gcextreme

Going to go look at an Office/Store tomorrow.

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Well my bud is renting a small office store for his taxidermy business in town just off broadway. He pays $250 for a 220 sq ft place with all utilities included except phone/internet. He said the owner has a few other places nearby for rent too and gave me the guys number.

I called him..and he said he has a few different places near by and a few a little further away. One of the smaller places nearby he has is a 400sq ft place for $390 with all utilities except internet/phone.

Im meeting him tomorrow to go see it and maybe the others too.

I have been making really close to an average of $600 a month in sales.

And i have massed up alot of shirts and hats and more thats cluttering up my house and my rental unit neary by is almost full of racks and shelves and more merchandise.

I may go in 50/50 with my parents who want to have a place to sell their stuff too.

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Good luck! Only $5,000 a year to break even! Anything above that is better than sitting at home doing nothing at all. If the exposure works out could be a gold mine. Don't forget insurance, heard recently the guy that originally spent a few hrs teaching me about printers after that had moved into a retail location, someone broke in stealing the Roland printer, Roland plotter, other equipment . . . No insurance. At times I think about opening a retail location, then I get the urge to go on vacation (think about the closed time) and the cost to break even (lots of work to not keep the money I make now without the overhead) and I think to myself working out of my home works fine in my situation.

After insurance you will be giving up everything you are making now, with the pressure to keep it up to break even. . . Again for you it could be like Jason and Shawn that have made it big going full retail. . . It's about where you want to be in the future

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We have a shop and ALOT of overhead because of it. I wonder alot about this since I am trying to buy this company in the next few years.

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If i had a bigger house and bigger garage/work area i would love to save the overtime and stay doing it at home.

But my small 3 bedroom house just and single stall garage isnt going to be enough when a baby comes.

Right now all my stuff is cluttering in both spare rooms. One room is the "office" where i have my desktop and the wifes desktop and our computer printer and several shelves and a filing cabinet. The other room is my "cutting room"..it has my heat presses my cutter, all my vinyl and my laptop. While out in the living room are piles of totes with hats, shirts, hoodies, etc.

The wife really insists on me finding another place for my business.

Nothing is set in stone right now...im just looking..seeing whats out there.

But the wife wants to get pregnant in September..that means come April/May next year i have to do something cuz my cutting room is gonna become the baby room.

Ive been keeping an eye out on homes in the area too..but right now we pay $550 a month plus utilities for our small 3bd/1 bath house with small garage and almost 3 acres. Other places want over $700 for smaller houses and no land.

Hell in the paper i always see "1-2 bedroom basement apartments" for rent for $750! Its a college town and the rental rates are too high!

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GC, it sounds like you are renting where you are currently at?  You didn't mention what was in the garage, surely you do not park a car in there do you?

How much to rent a single bay storage unit to take care of inventory and clutter?  You might drum up a good customer at the storage unit.  Actually, I think quite a few small businesses use these for inventory and such.

Cal

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Yes I am renting...i don't have good credit and will be a long time before i can buy a house.

 

 

I have a single stall garage, that has my welding setup, my sandblaster setup, my parts washer, my tool box, my engine hoist and stand, with an engine i am am rebuilding, my snowblower, and i always have either my motorcycle or an atv or lawnmower in there for repair.

 

 

I have a 10x12 tin shed beside the garage where my motorcycle and 2 atvs are normally kept, unless i am working on them, then they are in the garage.

 

 

Then the storage unit i rent, which is a few hundred yards in my back yard, just a quick walk away,  is like 10x21, and i have my motorcycle travel trailer in there, two more motorcycles that i am slowly restoring, as well as racks/shelving/display stands, and boxes of stored stuff. 

 

So i have ALOT of stuff spread out all over. This doesn't include the stuff still in my in-law's pole shed and my parent's garages.

 

 

I need a larger house and a huge garage/shop!!

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Well my wife just added up my "recorded" sales for this month, $583 in sales. Of course this month has been a big month for buying supplies and equipment, bought alot of shelving/displays and of course my cargo trailer.

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at least you can break even every month at that rate

 

Yeah, probably, but hopefully having a shop close to main street i would get walk-ins and local business.

Right now 90% of my customers are online, and the rest are current coworkers/friends and relatives.

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My cousin has a graphics shop about 1 1/2 hours away from you in Ortonville. They did $600k in sales last year in a town of 2k people. I can only dream of numbers that big.

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My cousin has a graphics shop about 1 1/2 hours away from you in Ortonville. They did $600k in sales last year in a town of 2k people. I can only dream of numbers that big.

 

Nice...are all those sales just from the local people? IT can't be lol. Alexandria has close to 14K people and it triples in the summer because of all the beautiful lakes.

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I think they serve a good sized area around them. They do just about everything, but sub out screen printing to someplace in the twin cities.

 

I like the idea of a storefront. Do what you can in-house and sub out the rest for a tidy profit.

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I live in the sticks so it's storefront or starvation. If you have a halfway decent location you should pick up enough to at least double sales in the first couple months but like every reward there is risk.

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Yes I am renting...i don't have good credit and will be a long time before i can buy a house.

