That is a lot to think about certain aspects I have not even considered, especially the low prices and non loyal customers, that makes complete sense.
As you can see I am an absolute nube when it comes to opening a shop...a lot of things to think about, it is entirely different from maintaining someone else's shop.
I'm going to put a lot of thought into what you have just told me, it really is a paradigm shift for me, thought low prices would keep them coming back but I can see them going to the next guy who undercuts me.
Thanks much!
I've been self-employed as a photographer for 22 years. I wouldn't have it any other way. But.... running your own shop is not for everyone. You will work harder for less pay than someone who is "employed", at least for the first 3 to 13 years. Maybe forever if your business is marginal. You will think about money and time far far differently in a short while. However... I wouldn't change what I've been doing for anything. Just don't have any illusions about running your own shop.
You will make mistakes... don't lose sleep over them. Learn and move on, and do better next time.
Some people/customers will be complete ash-hats. As boss you get to deal with them. Don't let them ruin your outlook about people in general. The vast majority of people/customers are truly nice people.
Hope you like paperwork....you will be doing a lot of it. I am posting this rather than doing my final financial year-end bookkeeping, for instance. You will need to deal with business licenses, lease agreements, employee contracts (if you go that way), customer contracts, etc etc. Because you are in the US you also will likely have a bewildering array of tax forms to fill out .... potentially city, county, state, and federal. For the business. Plus your personal state and federal returns.
If you have personal assets - like a home - consider incorporating. This will help to protect your home from someone suing you because they were too stupid to use the door and tried to walk through the glass instead.
Insurance of course ... liability and comprehensive. I tend to have very high deductibles. I figure I'd rather save the insurance for true disasters, and self-fund the lower amounts. You can save some money that way.
There are some very interesting ways to save money if you incorporate, which can more than cover the extra costs of incorporating. For instance... a loan to a business is considered very risky. The bank charges high interest, and wants you to provide equity as well. Basically, if you had that kind of equity in the first place, you wouldn't need the loan. However..... (relatively) speaking taking out a mortgage on your home is considered low risk. Even in the US today, compared to business loans.
For example.... we borrowed a whack of money on our house several years ago, personally. We were good risks, and got a low interest rate. We then turned around and lent the money to our incorporated business at zero percent. Because we had borrowed the money to invest in a business, the interest we were paying on the mortgage we got to write off on our personal taxes as the cost of the investment. In Canada, dividend income was taxed at a lower rate than interest income, so the business paid us dividends on the loan, instead of interest. The capital of the loan (the amount we loaned the business in the 1st place) it could pay back at any time with no tax consequences since it is not considered income. We set up repayment schedule from the business to ourselves to cover the monthly mortgage payments so our personal cash position was exactly the same. At the end of the year we got back a tax refund in the amount of the interest expense we wrote off. The business got the cash infusion it needed to get going. All of this was perfectly legal (in Canada at least) and does not even approach the grey area. It is simply a benefit of putting the business into a corporation, which is considered to be an independent entity apart from yourself. This scenario probably won't work for you, but it is an example of what competent financial advice will get you.
Don't mess around with the tax people. They will catch you. For every person who brags about getting away with cheating on their taxes, the tax people catch ten. They make it a personal mission to catch cheaters.
Personal networking is your best bet. I ran a gallery for awhile. Print advertizing accounted for less than 10% of my traffic. In my 1st year I advertized in everywhere, and while it may have helped get my name out there - when I asked people how they happened to in the gallery that day the vast majority were there because of a personal recommendation, the sign out front, and a repeat visitor. My experience will be different because a gallery is a specific destination, and I live in a very small community. But - the lesson is... if you spend money on advertizing, track how effective it is. Simply ask everyone why they are there. You will very quickly get an idea of where to spend your time and money.
Sigh... too much info again... sorry.
There is all sorts of
free help from the local business community about starting up your own business. Take advantage of the free stuff before you spend money on "business coaching"....