by the coffee bar can improve the business performance of the store. ③ Microwave oven: It is conducive to the change of consumption patterns, so that fast food products can provide consumers with hygienic and fast services, which can save customers a lot of time. (4) Cash register: to provide the shopkeeper with daily cash income for operation and management. Generally, it is best to buy two sets in a store, one for daily operation and one for backup. ⑤ Hot dog machine: At present, many convenience stores use this kind of operating equipment, and the products provided are mainly aimed at teenagers. In terms of business facilities, if there are not many young people in the business circle, the shopkeeper can consider not buying carbonated beverage machines, which can save an investment cost. Moreover, the owner can choose between the coffee machine and the coffee bar, and it is not necessary to buy both. In addition to the infrastructure and operating equipment mentioned above, if the owner adds more equipment, the cost will be added to the calculation. 2. Operating expenses Due to the increasingly fierce competition, the turnover of convenience stores has been unable to increase, but the operating expenses will increase year by year. In this case, the shopkeeper must strictly control the management cost of the store, so as not to reduce the operating efficiency due to the increase of the cost and lead to the extension of the payback period of the investment cost. General operating expenses can be divided into fixed expenses and variable expenses. (1) Fixed expenses ① Personnel expenses: such as salary, funds, overtime, welfare, etc. ② Equipment expenses: such as decoration, depreciation of operating equipment, rent, insurance, etc. (3) Maintenance expenses: such as utilities, consumables, service fees, industrial and miscellaneous expenses, etc. (2) Variable expenses mainly include advertising expenses, repair expenses, inventory loss, business tax, etc. How much should the operating expenses of convenience stores be controlled below? Generally speaking, the total operating expenses should be controlled within 18% compared with sales. Among them, housing rent, personnel cost, utilities and equipment depreciation account for a considerable proportion. Shops should generally pay attention to the following six principles when controlling operating expenses: ① The total wages of shop assistants should not exceed half of the total operating expenses, that is, the total wages divided by the total expenses is less than 50%. ② The proportion of personnel expenses to total sales should be less than 7%. ③ The proportion of total expenses to total sales should be controlled within 18%. (4) The total expenses should be kept within 80% compared with the gross sales profit. ⑤ The proportion of fixed expenses to total expenses should be above 85%. ⑥ The proportion of variable expenses to total expenses should be less than 15%. The operation of convenience stores must follow the above six principles in order to realize their operating benefits and make the shopkeepers get reasonable profits. 3. Preparation and application for opening a store When deciding to operate a convenience store, you should not only fully understand the hardware equipment, gross profit of goods, operating expenses, breakeven, etc., but also have a detailed plan for raising and applying for opening a store. In terms of capital preparation, if you have enough funds, you can run a sole proprietorship. If the funds are insufficient, there are many ways to solve it, such as finding a joint venture with a partner, a bank loan or a loan from relatives and friends. You can make full use of them. After preparing enough funds, we must first have a detailed plan for the use of funds, which may change with the change of land use plan and construction plan. However, in the implementation of the store opening plan, the utilization value of funds is the target value. Therefore, in the actual preparation, we should strive to get closer to the set goals, so as not to cause too much discrepancy and affect the efficiency of capital utilization. For unforeseen emergencies in preparation, the preparation of temporary emergency measures should also be considered when starting the plan. The capital utilization plan can be roughly divided into three parts: revenue and expenditure plan, benefit distribution plan and capital plan. It is worth noting that a large amount of funds may be needed before opening a store, and the income and expenditure after opening a store also has a great relationship with the use of funds. Therefore, for the business environment, industry trends, capital plans and the company's operating capacity, we should carefully draw up plans in various ways when we are engaged in revenue and expenditure and capital plans. In addition, the medium-and long-term planning for five years or even 10 years after opening the store also needs to be considered in the overall planning. (1) Estimated turnover revenue and expenditure plan: The turnover in the first year after opening the store can be estimated according to the market survey, the location conditions of the store, and the comparison between the operating capacity and peers. After the second year, it can be estimated according to the macroeconomic situation and residents' consumption expenditure, combined with the annual growth of stores. If there is a renovation and expansion plan halfway, it should be taken into account when estimating the turnover. Calculation of operating expenses: According to business needs, expenses can be divided into variable expenses and fixed expenses. Variable expenses are determined in proportion to turnover, such as business tax. Fixed costs include personnel costs, utilities and various management fees, some of which are related to turnover. Depreciation of fixed assets and amortization of start-up expenses should also be included in operating expenses. (2) Profit Distribution Scheme In addition to paying various taxes, the company's profit distribution can draw provident fund or distribute it to shareholders as dividends in accordance with relevant financial regulations. (3) Capital plan Capital plan can be divided into capital use plan and capital allocation plan. The fund use plan includes the plan before opening the store and the plan after opening the store. The fund use plan before opening the store includes land lease cost, decoration cost, equipment investment, commodity cost and joining capital. After opening the store, the fund use plan includes operating expenses, commodity turnover expenses, maintenance expenses, etc. In the use plan of funds, the necessary period, amount and content of each expense must be clearly defined. The fund allocation plan also includes pre-opening plan and post-opening plan. The deployment plan before opening a store is prepared to meet the demand for the use of funds before opening a store. If it can be properly configured, it will be of great help to reduce investment costs. The deployment plan after opening a store is to match the actual situation of business activities, so that the remaining funds after deducting operating expenses, depreciation and other expenses can be used flexibly. Every operator should have a deep understanding of how to prepare and use funds. As long as we can grasp the key points mentioned above and seriously recruit, we will be able to successfully complete the goal of opening a store.