With the increasing need for medical assistance, the medical shop business is definitely flourishing with each passing day. The Pharmacy field provides the entrepreneurs with a profitable business idea as the margin of the products is really high.
Another perk of starting your own medical shop business in India is that the business doesn’t get affected by the economical crisis meaning you will never stop earning a profit, and also the medical shop is a kind of idea that can never go out of business.
Although there are a number of things that you must consider first before indulging yourself in the idea. As easy as it sounds, starting a medical shop is a bit complicated than you may think, but nothing that you can not manage. Being a part of the medicinal field, the medical shop business plan requires a high level of authenticity as it can put the lives of thousands of people at risk if you are not careful.
But there’s nothing to be worried about because in the article below we are going to introduce you with every aspect of starting your own pharmacy in India along with each and every requirement and how to convert your business in a profitable one.
Contents
First Things First
The first and most important thing to keep in mind before starting your own medical shop business is the degree of B. Pharma or M. Pharma. Do you possess the degree that is the compulsion for starting your own pharmacy? If yes then you can proceed with the plan and if no, then you must hire someone with the degree or you are not allowed to run the medical store.
Before hiring a professional to run the store for you, you must consider the following things. Apart from being qualified with a complete degree of B. Pharma or M. Pharma, the person should fulfill either of the conditions given below:
- The graduate should be a registered pharmacist approved by the pharmacist department.
- He must have the experience of at least one year working in the pharmacy before running the store.
- He should have passed S.S.L.C with years of experience in dealing with drugs that are approved by the department of drug control.
Licensing and Permits Required
Licensing is kind of a big deal when it comes to any business plan concerning the medical field. For running your own medical store you need to acquire the following licenses:
1. Registration of Business
Before starting your own pharmacy, first, you need to decide which kind of firm you want to open. This includes sole proprietorship firm, private limited company or a partnership firm. For business registration in India, you need to visit the Ministry of Corporate affairs or click on this link.
2. Drug License
The drug license for your medical store can be obtained from the State Drug Control Department. This is different for each state. Although the procedure is the same for each.
After you apply for registration, it can only be used for a single store. As soon as you fill out the application form, the procedure will get started. Along with the application form, you will also have to send the required documents mentioned on the official site attached to the document.
Now in some time, the department will conduct an investigation on your store and as soon as it is completed you will receive your license.
3. Land Permit
A land permit is required for setting up a commercial unit. For your manufacturing business, you will need to contact the municipal corporation of your state. The whole list of the municipal corporations of different states of India is listed here.
4. GST Registration
GST Registration is the service tax registration of India. You need to visit the official government website for GST registration by clicking here.
Setting Up The Commercial Unit
Location
Location plays a big role in making your business successful there you should be extra careful while choosing one for your business plan. The location of your medical store should be available within the approachable range of the maximum number of your potential clients.
For example, a medical store near a hospital or a clinic will be the ideal location, but apart from this choosing a moderately populated residential area could also be great for the business. Also, don’t go for the area that is not saturated with the same kind of business as yours because it will make your medical store difficult to sustain.
Area
The area of your commercial unit, however, depends on the scale of the business that you are going for. Although here we can give you an estimate of the basic requirement. If you want to open a small scale medical shop business then you are going to need an area of at least 10 sq. meters.
But if you are going for a slightly bigger version, like the wholesale retail business then you will require more than 15 sq. meters of area.
Franchise
Taking up the franchise is not a requirement for starting a medical shop business rather an idea. This makes the beginning of your business plan really easy, however, it also restricts your success in some way and you will have to abide by all the customs as per the rule of the franchise that you decide to take.
The idea will also require you to invest a little more but on the bright side will save from most of the hassles. So if investing is not a problem for you, you can take the franchise of some successful drug store chain.
Investment
Investment is often a hurdle for many entrepreneurs starting their own business plan. Not everybody has tons in deposits for the idea that they are pursuing. To solve this problem you can take help from the various investment sources that can help you in starting your own business plan.
You will need approximately 3 to 4 lakhs if you are thinking about starting a small scale business and will have to invest at least Rs. 7 to 8 lakhs to open a wholesale store.
For financing your business, you have three options, first is to take your business to the private investors and present your idea in front of them in an impressive manner and if they like your idea, they will provide you with required funding for your business.
Your next option is the venture capitalist. This is where people come to for large scale investment business plan. But it is also harder to get. The process of getting investment is the same as private investors.
The last and most reliable business investment source is bank loans. Banks provide business on the basis of the potential of your business idea. If they liked the idea, they will provide you with 70% of the required amount needed for the bank. These are online links to apply for business loans at bank SBI, Bank Of Baroda, Axis Bank, ICICI, and HDFC Banks.
Supply
For starting a medical store in India the first thing you are going to need is medicines. The supply of medicines could be difficult as many are unfamiliar with the field so they have a hard time figuring out which medicines to keep or which manufacturing companies to contact. You have basically two options here:
You can either buy the required medicines from retailers or online stores individually or you can contact the companies that can make you available all the required medicines. It is suggested that you contact the companies directly as this will provide you a higher profit margin.
Storage
For storage purposes, you are going to need different shelves and drawers. The medicines should be stored carefully and you should differentiate between the medicines serving a different purpose to remove the possibility of confusion. They should also be labeled and stored in different boxes.
Apart from this, the refrigerator is a must for your drug store as some of the medicines require you to store them in a cool environment. These medicines include doses of insulin, vaccines, and antibiotics. The drug store overall should be really organized as drug store owners must be extra careful for obvious reasons.
Profit Margin
Profit Margin should be predefined before starting your own medical store. Although it varies from store to store and brand to brand. The profit margin in the drug stores could be anywhere starting from 20% and it could go as high as 1000% on the MRP.
The profit of your drug store depends on the success of your business but the profit margin could vary as per your accordance. You will get the most profit from selling the supplements of vitamins and proteins such as salines, contraceptives., multivitamins, proteins, etc.
You must do your research before defining the profit margin in your business. You should also consider the competition in your nearby area and get the idea of the profit margin that they are using. Because too much or too low will affect the success of your business.
Informal Partnership with Doctors
Tieing up with medical professionals and doctors is only formal when you are a part of a hospital. If you work individually you will have to make an informal tie-up with the doctors to make some extra profit. You can set up some kind of commission between you and the doctor in a way in which you both can be profited.
The idea will only work if you have a clinic or hospital in the area nearby because nobody is going to travel to a long distance to reach your store even if the doctor recommended.
Building a Customer Base
Building a customer base is necessary to ensure that your store never goes out of business. You can use various marketing strategies to spread the word about your business and then you will have to manage those customers so that they keep coming back to you.
You can provide some discount to your regular customers or could start some coupon schemes for the ones who are first-timers at your store. This will ensure the regularity of the customers as well as will help you make the new ones.
You can also include some additional services like home delivery which is the prime requirement in today’s world for people who can’t get out of their houses such as elder people or ones with some serious issues. These tactics will definitely help you in the long run.
If you are looking for more medical business ideas to start your business, then please read our article on most profitable health care business ideas.
Conclusion
Running a medical store is not only a profitable business idea but it is also a great responsibility. There are many ways to make this business plan a successful one, but nothing will prove right if you are not careful while dealing with a business like this.
Above we have stated everything concerned with starting your own medical shop in India. If you follow these steps properly there is nothing that can stop you from making this business idea successful. If you have any questions or suggestions you can give it to us by commenting in the section below. We would be more than happy to help you. Also, let us know if you find this article helpful.