“Through this whole process I’ve realized that the anticipation of everything you do starting a business is way worse than when you’re actually in it.”
Today’s business landscape is a lot different than the one our parents grew up with. It’s seems more and more business are launching online and having a physical space is simply not needed. Why spend the time and effort of opening your own store when you could just put everything online and not have to worry about the same overhead? I’ll tell you why. It’s romantic. It’s a way to connect with where you live. And for lack of a bigger vocabulary, it’s really awesome. Picture waking up in the morning, making yourself a cup of coffee and then diving to your shop, the shop that you own. You put the keys in the door, and walk in. It’s quiet and peaceful, but you know that in a few hours people will be coming and going and you will meet a lot of them. You look around your beautiful little store and think, I belong here. Sometimes owning the largest liquor distributor online is cool. Sometimes owning the little bar from Cheers, where everyone knows your name, is even cooler. Today’s guest, Lauren Danuser, explains the trails, tribulations, and wonderfulness of owning your own brick and mortar store.
“The hard part and fun part about my job is I’m like ‘well, I really like this, I think other people are going to like this’ and then you make the purchase. So you’re really banking on people liking what you like.”
“There’s a lot of information on the government’s website for how to start a business because they know that most of the people doing this have no idea what they’re doing.”
Interview Contents
3:15 - Lauren’s background and how she got the courage/knowledge to open her own shop.
6:00 - The money that you need to open a shop.
8:45 - The checklist that you need to go through before opening a shop.
13:00 - Choosing the property to rent.
15:30 - The other things that needed to happen prior to opening.
18:00 - Finding and acquiring the things you want to sell.
23:30 - Hoping that people like what you like when you’re buying things for the store.
28:30 - What to do when you buy things that aren’t selling well.
30:30 - Trying to price things so that a ‘hipster’ demographic can buy it.
37:30 - Deciding on the mark up for individual products.
38:15 - Putting things on sale.
41:30 - Crazy work hours.
46:00 - Hiring employees.
50:00 - The benefit of working with other people.
52:30 - Ramping up sales and trying to pay rent.
54:00 - Pre-store-opening marketing.
1:00:40 - Knowing what quantities to buy.
1:09:30 - Doing pop-up events.
1:11:00 - Lauren’s schedule.
1:13:00 - Being in a good headspace when you have your own business.
1:16:30 - Advice.
Links
Local Nomad Website (Lauren's shop)
THIS EPISODE WAS MADE WITH THE SUPPORT OF
Marcus Batson
Roxanna
Michelle & Jim Wortner
Janelle Swanson
Jimmy Seymour
