alexseanchai | (no subject)

I had a thought today, and I want to know whether, if I were to seriously pursue this thought, I'd be out of my tree or just out on a limb.

Opening a jewelry business. Like, an actual business. Borrowing startup capital, hiring employees, making a metric ton of inventory, storefront in the mall or downtown, the works. A particular storefront near my current place of employment is open, rent $650 a month, and I figure I'd want me and one employee to start at $15 an hour (and do not suggest lowering that number, that's only a little above a living wage) for forty hours a week apiece which comes to $4800 a month so $5450, materials could easily be another five hundred a month, so if I could get a loan for twenty thousand dollars (or hit up kickstarter.com for twenty thousand dollars) I'd have operating expenses for three months plus two thousand more to fix up the storefront with, and if I could pull in six thousand dollars a month I'd come out ahead. But I'd have to be very sure this would work for it to be worth quitting the state job, which I'd have to do to have the time and to avoid having the conflict of interest.

I keep thinking, Syn did it! I am trying not to think about all the experience Syn had working for LJ before she started DW. My experience in retail consists of the back room at Macy's and the production line at Subway. But I'm sure successful entrepreneurs have started with less.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I emailed Dad the same thing I posted here, bar the part about you, and he thinks I am so far out of my tree I'm flying. Which, to be fair, I kind of knew he'd say.

Ha. Let me guess, he's worked for someone else his entire life? (Entrepreneurs usually cheer other entrepreneurs on.)

I don't think it's impossible. I think it would be very, very hard, but not impossible. If you're still interested, after considering everything I said, I will ship you a few books to read.

Career military. Then unemployed for a year, then a stopgap job, then the job he's got now.

I am still interested, in a 'thing I want to do but not right now' way. I figure I'll keep the job I've got so's I get in a better financial position than I'm in, and I'll finish my paralegal degree as a fallback, and over the next year I'll collect resources and information. Starting with the library's books on starting small businesses, though I do appreciate your offer and would like to take you up on it.

Sounds like a plan to me! If you have a goal over time like that, it can help you out considerably -- you can spend the time between then & now looking up information, studying, yadda.

In the meantime, I'd recommend contacting your local Chamber of Commerce to see if they have any sort of new-business-owner classes, or to see if they have any business incubator/mentoring systems -- here in B'more, for instance, there's a program where experienced businesspeople mentor new business owners or people who want to start a business. (Also, low-cost loans/grants are often available for women, people of color, or people with disabilities who want to start a business; your Chamber of Commerce will have information if there are any programs in your area.)

I'll think a bit and try to put together a survey sheet for starting up the survey of local jewelry businesses, too.

Thank you so much!