That was an advertisement on a web page I was looking at on the Chicago Tribune. Although a little narcissistic, do they make a valid point? The past couple of years, I have seen a good number of small businesses closing because they cannot support themselves, while the big businesses boom.
The small businesses sometimes are replaced with a substitute store. Fore example, in my town Great Harvest was a small, private owned bread store on the corner of two of the busiest streets. It was located a few blocks away from my high school so many students would walk there for lunch or after school. However, over the summer The Red Hen took over the business, inflicting construction, redesigning and bringing in new products. It has a completely different feel than Great Harvest.
In my town, smaller businesses also rotate throughout the small storefronts, each taking their turn at survival. One entrepreneur fills the store with furniture, designs, interesting clothes, trinkets, or food and is profitable for a few years. But after that, the popularity dwindles, and another entrepreneur takes a chance.
So with these two situations, it does not seem that the best investment is in yourself. What are some pros and cons to setting up your own store now? How do small businesses affect the economy?
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Setting up your own small business around other big firms does seem like a risky economic idea. People might was to try out the new restaurant or store at first, but profit might dwindle after a few year. A pro of opening up your own business is setting your hours and when you time is to be available. A main thing when opening up a business is finding things people will need and want in the area. It would be a bad idea to open up a surf shop in the middle of Michigan. Considering something such a barbershop wouldn't be as bad of a gamble. Finding something that large firms cannot supply, but a small shop can might be a winner. (A)
ReplyDeleteIt really depends on what you're going into business with. If it's something in demand that can't be gotten easily at big stores, than you might have a chance. But I agree that people generally will stick to the easily accesible chain stores that they're familiar with, so it's probably not a good bet to start your own business.
ReplyDeleteMy parents own their own small business, so the idea of small business survival is discussed quite frequently in my household. Although they've been in business for twenty years, many of their counterparts have survived for far shorter. Currently, there are several open storefronts in our (admittedly quite small) downtown. These are all from ill thought out small business ventures that went under within months of opening. I think that if you're going to start a small business in this economy you have to be well prepared and cater to the demographics of the area.
ReplyDeleteI would imagine that with property values continuing to be so low, now would be the easiest time to purchase the store front, assuming you have the capital required to start a business in the first place.. Besides that, I assume it would be hell.
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In my opinion, I still believe that even in a failing economy, you should still believe in yourself. If that means investing in yourself, I think you should do it. I say this because no one knows yourself as good as you do. If you believe that you can succeed in building a business, I think it is worth it to go for it and pursue your career as an entrepreneur. I mean if you take a look at most small businesses today, I think you would find that almost all of the owners of those businesses took a risk to set up shop. But if you don't take that risk to set up your own business, how will you ever know how successful you could have been? Taking a risk and investing in yourself might just turn out to be a great reward. (A)
ReplyDeleteYeah I definitely believe that you have to believe in yourself and have faith in your abilities. No one can trust you more than yourself, and if you can't even do that, then it can be quite hard to succeed. A
ReplyDeleteTrying to build your own business is not that easy as we thought, in some ways, we should believe ourselves we can do our best to have our small buiness, but from one of my friend's experience...I have to say, we might need more time to think about this idea. My friend owned a really nice coffee shop at the downtown of a big city, but he had to face to the high rental and the competition with many other coffee or dessert shops around, it is really hard than what he though before...and it was really hard to hold your own business ...you will worry about your employees, taxed, food materials...especially in a failing economy.
ReplyDeleteBut to me...I still believe the small business could help the failling economy.
A,E
You definitely have to be confident in yourself to succeed in anything you do. This can be applied to small business because if you were to open one it's success would depend on your efforts. If you aren't confident in what you sell, why would anyone want to buy it. A, E
ReplyDeleteEven though it certainly does sound a bit narcissistic I think that this advertisment has some merit. If you don't look out for yourself, no one else will. Its the same with small businesses. They have to take care of themselves before anything else if they even want a chance in surviving in this economy.
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