Entrepeneurs Beware...

I have spent the better part of this day so far researching funding options for this store I want to open. If you type in "Government Grants for Women Small Business" on Google, you will find hundreds of thousands of sites that claim you can get grants for up to $250,000 without having to pay a dime back! All you have to do is use your credit card to pay the $1.97 shipping and handling cost for a CD rom that will tell you how to write a grant proposal to the government that will most LIKELY get turned DOWN because the government does NOT grant money to small business owners and women! In fact, from my research on actual government websites, they only give grants to schools, non-profits, and other district related organizations that benefit the GOVERNMENT in the end, not the individual! So anyone out there that is looking for funding for a business such as I am needs to realize that in reality, nothing is free and the best way to do it is to get a low interest loan through an SBA approved and guaranteed BANK just like everyone else has to do and SUCK IT UP!!! I will be checking that option out next week when I get some free time again (unfortunately not until Wednesday unless I can do some of it online/over the phone).

If something smells fishy...It probably is!


Last night we checked out the store space. Its so perfect for what I want to do. It is the half of the salon that was the tanning booths' domain. There are 4 large partitioned areas that would be perfect for gallery space, and in the back is a large open space that would be the supply store. Great because I think that would deter shoplifting having it so far in the back, and the artists would get more exposure. The guy who is renting it out is very nice, and very motivated, and offered to give me the first month rent free to get it renovated. The problem again is the money. I can probably do renovations cheaply enough since the walls are already there and all we would need to do is probably knock down one of the partitions to create enough room for the inventory I want, but the capital I need for the inventory is the next hurdle.


Domino's Pizza is going in right next door which would be good in a way because it would attract more customers to the area, plus more town houses are going up behind that plaza so that would mean more potential customers that would be in walking distance. My neighbor (and one of my best friends) is married to a guy who is very business oriented so he offered to help me get my ducks in a row, and her sister is a contractor so she offered to give me some connections for cheaper rug and i might be able to hire her to help me do some stuff. It needs paint badly and the carpeting is atrocious. The windows will also need some kind of treatment as they are hideously ugly on the inside.


I was thinking of painting the gallery spaces neutral colors and then offering to let people paint their space the way they think would be most flattering to their art. That way its always getting repainted and motivates someone to rent the space. I am hoping that the rental of gallery space will help pay a quarter of the rent of the entire space, or about $200 a month. but I really need to do some research into what I should charge as a reasonable, keep my head above water fee. I don't know if its better to charge a solid higher fee for rent and then no commission on sales or if its better to even it out. And input you all can give me is appreciated!

The back part of the store, to the left is the opening for the supply store area, the the right is the bathroom.

Some of the partitions. The angle is weird because of how I was holding the camera, and it was at night with almost no lighting so these pictures didn't come out great. He said I can come back later this weekend to check it out in the daytime!

A better view of the partitions. Do you see what I mean for gallery spaces? To the right that you can's see is a wall with an office area (small) and then another area that could be used for something like a class perhaps or a signup area for things, a bulletin board, etc.

These are the ones I would need to knock down. That will be fun. I wish there was a window but I guess I can't be too picky! For 800$ a month...lol