How to open a home interior wholesaler?
Are you keen to open a home interior wholesaler but don't know where to begin? Then you're in luck because this guide will lead you through all the steps required to check if your business idea can be profitable and, if so, turn it into a reality.
Our guide is for prospective entrepreneurs who are thinking about starting a home interior wholesaler no matter how far they are in their journey - whether you’re just thinking about it or in the middle of market research this guide will be useful to you.
Think of this as your blueprint: we cover everything you need to know about opening a home interior wholesaler and what key decisions you’ll need to make along the way.
Ready? Let’s get started!
Learn how a home interior wholesaler works
Before you can start a home interior wholesaler, you need to have a solid understanding of how the business works and what are its main revenue streams.
This will give you a glimpse into the profitability potential of your venture, whilst allowing you to decide whether or not it is a good fit for your situation (current skill set, savings and capital available to start the business, and family responsibilities).
It may be that creating a home interior wholesaler is an excellent idea, but just not the right one for you.
Before starting their own company, successful entrepreneurs typically:
- Consult with and take advice from experienced home interior wholesaler owners
- Acquire hands-on experience by working in an operational home interior wholesaler
- Take relevant training courses
Let's explore each option in a bit more detail.
Consulting with and taking advice from experienced home interior wholesaler owners
Having "seen it all", established business owners can offer valuable insights and hands-on advice drawn from their own experiences.
This is because, through both successes and failures, they've gained a more informed and practical understanding of what it takes to build and sustain a successful home interior wholesaler over the long term.
Acquiring hands-on experience by working in an operational home interior wholesaler
If you want to open a home interior wholesaler, having industry-specific experience is imperative because it equips you with the knowledge, network, and acumen necessary to navigate challenges and make informed decisions critical to the success of your future business.
You'll also be able to judge whether or not this business idea is suitable for you or if there might be conflicts of interest with your personal life (for example, long working hours could be incompatible with raising young children).
This work experience will also help you to make contacts in the industry and familiarise yourself with customers and their expectations, which will prove invaluable when you set up your home interior wholesaler.
Take relevant training courses
Taking a training course is another way of familiarising yourself with the business model of your future activity before you decide to make the jump.
You may choose to complete a training course to obtain a certificate or degree, or just take online courses to acquire practical skills.
Before going any further in setting up your venture
Before you go any further with your plans to open a home interior wholesaler, make sure you have a clear vision of what it will take in terms of:
- What skills are needed to run the business successfully (do you have some or all of these skills?)
- What a standard working week looks like (does it suit your personal commitments?)
- What sales potential and long-term growth prospects the home interior wholesaler has (compare this with your level of ambition)
- What options you'll have once you decide to retire (or move on and inevitably sell the company)
This analysis of the business model and the constraints of the business should help you to check that your idea of launching a home interior wholesaler fits your entrepreneurial profile.
If there is a match, it will then be time to look at assembling the founding team of your business.
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What is the ideal founding team for my home interior wholesaler?
The next step to opening your home interior wholesaler, is to decide whether to assemble an ideal team or venture solo.
The failure rate for business start-ups is high: almost half don't make it past the five-year mark, and setting up a home interior wholesaler is no exception.
Starting with a group of co-founders helps reduce this risk as each of you brings complementary skills and enables the financial risk to be spread on multiple shoulders.
However, managing a business with multiple partners comes with its own set of challenges. Disagreements among co-founders are quite prevalent, and they can pose risks to the business. That's why it's essential to carefully weigh all aspects before launching a business.
To help you think things through, we recommend that you ask yourself the following questions:
- Do you need more co-founders for this venture?
- Do you share the same vision and ambition as your potential partners for this project?
- What is your plan B?
Let's look at these issues in more detail.
Do you need more co-founders for this venture?
To answer this question you will need to consider the following:
- Are there any key skills missing for which you would rather have a business partner than recruit an employee?
- Do we have enough equity? Would the company benefit from more capital at the outset?
- Will the proposed number of founders make it easy to make decisions (an odd number of partners, or a majority partner, is generally recommended to avoid deadlock)?
In simple terms, co-founders bring skills, money, or both to the table. Having more partners is beneficial when there's a lack of either of these resources.
Do you share the same vision and ambition as your potential partners for this project?
One of the main sources of conflict between co-founders comes from a lack of alignment on the long-term vision.
To avoid any risk of disagreement, it is advisable to agree on ambitions from the outset and to provide an exit mechanism for one of the partners in the event of disagreement.
What is your plan B?
We hope your home interior wholesaler takes off and thrives, but it's smart to have a "plan B" just in case things don't go as expected.
