Retail Business Expenses Everyone Forgets About

When starting up a business, there’s a lot of costs to consider. We think of the obvious things first, such as renting an office or premises, the cost to refurbish and furnish it, the technology we need to buy and then we probably think about our bills and how much we’ll be paying for the type of business we want to run. It’s regular stuff, it’s easy to think about, and there are hundreds of resources on the internet that tell us these things and how to calculate them.

However, there’s a trend going on around those types of guides and articles: they’re all the same. Very few guides will tell you about these following expenses, but it’s incredibly important that you invest in these just as much as you would for the rent of your building or the cost of your staff.

1. Decor

When you walk into a store, you don’t want to feel like you just walked into a dump that feels like someone just threw their products around and built shelves out of abandoned furniture to fit their store. Although there’s definitely some unique decor in certain retail stores, you never want to abandon a design and use a medley of clashing colours, materials and designs. When you walk into a store, you want it to feel organised, you want your customers to easily be able to find things, and you don’t want them to trip over objects and fall face-first into the ground.

Your business decor is important. Think about plants, wall paintings, proper shelving to house your products, display cases and so on. These can cost quite a lot of money, but unless you want to use tacky furniture from a dump then you need to invest in making your business look presentable.

2. Signage

From corflute printing signs to hang up on the front of your building to toilet signs and fire exit warnings, there is plenty of signage that you need to invest in. Some are required by law, such as fire exit signs and other emergencies, and others are for your customers to have a better experience. First of all, a sign at the front of your premises is important or else your customers won’t know how to find your retail store and people passing by won’t have a clue what you sell either. Next, signs to separate the products you sell are also important. Imagine if you tried to buy items from a supermarket that didn’t properly mark their aisles, would that be a fun experience? Absolutely not!

3. Security

Your business needs to be secure. If you are keeping all of your business assets in a single place then you better make sure it’s protected. If you don’t, who’s going to protect it? Unless you live on the premises as well, the only people who can possibly help you are the police, and for them to do their job they need to know. Security systems can be hooked up to police systems and phone lines so that they’re instantly made aware that your premises is being broken into, and CCTV cameras will help the police identify who the criminals so they can catch them.