You need a bare minimum investment of two to five lakhs to start a boutique in India. You can start selling from home as well. Many women sell sarees and dress materials from their homes. You do not need a lot of investment or experience to start a boutique. All you need is suppliers and a decent place to sell your products. You can lease a small space and sell clothes, accessories and shoes.
Boutique Business in India
You have to take the following license and registration to start a boutique:
- PAN Number and TAN Number
- VAT registration
- Service tax
- Shop lease agreement
- Shop and establishment act registration
- Trademark registration
This is more than sufficient to start a boutique. You will need the following personnel at your boutique.
- One or two sales girls
- One store manager
- Accountant
Financing your business
Starting a boutique is easy. You can take capital from friends and family and start a store. You can also apply for a SME loan or a business loan. For a business loan you have to show IT returns for the last three years and also your bank statements. You must not have a bad credit history if you are applying for a business loan from a bank. The rate of interest of a business loan is usually high. You can apply through many government schemes that help women entrepreneur set up small scale industries. These kinds of loans do not need collateral. Since, the investment that you would need is small, you can this amount easily.
Plan what you want to do with business
If you want to start your own designer label, then the minimum investment required would be ten to fifteen lakhs. You would require a separate workshop with machines and also appoint craftsmen and tailors to stitch your own clothes. You also have to plan your sales and marketing. You could start your designer label as a sole proprietor. You will find many investors who are willing in invest in your business plan. If you do not want to start a clothing brand franchise, and build your own brand, it is going take long pain staking hours to build a label into a successful brand.
It’s easy to start a profitable business
You need market insight, and also a deeper penetration into niche markets where your clothes will be sold at a high price. You can start a boutique even if you live in a small town. Starting a boutique will always prove to be a profitable business regardless of the economic fluctuation. Most of the clothing stores and stores selling FMCG products are at a profit even if the economy is sluggish. Clothes and other FMCG commodities are something people will buy regardless of the economic state of the country.
Leverage Social Media
A boutique is the safest and profitable business to go for, if you have good taste and artistic sense. Many start up boutiques have converted users into loyal customers by uploading their designs and pictures of clothes on the Facebook page. If you publish the content on Facebook page regularly, then you can easily generate leads for your boutique. You could also start an online boutique and only have a warehouse where you stock your clothes. This is also an affordable idea to start a business.
Essential supplies and furniture for a boutique
- Table chair for the receptionist, placing the billing system, and stationery
- Clothing stands
- Hangers
- Steam irons
- Air conditioning or fans, ceiling lights
- Water purifier
- Accessories stand
- Outdoor signage board
- Fliers, brochures, business cards, covers/bags printed with the boutique name
- Containers to store items, such as, accessories and other fashion supplies
- Floor carpet
- Sewing machine for alteration of clothes
- a changing room with mirror and hooks to hang clothes
Market your boutique
You can start your store by giving away freebies, discounted coupons, and also hold a runway show on the day you open your boutique as this will help generate interest in your brand immediately. You can also advertise in newspapers and magazines periodically and get more leads for your store. Online marketing and business listing is affordable and cheap, and a good tool to generate more leads to your business.
Adapt with the trends
Always keep your items trendy and do a good research before you stock the inventory. Do a market research every time and see what the taste of the local crowd is and stock items that would generate their interest. If it’s a tropical or a humid weather throughout the year in your city, then choose cotton and linen fabrics for clothing instead of synthetic materials. Keep the décor of your store pleasant and vibrant.
For billing which accounts software is needed
Hi I would like to start a ladies boutique and I am ready to invest..only problem is I don’t have any idea on this business….how will I get material suppliers and where will I get best designed dresses and sarees….