For years my sister and I have been talking about opening up our own shop. Its always just been a nice little daydream. For awhile we were going to open a floral shop with a drive through window and late night hours. At the time my sister worked in a shop called Heaven Scent. Our shop would be set on the outskirts of town so we can have a large piece of property and our own greenhouses. Eventually, we would expand and in the Autumn we would have hayrack rides, pumpkin picking, and all sorts of other fun things that could be done. In this floral shop my sister eventually planned to put in a bridal planner business.
Then there was talk of opening up a clothing store. We didn’t want to sell your typical clothing. What we wanted to sell was more historically inspired clothing. Have you ever heard of the Pyramid Collection? Its a catalogue shop that is filled with renaissance, steampunk, gothic, and bohemian clothing and gifts. That was the sort of store that we wanted to have. We both really enjoy those sort of clothes and thought it would be fun to have something like that here locally.
We also discussed having a little quilt shop. Where my sister would make quilts. There’s been discussion of a bakery. There’s been a lot of talk about owning a bookstore. We would sell books from indie authors and have them come do signings and readings. Our little book shop would have a little café area where people could grab a cup of coffee and a sweet treat.
Just last weekend Carri asked me if I wanted to start a dog grooming business with her. She had brought her dog Winnie over so I could help her clip his nails and give him a trim. She said she would wash the dogs and brush them where I could trim the nails and give them trims.
Right now we may dream about a lot of businesses but I know one thing for certain. I am currently going back to college to get my degree in business management. So, if we ever do decide to try to start our own business maybe we would be a little better equipped for it.
Have you ever daydreamed about owning your own little shop?
It would be great if you had a shop that did all of these things!
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This town could certainly use shops like all of these.
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Good for you, taking the business courses. Knowing how to run a business is as important as stocking it! Hope one of your ideas work out.
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Thank you.
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Atta Girl! Know what you are getting into and how to handle it.I agree with JUP above: Diversifying is the way to really succeed. Don’t spread yourself too thin, but always have other irons in the fire. You could start with a couple: Clothing/ wedding/store, books, and have certain hours for dog grooming ; like after the store closes and Saturday mornings. You could then see which needs have some of those business open more; You can then see if the weddings start coming off, you can add your own floral. You could add baked goods to the book store if it does well and if that does well, you can eventually add food, (with your own chef Wyatt). Diversify, but test the waters.
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That certainly sounds doable when you put it like that.
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Gosh… this will be a difficult topic — no idea what I’ll scrape up by Hound Day.
I love your ideas, however: start with a few basics, build where you can expand, keep an eye on the future possibilities.
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Great advice. I’m sure you’ll post will be interesting to read.
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I’ve always thought a little shop would be fun, but I could never decide what kind. Plus, it’s a lot of hard work. Going back to school to study business management is a great idea.
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