I already bored you with with the details of my life and retails stores, so today I am going to get right to the point today:

I DID open boutiques.  Here's a couple of mine:

If you want even more pics, check out my whole About Me page.  But lets get into the list:

1. When it’s slow, the bills are still due. Where are you going to get this money from? You are going to blow through (most or all of) your savings setting up your business (I will delve into this more in a little bit). Now maybe you're thinking to yourself, "I saw your store photos above and I think it looks awful / bad / terrible / hideous (insert any word here).  Well let me tell you, my companies have never been a joke.  It was not uncommon to have a line that spanned 45-minutes or more long, especially during an event like Halloween (click Play on video below):

So unless you have a secondary channel of income, you are greatly risking pissing always every penny you have saved and ended up with nothing… possibly even ended up with massive debt. If you are foolish to assume it will never be slow… ok, well what if you are shut down by the government due to a world-wide pandemic?  What if you fall down and break your ankle (this happened to me).  What if you get really sick or even catch COVID-19?  The bills are indeed still due. Rent is still owed.  This is absolutely something to consider.  Your friends and family may seem very generous now, but even generous people have a limit, and the last thing you want to do is financially crush a loved one so you can have your dream come true, right? 

2. Speaking of bills; your basic bills are going to be your lease, electricity, water, gas, internet, INSURANCE, credit card machine / merchant account, website. But there are also other payments you will owe, such as taxes and Personal Property Taxes and, depending on how your lease is drafted you will likely be responsible for maintenance, repairs, a portion of the property taxes due annually on the building you are renting, HVAC maintenance… there’s a LOT of money paid out… and without an accountant it is very difficult to track it all, but you MUST track it because you have to file tax returns yearly and provide all of these numbers. Alternatively you can pay for a program like Quickbooks and enter all of the data yourself (remember how I mentioned “stay late”? Yep, here ya go). The reason I bring this up is because I have personally witnessed so many businesses come and go in 3 years or less simply because they under estimated the cost. Speaking of “cost”....

3. Build Out. You know what a “build out” is? It’s when you sign a lease for a space and they hand you the keys…. Now it’s time to make it “yours”... so you have to paint, build, lay flooring, bust out walls, buy lighting, buy a giant light-up roadside sign, create a window display, purchase fixtures, etc. This can cost a friggin FORTUNE. Want to hear a story? So, when my store was located right outside of Waterford, Michigan, a super nice family chose to open a bakery right by me. Seriously; the nicest family EVER. It was always the moms “dream” to own a bakery so they used her retirement fund to lease the space and “build out”. The costs became so substantial (and greatly underestimated) that they blew through all of the money before they even finished build out! When it came time to open, they had nothing left to buy the rest of the equipment needed to produce fresh baked goods. So, in desperation, they tried to launch the business with FROZEN baked goods that they bought from the local grocery store and cooked in their ovens in addition to day-old baked goods they bought off clearance racks. This wonderful family lost everything and closed in under 1 year.

4. It’s not as easy (or “dreamy”) as it sounds. YOU (yes, literally YOU) have to work every day, open until close, rain or shine, sickness or health, drama or happiness… until you can financially reach the point of hiring employees. How many consecutive days have you worked in the past 2 years? How much time have you taken off? If you cannot handle 12+ hours a day, 6+ days a week, this isn’t for you. You will end up coming in early and staying very late to get tasks done… every single day.  YOU have to get your hands dirty and learn to fix things.  

5. It’s not as “fun” as it sounds. People steal from you, competitors try to sabotage you, fired employees try to destroy you, everyone wants something from you (mostly donations and/or your time), telemarketers call non-stop, door-to-door sales people come in all day, the store may flood one day, the power goes out another, sometimes there might be no customers for one reason or another (heck, we had extreme road work done in front of our spot and it shut us down for what felt like EVER)… it’s a reality show in itself!  Shipments come late, inventory arrives damaged, staff calls off work at the last minute, a tornado comes the same day your massive event was planned, a non-customer asks to use your restroom then proceeds to flood your store by trying to flush a shirt (I got stores out the yin-yang!).... the fun, glamorous and flowery part that you see on television isn't day-to-day life. 

6. Most of all, it's sacrifice.  You have to trade freedom for confinement, carefree for stress, laughter for problem-solving and free-time for growing. Let me tell you these FACTS:

• My kids were raised in a spare fitting room, playing legos and doing art projects (and also working in our wholesale business because when we weren't at one biz, we were at the other).
• Many, many, many years of my youth was spend inside a 1,500 sq ft room; hanging, cleaning, steaming, assisting customers....
• I have spent a fortune on moving businesses to improve them.  Sometimes you have to move, and move again, until you find the right location and the perfect landlord.  This means I have had to start over, and start over, and f*cking start all over again and again, for the sake of success.  You think moving an apartment sucks?  You ain't seen nothing until you try to move a damn store!  (then start build-out all over again)
• I am about to turn 40.  Looking back, do I regret it?  Read tomorrows blog post to find out...