$1000 a month? For commercial space in a major market even off the beaten path is a stretch. But the point if your numbers isn't lost on me. From where I'm sitting there are better investments. But a chain of shops, then selling franchising rights? Now I'm interested.
It's not. My wife was looking at commercial space a year ago. Some were cheaper, some were more. That's in urban LA, on major shopping streets. Back when I was mixing in clubs our flagship was 9,000 square feet in the heart of Pioneer Square. It cost $15k a month.
For many of these small, independent business owners, if they can cover their fixed costs, materials, and labor, all while making an honest wage, they struck gold. They're pursuing a dream and are their own master. My fiancee owns a boutique, and her competition isn't really the American Apparel across the street, it's the bored, semi-retired housewife with a rich husband who loves clothes and needs something to do. It's kind of weird, but she really is competing against stores that aren't too worked up if they don't make much of a profit. For the ones that are really in for themselves, they really are happy to simply make a wage equal to what they would make in their industry in a good position working for someone else. The competitors that want much more than that are the exception to the rule a lot of times.From where I'm sitting there are better investments.