Good place to start a business (Jacksonville, Orlando: school, pharmacy, square footage)

[deana]

Hiiiiiii,

Would like some thoughts on this......would the southside be a good place to start a retail business? If not where would be???? It would have to be an area with lotsssss of kids. Thanks

[riveree]

Plenty of families on the Southside and the demographics must be good (incomes, etc.) if the developers decided to locate an upscale shopping center there (SJTC).

There are stores galore on the Southside, so I'd be choosy in finding your location - lots of competition out there in retail.

[alittlenerdy]

*Bump*

I would like to start a small business like a candy store or bakery as a side business, so essentially, I have the same question that was originally posted. Any ideas?

Thanks!

[riveree]

Originally Posted by alittlenerdy

*Bump*

I would like to start a small business like a candy store or bakery as a side business, so essentially, I have the same question that was originally posted. Any ideas?

Thanks!

As in where to locate? For retail, I think you need to be where the people are. Now, more than ever (gas prices), people don't want to drive a distance to get to much of anything...you have to have something really special to be "a destination", otherwise, locate your self in a well-travelled area.

There's my 2 cents!

[alittlenerdy]

Originally Posted by riveree

As in where to locate? For retail, I think you need to be where the people are. Now, more than ever (gas prices), people don't want to drive a distance to get to much of anything...you have to have something really special to be "a destination", otherwise, locate your self in a well-travelled area.

There's my 2 cents!

So does the nature of the business really matter?

I love the idea of a candy museum, too. I've been doing a little homework, and it looks like they're aren't very many candy museums in the US.

[riveree]

Originally Posted by alittlenerdy

So does the nature of the business really matter?

I love the idea of a candy museum, too. I've been doing a little homework, and it looks like they're aren't very many candy museums in the US.

That's an interesting hook - a candy museum - I like it! The only downside is that you'd have to dedicate square footage to a display that you would not be selling .

Have you ever seen Dylan Lauren's (Ralph Lauren's daughter) candy shop?

Dylan's Candy Bar

She caters to the Gen X crowd (amongst others) and our candy nostalgia.

You should do what you love! Are you passionate about candy? If so, then you increase you chances of success...you need to love what you do in a small business .

[alittlenerdy]

Originally Posted by riveree

That's an interesting hook - a candy museum - I like it! The only downside is that you'd have to dedicate square footage to a display that you would not be selling .

Have you ever seen Dylan Lauren's (Ralph Lauren's daughter) candy shop?

Dylan's Candy Bar

She caters to the Gen X crowd (amongst others) and our candy nostalgia.

You should do what you love! Are you passionate about candy? If so, then you increase you chances of success...you need to love what you do in a small business .

That's tough competition! I didn't even realize that was Ralph Lauren's daughter. I actually came across her store while doing my homework. Good thing I'm not considering Orlando...

I'm passionate about sweets. I love them for two reasons: they taste good and they're so pretty. To be honest, I find them infatuating. I'll just have to limit my intake if this idea gets off the ground.

I graduate pharmacy school in 2010. My SO and I really love Florida, so we would like to move there. Jacksonville is one of the "where we need you areas" for Walgreens (the company that I work for). If all goes well, I should have enough start-up capital from working full-time for a year or so as a pharmacist. My SO could help out with financing for the shop if that becomes necessary, but I think I could take care of the financing part on my own. (His niche is in electrical by the way.) After opening up shop, I would probably drop back and work part-time as a pharmacist. Hopefully I can find good store managers.

My goal would be to make the museum adjacent to a gift shop. The attraction would be the museum, but the majority of the profits would come from candy sales. With the right layout, I think I might be able to pull in regular customers with some sort of bypass around the museum.

What do you think? Should I consider beachfront property, a downtown, historic shopping area, property near another museum, a retail mecca, or ????

Thanks so much for your help!!

[travelingfood]

If you been to St Augustine, there are a couple candy stores at the heart of tourist street. Seems to do well since it's a high foot traffic are.

In Jax it would have to be in a mall. And generic candy store can be a hard sell in current health conscious market. Everyone's marketing green, organic, low fat, etc. Got to be unique here.

[apanda]

Regency already has on across from the food court, the name eludes me. Does the Town Center (St. Johns), have one yet?

[riveree]

Originally Posted by apanda

Regency already has on across from the food court, the name eludes me. Does the Town Center (St. Johns), have one yet?

No candy store that I know of at SJTC, but there are a couple of ice cream/chocolate/yogurt shops, one of them being locally-owned:

Chocolates from Peterbrooke Chocolatier - gourmet milk, dark, white chocolate candy - online shopping (http://www.peterbrooke.com/index.htm - broken link)

So one idea, Alittlenerdy, is to take a look at what Peterbrooke has done, they've been very successful in Jax. They have a few different locations, one being in the SJTC. We have a couple of locally-owned businesses that have shops in the SJTC, so that's always one possible location.

Travellingfood mentioned St. Augustine, which would be a great high traffic tourist location. Outside of the tourist area, in a residential part of St. Augustine is another chocolate factory that's been around for years and they offer free factory tours to bring in a crowd:

Welcome to Whetstone Chocolates • St. Augustine, Florida

And whenever you next come to visit, be sure to do a wine-tasting tour at San Sebastian, a local winery in St. Augustine. They have an interesting business concept - along with the typical wine tasting tours, they have a sucessful art & wine show they do each year:

Welcome to San Sebastian Winery