Looking for guidance: Personal/Business Problems

The only indoor range open in north Lafayette parish shut down, No reason given?
This leaves a void for the CC Classes,Now they have to travel south in order to complete the classes.
The regular Joe was paying $ 20.00 per hr. to shoot.
Then there's the targets,Gun rental,Ammo sales.
It's a prime plum for the picking!

 

What Parish are you in? I'm in Jefferson.

 

The real problem is that while we may say something or other, you are the only one who really knows your product, market, and local area. It is very hard to step back and make an informed decision, but you are the only one who can do it, may or may not be right, but all you can do is try. Don't know the gun shows down there, the size of the market, what rents run, what governmental interference you will run in to, but in my limited experience with friends that have run gun shops in New England, death of the owner of the shop being rented, District Attorney out to get re elected, court troubles with accidental discharge with a fire arm he sold, divorce, change in market demand, among other things have all lead to shops closing. In no case could I blame the owner for the reason for closing. It really sucks when you have a shop in New Hampshire, sold a gun 15 years ago following all the rules to a T, and it is used in a multiple homicide in Mass and your shop name and location is on the News for weeks and all the comments are negative.

 

Franklin, if you know the area, you'll know why I'm looking in Richland. (local joke)

Been debating if I should try and run a kickstarter type of thing to drum up some moving costs, or maybe slowing it down, and try and get on with a survival school somewhere.

As for the shows, they are crap in this part of the world. My rent for the month is the same as 4 tables for a weekend, or 1 table, a hotel for one night, and food for 2 days.

 

Ah,Your down with the Lablanc's

 

This ^^ should always be considered an option, up to a point.

The buddy I mentioned in my last post opened a bakery/custom cake shop in a mid sized town in northern Florida Gulf coast. By any reasonable judgement, it's a "hick town".

He routinely puts in 60-70 hour weeks. While he is not at all poor and lives comfortably, I have told him numerous times that he works too hard for the payoff he's getting.

The problem is that no matter how amazing and masterful his cakes are, he's still in Hicktown. There is a ceiling as to how much money he can earn doing custom cakes in a place like that. And unfortunately for him, that ceiling is fairly low.

I've asked him why he doesn't open a shop in Tallahassee or New Orleans or up in Atlanta where the market is larger and he can command more money. He says he loves where he lives and accepts that "low ceiling".

So it becomes a balance between living a life you like and earning enough money to pay the bills. My friend has found balance by exhibiting some humility, keeping expectations realistic, and having a very strong work ethic. He's not rich and never will be as long as he stays in Hicktown, but he's one of the most contented people I know. I can't see him being happy in Atlanta or New Orleans.

If you want to run a business in an area with a limited market, or in an area where the average income is low, it's just a simple fact that it's going to be tight and you won't make the kind of money you might get elsewhere. You then have to decide between lifestyle or income. Or, a third path is learning to be happy with less like my buddy.

 

In my lifetime I have seen several reasons for business failure. In a smaller town, if you open a speciality shop, guns, knives, wood working tools. good quality cooking ware, you may do well for a period of time and then all the demand built up before your shop is opened is used up and you can't cover expenses. If you are successful, it may well encourage a national chain to enter the market and run their store at a loss until you are gone, or you may expand to fast and lose control of your expenses and not have enough cash flow to cover expenses. Hire help and have to pay wages, insurances, with holding taxes, etc , have to pay rent on a larger store, run into problems with neighbors or zoning, or fire regulations, etc Knew one small gun shop that was required to install a powder bunker, sprinkler system, and a second water supply and power source for the sprinkler system , the land lord not only wouldn't do it, he would not let the shop owner do it or sign a long term lease nor was he willing to get involved in the liability and fire insurance. It is very hard to successfully start a small gun shop and transform it from a home based operation to a full time shop and even harder to make it an expanding profitable business in the long term.

 

Well, if nothing else, I am learning a few things, and being reassured that I have been looking at things the right way. I appreciate it y'all.
And currently, I am not even in a town proper, I am at a crossroads in a village (-90 voters?), but the locals travel (local joke is 40 miles to anywhere), especially to gun shops and the like. If I could get hooked up with a food truck I would make a killing. Places available in town right now want $2500 + expenses a month for a shoe box, just because they are new.

 

Any chance you could pick up a larger piece of land, then lease what you don't need, to a local farmer? Might help you offset your cost, a bit, doing that.

Other than that, if you're female, married to one, or identify as one (sorry, Obama-era joke, there! ), then your business can be considered "female owned"....which opens all sorts of doors, for government subsidies, and low-cost small business loans.

Good luck!

 

I have thought about renting out to a farmer, or putting trees up on it.

 

Yeah sorry if I cover something that has already been covered but I don't have time to read all that.

I had a business here in a rural town with a population of 5000. The rent was $800/mo and they wanted to raise it. That and much of the local politics made me decide to close doors.

I moved to a much larger population area and the rent for the same square footage went down to $600/mo. The reason being that the overall demand and competition had caused the prices to be more competitive. A smaller percentage of the local population as customers is still much larger than a big portion of that small population.

As far as debt goes, you have it incorporated (LLC etc?) If so you can always come up with a new name. If it is in your name you can handle the debt in several ways. Most people do not realize what debt is or how to handle it. I can send you two letters for "creditors" that may work for you to eliminate ALL of your debt without negative impact to your credit. You can always message me if you're interested.

 

" Most people do not realize what debt is or how to handle it."

Actually, most people Do know what debt is and how to handle it,
They pay it back.

 

Thanks for proving my point.