Interview with Tom Sheppard of Sheppard’s Bear Den Antiques
I interviewed Tom Sheppard who owned Sheppard’s Bear Den Antiques in downtown Waynesville. I wanted to get a realistic perspective from someone who owned a small business in this area. Even though he owned a shop with good quality items, they were unable make end meet. He lost the business after 6 months of trying to sell it at the lowest possible rate. This is all due to the market in this area, because it is such a seasonal area it is hard to keep a business going through the winter months. What I have learned from Tom is that you need to create a business that is the something that will be able to sustain low income months. Something that everyone needs or wants. It definitely makes me feel more cautious and weary about starting my own business. That I would need to be prepared for such a setback. I hope you can learn something from my interview with Tom as well.
Interview Questions:
1. Tell me a little bit about how you started Sheppard’s Bear Den Antiques, sort of an overview?
For many years we have been selling antiques by renting a booth in an antique mall. This allowed us to sell some of our antiques without the overhead of a business and without having to work a store every day. Here is how this works. An antique mall will rent space monthly by the square foot ($1 to $1.25 sq ft, minimum 10’ x 10’ space). They staff the mall and do the selling. When an item sells they get an additional 10% – 15% of that sell. Some malls also charge for credit card expenses (another 2% – 3%). Our responsibility is to restock our space, keep it clean and organized and price our merchandise.
When we retired to NC we decided to open our on store. We basically wanted to have a Mom & Pop hands on business. We also had a working partner with a lady who has been in the antique business for many years.
2. Could you give me some examples to illustrate the challenge you faced in starting
Sheppard’s Bear Den Antiques?
The challenge, as I see it, to opening any business is start up monies, location of business, selling environment (seasonal customers, tourism, weather) and promotion of business.
3. When problems arise, how did you resolve them?
One of the first is whether to buy property or to rent. Both has issues. If you buy a property you must determine if it really is the right location for your business, how hard it will be to get the business opened (licensing, ok from municipality, meeting ordinances and codes, etc). This is big as many openings of business are delayed by outside influences. This causes the business to start off deeper in a hole financially as they have laid out more rent and expenses without any income coming in. If renting it is best to find a building that has previously been used in a similar manner (typically that building will then have already met local ordinances and codes). We learned that parking can be a real issue that in our case was outside of our control to remedy. We also had issues with soup kitchen in our area that caused issues. One of our biggest issues that I never resolved is how to most effectively use your marketing dollars in such a way that you are assured that your monies are well spent.
4. How have the experiences that you have had during your entire career influenced the way you now run your own company?
For an antique business I felt that the vast majority of customers like to actually touch and see the merchandise prior to buying. That is how I am. Also that if you are going to be something be what you say you are. What I mean by this is that many so called “antique business” sell reproductions, new items, items made in China, etc. This is not an antique business. Thus I wanted to be “true” to my business. This got us a lot of praise about our store. It was really how unreal it was to constantly hear that our store was “like a museum”, the “best antique store we have been into in a long time”, etc. Unfortunately those comments did not result in increased sales.
5. When someone joins your company, how do you orient them as a member of your team?
We did not have employees and if we had we would have been out of business much sooner.
6. How do you keep up with best practices in your industry?
We didn’t. Most antique stores are no longer true antique stores (see comments above). We also did not sell on the internet? Why. People can’t touch and feel the item. Obviously this limits our market. Other issues? Many of our items are too large and heavy for easy shipping. Many of our items are breakable. While internet sales broaden the market they have also drove down prices substantially in the antique business world.
7. Could you describe a typical day?
Our store was open 6 days a week, 10 am till 5 pm. We would warmly greet customers, answer questions, move stock around to change appearance, keep things clean, bring in new antiques, etc.
8. How did you first enter your line of work?
As a hobby. Antiques fascinate me. Their history. How they were made (before computers and sophisticated machinery). The quality of the workmanship and the materials (In many ways much better quality then today).
9. What advice would you give to someone who was considering starting their own business?
Small towns in Western NC are different than where we came from (Tampa, FL & West Palm Beach, FL). AS you have probably seen it is very tough for small businesses to make it around here and for some larger business. First you must be in the right location (to draw maximum customers, not just physical location but how you can market that business. In Frog Level business district there were very strict regulations on signage on windows and outside of business. This hurt us a lot.) Second your overhead cost have to be really manageable as our business dropped as much as 50% – 70% during the months of Jan – Apr due to weather, tourism, etc. a question you need to ask yourself before opening a business in Western NC and probably many small towns is can the local community support your business enough to keep it profitable? To me you either need very low overhead expenses and you need, at least for a retail store, to have a product that nearly everyone who walks thru the door of your business walks out with a purchase. Lastly be prepared that if your business fails you can survive the experience.
10. How do you keep up with current events in your industry, and as a business person in general?
For the antique market you have to compete with your local area. For us that was Western NC and Asheville. If you have price you items so that they will be sold. Many items I could have sold for more in a larger market like Atlanta or Charleston.
11. What kind of formal education and additional specialized training would you recommend that a person should acquire to enter into a profession like yours?
Obviously the social media world is growing and changing very fast. Keeping up with that is a must. Otherwise it is knowing your specific market.
12. What made you decide to turn a hobby into a business?
The love of “picking”. The art of finding and buying antiques and finding truly unique items. Had to start selling some items as I was running out of room in my house.
13. What did you have to do to get your business started? For example taking out a loan, getting investors, or using your own savings?
Since we had been in malls for many years we already had an inventory which was a big plus. We started off in a small building for a couple of years then moved to a bigger location. Used my personal monies.
14. How long did it take you to plan your business before you started it?
I had been planning to open a business after retirement for many years so I was fairly ready when the time came.
15. How did you promote your business?
Facebook and Craigslist. Antique Trail website.
16. How long did it take after opening to see a profit?
Never really made a profit. The winter months dug us such a hole that we spent the rest of the year working to break even or a little more.
17. Do you have any business partners or have you ever considered having a partner?
Yes we had a working partner, an elderly lady who had been in the antique business for years who wanted to sell some of her remaining inventory, but did not want a salary as she was on SS.
18. Did you ever think of selling the business or passing it down?
The business was up for sale for 6 months. No one made an offer and I was basically selling the business for the cost of the inventory.
19. Does social media play a role in your business? For example facebook, linkedin, etsy, blogs or your own webpages?
Not as much as it should but for us older folks who do not use or know social media like you younger folks it is a real challenge.
20. What led you to close up your business?
Very long unprofitable winters and lack of affordable right locations for a Mom & Pop business.
21. If you were to re-open your business again, is there anything you would do differently?
Lots as indicated above but the reality in today’s market in small towns is I think for retail businesses your chance for long term success is very slim. The long time small businesses in Waynesville that are still alive are because they either own the building they are in from many years ago or their landlords have kept their costs down during this bad economic stretch because they realized they had good tenants who could only survive by keeping overhead down. The plus for the building owner is that their building stayed rented by their good, loyal tenant.