 

 

I have a single stall garage, that has my welding setup, my sandblaster setup, my parts washer, my tool box, my engine hoist and stand, with an engine i am am rebuilding, my snowblower, and i always have either my motorcycle or an atv or lawnmower in there for repair.

 

 

I have a 10x12 tin shed beside the garage where my motorcycle and 2 atvs are normally kept, unless i am working on them, then they are in the garage.

 

 

Then the storage unit i rent, which is a few hundred yards in my back yard, just a quick walk away,  is like 10x21, and i have my motorcycle travel trailer in there, two more motorcycles that i am slowly restoring, as well as racks/shelving/display stands, and boxes of stored stuff. 

 

So i have ALOT of stuff spread out all over. This doesn't include the stuff still in my in-law's pole shed and my parent's garages.

 

 

I need a larger house and a huge garage/shop!!

Nope you need a warehouse...i use a couple storage units one with climate control for paints, caulk and things that would freeze.

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Yeah a warehouse would be nice. Ive got lots of projects (or junk as the wife would call it)..

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Ok looked at two places this guy had today. One was right next to his Insurance company, it is like 800 sq feet, with a nice big "reception" room and a big front window facing the street. Then there's 2 offices and 1 large "conference" room, then a small bathroom.

This place would be perfect if i could afford $700 a month! (which includes everything except phone lines) wifi is included.

 

 

The other place, a block over, is kinda hidden, theres a spot for signs above the main door, then you go in and theres this long haul, with many offices he rents out. 3 doors down is the one for rent. Its about 400sq feet, has a nice reception area, which is about a tad bigger than my spare bedroom, then theres a big work area, about triple the size of my bedroom/office, and then theres a small office off to the side and a small walk-in closet, then a small bathroom and sink. This place used to be a hair salon, was for 12 years. It needs a painting and some tlc, which he said he would do, once he knows what color the renter would want.

He wants $395 for it, all utilities included, except phone/internet. He said the place may or may not be close enough to tag onto his wifi at his offices across the street, also depends on my equipment too.

 

 

Anyway, the first place would be 100 awesome to have, but i don't think i can afford $700 a month just yet!!

The second place, i could probably afford, but feel that there's not enough "exposure" and its hidden...which when it comes to burglaries would be a good thing... i wouldnt have to worry about people looking thru big windows and seeing my stuff to steal.

 

 

There's another place, owned by someone else, across the street, from the 1st place i mentioned, which sits on the corner block and has two large windows, one on each street side. I looked into it, and looks like its in the middle of remodeling, and i called the number on the "For Rent" sign, and the guy said he is in the middle of fixing it up, and it will be available at the end of April. He didnt tell me how much sq feet or what he wanted price wise for it, but i am meeting with him on Friday evening. So i hope to get more info then.

 

 

At this point i am just looking, and testing the waters....

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if your gonna do it for for the one with exposure if you are looking for walk in.   most of my stuff is word of mouth locally or pounding the pavement, but if I was going retail I would want exposure . . .and probably a garage space

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A place with a garage would be awesome, but i could see myself doing more work on my truck and atvs and motorcycles than installing vinyl onto cars lol!!

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X2 on what Dakota said. If you want walk in customers or cars driving by to see you then don't bother with a place that isn't really visible to a lot of traffic. The office space I had was very nice and roomy but I had zero walkins there. It was one block from a busy downtown area but just not visible from the street. My advice is either add whatever you would spend on the office to rent a bigger house and dedicate separate space to vinyl or rent an office that will get you foot traffic. If your banking on the new work place increasing your revenue then visible advertising helps but a visible store front will help more. Just don't get in over your head man. The less overhead the better! 

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Thanks Ted, 

I am always looking for a better bigger house to rent, that i can afford. This small house, we will outgrow with more than 1 baby!


And like i said, i am just looking, testing the waters, seeing whats out there, might find a good deal  and a great location, might not. I am more than ok with working from my current spot at home thru the summer, but come Sept, the wife wants to try to have a baby, so next April i gotta make a move, either renting an office, or moving to a bigger house.

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Renting the place with less exposure might cost you more in lost sales than the $300/month extra for the other place. Are they all going to want first month, last month, plus a deposit?

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I have a space that i could get if i wanted 1/2 a store front around 500 sq ft. Or so for a hundred bucks a month but would have to build out the front display area/office etc. the back area would be fine the way it is. It belongs to a friend that used to own the hardware and plumbing supply store. The problem it is in our little town of 1700 people and not a lot of exposure and were one of those towns that you almost have to live here to be here. And i know i will never make 600 grand out of this area. So i have held off leasing a place i have thought exposure would maybe keep me busy in signs and in a warm/cool place instead of running up and down the highway in the cold and sun fixing/remodeling homes.

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Renting the place with less exposure might cost you more in lost sales than the $300/month extra for the other place. Are they all going to want first month, last month, plus a deposit?

 

Don't know, didnt really discuss that. He didnt seem to want a lease tho.

 

I just made $180 in sales today. Sold a fabricated part that i produce, and sold 20 smaller decals to a guy.

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