guys. what would you think of this idea. a close buddy of mine in seattle is a glass blower. he has friends who are also glass blowers who have excess stock. me and another buddy of mine were thinking about gathering our money and opening up a store in seattle (where the glass blowers are) and they would give us the stock if we get the shop. all they want is 35% of the income from the glass. should we try and open a head shop? his girlfriend is a metal works artist and i have screen prints to make patches and shirts. my girlfriend is an awesome baker so maybe we can work something out with that too but usually you need a license to sell food items, right?
How much disposable income do you have? Opening a business isn't easy shit. I would suggest finding someone with a business major and asking him for advice, or even a partnership.
Sounds like a great idea. Go for it. But make sure you know what your doin. Things as minor as location could really screw you over.
opening up a business is a risky investment dude. if you go through with it i wish you the best of luck. just make sure you have a fall back plan if your idea doesnt go through, and maybe you can take business classes at a community college or a jc. its gonna take a lot of money to open up the shop so your best bet would be a partnership
An online storefront would probably be a much better way to go- at least at first. The overhead with running a brick and mortar shop is ridiculously high. Figure out what your monthly expenses will be with rent, utilities, taxes, paying your salary (plus any employees), inventory, etc. Then multiply that by 12... that's what you will want in the bank to start with. With an online shop you can invest all of your money into advertising.
well together we have around 50k and my buddy has the know how. we have a close friend who is willing to front us the pieces for inventory and he has glass blowers who would be willing to do the same for a 35% fee. we have the money, the inventory and knowledge to do it but im just thinking how a head shop would do in todays economy. cause im thinking this as long term or putting back into another big guerrilla grow.
How much competition are you looking at in Seattle? I would think there'd be several established local head shops there by now. Ya just gotta up the ante in some way, I suppose.
im sure theres a lot more but we'd be selling more than just glass. i have a lot of connections with distributors and indie labels that i can have a decent stock of punk/reggae/rockabilly albums. i've been screen printing for years so i'd probably be making patches and shirts for local artists. theres a lot of possibilities.
They probably have similar business models; I'd research the top ones and what they offer, so that I could provide something they don't. It's all about having a unique, attractive business front. If you have something like this as your store entrance, it might help too:
yeah man, i need to make the trip out there and look around more. last time i was in seattle i was hitch hiking through after being turned away from the canadian boarder. its just an idea though. im 25 and want to do something like this now before i bang out a kid and stay a slave.