“I am opening a new shoe store”
That is what a good friend of mine, happily announced to me.
“Not just a shoe store, we are going to be the McDonnalds of shoe stores !”
Shoe store ? Frankly I wasn’t too surprised, having heard that quite a few times already.
And he proceeded to happily tell me of his grand plans.
The shoe store he was planning was going to open in the huge mall in the capital.
Having thousands of patrons a day, made it an ideal target for him.
And regarding all the other hundreds of shoe stores there ? He didn’t seem to worried, on the contrary:
“Its great ! All those stores just means that there is a market for shoes !”.
But, he knew that just opening another shoe store was not enough, so, his will be special. Every person visiting, will get (hold for it….) a free high-quality coffee !
And who doesn’t want coffee ? Everyone will come for a drink and buy their shoes on the way.
“Wouldn’t you like free coffee ?” he asked me. And I had to agree I would. Sure it will put them at a loss in the beginning, but he made quite a few calculations in excel and in a year or two, the shoe sales will be high enough to cover the coffee and begin to become profitable. (Especially since they planned to move to their own coffee machines and bulk deals with coffee importers by then)
We chatted about coffee types for a while and then I told him of another friend of mine, who just days ago told me of his shoe store (that was already finishing their renovation) Their idea was: “massage chairs” – You get a massage while measuring shoes – people stayed longer – more shoes bought.
He dismissed them with a wave of his hand. “Bah ! We will get those too in time, and many other stuff others have”. In the end its all about execution. He had a great team and a professional designer who just left IKEA.
“With a bit of hard work, we will become the biggest shoe shop in the mall and then spread to other cities via franchise and be like Starbucks or McDonnalds”
I like it, I said, but there are hundreds of shoe stores in that mall, why not try something different ?
Or better yet, why no start in the smaller cities and villages where there are almost no stores, and the existing ones are small and bad ?
“Thats not how you do it if you plan big !” He and his partner just joined the state’s leading Coaching firm’s entrepreneurs plan. With the help of the firm, they will get money and connections needed to reach the Mall’s weekly newsletter and maybe even be featured on the large billboard at the entrance.
Sure competition was hard, sure there was lots of it. But their idea had a unique twist and with the proper execution ? The sky was the limit.
All that was three months ago, he has already quit his job and started working full time with his partner on designing the interior and the shoes selection.
They got some money from friends and a group of investors, moved to the big city near the huge mall and started looking for a good location for their shoe store.
And me ? Well, since all the shoes stores are in the big mall in the capital and none are in the hundred little cities around it (one of which I live in), Ill be driving tomorrow, 60 miles.. to buy shoes.