mburian02

My Feedback: (2)

just out of curiosity,
i had been thinking about opening a hobby shop here in town since the closest one is over 50 miles away,
i was just curious who i should get ahold of to get info on pricing and and companies where i can get the merchandise, i am not wanting to open anything huge just somewhere locals that have rc hobbies can go to get stuff and order stuff without driving an hour and half round trip,
i would kinda like to know so i can figure out what i will need to get started.... if anyone has any info that might send me in the right direction it would be greatfully appreciated
thanks in advance,
mike

dr_wogz

My Feedback: (3)

Look at how many people you have in the town you live. Can it support a hobby shop? It'll be a pointless endeavour, if only you, and about 10 people would use it.

Then to contact the various manufactureres and suppliers of the parts you intend to carry. I beleive there will be some rules and conditions which must be met in order to continue to carry their stock; like you'll have to move $XX dollars per month, can be the only dealer within XX miles of teh next hobby shop supplier. And teh biggest deterrent (I see) is that you'll probably have to buy the first lot of stock up front.

And, trying to stock 'only the things you 'll need' can add up to a lot of stock! There's always soemthing else you'll need to stock for Jim, or Bob..

Thern there's inventory control. You'll need a system to track inventory, and record the sales. Some POS Z(Point Of Sale) software will have to be purchaced.

And the work involved to get set up, to advertise, to manage the store, the one night the store front gets driven into, and you have to wait all night untill morning to get the window repaired..

Also serioulsy think about starting out with a web based business, and the store is really just a front / warehouse, as more and more companies are doing mail order via the internet.

Sorry, I sound pessimistic, but I have thought of this myself. I know of two owners, and they are happy, but have worked hard to get where tney are.

Another way to think about this, if there is only a few of you, is to start a Co-op type thing, where if one person is making a Hobby shop run, he makes a run for every one! and has a list. He also picks up extras, and keeps them in a box or somthing, and selss them as required. Also would apply to mail orders, shipping will be about the same if you order one packet of hinges, as opposed to many little packets of things...

cstevenpeterson

My Feedback: (21)

Hi,

The only info I have is to start with the following link. It will give you some info on becoming a GP reseller. Hope this is of some help.

http://www.gpmd.com/howto.html

Steve

FLYBOY

My Feedback: (11)

I had a hobby shop in the back of our office supply store the whole time I was in high school and college. I had about $25,000 in inventory and sold a ton, but it would never pay rent on a building, overhead and saleries. We basically broke even and payed for our stuff we used. There is no money in it. You buy at 40% off on most things, but radios, engines, kits and high dollar items you make about $5 to $10 because you have to match mail order. If you don't match, you don't sell. It was a ton of fun and I would put one in our office now in a heart beet if I could get the dealerships back, but I sold them with the shop when I went to flight school and the company that I sold to folded a few years later. I still can't get the dealerships back because another hobby shop that doesn't do RC has dealerships with great planes, horizon and all the others and even though they don't sell RC, the dealers won't sell to anyone else. It is a joke. We are stuck ordering now.

You have to have a lot of inventory to make a living at it, and you have to turn it fast. You can't have stuff sitting. Need to branch out into many things besides RC. Trains, cars, models, and anything else that will help pay the rent. Just RC and you will die fast and quiet unless you have lots of money to carry the rent and inventory.

Its a tough business anymore. I wouldn't want to rely on it as income unless it was huge and mail order.

daveopam

My Feedback: (9)

We had a guy try it here. The problem was the minimum that had to bought each month to be a Great Planes dealer. Best I can remmember it was $5000 opening order and $1000. per month. He tried some other sources that didn't have the quotas. The problem is what kind of stuff can you get.It was all off brand engines and radios. Great Planes and Horrizon have a lock on the most desirable stuff. I wish you all the luck if you try it. Look real close at your customer base first. I would guess you would need 300,000-400,000 people in you base to make a go. In OKC there are two full time hobby shops serving about 1,000,000 people. Maybe if you live where the weather is nicer your customer base could be smaller.