How you tackle potential failure can vary broadly depending on the type of co-founders (close friend, spouse, ex-colleague, etc.) and the personal circumstances of each of them.
For example, launching a family business with your spouse might seem exciting, but if it fails, you risk losing all of your household income at once, which might be stressful.
Likewise, starting a business with a friend might strain the friendship if things go wrong or if tough decisions need to be made.
Before diving in, make sure to thoroughly think about your choices. This way, you'll be ready for whatever might come your way when starting up.
Is there room for another home interior wholesaler on the market?
The next step in starting a home interior wholesaler is to undertake market research. Now, let's delve into what this entails.
The objectives of market research
The goal here is straightforward: evaluate the demand for your business and determine if there's an opportunity to be seized.
One of the key points of your market analysis will be to ensure that the market is not saturated by competing offers.
The market research to open your home interior wholesaler will also help you to define a concept and market positioning likely to appeal to your target clientele.
Finally, your analysis will provide you with the data you need to assess the revenue potential of your future business.
Let's take a look at how to carry out your market research.
Evaluating key trends in the sector
Market research for a home interior wholesaler usually begins with an analysis of the sector in order to develop a solid understanding of its key players, and recent trends.
Assessing the demand
After the sector analysis comes demand analysis. Demand for a home interior wholesaler refers to customers likely to consume the products and services offered by your company or its competitors.
Looking at the demand will enable you to gain insights into the desires and needs expressed by your future customers and their observed purchasing habits.
To be relevant, your demand analysis must be targeted to the geographic area(s) served by your company.
Your demand analysis should highlight the following points:
- Who buys the type of products and services you sell?
- How many potential customers are there in the geographical area(s) targeted by your company?
- What are their needs and expectations?
- What are their purchasing habits?
- How much do they spend on average?
- What are the main customer segments and their characteristics?
- How to communicate and promote the company's offer to reach each segment?
Analyzing demand helps pinpoint customer segments your home interior wholesaler could target and determines the products or services that will meet their expectations.
Assessing the supply
Once you have a clear vision of who your potential customers are and what they want, the next step is to look at your competitors.
Amongst other things, you’ll need to ask yourself:
- What brands are competing directly/indirectly against your home interior wholesaler?
- How many competitors are there in the market?
- Where are they located in relation to your company's location?
- What will be the balance of power between you and your competitors?
- What types of services and products do they offer? At what price?
- Are they targeting the same customers as you?
- How do they promote themselves?
- Which concepts seem to appeal most to customers?
- Which competitors seem to be doing best?
The aim of your competitive analysis will be to identify who is likely to overshadow you, and to find a way to differentiate yourself (more on this see below).
Regulations
Market research is also an opportunity to look at the regulations and conditions required to do business.
Ask yourself the following questions:
- Do you need a special degree to open a home interior wholesaler?
- Are there necessary licences or permits?
- What are the main laws applicable to your future business?
At this stage, your analysis of the regulations should be carried out at a high level, to familiarize yourself with any rules and procedures, and above all to ensure that you meet the necessary conditions for carrying out the activity before going any further.
You will have the opportunity to come back to the regulation afterwards with your lawyer when your project is at a more advanced stage.
Take stock of the lessons learned from your market analysis
Market research should give you a definitive idea of your business idea's chances of commercial success.
Ideally, the conclusion is that there is a market opportunity because one or more customer segments are currently underserved by the competition.
On the other hand, the conclusion may be that the market is already taken. In this case, don't panic: the first piece of good news is that you're not going to spend several years working hard on a project that has no chance of succeeding. The second is that there's no shortage of ideas out there: at The Business Plan Shop, we've identified over 1,300 business start-up ideas, so you're bound to find something that will work.
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How should I position my home interior wholesaler on the market?
The next step to start your home interior wholesaler is to define precisely the market positioning your company will adopt in order to capitalise on the opportunity identified during your market research.
Market positioning refers to the place your product and service offering occupies in customers' minds and how they differ from the competition. Being perceived as a low-cost solution, for example.
To find a concept and a market positioning that will resonate with your customers, you need to address the following issues:
- How can you differentiate yourself from your competitors?
- Is it better to start or buy a home interior wholesaler already in operation?
- How will you validate your concept and market positioning before investing in the business?
Let's look at these aspects in more detail.
How can you differentiate yourself from your competitors?
Opening a home interior wholesaler means starting with a major disadvantage compared with competitors already active on the market.
While you will have to create everything from scratch, your competitors already have everything in place.
Your competitors' teams know the business well, whereas yours has only just been recruited, their customers are loyal and they benefit from word of mouth that you don't yet have.
So you're going to need a solid plan to succeed in taking market share from your competitors and making your mark.
