Has anyone started a brick & mortar business?
I know this is a tech area but just curious...
I personally ran a screen printing shop at our campus that went well and ended up selling it since we're graduating.
I personally ran a screen printing shop at our campus that went well and ended up selling it since we're graduating.
My roommate and I went to all the sorority houses around campus and made a deal with the house moms for old bikes. In exchange for cleaning up the bike-parking area of their house, we would get all of the left-over bikes for free from girls who had just graduated.
We then cleaned them up, ran some ads in Craigslist, and sold them to people near the beach. Best part was the bikes were predominantly beach-cruisers, and were in high demand at the beginning of summer when students had graduated.
Process took 10 days, we made about $2000 between the two of us, and it paid for a plane ticket to Europe with some extra cash to spend!
It was difficult to iterate the business, I was locked into a lease, and the equipment was too big to move easily, so I couldn't just pack up and move to a new location when I realized I didn't pick the greatest location.
The worst part was dealing with the local governing agencies for insurance, workman's comp, town, state, federal, permits, etc. They shut me down for a day or two over something trivial and I spent 8 hours driving around to fix it. Felt like the equiv. of my domain being seized and it wasn't worth it for such a thin profit margin.
There was no doubt that I could make it work, but I didn't want to spend the time or money trying to get it right. I have the internet startup stuff down pat; I'll just stick to what I know best.