Brick/Mortar or Home Based

[Carolyn]

Hello all I am considering opening a store. Well this is my dilema. Currently I run my business from my home. It has always been a dream of mine to own a store. I would like to know from those that have a brick and mortar store what are some of the challenges that you face? How difficult is it to run from a business versus home? What other expenses do you incur? What are somethings I should consider before doing so? Any info that you could provide would be of tremendous help.
Thanks

Carolyn

[SYE]

Some things to consider.
Location very important. Downtown or high traffic area. You will have lots of overhead. Rent, business phone and fax line, computer and internet service, furniture and fixtures, a starting inventory(if you are geared more towards embroiderd gifts (like your website shows)you will need some grab and go items as well. We found that many customers want to walk away with gifts and not wait 3 to 7 days for embroidery turnaround. Other important items are cash register, credit card machine and service, advertising(expensive),other utility bills, lots of embroidered apparel and gifts for display. You should realy consider how much money you will be putting up front and how much profit it will take to pay all the up front costs. You might spend $20,000-$50,000 just to get up and running. This is just off the top of my head. It might take 2 to 3 years to be profitable. Hope this helps a little.

[Carolyn]

Thanks so much for the info. Some of these things I have considered I guess I never really thought that I would add up to be so much. I am debating whether or not I should do this. I know right now I could not quit my day job but it would someday like to open store. I am going to utilize the Small business Association to gather as much info as I can. I buy everything wholesale and get stuff when other businesses go out of business like fixtures an such. One day I will put it all to use just wanted to gather some info about somethings that I had not considered yet.

Carolyn