There are a number of aspects to consider in order to try to avoid direct confrontation if possible:
- Can you target a different customer base than your competitors?
- Can you offer products or services that are different from or complementary to what your competitors already sell?
- How will your competitors react to your home interior wholesaler entering their market?
- Can you build a sustainable competitive advantage that will enable you to compete with your current and future competitors?
Is it better to start or buy a home interior wholesaler already in operation?
The alternative to setting up a new independent business is to buy out and take over a home interior wholesaler already in operation.
A takeover is a good way of reducing the risk of your project compared with a pure start-up.
Taking over a business has two enormous advantages over setting up a new one: you start out on an equal footing with your competitors since you take over the team and the customer base, and you don't increase the supply on the market enabling you to maintain the existing balance on the market where the business operates.
However, the capital requirements for a takeover are higher because the business will have to be bought from its previous owners.
How will you validate your concept and market positioning before investing in the business?
However you decide to set up your business, you will need to ensure that there is a good fit between what you sell and what customers are looking to buy.
To do this, you'll need to meet your target customers to present your products or services and check that they meet their expectations.
Explore the ideal location to start your home interior wholesaler
The next stage in our guide on how to start a home interior wholesaler: choosing where to set up shop.
Setting up your business in the right location will have a direct impact on your chances of success, so it's a good idea to think things through before you launch.
To help you decide where to set up your business, we recommend considering the following factors:
- Visibility and foot traffic - This is important for a home interior wholesaler because it can attract potential customers and increase sales. Being located in a high-traffic area with good visibility can also help with brand recognition and marketing efforts.
- Parking space, road and public transport accessibility - Home interior wholesalers often deal with large and heavy items, so having adequate parking space and easy accessibility for delivery trucks is crucial. Additionally, being located near public transportation can make it easier for customers to visit the store.
- Proximity to target customers - Being close to the target market can save time and money on transportation costs and make it easier to cater to specific needs and preferences.
- Space to grow - As a wholesaler, it is important to have enough space for inventory and potential growth. A location with room to expand can save the hassle of relocating in the future.
These criteria will need to be refined according to the specific features of your project.
After weighing the factors mentioned earlier, it's crucial to focus on your startup's budget. Look for a location that suits your business needs while being affordable, especially in the short term.
One of the issues that will also come up is the long-term future of your location, particularly if you opt to rent your premises rather than buy. In this case, you will need to consider the conditions for renewing the lease (duration, rent increases, etc.).
Lease agreements vary widely from country to country, so make sure you check the terms applicable to your situation and have your lawyer review your lease before you sign.
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What legal form should I choose for my home interior wholesaler?
The next step to start a home interior wholesaler is to choose the legal form of your business.
The legal form of a business simply means the legal structure it operates under. This structure outlines how the business is set up and defines its legal obligations and responsibilities.
Why is your home interior wholesaler's legal form important?
Choosing the right legal form for your home interior wholesaler is important because this will affect:
- Taxation: your tax obligations depend on the legal structure you choose, and this principle applies to both personal income tax and business taxes.
- Risk exposure: some legal structures have a legal personality (also known as corporate personality) and limited liability, which separates them from the owners running the business. This means that the business would be liable rather than the owners if things were to go wrong (lawsuit, debt owed in case of bankruptcy, etc.).
- Decision-making and governance: how you make key decisions varies based on the legal form of your business. In some cases you might need to have a board of directors and organise general assemblies to enable shareholders to influence major decisions with their voting rights.
- Financing: securing funding from investors requires you to have a company and they will expect limited liability and corporate personality to protect them legally.
- Paperwork and legal formalities: the legal structure you select determines whether certain obligations are necessary, such as producing annual accounts, or getting your books audited.
Popular business legal forms
The specific names of legal structures vary from country to country, but they usually fall within the two main categories below:
- Individual businesses
- Companies
Individual businesses
Individual businesses, like sole traders or sole proprietorships, are made for self-employed entrepreneurs and freelancers rather than businesses which employ staff.
They benefit from straightforward administrative requirements, minimal paperwork to start, simpler tax calculations, and streamlined accounting procedures.
However, the downside is that there's typically no legal distinction between the business and the person responsible for day-to-day operations. This means the owner's personal assets are at risk if the business faces problems or goes bankrupt.
There is also no share capital in such a structure, meaning that individual businesses cannot raise equity from investors which seriously limits funding options.
Companies
Companies are versatile structures suited to projects of all sizes in terms of number of founders, number of employees and amount of capital.
They are a bit more complex to operate than individual businesses with more formalities, stringent accounting requirements, more complex tax implications, etc.