David

Ducted Fan Dan

My Feedback: (2)

Two days ago you wanted to know what AMA was.

Then you wanted to find a local club.

Now you want to open a hobby shop.

If there are no clubs in your area, then my guess would be that the front door on your hobby shop would never wear out.

VERY few people in this hobby make money.

So my advice is to mortgage the house, car, dog, whatever, put all of that money into inventory and rent, get a primo location and swing the doors open and let the rush begin. Oh yeah, you may need to buy a dump truck to take all the money to the bank.

Good luck, I would come to your store but I do 95% of my shopping on the internet.

bbbair

This is a nasty conversation but I must agree - it is a hard business to make money in.

My LHS is run out of a converted garage attached to the owner's house, he is a retired pilot and does it for the fun of it (he must be a masochist) he will open be 24/7 if you need something and will tune engines, balance your plane etc...

The bottom line here is that he grosses about $30K / year and would have been out of business long ago if he actually had to make a living at it.

If you have a desire to support the local modelling community, Fine. Start small in your basement on weekends and evenings, branch out to the net if you feel the need but I would not "bet the farm" just yet!

Happy Landings

dr_wogz

My Feedback: (3)

We have a total of about 4 LHS in Montreal, Quebec (and Montreal is teh second largest city in the country! Pushing about 7 million I beleive.

'Distribution Modelist' is dedicated to RC, but are out in the sticks (City of Laval).

'Hobbyville' is closer, but also does models, toys, train, colelctables, etc.. RC is only a part of their business

'Udisco', which are HUGE! They are also the whioleseller for those plastic kits, as well as a few other things. They recently have opned their doors to teh public. But they do everything! models, trains, boats, RC stuff, and some toys.

'Ted's Hobbies', which used to be a prime hobby shop, but have changed more to crafts, as I guess that's what eth market wants; beads, felts, embrodery stuff, and of course, toys.. They used to have a small RC dirt track in the parking lot, but has since long gone..

And then ther' the shop out in Richelieu, which is RC airplane sopecific, but from what I understand, it is a barn on the guy's property, and jsut does it for the love of planes, building, and RC. his other barn seems to be junk, as in old antiques, rustly old steam tractors, etc..

there are the odd 'toys stores'; in the malls that sell some RC stuff, but teh kids behind teh counter know little if anything about it.. An ARF hanging from teh ceiling, 2 radios in teh counter along with maybe three engines..

DBCherry

My Feedback: (4)

There was a thread a few months back that was filled with real good info about the pros and cons (mostly cons) of opening a hobby shop.

Try doing a search because it grew fairly large.
Dennis-

Mike18

I'v heard a good way to make a small fortune in the R/C hobby buisness is to start out with a BIG fortune.

mburian02

My Feedback: (2)

I wasn't planning to live off of it, we have a r/c race track here and they sell nothing but car and truck parts in their speed shop that sells nothing but electric parts and they are way to high on prices because they are the only ones in this town, so i just had a small idea and thought i would ask a few question before i thought much more about it, i just know that when i have to buy something i either have to drive 120 miles round trip to get it or order it and wait a week or two to get what i need... and my guess is that maybe that is a big reason the local clubs are thinning out around here, i have always been interested in r/c whatever but didn't ever want to get into it because of the drive and the wait for whatever you need,
i just wanted a small place to carry a varioty of parts , fuel, plane kits, boat kits, car/truck kits,etc but really just carry the main stuff like fuel, glow plugs, tool kits , monokote, some basic electronics, i work a full time job and live pretty good and thought i might try to do a little good to the hobby around this area maybe even get a few more people into it, and yes ofcourse get it on the net and who knows it may turn into something and maybe not....

just thought i would try and do something possitive..............sorry for asking

ifixairplanes

My Feedback: (9)

Try contacting hobby town HQ. Hobby town is a franchise and they set you up with computers registers inventory control suggested stock shelving etc etc etc etc. I worked at a brand new hobbytown in my area and the owner never even drove an RC car before. Now he has a very successful hobby store and the best part is...he is within walking distance of my house...thats less than 1/4 mile! If there are none in your area then go for it! you will have the market for that area and you will do good! good luck!!!

sean

CrashBurn69

My Feedback: (1)

If everyone charges so much, then all you need to do is use Tower and other internet shops, order in bulk to save on shipping and just use of 10% markup on everything, if that would cover shipping and net you some cash. Just make sure to get the proper business license and take care of your taxes.

