Furniture Industry business models

In this section, Im offering my reviews of various furniture business models. I have been involved in the furniture trade for over 5 years, and this is a small collection of information that I find useful. I placed it online so that I will always know where to go to find my notes. If anyone else benefits from my thoughts, then please be my guest. If you think I am missing something, please feel free to contribute to the collection of information.

all furniture stores http://www.bizstats.com/furn.allcorps.htm

all profitable stores http://www.bizstats.com/furn.netcorps.htm

Furniture strategy (my thoughts)

One of the more important ideas that I'm taking away from this class is the necessity to apply strategy to our personal business. During class, I formulated the idea that my furniture company should look for global efficiencies and world wide centers of excellence. If I were to map out the ideal structure for my business, I would design my products in cheapest / best place in world, manufacture in cheapest / best place in world, market with service and with warranty and tailorization, and keep on innovating (sustainable). Perhaps I would locate my design center in New York City where competitive pressure and close proximity to global trends would keep us ahead of changing consumer demands. I would look to manufacture my furniture in the cheapest place possible for my desired level of quality, perhaps looking at China, India or Vietnam as potential sources. And then, I would use flexibility to service customers before and after the sale, allowing them to customize their products. For my management structure, I would need to be flexible enough to allow for exchange rate changes, meaning that I might need to shift my production from one country to another if FX rates changed, and I would need to be flexible enough to shift with style changes and changes in consumer preferences. I would try to develop my worldwide learning, and realize that design innovations could come from everywhere. I would attempt to gather design trends and new ideas from all places (Maybe using internet wiki technology). But, more importantly than anything, if I were to really think like a transnational manager, I would have to shift my way of thinking away from a Brazilian furniture exporter, and to a “global brand developer”. For now, I realize that I still do not have the management capabilities (yet) to pull off this dramatic transformation of my company (from what it is today, to what I dream that it should be). That said, this course was responsible for the vision of where I want to take my company someday, and I will take these lessons with me for a very long time.

Importing Furniture into the USA

In this link, I have briefly outlined my take on the overall business model of importing furniture into the USA. Yes, it is over simplified, and too generalized, but if you keep these rough % numbers in your mind, you will be fairly close to estimating the cost of bringing furniture into the USA.

See: Furniture importing for more