THis is a great idea for a thread. I'll start by asking, how did you get started in your chosen industries and how would you advise someone wanting to go into B&M business that has the capital but limited experience or resources in these areas?
My situation is kind of unique because I'm an attorney so the first business I opened was a law firm. All of my businesses since then have basically branched off from the law firm. I started practicing real estate law and business law - so from there I opened a title company, merchant services/credit card processing company, etc. as my clients from the law firm were in need of those services so I already had the consumer base built in.
Starting a business is tough, but it's absolutely not impossible by any means. Millions of people have done it, and it can obviously lead to financial freedom if things work out. I'm a big believer in entrepreneurship and creating a life that you're happy with, so if you had capital, the first thing I would tell you is envision something you could see yourself doing every day and genuinely being happy with. I'm not saying it has to be your passion (law isn't my passion at all), but it's something I genuinely enjoy and I have a pretty comfortable lifestyle now that allows me to do things I'd never imagine experiencing.
The key initially is to do something that will allow you to start making money relatively quickly so you don't burn through all of your capital. Also, and this is probably most important: KEEP YOUR OVERHEAD AS SMALL AS POSSIBLE. Right now in particular, commercial office/retail space is cheaper than it's been in a long time because of Covid, so there are good deals to be had on spaces. But again, the important this is to have a quick turn around time as far as being able to market whatever services you're marketing quickly, offering those services or products to the client, and having that money come back to you. All of my businesses are service-based as opposed to product-based, so luckily I don't have to worry about inventory. So I can't really comment on that.
But being successful takes a lot of work and learning new things - you have to know your product/service, potentially protect it with trademarks or copyrights, how to market it (Facebook ads, IG ads, being active on LinkedIn, creating an email list and sending blasts via Constant Contact or MailChimp, creating flyers if your business is localized, etc.), collect payment for the services/products provided, stay on top of all of the bills for the business (rent, phone, internet, industry-specific software, membership dues, etc.), and a million other things that I'm sure I'm forgetting.
If it's not a retail-based business, I'd suggest getting an executive office space. It's typically a building or floor of a building with a company like WeWork or Regus and you can have office space on a month-to-month basis and they give you access to the conference room for meetings, kitchen area to make clients coffee, internet, phone service, a physical business mailing address, and a receptionist that will answer the phone on behalf of your business when someone calls.
You could always go the alternate route too, which is to buy an existing business that may not be doing so well currently. You'd essentially be taking over their lease (make sure you review their lease, because once you sign the assignment of lease, their lease is now YOUR lease), purchasing any inventory they have left, typically inheriting the employees (you can keep them or let them go), business assets and equipment. I would recommend this if you're confident they're just mismanaging the business and you'd be able to squeeze out more profit than they have by simply making some tweaks and running it more efficiently.
This is really just the tip of the iceberg. I could talk about this all day, so feel free to ask any more specific questions if you have them.