Ducted Fan Dan

My Feedback: (2)

Here's a thought, talk to the hobby shop that sells the cars and see if they would be interested in you setting up an airplane part of their shop. You could use some of their space, share rent and utlities and you can take care of anything that has to do with flying.

FLYBOY

My Feedback: (11)

Don't be sorry, you asked a good question. Just because its hard, don't take it the wrong way. The wholesalers set up to stop basement marketers, so they make it very hard to buy. If you want it bad enough, you can make it happen. If you are not willing to spend a bunch of money to make it work, don't try. It isn't an easy thing to do and doesn't make much. Thats all people are trying to tell you.

Ducted Fan Dan

My Feedback: (2)

Unfortunately, as cool as R/C airplanes are, there are VERY few people in America (relative to the population) that fly. Take RCU for instance, anyone who is serious about the hobby knows about and is a user of RCU. What are we up to now? 90,000? That is less than 10% of the population of Columbus, OH alone. So even though it seems popular to us, because we are involved with it, our numbers are very small. Which is why it is easier for companies to dictate the market.

CrashBurn69

My Feedback: (1)

And also out of that 90,000 not everyone flys. You also have car, truck, and boat people as well.

FLYBOY

My Feedback: (11)

Hate to disagree with that statement, but in both of our clubs here, and there are a lot of serious flyers, there are maybe 6 that get on RCU. The rest are not members and dont visit the site for various reasons, mostly that they don't get on the internet or don't visit web boards.

It is a small hobby relitively. Noone can argue that.

kdheath

I saw somewhere recently that the RC hobby business amounts to about $2 billion yearly in the US. Not bad, but anymore, a $2B company is pretty small potatoes. Our local basement HS guy does a fair amount of business with Sig and GP, among others. He orders for people and sells at reasonable mark-downs. But, he does it for fun and as a retirement hobby, and you catch him when you can. I would either do that, or if my financial statement was up to it, seek a Hobby Town franchise. Depends on your goals, desires and population base. Good luck, hope you can do something good. I immensely dislike big "hobby" stores that don't know their _____ from their elbows about what they sell.

CafeenMan

I know a lot of serious flyers who have never heard of RCU. They aren't the kind of people who are into hanging out in front of their computers. Many of them aren't even online. But I do agree that our numbers are very small.

Now think about some of the other modeling factions - Control Line, free flight, etc. and then think about their sub-factions. Makes you wonder how some of those guys can do it at all when they're looking for parts for something that only 50 people in the U.S. do.

As far as it goes, the sport R/Cers have it pretty good as far as having equipment to choose from and it being available.

I can't say anything about what it takes to own a hobby shop. But I can say that if you can even barely stay in business, I'd rather be poor doing something I love then a little better off doing something I hate.

- Paul

ballgunner

My Feedback: (1)

I've been in the design and manufacturing area as well as LHS. Unless you're mail order don't expect to make a living, or even a fair return on your time and investment dollars. Research indicates that it takes a marketing area, your town and the ones close by, of at least 250,000 population to make a fair living in the hobby business. You can make a million dollars in the business if you start with 10 million. Personally I'd be happy if the nearest LHS was only fifty miles distant instead of 90. I am forced to rely on the internet for supplies but so far I've had good luck.

runover1

My Feedback: (10)

Here is a link to a site that distributes magazines soley to hobby shop owners. I hope it helps. http://www.hobbymerchandiser.com/

Cliffw

We have a very sucessful hobby shop both retail and Mail-Order. 20 % of our business goes over seas and we are now looking to build several indoor tracks.

Interested in what your local tracks charge for daily track usage?
Do any of them offer birthday party packages and provide the equipment?
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks