How You Can Add 5 Mini Businesses Inside Your Existing Retail Business And Make Extra 1k/Month | Part-1

I am sure as a business owner your goal always is to see how you can increase sales and generate more profit. Well, there are ways we can do that without getting into any huge investments. I want to show you how we can add income to our bottom line by simply adding some extra income generating mini businesses to our existing business. The ideas I will be talking about today does not only apply to gas stations but most other brick and mortar retail businesses can try these and see some extra monthly income in their pocket. So stay tuned.

In gas station setting as I mentioned and I am sure all of you already know that we carry over 2000 items so what else can we add that can generate extra income. Well for this we have to think little outside the box. I am not asking you to add more varieties of candy, cigarettes or grocery, we talked about how to do merchandising properly in an episode where we talked a lot about different merchandising ideas. So this is not about that. It is about adding something that is different than what you currently carry in your store; it is like opening a mini store within your existing store. Add items and lines of products that your competitors do not carry, be a leader in those products for your area. Stand out in the crowd.

Most of what I will talk about today, some of you may have tried already or seen these in other businesses in your area. But don’t worry let’s just dive in and go through the list and I will explain each of them and how to do them.

1. Having a mini vape shop.

By now every one of us have seen people smoking those electronic cigarettes, most of you already are selling some of the ones big tobacco companies force upon you to sell like the Blu by Lorillard, Mark Ten by Phillip Morris and Vuse by RJ Reynolds. I am a smoker myself, and back in 2012 after a minor throat surgery I could not smoke cigarettes for a few days but I needed my nicotine fix, so I started looking to see what I can find as far as e-cigarettes. I found some locally and bought them and started vaping. But none of them lasted more than an hour or two before they ran out of liquid or ran out of charge. But one thing it did, it made me very curious, and I wanted to find everything there is to know about the e-cigarette. So I went online did a lot of research and ordered some good quality e-cigs and accessories from some online vendors and got into it heavily. In the next two years, I got it so much that I made a couple of trips to China and started importing them directly and started a business locally wholesaling the e-cigarettes to many local gas stations and c-stores. When I first started to put these stuff in my own stores I saw an immediate jump in my sales, I was doing $200-$300 a day just on e-cig and accessories and this was around mid 2013 time frame. Fast forward to 2015, now there are vape shops in every corner, but since I directly import from China and only buy from reputable vendors, my quality has always been above average compared to most other local e-cigarette retailers. I also sell them cheaper compared to most other retailers. But the sales have dropped off some, I won’t deny it, still at 50% profit margin it is still a very profitable niche market, and I still sell $50-$100 a day and at the end of the month I average around $1000-$1300 net profit from this mini venture in each store.

I am not asking you to import directly from China like I did, but find some local supplier and start carrying a full line of e-cigarettes and all the accessories with a nice clean display, and you will see a rise in sales.

I want to get little more into this vaping business. First let me explain for those of you who don’t know what e-cigarette is exactly. The e-cigarette is a vaping device that runs on rechargeable battery. Every e-cig device has two parts to it, one the lower part which is the battery and the top part which is called the atomizer. A typical battery can last you 6 months to a year all you have to do is recharge it daily. Atomizer is where the game happens, meaning you fill the atomizer with e-liquid that has nicotine in it, and it atomizes the liquid into smoke meaning it vaporizes the liquid into smoke, and thus you see smoke coming out of e-cigarettes. Good news is atomizers, unlike battery, do not last as long, they typically last couple of weeks, so the money is in the atomizers, at least for me that is how I make most of the money by selling atomizers.

Lately I have noticed most gas station carry some e-cigarettes but the mistakes most retailers make, is they only carry the whole kit for around $25-$75 price range. But think of this, if you are already an e-cig smoker, chances are you already have the battery, the charger, and the atomizer. Only items you will need to buy often are the atomizers and the e-liquid. So why not concentrate on those two items more and this way you will have sales every day. I set up atomizer and battery racks in every store along with many other accessories from chargers to drip tips and neck slings. I also run a promotion in every store to attract new customers who never tried e-cigarettes. I put an ad on the door that says “Buy an electronic cigarette kit for $19.99 and get two bottles of e-liquid of your choice for FREE.” I charge the store around $10.00, and they sell to customers for $19.99 so as you can see it is 50% profit margin. This promotion works well because in customers mind they think hey I can spend $20 and see if I like it. The amount of money is small enough for most customers to risk and see if they would like to start vaping or not. This way two things may happen, one you may gain a new vaping customer who will buy from you on a regular basis or he may give it to a friend after trying who may like it and become a customer of yours.

Just remember if you do decide to do this make sure to carry various good quality atomizers and heavy duty batteries in nice displays. 70% of my e-cigarette sales come from 4 type of items, first and foremost Atomizers, 2nd good quality heavy duty batteries, 3rd e-liquid and 4th other accessories like chargers and such. The rest of the 30% are from selling various good quality kits.

