Here’s the real costs of reopening our shop – so much for me saying it will cost nothing to reopen a shop we already own.
Cowboy builder who did nothing but fill skip & make a mess – £1400.00
Awesome electrician who rewired the shop: £745.00
The rewire cut out the boiler for the flat tenant, had to call the electrician out again to wire the boiler to the flat fuse board: £110.00
Awesome builder who plastered the whole shop, repaired floor and fitted sink: £760.00
Work surfaces from Homebase – £250.00
Kitchen Units Ebay – £94.00
3rd Call out for the electrician after I drilled though wire £92.00:
Slat Wall & hooks – £160.00
Gas heater from BOC – £170.00
The previous tenants had not paid the electricity for some time and had managed to build £1700 of debt to the electricity board . EDF Came calling with a warrant to break in and we had to pay them £350.00 in advance for electricity we’ve not used yet.
Still to come is a new shop window, the current glass is cracked so we’re having it split into 3 sections – £850.00
Paint the outside of the shop – (I can do that) – Materials – £100.00
Paint inside of shop (I can do that) – Materials – £100.00
15 x 2ft Acrylic balloons for decorating inside of shop – £305.00
Carpet – £320.00
BT Installing Broadband & Phones 28.05.13
Insurance for stock
PDQ Machine
Shop Till (ebay) – £115.00
Another cost which can wait until next summer – previous tenants built a massive work room in the back yard – it will take at least 3 skips and a few days work to ditch it.
One other possible cost is the 5 months loss of rent for the previous guys doing a runner.
I’m not counting stock as it remains on my balance sheet forever and it’s not really a cost (although I still need to find the cash). We’re entering a 3 year deal with Qualatex and they are sponsoring a specially built balloon shop counter, training us and supply merchandising display stuff. We also get Mr Q for the grand opening which will be good for a few tweets.
The problem with building work is that it’s all cash – no builder, electrician, plumber or chippy have a credit card machine or give credit. It’s all payment on completion take it or leave it, so there’s no way you can spread the costs.
I’ll update some more photos & costs when we start painting the inside & outside.
The above costs were loads more than I’d anticipated – once you start along a certain road there’s no going back and you just have to keep throwing money at it. The good news is that once it’s all done the monthly overheads will not be high. There will be rates to pay of around £200 per month (that wont include emptying the bins), pdq machine, electricity, water, phones, broadband, insurance). I’m already paying a mortgage on the place which is mostly covered by the tenant in the flat. Rent & wages make or break any retailer and that’s where we should be quids in as we move forward.
A quick add up on the above figures we currently stand at: £6281.00