Once you embark on the journey of owning a retail shop in the heart of Riyadh, part of that journey is making the store speak to the people of the city. Being a central hub for businesses of all kinds and having one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, Riyadh is a dream destination for entrepreneurs to set up their retail business.
Establishing the company is stage 1, finding the most appropriate home for your retail business is stage 2, designing your retail location is 3 with a view to stage 4 being people flooding to your outlet.
But we have to go in order. To get your vision, values and brand identity to shine through, there’s two approaches. Should you go DIY or do you get the professional retail fit-out specialists involved?
For some it might appear that there’s not that much to it and it’s something that someone with the ability to watch YouTube videos and hold a screwdriver the right way round could do. But is it?
When it comes to DIY retail fit-outs though here are three of the downsides to consider.
If you are not a fit-out contractor or have years of experience in the profession, you need to remember that you are probably just one person, rather than a team and therefore can’t do everything. Developing additional skills requires proper training, experience working on various projects of different sizes, and continuous upgrading skills with the changing trends and demands, which takes time. It’s not possible to possess expertise similar to that of an experienced fit-out contractor by watching videos and trying them out a few times at home.
Initially the DIY approach can be very attractive. You are completely in control, you determine the timescales, the budget will be smaller, with ‘cheaper’ resources in the form of friends and family to help out. All signs point to a good option. Online tutorials make the bits you don’t know about look easy, so let’s get stuck in. It’s exactly at this point that reality bites. What took 2 minutes on the tutorial has taken you a full day. Your resources weren’t available or got called away half way through. Tools that weren’t mentioned are needed but unavailable and after Day 1, you are behind and not just a little bit. It’s often at this stage that the conversation of opportunity cost comes up. How much is your time worth? And what should you be doing with that time?
There are definitely projects and scenarios where the DIY approach can work. But if you are looking at a full retail fit out project for your space in Riyadh, you have to think of the bigger picture and perhaps most importantly. What if you do something that you can’t come back from? There are catastrophically expensive mistakes that cost multiple times the budget to consider. Then there are the mistakes that you might be able to rectify. Drilling through electrical wiring, damaging pipes, hitting gas lines and the like. Some of those scenarios are not worth considering in order to just save money.
The list of reasons for getting the professionals involved is extensive, but here are a sprinkling of some of them -
The real challenge of any commercial or residential fit-out project is to find qualified fit-out contractors and interior designers. If you want to simplify your search and make the process quicker, use the Contractors Direct portal. Our portal connects you with pre-qualified and vetted fit-out contractors for residential and commercial fit-out services with zero hassle. Just visit the portal, provide your project details, and get recommendations from our system.