Knot on Main Street in Dunedin, Florida, The RiCharmed Life booth

So I recently moved into my second retail spot. I learned so much from my first one, especially because within that establishment I’ve moved to three different spaces. I have a few tips to share to help streamline the process. 

1. Read your contract thoroughly. If you have to redo how you price things or you are immediately in violation of some rule, it’s not a great start to things and it can really slow you down to have to stop and fix stuff.

2. Price everything in advance to getting into your spot. It takes enough focus to set up your space and get everything in a good place without also having to worry if you’re pricing things right and having to research things on the spot.

3. Do a trial run set up. Map out the exact size space you will have. If there’s not room in your house to do this, take it onto a porch or driveway or whatever you have to do. Set up the furniture and display pieces first. Add in your merchandise, starting with the largest items first and filling in around them with smaller pieces. This will give you a good idea if you have enough inventory to fill your spot or if you have too much. 

4. Take lots of pictures of your trial run. Both up close and from a distance so if your brain is totally fried during moving you can just pull up those pictures and reference them for how you want your set up to go.

5. When you load, don’t put in the heavy big stuff and pile the small things on top of it. You will need to pull out and install that furniture first so you want to make sure it is accessible, even if it means you have to take two trips. If you have a van or truck or a larger vehicle you can add stuff between and around these larger pieces but you really do risk breakage when you pile stuff on top because it just means moving it out of the way multiple times. (And it can slide around and we all know what a bad feeling it is to hear breakables sliding around!)

6. Bring help- but not too much! If you have substantial display pieces, you already know you’ll need assistance moving them into the store. Do not count on people being available at the store to help you unless you have specifically arranged for this. In general my muscle is not great at setting up so I also like to enlist the help of a friend who is more into that. If you’ve taken pictures of your set up, that helps because people can also just reference those and help you fulfill your vision. Otherwise it helps to have someone who has a good eye and can work independently. You may absolutely love a helpful friend but you know if certain people require a lot of supervision or are just distracting when you are in go mode. Avoid those people, it will be better for your friendship in the long run. 

7. Have a kit planned out and ready to go with a checklist. Make sure to include hammer, nails, hangers, price tags, sharpies, scissors, paper towels and cleaner, just everything you think you may possibly need in setting up your spot. Don’t wait till move in day to assemble this.

8. Do take lots of pictures while you’re setting up. This is great for social media and people love a good before and after. Make sure you absolutely take pictures of the spot in it’s final look. You will want to go back and look for merchandise holes or things you can go back to later and improve.

9. When you are finished, do go through with cleaner and make sure everything looks tidy. Make sure all your supplies are back in the kit bag. Thank you your help and go reward yourself!