In return, they offer stronger protections to their shareholders. They usually benefit from having their own legal identity and limited liability, meaning co-founders and investors can only ever lose the amount of money they have put into the company.
For instance, if things were to go south (the company files for bankruptcy or there is a legal issue), the company would take the hit, safeguarding the personal assets of the founders and investors.
How should I choose my home interior wholesaler's legal structure?
Deciding on a legal form is easy once you've estimated your sales, decided whether or not you need employees and figured out the number of co-founders joining you.
It's essential to remember that a solid business idea will succeed no matter which legal structure you pick. Tax laws change regularly, so you can't rely on specific tax advantages tied to a particular structure when starting a business.
A proven approach is to look at what legal structures your top competitors are using, and go with the most common option as a working assumption. Once your idea is mature enough, and you're getting closer to officially registering your business, you can get advice from a lawyer and an accountant to confirm your choice.
Can I switch my home interior wholesaler's legal structure if I get it wrong?
Yes, changing your legal structure later is possible, though it may involve selling the old entity to a new entity in some cases, which adds further expenses. If you want to save on such costs, it makes sense to pick the correct legal form for your business the first time around.
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Assess the startup costs for a home interior wholesaler
The next step in creating a home interior wholesaler involves thinking about the equipment and staff needed for the business to operate.
After figuring out what you need for your business, your financial plan will reveal how much money you'll need to start and how much you might make (check below for more details).
Because every venture is distinctive, providing a reliable one-size-fits-all budget for launching a home interior wholesaler without knowing the specifics of your project is not feasible.
Each project has its own particularities (size, concept, location), and only a forecast can show the exact amount required for the initial investment.
The first thing you'll need to consider is the equipment and investments you'll need to get your business up and running.
Startup costs and investments to launch your home interior wholesaler
For a home interior wholesaler, the initial working capital requirements (WCR) and investments could include the following elements:
- Furniture and Fixtures: This includes items such as desks, chairs, shelves, and other necessary furniture for your office space. These items are essential for creating a professional and functional workspace for your home interior wholesale business.
- Inventory: As a home interior wholesaler, it is important to have a diverse and well-stocked inventory to meet the demands of your customers. This includes purchasing products from manufacturers and maintaining a sufficient amount of stock to fulfill orders.
- Warehouse Equipment: A home interior wholesaler will require equipment such as forklifts, pallet jacks, and other machinery to assist with the storage and transportation of inventory. These items are necessary for efficient operations and should be included in your expenditure forecast.
- Technology and Software: In today's digital age, it is crucial for a home interior wholesaler to have the latest technology and software to manage inventory, sales, and finances. This may include investing in a point-of-sale system, inventory management software, and other necessary technology to streamline operations.
- Delivery Vehicles: If your business involves delivering products to customers, it may be necessary to purchase delivery vehicles such as trucks or vans. These vehicles are considered fixed assets and should be included in your expenditure forecast.
Of course, you will need to adapt this list to your business specificities.
Staffing plan of a home interior wholesaler
In addition to equipment, you'll also need to consider the human resources required to run the home interior wholesaler on a day-to-day basis.
The number of recruitments you need to plan will depend mainly on the size of your company.
Once again, this list is only indicative and will need to be adjusted according to the specifics of your home interior wholesaler.
Other operating expenses for a home interior wholesaler
While you're thinking about the resources you'll need, it's also a good time to start listing the operating costs you'll need to anticipate for your business.
The main operating costs for a home interior wholesaler may include:
- Staff costs: This includes salaries, wages, benefits, and any other payroll expenses for your employees. As a home interior wholesaler, you may have a sales team, warehouse staff, and administrative support.
- Accountancy fees: You will need to hire an accountant to manage your financial records, prepare tax returns, and provide financial advice. These fees can vary depending on the complexity of your business.
- Insurance costs: As a wholesaler, you will need to protect your business and inventory with insurance. This can include general liability insurance, property insurance, and product liability insurance.
- Software licences: As a home interior wholesaler, you may need software to manage your inventory, sales, and finances. This can include inventory management software, accounting software, and customer relationship management (CRM) software.
- Banking fees: You will need a business bank account to manage your finances. This may include monthly maintenance fees, transaction fees, and overdraft fees.
- Rent or mortgage payments: If you have a physical location for your business, you will need to pay rent or a mortgage. This can vary depending on the location and size of your space.
- Utilities: You will need to pay for utilities such as electricity, water, and internet for your business location.
- Marketing and advertising: To attract customers, you may need to invest in marketing and advertising efforts. This can include social media advertising, print ads, and trade show expenses.
- Travel expenses: As a wholesaler, you may need to travel to trade shows or meet with suppliers. This can include expenses for flights, hotels, and meals.
