Boy, What Were You Thinking?

When I was a kid there were five words I heard more than all others combined. Usually coming from my father, they were, "Boy, what were you thinking?"

Those words would typically come after he caught me doing something I shouldn’t be or more often, after talking my younger brother into doing something really stupid that could have - but never did - end in his demise.

"Come on, Bubba, jump off the roof of the barn with this towel tied around your neck. You’ll fly, my brother, I swear!" I’d then push him off the roof, use the towel to stop the bleeding, and wait for my old man to show up and say, "Boy, what were you thinking?"

"I was thinking that Bubba could fly. My bad."
I hadn’t heard those words in many years (at least since my younger brother got taller than me). And I haven’t really missed hearing them (no sentimentality there). But a recent business venture of mine had everyone I know asking me, "What were you thinking?"

Here’s why everyone was questioning my sanity (as if they didn’t have reason to before): I decided to open a retail store in my little hometown of Madison, Alabama. The product the store sells is irrelevant. It was just the fact that I, an old software entrepreneur who’s never sold anything retail in his life, was taking on the world of brick and mortar in a lousy economy that had people counting my marbles.

Despite their doubts, opening a brick and mortar store was actually an easy decision for me because after researching the market, the industry, the demographic, the local economy, and a dozen other things, I knew that my chances of success were pretty good, despite the risk involved.

One misnomer about entrepreneurs is that we are big risk takers, that we put ourselves and our finances on the line on a daily basis. That’s not entirely true. There is a degree of risk in any business venture, but wise entrepreneurs do their homework on the front end and know their odds of succeeding before the first brick is laid or the retail space is leased.
Wise entrepreneurs figure out the odds, figure out how to improve those odds in their favor, then roll the dice. If we play the game as we should our risk of failure is actually very low. It’s those entrepreneurs who stumble blindly into a venture, either miscalculating the odds or ignoring them altogether, who usually fail.

So what was I thinking? I was thinking that I spotted a need in the market place and if I didn’t fill it someone else would.

Hence my diving into the brick and mortar pool and so began what has become one of the most enjoyable ventures I’ve ever taken part in.

And lucky you; I have a ton of new lessons learned that will hopefully make your foray into brick and mortar a little easier; or at least a lot less risky.

Over the next few weeks I’m going to bring you the lessons I learned and paid for: yours free with my compliments.

We’re going to talk about things like how to spot an opportunity in the marketplace, how to scout for retail space, and how to tell a really great location from a really lousy location (even when the really lousy location looks really great).

We’ll cover how to negotiate a commercial lease (get your first born ready), how to deal with city license and inspection departments, how to set up sales tax accounts, how to locate vendors and pay for inventory, how to design your retail space and deal with the contractors, and how to find and hire employees that will do more for you than cash their paychecks and go home.

Starting and running a retail store is a lot different from starting and running a service business or an internet marketing business, which have been my main arenas for over a decade now, but I’m having a ball.

Yes, with a brick and mortar you do have a whole different set of things to worry about, but in the end business is business, products are products, and risk is risk.
Next week our journey begins.

Tim Knox


Boy, What Were You Thinking? - To learn more about this author, visit Tim Knox's Website.

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