Are you starting a business that could use retail space, but you can’t justify renting a storefront? Find a tiny space inside another business that can be your incubator.
Who could display
This can work for all kinds of physical-display businesses:
- Artists
- Crafts
- Authors
- Resellers
- Photographers
- Shelf stable foods and beverages
- Small manufacturers
- Agri-products like beeswax candles or goat milk skin care
Who could host
And any kind of bricks and mortar business could host:
- Retail stores
- Lodging
- Coffee shops and restaurants
- Services like insurance or legal offices
- Cultural spaces like museums
The host business doesn’t have to be related to the pop-up. In fact, when they’re not related, both sides benefit from exposure to both sets of customers.
Many small town businesses struggle to keep enough merchandise on display to make the store feel full and vibrant. Adding a pop-up business can help fill out the interior.
Together, you’re creating an experience for your customers that they can’t get anywhere else.
See also: How do you get merchants to host pop-ups inside their business?
Start with one wall, one shelf, one square foot of retail space. Here are some pictures to inspire your creativity.
Photography in a clothing store
One square-foot retail
Beauty salons are natural business incubators. Salons always have other little businesses growing inside them because they have great foot traffic. This is an opportunity to do more with the same amount of space.
Probably the smallest pop-up I’ve seen is this stack of headbands, crafted by a local high school senior raising money for her mission trip. It fit into one square foot of the retail counter.
The One Wall Bookstore
I love the one-wall bookstore idea! How many times have people said your town is too small for a bookstore? You’re not too small for anything if it only needs one wall!
A building of tiny shops
Besides the one-wall kids’ bookshop, this building is divided into many different small retail shops.
Local art and photography
Every local business (retail, service, office…) needs art on their walls. Every local artist needs to get in front of new customers. Put those together, and you have an amazingly easy local art project.
Fill just one shelf
A local hobby farm doesn’t need a full retail store for their goat milk products. One section of an endcap display in the local pharmacy may be just right.
Start ’em young
Anyone with even a few products can display on a shelf. This high school student displayed insider their local salon.
Make a visual change from the host business
Use a different type of flooring, and it will look like a store-within-a-store. Don’t miss the rack of books by the local author.
Provide products that are hard to find locally
For resellers, consider products that aren’t offered anywhere else in your town, like hardware items.
Fill every corner
Even lodging and B&Bs can host pop-ups.
Add one shelving unit
Divide a building and share
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Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.