One more thing I want to mention is in some states where Marijuana is legal like Colorado, those retailers see a huge surge in sales of electronic cigarette kits that are designed to smoke dry herb type products. These devices are typically called Dry Herb Kits. They work very similar to e-liquid devices but instead of atomizing /vaporizing liquid they vaporize dust form of various dry herbs. Also for areas where the medical marijuana is legal, most of those patients are now using dry herb dives to consume cannabis instead of the traditional ways. Because if someone is really sick and can’t hardly walk outside to light up a cigarette, it is rather convenient for them to press a button and inhale the pain reducing medicine that some marijuana plant provide. But please make sure to check what are the requirements and laws in your state before jumping into it.

I do know this, on my last visit to Shenzhen, China one of the big manufacturers showed me how some people are using dry herb devices to smoke some healthy herbs like bay leaves. I did not know that if you have a sore throat, vaping bay leaves can alleviate the pain in your throat, now I am not sure how much research has been done on this but it does help as I have tried it myself.

So my point being, dry herb devices are not only for smoking marijuana but also to smoke other herbs that are completely legal.

So if you haven’t already, go set up a small area on your checkout counter and start selling some e-cig products and make sure to advertise it well. You will add an extra $500-$1000 profit to your bottom line I promise.

2. Novelty and health products

This is another area we all need to concentrate on. Novelty, remembers every store around you sell the same beer, the same cigarettes, and many other items, but not everyone may carry the same novelty items that you do. Say you are in Dallas, and you start carrying Dallas Maverick T-Shirts and Caps at a reasonable price. On game days, you may sell out of those T-shirts fast. When it comes to supporting local sports team people are generally very passionate, so use their passion to your advantage, but not in a bad way but by giving them what they want and making money at the same time.

Similarly in our line of business there is a huge demand for energy-related supplemental products, and I am sure you have seen a surge in the sale when it comes to 5-hour energy and that type of products. Why not capitalize on some great energy products, why not find out what sells and what is hot in the market then display them with a competitive price. Have a wide variety of similar products and not just 5-hour energy. Since we know it is a hot market, get more variety of health-related products and set up a separate area just for that.

Also, think about other novelty items that are only area specific. For example, in country stores, during hunting season, carry deer corn, they sell great and you may some extra money. In areas where fishing is big, carry some unique fishing accessories or even live baits. Just be creative, find a niche that no one else is carrying around you, then start carrying them and use word of mouth to advertise that product.

3. Cigars in humidifier

This idea only works around well to do neighborhood stores. I tried this last year in one of our stores and was surprised with the result. I bought a humidifier for around $500 that can sit right behind the checkout counter has led light inside it, and I ordered some $5-$15 range fine cigars and stocked them in there. First two weeks we hardly sold any but then it started to sell, and now we do around $150 each week in cigar sell. Again it is not a huge revenue maker but it brings a few extra people through the door who buy other items and gasoline as well. Try it and you may be surprised.

4. Carry a Good Selection of Wines

Most typical convenience stores have anywhere from 4-8 feet section (shelf space) of paper products where they typically carry bathroom tissue to paper towels to laundry detergent and other cleaning and paper products. Most of these products do not sell well in C-store setting anymore, and that is why if you walk into a 7-11 or similar big chain stores you will hardly find these type of products anymore. In our stores, we finally moved away from those slow moving items a year ago and dedicated those valuable shelf spaces to carrying wines.

We first did some calculation, when we had all the paper products, we were generating around $100/week sales from that 8 feet gondola shelving space. We decided to condense that to a 4 feet area and took the other 4 feet and filled up with wine bottles ranging from $5-$15. From very next month, we started generating around $350-$450 each week from wine sales. So that was an increase of around $300 extra sales each week and $1200 each month. At 30% margin, we are now making an extra $480-$500 each month just from reorganizing and merchandising wine bottles in our store.

5. Red Box video Rental

 

This is another great way to bring traffic to your store. It is an indirect way to increase sales. I am sure you all know and seen these small Red boxes in various places like a grocery or drug stores. But you can also apply and see if they will approve your location to have one of their video rental boxes. These small DVD rental boxes attract a wide range of customers. Once they are in your parking lot and next to your front door, chances are that once they rent the movie they want, they will go inside your store and grab some snacks, soda or beer to go along with their movie.

So far we talked about 5 ideas, like e-cigarettes, novelty and health related products, Cigars, wine and then Red Box movie rental booths. Take this as ideas and then do your own market research and find out what other similar items that you can sell in your store. You are not limited to these items there are plenty of other items that may do very well in your area. I am here to have you think outside the box.

In the next blog post I will address the second part of this mini business addition to our business series where I will touch on two specific categories like food and money and how we can add related mini-businesses that relate to these two categories so check back and make sure to read that next week.

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