- Office supplies: You will need to purchase office supplies such as paper, pens, and printer ink to run your business.
- Shipping and delivery costs: As a wholesaler, you will need to ship and deliver products to your customers. This can include postage, packaging materials, and delivery fees.
- Professional development: To stay competitive in the home interior industry, you may need to invest in professional development for yourself and your employees. This can include attending trade shows, conferences, and training programs.
- Legal fees: As a business owner, you may need to hire a lawyer for legal advice, contract review, and other legal services.
- Taxes: You will need to pay taxes on your business income, property, and payroll. It is important to budget for these expenses throughout the year.
- Office maintenance: If you have a physical location for your business, you will need to budget for office maintenance and repairs.
Like for the other examples included in this guide, this list will need to be tailored to your business but should be a good starting point for your budget.
Creating a sales & marketing plan for your home interior wholesaler
The next step to start a home interior wholesaler is to think about how you are going to attract and retain customers.
You need to ask yourself the following questions:
- What actions can be leveraged to attract as many customers as possible?
- How will you then retain customers?
- What resources do you need to allocate for each initiative (human and financial)?
- How many sales and what turnover can you expect to generate in return?
How you will attract and retain customers depends on your ambition, the size of your startup and the nature of your exact concept, but you could consider the following initiatives.
Your sales forecast may also be influenced by seasonality related to your business type, such as fluctuations during busy holiday periods, and your competitive environment.
Can your business idea be profitable?
Just enter your data and let The Business Plan Shop crunch the numbers. We will tell if your business idea can generate profits and cash flows, and how much you need to get started.
Build your home interior wholesaler's financial forecast
The next step to start your home interior wholesaler: putting your financial projections together.
What is the financial forecast for a home interior wholesaler?
A forecast is a quantified decision-making document that shows the initial investment required to open a home interior wholesaler and the company's potential profitability and cash flow generation over the next 3 to 5 years.
As you think about your home interior wholesaler idea, the main role of financial projections will be to help you decide whether it makes sense to create the company.
Building a financial forecast helps determine the amount of initial financing required to start your home interior wholesaler.
In fact, creating financial projections is the only way to assess the amount of initial financing you'll need to open your home interior wholesaler, and to make sure your project makes economic and financial sense.
Keep in mind that very few business ideas are financially viable. At The Business Plan Shop, we've seen nearly a million business start-up ideas, and we estimate that less than one in four is economically viable.
Your forecast will therefore require your full attention and constant revision, as your project matures. It's also a good idea to simulate different scenarios to anticipate several possibilities (what happens if your sales take longer than expected to ramp up, for example), so you're ready for all eventualities.
When seeking financing, your forecast will be incorporated into your business plan, which is the document you will use to present your business idea to financial partners. We'll come back to the business plan in more detail later in this guide.
Creating and updating your home interior wholesaler's forecast is an ongoing process. Indeed, having up-to-date financial projections is the only way to maintain visibility over your company's future cash flow and cash position.
Forecasting is, therefore, the financial management tool that will be with you throughout the life of your company. Once you've started trading, you'll need to regularly compare the difference between your actual accounts and your forecasts, and then adjust them to maintain visibility over your future cash flows.
What does a financial projection look like?
The following financial tables will be used to present your home interior wholesaler's financial forecast.
The projected P&L statement
Your home interior wholesaler's forecasted P&L statement will enable you to visualise your home interior wholesaler's expected growth and profitability over the next three to five years.
The projected balance sheet of your home interior wholesaler
The projected balance sheet gives an overview of your home interior wholesaler's financial structure at the end of the financial year.
The cash flow projection
A cash flow forecast for a home interior wholesaler shows the projected inflows and outflows of cash over a specific period, providing insights into liquidity and financial health.
Which solution should you use to make a financial projection for your home interior wholesaler?
Using an online financial forecasting tool, such as the one we offer at The Business Plan Shop, is the simplest and safest solution for forecasting your home interior wholesaler.
There are several advantages to using specialised software:
- You can easily create your financial forecast by letting the software take care of the financial calculations for you without errors
- You have access to complete financial forecast templates
- You get a complete financial forecast ready to be sent to your bank or investors
- The software helps you identify and correct any inconsistencies in your figures
- You can create scenarios to stress-test your forecast's main assumptions to stress-test the robustness of your business model
- After you start trading, you can easily track your actual financial performance against your financial forecast, and recalibrate your forecast to maintain visibility on your future cash flows
- You have a friendly support team on standby to assist you when you are stuck
If you are interested in this type of solution, you can try our forecasting software for free by signing up here.
