High Rental Costs for Retail Space: How can Entrepreneurs Sell their Stuffs?

Property prices in Singapore are at an all time high. Not only homes, but even retail spaces are at ridiculous prices. Add in security deposits, advanced rent down-payments, renovation works, stamping fees and the cost of importing products, opening a shop can easily cost $100k in a good traffic shopping mall.

Then there is online marketing: Auctions, blogshops, e-commerce websites. The only thing that works for me? Auction. My blog and website competes for attention with so many others; there are celebrity bloggers, online game portals, YouTube, and hundreds of blogs and e-shops just like mine, all selling their unique products.

How can a “small fry” like me compete with the “big boys” out there? When can I sell enough of my products to make it my full time business? I have an idea…

My Solution

I am going ahead to open a retail shop in a good human traffic area, a place like Far East Plaza or Plaza Singapura, which draws a lot of shoppers within my target market. As I only sell 3 products now (ladies bags, bamboo lamps & sea shell décor products), I do not need much space to display my stuff.

I am gathering entrepreneurs like myself to share the shop space with me. With shop sharing, it will only cost a few hundred bucks per month instead of $100k upfront. Plus, there are some advantages to this concept:

More people share = less rental
More products = more variety
More variety = more customers browse
More customers browse = more sales, more word of mouth

If you are an aspiring entrepreneur like me, I invite you to join me in my Retail Adventure to share my shop space. I will be posting progress updates on this blog. If you would like to be informed, email me your contacts and products. I will update everyone on the latest developments.

Quote of the Day: “Gather a group of small fries and you get Large Fries”