Starting/running a business

I read your other thread, sounds similar to my story, hopefully there’s stuff in it that could be useful.

I went straight to bricks and mortar. It’s tempting to want to get started the cheapest possible route but:

Mail order from home: How are you going to get known about and persuade people to use you vs all the much better resourced and experienced competitors?

Going mobile with a trailer or something: Mostly impulsive one hit wonder sales. No repeat custom. Shitty working conditions

Cheapest possible premises in poor location or trading estate: Nobody’s coming, same problems as going direct to online.

Sounds to me like you’re doing this because you like it and want to make a living doing something you enjoy, which is the route to long term success as opposed to knowing about business primarily then choosing a product that fits your goals. In which case it’s you that’s the product so you need to make yourself as visible as possible.

Opening a proper shop in a good footfall area means you will be able to impress on your customers your enthusiasm and expertise which generates word of mouth, repeat custom, loyalty and growth. It is also very rewarding and motivating for you. Aim to become a local institution. It takes investment to begin but start small, reinvest your profits, figure out a way to subsidise losses for a year. I managed it at age 37 with £20k life savings from me and my wife. No rich daddy money. Losses were filled by doing freelance coffee work while a staff member operated the shop 3 days a week.

Make sure you continuously figure out how to keep your enthusiasm and energy in the culture of the business without you having to constantly be there or you’ll burn out in 2 years. Just rest pussycat. Hiring the right people, paying them well and being nice to them is the key to putting your trotters up in Nice in 5 years time.