Many people now just assume that with computers being used by a higher percentage of the population that stationery and therefore stationery stores have become obsolete, but that couldn’t be further from the truth! In this article I am going to go over the reasons why buying a stationery business could be right for you, as well as the reasons why it might not be the best industry for you to invest your money into.
Pros of buying a stationery business
Recession proof industry
Buying a business can be a very risky career option, this is why more and more entrepreneurs are looking for business opportunities within industries that perform well even during tough economic times and recessions. The stationery industry is a recession proof industry. In fact, the industry as a whole has sometimes performed better in times of recession. This is due to reasons such as children and students in general are always going to have stationery such as notebooks, pens and pencils regardless of the economy at the time!
Less risk when buying an existing business
With entrepreneurs now trying to minimise the amount of risk involved in any investment that they make, it does make a lot more sense to buy an existing business as opposed to starting your own business from scratch. This is because usually the hardest time of running a business is the initial days, weeks and months of trying to get the business off the ground and build up a good reputation with customers/suppliers in the local area as well as finding the right staff to hire. With buying an existing business these factors are not something that you need to worry about, if you do your due diligence you will be buying the right business with all the fundamentals put in place leaving you to just pick up where the previous owner left off.
Cons of buying a stationery business
Potential over reliance on a handful of clients
Most stationery firms make most of their money from supplying big companies/education facilities with stationery. This is a good thing as well as a bad thing, it is good because big orders bring in big lump sums of money at any given time. However, some stationery businesses become too reliant on the big orders, meaning that if the big orders are lost to another stationery company that is offering more competitive prices for instance, that is a big loss to be made at the expense of losing one customer.
Low profit margins on stationery
Stationery stores make a low profit margin on each product sold, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing if you are selling enough of your products. However, if not this is something that can be problematic.
The Verdict
It is clear that there are pros and cons of buying a stationery business for sale. With that being said, there are many positives regarding the stationery industry such as the growth and the fact that the industry usually either outperforms other industries or grows throughout recessions! Thank you for reading this article, if you now think that buying a stationery business would be a good idea for you please click here to view the stationery businesses we currently have for sale in our directory.
