Wife asks, 'Why don't you open a cigar shop?'

[OLS]

Your two cons are deal breakers in my view, no money and no idea how. Those are dangerous check marks
on the pro and con idea chart. Advice can help you out of the second one, but only the money fairy can help you
with the big one. Maybe somebody will kickstarter you. If the idea strikes you as a good one in the end, you just
need to keep thinking on it while you save, and re-evaluate once your money pile is big enough. Debt was
something our PARENTS could afford to take on.....much less so today. Getting out of debt seems harder today
somehow.

[jhedrick83]

Being a small business owner, my suggestion is to try and get a job in a B&M for a while (if you have the time). It helps you get an idea of what it is actually like. What might be problems, what are realistic expectations, what aren't, etc.

A business plan and all is great and a very useful tool, but as Mike Tyson said, everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. Try to plan on getting punched in the mouth at some point in the process.

Keep us up to date on what you decide, I hope you do well!!

[CdnStogie]

Originally Posted by jhedrick83

Being a small business owner, my suggestion is to try and get a job in a B&M for a while (if you have the time). It helps you get an idea of what it is actually like. What might be problems, what are realistic expectations, what aren't, etc.

A business plan and all is great and a very useful tool, but as Mike Tyson said, everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. Try to plan on getting punched in the mouth at some point in the process.

Keep us up to date on what you decide, I hope you do well!!

^^^ this

Well spoken - you should not jump in eyes closed - business plan is required.

You should do up a year budget and see what costs along with your bottom line to make sure it is feasible - demographics play an important role - are you going to sell online or not? What will be your obstacles eyc. sWOT analysis should be done as well.

At the end of the day - it wil be your final judgement, but having this all completed will give yourself direction on where you want to be and how to get there.

I would strongly suggest the idea of getting into the field before trying it yourself so you can see what the markups and what you can do better than your soon to be competitors.

[jhedrick83]

On thing I forgot too. If you decide to do it. Before you make any moves, lawyer up. Get a good business law attorney to advise you and get you set up in a way that will best insulate you personally from the business failing. If you aren't careful to start with and as you operate, you can expose you and your family to tremendous financial liability. Just be smart, the extra cost up front is worth it!