If you’ve just launched a new shop or are planning to do so, you’ll know how many costs are involved. The overheads are many and varied, from paying rent and purchasing products to staff and interior design costs. Not to mention abstract costs like product insurance and staff insurance and god knows what else!
With the initial investment always the heaviest and riskiest burden to bear – after all, you don’t know if your shop is going to be a success or not at this point – it’s important to keep the start up expenses as low as possible. Once area where it is possible to be frugal is setting up the interior. With a little bit of creativity and a lot of resourcefulness, you can create a mind-blowing shop interior with very little monetary expense. Sure there’s probably no way round having some traditional display elements, like slatwall hooks or railing displays, but a lot can be done without those.
“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure”
To do so you need to get into the right mindset. Our society has developed a throw away culture, which is a terrible thing for the environment but can be used to your advantage. Apply your creativity to things that other people throw away. When you see a few planks of wood thrown into a skip ask the owner if you can take them away for them – after all, they might make excellent shelves or can be turned into a rustic looking, rudimentary cabinet. There is a good chance to the owner will have no problem with your emptying their skip, as generally people have to pay money to do so.
Keep your eyes peeled when you’re walking streets and ask your friends if they are planning on throwing anything out. You never know what might be useful. Old car tyres could be piled up to make platforms to place products on in your shop. Old rugs can be used as decoration, either placed on the floor or hung from the walls to give a cosy, homely feel.
To reiterate, the key is creativity. It also helps if you are handy with a power drill and other tools. If so, old pieces of junk can be transformed into beautiful and unusual shop displays, giving your shops interior a unique and memorable quality.
Using this method you can save money and, to top it off, you can feel good about helping the environment by recycling old materials to create something new!
