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| When you can't go through, you go around. Just keep moving. |
It isn't always pride but sometimes your dream can blind you to reality. Of course rose colored glasses come as standard equipment with that dream.
Like a lot of people over the years I've dreamed of building a small business.
My family has actually been involved in a couple of small businesses over the years. The fact that none of them are still in existence at the the present time, should have been a clue! Unfortunately, none of these businesses were involved with anything that had my interest. In fact, I had the opportunity to step into one of the businesses and take over it's running, but I declined, as it just wasn't my cup of tea.
I thought that things might have been different if any of these businesses were concerned with an area of my interest, like something to do with cars and motorcycles.
I have read about so many businesses started by enthusiasts in car magazines and even in my Wife's crafting magazines.
Robert Petersen's start of Hot Rod magazine. What a great story, he and his business partner sold the first issue and subscriptions at the local races and car shows. They used the subscription cash to buy themselves dinner! They put in long hours, often sleeping in their little office.
Mid America Corvette supply was started by a guy that kept his extra Corvette extra parts in a hall closet. Then he would go out to swap meets. Eventually he needed more space and began offering small reproduction parts that he had manufactured.
Hollywood Hot Rods. This shop was started by a self taught builder. He didn't have a family "in". He didn't even have a Dad at home to show him the way. His Mom worked two jobs just to keep the family together. As he stated in a Hot Rod magzine interview," if I needed something welded I'd get a book from the library about welding, read it, then rent a welder." That was the same approach that he took to everything. He went to college and got a business degree in construction management. He saved up and wrote a business plan that secured him a small business loan. The first years were hard. Aren't they always?
Fire Mountain gems stones. Another home based family business. I read their origin story in their catalog. They bought in bulk and sold in small quantities. The business outgrew their garage and they moved into a real warehouse.
I used to love watching "The Big Idea" with Donny Deutsch . Entrepreneurs would describe how they started their businesses and the steps they were taking to make it grow. Donny would listen, then give his advice. It was much better than SharkTank, because there wasn't all that make believe in-fighting.
The usual story is that most small businesses started in the garage, spare bedroom, or even the empty corner of someone's apartment. There are artists, craftspeople, and regular swap meet vendors that spend the time before "swap meet season" to build items, or gather inventory, for the up coming season. They will sell theses items throughout the season then start over again the next year. They are not running these businesses as an ongoing enterprise.
These can be profitable operations. Build some stuff, sell it directly though an affordable local venue, pocket the profit. That's a good manageable plan that brings in a little extra money, like working some overtime when it's available on your main job.
Start small, build as you go, keep expenditures down as low as possible.
Success at these small venues can lead the seller to wonder if they could turn this side hustle into a permanent business. Could it have the "legs" to be successful?
A permanent business requires a lot more layers of continuous costs. For supplies, storage, advertising, and perhaps a brick and mortar location. Maybe even the hiring of employees.
Distribution channels also start out simple and direct, usually through swap meets, car shows, antique and craft fairs. Internet websites have replaced those tiny classified ads in the back of magazines.
I'm sure that you've heard of "vanity" book publishing. This where an author, whose book has not been picked up a publisher, pays the cost of publishing and distributing his book, himself. It usually leads to the author having cases of unsold copies of his book in storage, somewhere.
I started a "vanity" car parts business.
If you've been reading this blog over the years you might remember that I once started a used auto parts business. If you're going to deal in used parts it helps to narrow your focus to only one type vehicle. I decided to specialize in early Datsun Z cars.
I had initially started a website for on line sales. I just never gained any traction with that site. I advertised in a couple of Datsun Magazines. Those ads were quite expensive. After spending a couple thousand dollars on magzine advertising, I didn't see any sales from that source!
At first I thought that I would have an actual brick and mortar shop where I would meet with customers by appointment. I could use the shop to part out cars and warehouse the parts. Unfortunately, I did not do my due diligence and discovered that the shop could not be operated in the way that I wanted. The location was not zoned for retail sales. It was a really nice little shop. It had an office, storage loft, and even a newly remodeled bathroom. It was also in a good location.
I signed the lease before I looked into all the details. I found that I couldn't open up for retail sales legally, so I decided to become a swap meet sales business instead. I had wanted to avoid doing that. I currently had a real job as well as other obligations. But I had rent to pay, a bunch of old parts to sell, and a somewhat tarnished dream to fulfill.
I found a pretty good swap meet to attend. It was put on by a Datsun 510 guy in the Eagle Rock area of Los Angeles. It attracted hundreds of buyers. I had a lot of stuff to sell. At first things were great. But as I sold out my desirable old inventory my sales grew smaller. I expanded into enthusiast attire; t shirts, hats, and hoodies. This provided me with more opportunities for sales.
If I had been a "real" business person I would have tried to get out of the lease as soon as I realized that I had made a big mistake. Instead of the smart thing, I just threw good money after bad. There wasn't any way that the math was going to work out, I couldn't even cover the rent.
I held onto the shop for the length of the lease. Just having the shop was an enjoyable if not realistic, experience.
It was real, and it was fun, but not real fun. I had to move out of this space.
I thought that I'd move my inventory back into a public storage facility. I found one close enough to home and it was big, 15 x 30 feet. I moved in my storage racks, metal shelving and boxes of parts. I even built a little loft area. I still had a considerable inventory but I wasn't buying any more. I was just trying to sell off what I had. I noticed that several other small business people involved in the construction, landscaping, and janitorial trades, had their businesses located in that storage yard. There was even a guy that must have had a laundromat or two, as his space was full of washers, dryers and parts.
I have to give these guys credit for their efforts. Hopefully they hadn't blown their money trying to have a storefront.
I moved to an even smaller storage space. I stayed there for another year, selling on Craig's List and at the occasional swap meet.
Finally I moved out of that storage space and brought all my junk home. I lined up all my fenders, doors, hoods, hatches and what ever sheet metal, against the fences in my side and backyards. As time passed I was getting tired of looking at that stuff. My yard looked like a junkyard. Most of my stuff was pretty good, but it needed a little work to make it acceptable. It seemed that nobody wanted to put any work into the parts. When I started off with my initial hoard, I had a lot of really choice parts. Of course those were picked off first.
I decided that I would scrap the third rate stuff and concentrate on trying sell the remainder. I took an entire truckload to the metal recycler and netted 90.00. Another year went by.
The vicious culling of the herd continued. I was just going to hold onto the best of what was left. Another truckload to the metal recycler netted me 75.00.
I finally just packed up what was left and put it in my garage and a couple of small sheds. Then I forgot about it for a few years. A couple of times I tried to sell my stash to some guys that I knew were in the swap meet business with no success.
During that time the value of early Datsun Z cars has skyrocketed. That has lead to the price of their parts also increasing. I had been ready to almost give my stuff away. Last year I started organizing and listing my stuff on Craig's List. I even started shipping my parts! My Wife and Daughter have helped me negotiate the shipping hassle. My expectations are now much more modest and I've had a little success. I've still got a few things that are worth a couple of bucks. After that I'm out.
Would I want to give the business another try? No thanks.
I'm not trying to discourage anyone from starting a business of their own. A lot of people have been very successful.
It all come s down to how much dedication and determination do you have. Are you a business minded person? I suppose that I wasn't. A little bit of luck doesn't hurt. I liked the "idea" of business more than the reality.
Time for a reality check.
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