Cottage Industries

We've all seen the ads that tell us "Work From Home!"

These are what one might call "busy work". Not really a great way to spend your time, let alone a dream come true! Stuffing envelopes, spamming people... If it gives you purpose, or helps pay the bills, that's certainly a good thing... but
I would bet that, given room to operate, many people would love to start their own businesses... and a lot of people probably think about it all the time.

It seems so simple.... take an idea, and set up shop... How hard can it be?

With just 1000 or 2000 square feet, anyone could have a little consignment store, an arts and crafts collective... add an oven or two, some tables and chairs slapped together, and you've got a small bakery! Little day care centers for children and elderly, coffee shops, sandwich shops, book stores, green grocers, fiber arts and supplies, yoga studios, dance studios, gyms, glasswares, vaccuum cleaner repairment, bicycle shops, outdoor gear, leather workers, florists, candle maker, jewelry store, stained glass studio, furniture and upholstery repair shop, chocolatier, wines, music instruments and lessons, an internet cafe, an arcade, a toy store, a pet store, greeting cards and gift wrapping and shipping, art gallery, framing, handmade and hand painted tiles, carved wooden pipes and tobacco...
I could sit here all day and think of ideas for small businesses that just one or three people could successfully run, if all those running them are in one place and buying and selling amongst themselves...
If a person has considerable money to begin with, it's probably because you're still employed within the old economy. You may be used to a pretty high standard of living that your family would not be willing to sacrifice to follow your "pipe dream" and chances are, you don't feel you can safely afford not to continue earning your existing income. You're young, you have the energy, the smarts, and you're not completely defeated by reality... but you have mouths to feed, and you need a home to live in. You may be used to a pretty high standard of living that your family would not be willing to sacrifice to follow a "pipe dream".


We rave about our admiration for the quaint towns we visit who rely on our tourism to sustain such a small-scale marketplace economy. We wish dreamily that we could live in such a place.
So how could this happen in America? That this idea of "mom and pop" businesses in a concentrated downtown marketplace could come to seem like such a foreign concept to us now?
Everyone just seems resolved that the solution is, "they" need to create jobs!

Certain factors serve to keep many many local small business ideas on ice. These factors keep America's economic outlook grim, our downtowns in decay, and our outlook in dismay.

A prohibitive rent regime

As a little research project, crunch some numbers to figure out approximately how many empty square feet of business space there actually is sitting and collecting dust in your town. Have a list of businesses that have failed in these locations. Find these property owners, and negotiate rents. Be prepared with strong arguments for lower rents, flexible leasing, and a type of consignment pricing where you pay as much rent as the place can realistically allow you to actually earn!! Spread the word about your idea for cheaper rents and small businesses. Invite property owners to these meetings and tell them what information you plan to present. Report your information, describing property owners' willingness (or unwillingness) to help establish local businesses to town counsels, and in the local newspapers.
Meanwhile, take steps forward, and don't let the naysayers talk you down. Talk to people at SCORE about possibilities, Hit up the local Small Business Administratin office. and work out all the necessary details for your business plan. Start executing these business plans and investments on a small scale from your home to whatever degree you are able for a time. This gives you some time to work out some details, things that may have been unforeseen, while you establish branding, and fine tune your approach and methods regarding products. Source your ingredients. Perfect the recipes. Complete the quilts. Stockpile the inventory. Build birdhouses. Whatever it is you want to actually be offering, and how you want to offer it... work at it from any angle you can with what you already have at your disposal, and if this won't support you, certainly keep a day job for the time being. Maybe take a class, hone your accounting skills, design some packaging.

People don't walk to their down-towns anymore.

Be seen walking in your own downtown. Find one or two people to meet up with you for a cup of coffee in the down town, every day if possible. Talk about your business ideas and promote the downtown in every conversation you have in that coffee shop. Let the coffee shop owner know exactly what you are doing there, and write off every cup of coffee you buy for others.

Rotten banks won't part with their moldy money... and so called tight credit block loans for start up costs.

Go to a local bank with a well thought out business plan. Have letters of support from friends and other business people in the area. Have some savings set aside, and apply for a loan. Make sure you get copies of all information about every part of the decision making process. Write letters to editors in localities about your plans, and be very open and available, not necessarily with the exact plans for your business (someone may steal your idea!) but that you're in a process of starting a "retail" business, or eating establishement, etc. and make public the details regarding a specific bank's willingness (or not) to work with you, and the reasoning. If they're supportive, others will know what it takes to gain some support. If they're not supportive, others will know that this bank is not there to "do business" in your local area. Look for other resources. Find local capital investors, business people who can back you with a good idea.

Fees and licensing that don't add safety or value to products

Ask for tax relief. Bring up Walmarts tax relief that was likely offered in your area. Bring all your friends with you to a public meeting with a list prepared to defend why you should be allowed a waiver for licensing fees

Liability insurance costs

I don't know of any way to avoid this one, but make sure you shop around, and demand the most coverage for your money. Read all the fine print, and understand what is covered and what is not.

Big box stores offering cheaper options...

Encourage everyone you know to boycott these options, and support local small businesses and entrepreneurs. Know practical points that will help with the argument to stay away from such stores. (cheap products, sweat shop labor, imports and job loss, formaldehyde on clothes, packaged foods...) Make it a point to apply social pressure to stay away from these places... the Ewwww! factor goes a long way in influencing people's purchases. Create a corporation and use that entity to build credit for your business. Play as much as you can by the same rules the big guys are following. (except for the exploitation of foreign workers and outsourcing jobs!) Maintain your local integrity and sell a superior product, pay anyone working for you a decent wage, and stop expecting the best thing to do is to get yourself rich. Build upon people's support by supporting them in turn.