Choose a name and register your home interior wholesaler
The next phase in launching your home interior wholesaler involves selecting a name for your company.
This stage is trickier than it seems. Finding the name itself is quite fun; the difficulty lies in finding one that is available and being the first to reserve it.
You cannot take a name that is similar to a name already used by a competitor or protected by a registered trademark without inevitably risking legal action.
So you need to find a name that is available, and be able to register it before someone else can.
In addition, you will probably want to use the same name for:
- Your company’s legal name - Example LTD
- Your business trading name - Example
- The trademark - Example ®
- Your company’s domain name - Example.com
The problem is that the procedures for registering these different names are carried out in different places, each with their own deadlines:
- Registering a domain name takes only a few minutes
- Registering a new trademark takes at least 12 weeks (if your application is accepted)
- The time taken to register a new business depends on the country, but it's generally fast
You will therefore be faced with the choice of: either registering everything at once and hoping that your name will be accepted everywhere, or proceeding step by step in order to minimise costs, but taking the risk that someone else will register one of the names you wanted in the meantime.
Our advice is to discuss strategy with your legal counsel (see further down in this guide) and prioritise your domain names and registered trademarks. You'll always have the option of using a trade name that's different from your company's legal name, and that's not a big deal.
To check that the name you want is not already in use, you should consult:
- Your country's business register
- The relevant trademark registers depending on which countries you want to register your trade mark in
- A domain name reservation company such as GoDaddy
- An Internet search engine
In this area too, your legal counsel will be able to help with the research and formalities.
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Develop your home interior wholesaler's corporate identity
The next step to launching a home interior wholesaler: defining your company's visual identity.
Your corporate identity defines how your company's values are communicated visually. It makes you unique and allows you to stand out visually from your competitors and be recognized by your customers.
Defining your corporate identity can easily be done by you and your co-founders, using the many free tools available to generate color palettes, logos and other graphic elements. Nevertheless, this task is often best entrusted to a designer or agency to achieve a professional result.
Your home interior wholesaler's visual identity will include the following elements:
- Logo
- Brand guidelines
- Business cards
- Website theme
Logo
The goal is to have stakeholders identify your business logo quickly and relate to it. Your logo will be used for media purposes (website, social networks, business cards, etc.) and legal documents (invoices, contracts, etc.).
The design of your logo must be emblematic, but it's also important that it can be seen on any type of support. To achieve this, it should be easily available in a range of colors, so that it stands out on both light and dark backgrounds.
Brand guidelines
The brand guidelines of your home interior wholesaler act as a safeguard to ensure that your image is consistent whatever the medium used.
Brand guidelines lay out the details like the typography and colors to use to represent your company.
Typography refers to the fonts used (family and size). For example, Arial in size 26 for your titles and Tahoma in size 15 for your texts.
When it comes to the colors representing your brand, it's generally a good idea to stick to five or fewer:
- The main colour,
- A secondary colour (the accent),
- A dark background colour (blue or black),
- A grey background colour (to vary from white),
- Possibly another secondary colour.
Business cards
A rare paper medium that continues to survive digitalization, business cards are still a must-have for communicating your home interior wholesaler contact details to your customers, suppliers and other partners.
In principle, they will include your logo and the brand guidelines we mentioned above.
Website theme
Likewise, the theme of your home interior wholesaler website will include your logo and follow the brand guidelines we discussed earlier.
This will also define the look and feel of the main visual elements on your website:
- Buttons
- Menus
- Forms
- Banners
- Etc.
Navigate the legal and regulatory requirements for launching your home interior wholesaler
The next thing to do in getting a home interior wholesaler off the ground is to handle all the legal and regulatory requirements. We recommend that you be accompanied by a law firm for all of the steps outlined below.
Intellectual property
One of your priorities will be to ensure that your company's intellectual property is adequately protected.
As explained before, you can choose to register a trademark. Your lawyer can help you with a detailed search to make sure your chosen trademark is unique and doesn't clash with existing ones.
They'll assist in preparing the required documents and steer you in picking the right categories and locations for trademark registration.
Moreover, your lawyer can offer guidance on additional measures to protect other intellectual property assets your company may have.
Getting your home interior wholesaler paperwork in order
For day-to-day operations, your home interior wholesaler will need to rely on a set of contractual documents.
Your exact needs in this respect will depend on the country in which you are launching your home interior wholesaler, the number of partners and the envisaged size of the company.
However, you will probably need at least the following documents:
- Employment contracts
- General terms and conditions of sale
- General terms and conditions of use for your website
- Privacy Policy for your website
- Cookie Policy for your website
- Invoices
- Etc.
