On a bit of a whim, I decided that I fancied opening up a pop-up shop. An hour after seeing a property I thought would be a good one, a deposit was left, and 16 hours later I started moving in.
I had 4 days to prepare for the opening weekend; four days to fully clear and clean the unit, paint it, furnish it, contact friends and potential stockers, design the logo and advertising, set up email and a website, write and send contracts to the stockers, pick up/take delivery of stock, set out the stock and decorate the unit, send out a press release, give out leaflets promoting the shop opening and plan the actual opening event – cupcakes and Bucks Fizz for all!
In those four short days, we managed to source 23 designer/makers to stock their goods in our little shop – and for the first week everything was going super duper well.
It was almost inevitable that something might go wrong after all the awesomeness, and sure enough, after just over a week we found out that the unit we were occupying did not actually have the correct paperwork to be rented as a retail unit. Not wanting to get in trouble with the council, we decided the best course of action would be to leave the unit. We ended up losing our rent deposit, the “landlord” refused to return it despite him receiving it under rather strained consequences, but to be honest I was just glad to be out of there.
We found a new unit for the shop almost immediately - the new one is in a much better location and much more likely to attract our target market. Let’s hope this one goes better!
We open for business later this week…
3 hellos:
Oh goodness! I didn't know that had happened. I wonder if you should try to get your deposit back... surely it's the landlord's fault.
I should know this stuff as that (commercial leases) was my job for a year or more... hmm.
I did not know that was what happened - how frustrating!
I'm just glad to be out of there, to be honest!
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