Employee & Freelancer Expenses

$151

$352

Website Costs

$223

$7,215

Business Formation Fees

$5,600

$20,400

Equipment & Supply Expenses

$66

$700

Retail Business Expenses

$1,250

$11,650

Inventory Expenses

$350

$14,750

Software Expenses

$150

$2,475

Advertising & Marketing Costs

$75

$4,786

Total Startup Costs

$7,865

$62,328

PinkBlush

pinkblushmaternity.com

64,153

Pep Stores

pepstores.com

93,816

EDGARS

edgars.co.za

104,457

Ackermans

ackermans.co.za

108,451

Queen Bee

queenbee.com.au

138,140

Pea In the Pod

apeainthepod.com

175,621

Shop Women, Men, Maternity, Baby & Kids Clothes

gap.eu

200,720

Women's Fashion

miladys.com

232,471

Mall of America

mallofamerica.com

286,282

Ripe Maternity

ripematernity.com

297,269

Esprit Fashion for Women, Men & Kids

esprit.com

345,017

Flexibility

You can put as much time into the business as you'd like. If you like the work and have some initial experience, you can start small and manage all aspects of the business on your own.

Scalable

With businesses and processes changing daily, there will always be demand for new features, products and services for your business. Additionally, there are several different business models and pricing tiers you can implement that will allow you to reach all types of customers.

Meaningful business connections

You never know who you will meet as a maternity store. This could be the start of an incredible business opportunity!

High customer retention rates

Once a customer invests in your product, they've invested their time and energy to utilize your product/service which is highly valuable to them. Typically, your product or service becomes indispensable to your customer.

Easy to encourage "impulse buy"

In the maternity store, you have a much higher chance of encouraging your customers to buy on impulse - you can easily alter the price, placement, packaging, and promotional value to influence the decision of your buyer.

Control of workload

With starting a maternity store, you have the unique ability to choose how little or how much you want to work. You also have the freedom to decide which projects you want to work on, and can turn down the ones that do not interest you.

Motivation of employees

If you plan to have a sales/content team on board, finding creative ways to motivate them can be a challenge. It's important that you're able to offer great incentives and a good work environment for your employees.

Longer Sales Process

A maternity store can be a big time and money investment for your customer, so it's important you plan and predict a longer conversion funnel and stay in communication with potential customers.

High employee turnover

In the maternity store, employee turnover is often high, which can be quite costly and time consuming for your business. It's important to try and avoid this as much as possible by offering competitive pay, benefits, and a positive work environment.

Taxes

As a maternity store, you typically pay self-employment taxes which can be quite high. It's important to understand what you will be paying in taxes each year so you can determine if the work you're taking on is worth it.

Niche Market

A niche business is not necessarily a bad thing, in fact, it can be the key to your success. However, it can be more challenging and time consuming to find the perfect niche market and target audience.

High overhead expenses

With starting a maternity store, there are overhead expenses that come with selling a physical product. You will want to make sure you strategically budget for these overhead costs. We discuss this more in the startup costs section below.