Applying for licences and permits and registering for various taxes
Operating your business legally may require licences and business permits. The exact requirements applicable to your situation will depend on the country in which you set up your home interior wholesaler.
The lawyers who advise you will also be able to guide you with regard to all the rules applicable to your business.
Similarly, your accountant will be able to help you take the necessary steps to comply with the tax authorities.
Need a convincing business plan?
The Business Plan Shop makes it easy to create a financial forecast and write a business plan to help convince investors that your business idea can be profitable.
How do I write a business plan for a home interior wholesaler?
Once you've completed all the above steps, you can start writing the business plan for your home interior wholesaler.
What is a home interior wholesaler's business plan?
The business plan is a document containing:
- The financial forecast (discussed earlier in this guide), highlighting the project's financing requirements and profitability potential,
- A written presentation, which presents your project in detail and provides the necessary context for the reader to assess the relevance and coherence of your forecast.
The business plan is particularly important: it will help you validate your business idea and ensure its coherence and financial viability.
But it's also the document you'll send to your bank and potential investors to present your plan to open a home interior wholesaler and make them want to support you.
So it's best to draw up a professional, reliable and error-free business plan.
How to write a business plan for my home interior wholesaler?
If you're not used to writing business plans, or if you want to save time, a good solution is to use an online business plan software for startups like the one we offer at The Business Plan Shop.
Using The Business Plan Shop to create a business plan for a home interior wholesaler has several advantages:
- You can easily create your financial forecast by letting the software take care of the financial calculations for you without errors
- You are guided through the writing process by detailed instructions and examples for each part of the plan
- You can access a library of dozens of complete startup business plan samples and templates for inspiration
- You get a professional business plan, formatted and ready to be sent to your bank or investors
- You can create scenarios to stress test your forecast's main assumptions
- You can easily track your actual financial performance against your financial forecast by importing accounting data
- You can easily update your forecast as time goes by to maintain visibility on future cash flows
- You have a friendly support team on standby to assist you when you are stuck
Interested? If so, you can try The Business Plan Shop for free by signing up here.
Need a convincing business plan?
The Business Plan Shop makes it easy to create a financial forecast and write a business plan to help convince investors that your business idea can be profitable.
How to raise finance for my home interior wholesaler?
Once your business plan has been drafted, you’ll need to think about how you might secure the financing necessary to open your home interior wholesaler.
The amount of initial financing required will obviously depend on the size of your home interior wholesaler and the country in which you wish to set up.
Businesses have access to two main categories of financing: equity and debt. Let's take a closer look at how they work and what sources are available.
Equity funding
At a high level, the equity of your home interior wholesaler will consist of the money that founders and potential investors will invest to launch the company.
Equity is indispensable as it provides the company with a source of long-term (often permanent) financing and demonstrates the founders' conviction in the company's chances of success, since their investments would be lost in the event of bankruptcy.
Equity investors can generate a return on their investment through dividends (which can only be paid out if the company is profitable) or capital gains on the resale of their shares (if the company is attractive enough to attract a buyer).
As you can see, the equity investors' position is extremely risky, since their capital is at risk and can be lost in the event of bankruptcy, and the company must be profitable or resellable before they can hope to generate a return on their investment.
On the other hand, the return on investment that equity investors can expect to generate by investing in a home interior wholesaler can be very substantial if the company is successful.
This is why equity investors look for start-up ideas with very high growth or profitability potential, in order to offset their risk with a high potential return on investment.
In technical terms, equity includes:
- Share capital and premiums: which represent the amount invested by the shareholders. This capital is considered permanent as it is non-refundable. In return for their investment, shareholders receive shares that entitle them to information, decision-making power (voting in general assembly), and the potential to receive a portion of any dividends distributed by the company.
- Director loans: these are examples of non-permanent capital advanced to the company by the shareholders. This is a more flexible way of injecting some liquidity into your company than doing so as you can repay director loans at any time.
- Reserves: these represent the share of profits set aside to strengthen the company's equity. Allocating a percentage of your profits to the reserves can be mandatory in certain cases (legal or statutory requirement depending on the legal form of your company). Once allocated in reserves, these profits can no longer be distributed as dividends.
- Investment grants: these represent any non-refundable amounts received by the company to help it invest in long-term assets.
- Other equity: which includes the equity items which don't fit in the other categories. Mostly convertible or derivative instruments. For a small business, it is likely that you won't have any other equity items.
The main sources of equity are as follows:
- Money put into the business from the founders' personal savings.
- Money invested by private individuals, which can include business angels, friends, and family members.
- Funds raised through crowdfunding, which can take the form of either equity or donations (often in exchange for a reward).
