How to Start a Sporting Goods Store

Summary: There are three major things to consider when you want to start a sporting goods store: finding the appropriate location for your shop, having enough financing to get you the equipments you need, and finding a wholesale supplier that can grant you quality materials at affordable prices.

Have you ever noticed that sporting goods stores are always prominent in the malls?

With all the health buffs, and health conscious people in world, sporting goods stores definitely make great business. However, there is a distinction between a person who is into sports, and quite another with a person selling sporting goods. Sporting goods can be defined as anything related to the world of sports. It doesn’t necessarily have to be all made up of equipments for baseball, football or the likes. A sporting goods store can also sell athletic apparel, specialty shoes and exercise accessories and even sports or athlete memorabilia. Camping and hiking equipment plus accessories can also be sold in sporting goods store; as well as first aid and survival kits. Some specialty stores even cater to one “theme” like mountain climbing essentials or snow gear sports equipments. Some sporting good even accommodate clients who are in need of equipment repairs and replacements. As you can see, a sporting goods store has a lot of room for expansion. Setting up this business can start off small, maybe a few equipments at a time. And then when the money comes raking in, then perhaps a few more “goods” can go into the display stands.

The one thing about a sporting goods store is that it needs to find a prominent location for its store. The mall is always a great place because of the foot traffic any mall can provide. However, if you cannot afford the monthly mall rent, you can try to find a different location which is accessible and inviting to a lot of pedestrians. A shop with a parking area would also be great since some of the equipments you might sell are rather bulky and large. Just remember that you are actually setting up a sporting goods store and not a gym. It may be an advertising tactic to get some muscled buffs to come into your shop during working hours and try out your equipments in front of an unwitting audience. However, do you actually think that you can sell those equipments after your potential clients have already seen them being used by someone else?

Right. Your next priority will then have you dig into your finances. If you have a very deep pocket, you can afford the monthly mall rates, buy quality equipments and whatnots, and hire all the staff you might need. You can also do a lot of promotional work for your shop. However, make sure that your overhead and incidental expenses actually follow a prospective business plan that (with fingers crossed) will actually net you a tidy profit in the coming months. It is so easy to lose your focus especially when you are starting off on a new business. But this is a business venture after all. Also, aside from the “staples” of sporting goods stores (i.e. baseball bats and mitts,) there are also sporting fads which crop up once in a while (i.e. Pilates rubber bands, yoga blocks.) So you may want to keep up with sporting trends.

You will definitely need a wholesale supplier for everything you may want to sell in your shop. Quality and affordability should be your motto, for some of the sporting equipments do not come cheap. The more expensive pieces should net you a lot of gain especially if you add a handsome profit on them – that is, if you manage to sell them in the first place. So choose what you want to sell carefully. Knowing your target market is one way of knowing which pricey stuff you can actually sell. You have to remember that most wholesale sporting goods suppliers do not do business on a consignment basis.