How to start a hardware business in India

The popular culture of “Do It Yourself” among techno wizards has come into

practice and drawn them to the real world from their virtual world. These

youngsters will try their hands at their day-to-day necessities as well. Yes,

the 21st century youngsters are ready to work for their needs by themselves.

Hardware amenities are no exception to this. So, venturing into hardware

business makes perfect sense.

Here, we guide you through the steps that you ought to pursue in order to

start one.

Setting up the space

A hardware store deals with items ranging from the smallest screws to

lengthy pipes, small mechanical gadgets & machines. Some hardware stores

may also stock and sell building materials like cement, steeletc. So it’s

obvious that a hardware store requires spacious premises in a busy locality.

This is not only for storage purposes, but will also help you with logistics as

well. Big cargo-haulers and other large vehicles will be making their rounds

of visits regularly to your store. Hence, it’s an imperative requisite to have

enough space to run your business.

Funding

It is too obvious from the first requisite itself that you got to have healthy

funding to start your hardware store. As mentioned earlier, the business is

going to involve dealing with all the high quality hardware items. To get this,

you must invest heavily, and this is the challenging part of starting this

business. You can source the funds for your business from the public

through crowd-funding, or have a partner with you to overcome the financial

barriers.

Picking the spot

Like any other business, you need to focus more on the location of the store

that you are going to launch. There are a lot of industrial hubs around the

city, where there is a lot of construction activity going on. Moreover, people

are ready to spend few bucks extra instead of travelling and spending 10 -

15 minutes of their precious time. The success of your business depends on

the proximity with your prospective clients.

Stepping-up to the competition

There is a widespread notion within hardware industry that it is dominated

by big names. However, this isn’t completely true. Although the big names

contribute to the most of the revenue in this business, the retail chain serves

majority of the consumers. Yes, the stats say that the customers prefer to

have their requirements fulfilled in their own locality instead spending time

at the bigger stores. An aspiring business-person should take advantage of

this.

Stocking up the goods

You can get your stocks from a wholesaler or even directly from a

manufacturer. This depends upon your ability to negotiate with your dealer.

While thinking about sourcing the products, you also have the option of

taking up a franchise. However, as you don’t have any control over the

inventory, you’ll need to maintain stocks as directed by your principals. In

spite of this, there are added advantages in overcoming the start-up hiccups

by associating with a leading franchiser.

Considering the demand and the profitability of hardware stores, the very

idea of venturing into the hardware store business is itself a success. Proper

auditing and promotional activities at a brisk pace can yield you benefits at a

higher rate than you would have ever imagined.