- Government support to start-ups, for example, loans on favourable terms to help founders build up their start-up capital.
Debt funding
The other way to finance your home interior wholesaler is to borrow. From a financial point of view, the risk/return profile of debt is the opposite of that of equity: lenders' return on investment is guaranteed, but limited.
When it borrows, your company makes a contractual commitment to pay the lenders by interest, and to repay the capital borrowed according to a pre-agreed schedule.
As you can see, the lenders' return on investment is independent of whether or not the company is profitable. In fact, the only risk taken by lenders is the risk of the company going bankrupt.
To avoid this risk, lenders are very cautious, only agreeing to finance when they are convinced that the borrowing company will be able to repay them without problems.
From the point of view of the company and its stakeholders (workforce, customers, suppliers, etc.), debt increases the risk of the venture, since the company is committed to repaying the capital whether or not it is profitable. So there's a certain distrust towards heavily indebted companies.
Companies borrow in two ways:
- Against their assets: this is the most common way of borrowing. The bank finances a percentage of the price of an asset (a vehicle or a building, for example) and takes the asset as collateral. If the company cannot repay, the bank seizes the asset and sells it to limit its losses.
- Against their future cash flows: the bank reviews the company's financial forecast to estimate how much the company can comfortably borrow and repay, and what terms (amount, interest rate, term, etc.) the bank is prepared to offer given the credit risk posed by the company.
When creating a home interior wholesaler, the first option is often the only one available, as lenders are often reluctant to lend on the basis of future cash flows to a structure that has no track record.
The type of assets that can be financed using the first method is also limited. Lenders will want to be sure that they can dispose of foreclosed assets if needed, so they need to be assets that have an established second-hand market.
That being said, terms and conditions also depend on the lender: some banks are prepared to finance riskier projects, and not all have the same view of your company's credit risk. It also depends on the collateral you can offer to reduce risk, and on your relationship with the bank.
In terms of possible sources of borrowing, the main sources here are banks and credit institutions.
In some countries, it's also possible to borrow from private investors (directly or via crowdlending platforms) or other companies, but not everywhere.
Takeaways on how to finance a home interior wholesaler
Multiple options are available to help you raise the initial financing you need to launch your home interior wholesaler.
There are two types of financing available to companies. To open a home interior wholesaler, an equity investment will be required and may be supplemented by bank financing.
What to do after launching my home interior wholesaler?
Launching your home interior wholesaler is the beginning of an exciting entrepreneurial adventure, and the culmination of your efforts to turn your idea into a reality. But this is also when the real work begins.
As you know, nearly half of all new businesses fail, so you'll need to do everything you can to make your business sustainable right from the start.
Estimating the future financial performance of a home interior wholesaler inevitably involves a degree of uncertainty. That's why we recommend simulating several scenarios: a central case with the most likely scenario, an optimistic case, and a pessimistic case designed to test the limits of your business model.
Normally, your company's actual financial performance, observed after you start trading, should fall somewhere between your pessimistic and optimistic cases.
The important thing will be to quickly measure and compare this actual performance with the figures in your forecast to see where you stand, then update the forecast to re-estimate the future cash flows and cash position of your home interior wholesaler.
This forward-looking financial management exercise is the only way to know where you stand and where you're going. And, when your figures fall short of expectations, to quickly implement actions to turn things around before the company runs out of cash.
There's nothing more dangerous than waiting until you have your accounts, which takes up to nine months after the end of your financial year (if you are in the UK, abroad your mileage will vary), to then realize that you're not on the right track and that your home interior wholesaler won't have enough cash to operate over the next twelve months.
This is where using a forecasting solution that integrates actuals vs. forecast tracking, like The Business Plan Shop's financial dashboards do, can simplify the financial management of your business and help reduce the risk associated with your start-up project.
Need inspiration for your business plan?
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Key takeaways
- To open a home interior wholesaler you need to go through each of the 15 steps we have outlined in this guide.
- The financial forecast is the tool that will enable you to check that your project can be profitable and to estimate the investment and initial financing requirements.
- The business plan is the document that your financial partners will ask you to produce when seeking finance.
- Once you have started trading, it will be essential to keep your financial forecasts up to date in order to maintain visibility of the future cash flow of your home interior wholesaler.
- Leveraging a financial planning and analysis platform that seamlessly integrates forecasts, business plans, and real-time performance monitoring — like The Business Plan Shop — simplifies the process and mitigates risks associated with launching a business.
We hope this practical guide has given you a better understanding of how to open a home interior wholesaler. Please do not hesitate to contact our team if you have any questions or if you would like to share your experience of setting up your own business.
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Founder & CEO at The Business Plan Shop Ltd
