North Florida Nesties
Kristin&Kelly09
member
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
DH needs ideas!
Since DH is now unemployed he is now entertaining the idea of starting his own business. Tallahassee ladies, this is where you would be extremely helpful although I know all of you ladies might have great ideas!!
What type of business do you think Tallahassee needs that it does not currently have/offer or does not have enough of?
So far we have decided that things like coffee shops and doggie day cares are off the tables since there are so many of those. I suggested a baby/maternity consignment shop (since we only have 1 in town), but he doesn't want to do that either.
Any ideas I can pass along will be helpful!!
Warning
No formatter is installed for the format bbhtml
Re: DH needs ideas!
Warning, my ideas are all over the place....
My office is located between 2 consignment shops. One is ladies clothes...women, children, babies. It seems to do really well. The other is a sporting goods store. Fitness equipment, team sports equipment, etc. It was always packed. (they recently moved)
Something that always seems to do well.....tanning salons. No matter how many there are in town, it seems like every single one I pass by is full.
It would be a ton of work, but I always thought it would be fun to open a cafe/coffee/sandwich shop. I'm sure there are a ton there though. But, with the right "gimmick" and quality of food with all the schools there.....it could be a hit. It could be open late for red eye cram sessions, or even have like battle of the bands/poetry reading/comedy events.
Something else I always thought would be a fairly easy business investment....buy a limo. People always want limos for events. Once it's paid off, there's not a whole lot of overhead (I wouldn't think.)
I was just saying the other night I wish Jacksonville had a gatorfood.com, check it out.
I think he should do some research on franchising, like Pita Pit, Smoothie King or Planet Beach. You have to think about the type of people that live in Tallahassee (mostly college kids) and the types of things they like to do.
I thought the idea of starting up a business right now is a bad idea until we talked about it a little more. The guy who owns the family company he just left knows he is burned out from sales and suggested he never go back into it. To make sure he doesn't at least do copier sales in town Dh had to sign a no-compete clause, which was fine with him since he is tired of Tallahassee copier sales. The former owner suggested to DH that he would be better off starting some sort of business of his own and would be willing to help DH with start up capital since. With this possiblity on the table it makes me consider it a little more but still makes me nervous to think of DH as self-employed. As far as insurance is concerned, that is through my employer so we don't have to worry about not having it or having to buy an individual plan so we wouldnt have to worry about that.
Obviously no one knows your situation better than you and your DH. I'm glad you're communicating with each other and taken into consideration the potential risks as well.
We definitely don't need any more tanning salons in Tallahassee. Also, restaurants go in and out of business a lot, so that probably wouldn't be a good idea.
A nice family owned pet store would actually be nice. We're kind of stuck with big box stores and vets to go buy stuff.
Also, we could use a new scrapbook store!
I'll think about it and see if I can come up with any more ideas.
Oh! I just thought of something that tailors to Kelly's interests! We only have one decent hunting supply store here in town, even though there are a lot of outdoorsy people around here. A nice outdoor type store would be fantastic!
I agree with this. Not to be a negative nelly but, as Madisen said, very few businesses are profitable in the first year (and actually, I think I remember learning in college that most successful businesses don't start making a profit until year 3 because the majority of the money has to be re-invested back into the business, at least in the beginning). Over half of small businesses fail in the first 5 years. Most franchises require that you have millions of dollars in capital to qualify for start up so that could be a big obstacle. Not to mention you would be required to write a very detailed business plan containing a market analysis, an advertising budget, etc. (but that's something that all businesses need to have, big or small). The food business is extremely tough to be in because of all the health laws and regulations. Also keep in mind that it's not unusual to have to work 60 hours or more a week when you're self-employed (I know my dad did that for years as did my DH's father and grandfather, etc. My FIL opened a furniture store shortly before my DH was born, and he literally had to go back to work immediately after they brought my DH home from the hospital). Also, businesses are never 100% stable. There are going to be periods of famine, and you have to be prepared for that. Like I said, I'm not trying to be negative but I'm just throwing these things out there because they're important to think about. Too many people underestimate the complexities of running a business (one that you can actually live off of anyway lol).
I'd recommend that your DH speak to mentors from an organization like SCORE. The experts always say that you should start a business in something you're familiar with (i.e., don't sell yachts if you've never even been on one lol). Otherwise, it could take a year or more just to learn about the industry and do the proper research (you can't determine whether a business idea has potential or not without first figuring out what demographic you're marketing to and what the demand is like in your area, etc.). Most experts also recommend having a full time job to hold you over financially until your business gets off the ground. Good luck!
01.03.09 {MARRIED BIO}
Make a pregnancy ticker
Thanks for all the great business ideas ladies! Also a big thanks to Madisen and Kappa for looking at the other side of things. I plan to pass all this information on to DH since it is all very helpful and shows the pros and cons of starting your own business.
Honestly, I would love for him to go back and get a normal job and possibly use his marketing degree, but I want to show him that I support whatever he thinks will make him happier job-wise. I am not overall won over with the small business idea since even though he would have someone to back him financially I know how much time and effort it would take on his part to get a business up and running and I really don't want him to miss out on his son growing up b/c he is always at work. I am hoping he finds a job where he can work from home with flexible hours since he is not a huge fan of the 9-5 grind. Thanks again for ALL the input!!