Starting a Cigar Shop

Starting a cigar shop gives a cigar enthusiast with a huge business opportunity for chasing his hobby. After the late dot-com bubble, cigar stores together with other high end stores began a revival in city centers and shopping centers throughout the United States. Cigar shops are a trendy and swanky store in a lot of cities in the United States. Follow the following instructions if you wish to start a cigar shop:

 1.   Make sure you are conforming to the state and federal rules and guidelines concerning tobacco and retail. Search for a desired location for your shop and then refer to the city’s regulations to confirm if tobacco products can be traded in that place.  These ordinances can be given by the city’s business license division or its online website for regulations or your city’s chamber of commerce.

2.   Fix a shop to sell the cigars. By and large, cigar stores appeal to a lot of impulse and walk-in buyers. The best way to draw this market segment is by choosing a location with a direct entrance from the pavement and in a high pedestrian traffic area. Regardless you buy or rent the shop, make sure that you have sufficient room for cigar humidification by installing a humidor in order to preserve the freshness of the cigars. Also try to have enough room for a lounge area to let consumers to smoke your tobacco products.

3.   Find a supplier. The secret to retail is to purchase products at wholesale rates and sell at retail rates. This will require you to have a good relationship with a distributor of wholesale cigars. This can range from warehouse stores for smaller buying to factory direct for larger buying with subject to the size of your store. Select cigars that let you charge the highest price over your cost. One way could be by importing cigars straight from a foreign country like the Dominican Republic.

4.   Make sure you promote your shop and products. Some of the ways of advertising are giving advertisements in cigar magazines like “Cigar Aficionado”, the phone book and local established and widespread magazines and newspapers. You could also advertise by stating that your cigar prices are as good as any best online cigar prices. Look for ways to focus on your main target consumers, which usually have been men from 25 to 45 years.

5.   Expand your business. A cigar shop will in all probability not pay for store operating costs and expenses if it is able to sell only few cigars each month. You will require to grow your business to increase income. Some ways to expand your business include extending other tobacco products like cigarettes and pipes. Another way is to stocking higher-priced products like lighters and humidors. Moreover you could find methods to raise the cost the cigars like maybe you could charge your clients to smoke in the shop.

Guidelines and Warnings

Remember that the United States citizens can buy cigars online USA but are not permitted to import cigars from Cuba as it is against the federal law. In addition, they are also not allowed to import Cuban cigars from another country like Canada indirectly.