How to Incorporate Retail in a Business Plan

45 messages

10:58:09 Jake Byk

Hi everyone! Jake from the CWA here joining from sunny Boulder, Colorado.
10:58:19 Laura Allured (she/her) | CWA

Morning everyone! Welcome to the first session of the CWA’s Retail Panel!
10:58:38 Laura Allured (she/her) | CWA

I’m Laura from the CWA, and I’m joining from Longmont, Colorado :-)
10:59:03 Ann Grinnell

Ann and Jesse from Mount Desert, Maine! We are opening Volta in December of this year and starting from the bottom learning about retail!. Hi!
10:59:42 Laura Allured (she/her) | CWA

Awesome, thanks for joining us Ann and Jesse! I'm sure you’ll get a ton of nuggets out of today’s call to help you on your journey.
10:59:59 Amy Keith

Hi There, Amy joining form Charlotte NC. In the initial planning stages of opening a gym and hoping to gain some insight into retail as part of our business plan :)
11:00:06 Ann Grinnell

Thank you — we’re psyched!
11:00:15 Nathaniel Zwerling

Hi Folks, Nathan Zwerling here with Gripstone Climbing in Colorado Springs, CO. Looking to learn some more about retail and retail management.
11:01:04 Jake Byk

Hey Nathan! Thanks for joining us!
11:01:11 scott

Scott with EPIC Climbing and Fitness in Indy
11:01:33 Jake Byk

Hi Scott! Stoked to have you joining us.
11:01:44 Zach

Hi I'm Zach, and I'm joining from Boulder, CO. I'm hoping to learn more a bit about the monthly expenses that go into a business plan.
11:03:05 Leo van Ulden

Hi, I'm from Newfoundland Canada and wondering about projecting sales.
11:04:21 Jake Byk

Hi everyone! A reminder to keep yourself muted until the Q&A portion of the call. Let me know if you need help with Zoom.
11:05:25 Jake Byk

Chris's gym: https://www.contactclimbinggym.com/
11:09:19 Jake Byk

Branded merchandise helps establish identity and get the hype up about your business!
11:12:01 Nathaniel Zwerling

^Branded merch as in logo-only, or any cool designs, that also have the logo on it? Another way to phrase it: Should this branded merch be logo-exclusive merch, or do you encourage us to have cool designs along with the logo?
11:12:47 Jake Byk

Good question Nathan. We'll circle up with Chris, but he just mentioned how they represent the local community as well.
11:20:07 Troy

What is a good metric for auditing the success (or failure) of a new product thats been added to your retail area?
11:20:47 Jake Byk

Good question Troy! I've got it recorded
11:22:32 Amy

which ABD do you carry? Smart? Pilot?
11:24:55 Ann Grinnell

Do you provide lead ropes or can people use their own? Mostly concerned about liability from someone using a personal rope that is dangerous
11:25:25 Nathaniel Zwerling

You said you sold a lot of skin care products: We've had the opposite experience. Do you do something special with your skin care products? Do you have them prominently placed?
11:26:43 Ann Grinnell

Awesome
11:31:39 Laura Allured (she/her) | CWA

Here’s a link to the German study Todd mentioned: https://www.alpenverein.de/chameleon/public/d4ce5dd2-3456-0e69-f1e9-877eee9b6eaa/Climbing-gym-study-2012-english-Panorama-2-13_24301.pdf
11:37:31 Nathaniel Zwerling

What was included in the $20k? What general items did you debut your retail shop with?
11:45:23 Jake Byk

Tie-in.... ;)
11:49:13 jamesreilly

How did you find the reps? Through the product company? I am international. Should I be looking to become a distributor for my core brands?
11:49:32 Amy

how do you keep your merch "dust free"?
11:49:51 Nathaniel Zwerling

We use compressed air dusters
11:52:23 Amy

what reports do you use for sales? create excel sheets?
11:54:27 Todd M

Get to know your POS system... usually you can run sales reports in it which will show you different reporting metrics you can use to show you how your retail items are doing.
11:55:16 Todd M

I take reports from the POS system and pull certain numbers every month to track sales over time... I track every vendor I work with and I also track each product category, "climbing shoes" "packs" etc
11:55:19 Nathaniel Zwerling

How often do you do retail staff training?
11:55:25 Jake Byk

https://www.cwapro.org/blog/engaging-staff-on-retail-engages-customers-too
11:56:55 Zach

This is a bit unrelated to today's topic, but you've mentioned the climbing industry being a bit tight lipped when it comes to numbers and finances. Since you're on the call: How much should we expect to pay to climate control our facilities and how much should we expect to pay for insurance on a monthly basis?
11:59:02 Jake Byk

Chris Horton, COO/Co-founder, Contact Climbing Gym email: Chris@contactclimbinggym.com
11:59:14 Ann Grinnell

Thank you so much!!!
11:59:28 Amy Keith

This was great thank you!
11:59:32 Jake Byk

Thank you for joining us!
11:59:36 Jake Byk

Chris Horton, COO/Co-founder, Contact Climbing Gym email: Chris@contactclimbinggym.com
11:59:59 Todd M

I'm also happy to talk retail anytime!!
12:00:03 jamesreilly

Todd´s contact please?
12:00:11 Todd M

todd@keystoneclimbing.com
12:00:28 Tanya Smith

Thank you!

SPEAKERS

Todd McCormick

Owner, Keystone Climbing Consultants
todd@keystoneclimbing.com

Chris Horton

COO/Co-Founder, Contact Climbing Gym
chris@contactclimbinggym.com

If you enjoyed this session and want more retail beta, upgrade to the full package! Reach out to us at hello@cwapro.org with questions.