I need help starting a dessert shop

[Skydronry]

I want to open a dessert shop and need help with certain issues.

First: How do i go about choosing a location? LA or Orange county? Which is better? specific parts?

Second: Does anyone know a company or person that does counters/lighting/decor/etc in the Los Angeles area? If so can you provide contact info?

Anyone with any answers or additional suggestions please help me out! Thank You
-Stan

[eserviceinc.com]

Firstly, I always thought that a dessert shop would be a cool business. My hubby and I did a mobile espresso business for 5 years, but I always wanted a neat little dessert shop! Cupcakes are hot!! I'm also a geographer, and had a class in location analysis.

Ok, where to start, there are so many variables in this. Think about your customers? Who are they? Upscale people with money? College kids? Regular families? Retired folks in Palm Desert? Tourists? What other types of businesses would they frequent? You're going to write a business plan, right? I know you are, because that's where you figure out all this stuff. Go to the SCORE website for invaluable information, and I hope that you'll make a (free!) appointment with a SCORE volunteer. They'll give you ideas, and mentor you.

To ask LA or Orange County....that's a broad question (I know both). They both have high income areas, medium income areas, low income areas. Are you going to be operating the store? Do you live in either of these areas? Having owned a small business, it is a part of you, you will need to be nearby (you don't want an hour commute, what if an employee calls in sick at the last minute??). So, say you decide you want the higher income folks, say, those that make $120k a year income. Then, you use census data to find out where those places are.

You'll also want to figure out what types of businesses are compatible with what you are thinking of. I personally don't think that most coffee houses offer brilliant desserts, so maybe locating very near one would be good...unless you want to add espresso drinks to your menu (a good idea, by the way!). Maybe near a movie theater, or a big chain bookstore, someplace open at night (I'm hoping that you'll consider being open at night...I live in a semi-rural area and all of our coffee houses close down by 3pm, except Starbucks, and even they are only open until 9 pm!!).

Ok, so you've got your areas down, and you've narrowed down the types of businesses you'd like to be by. You've driven around and found a few open storefronts that you are considering. IS IT ON THE CORRECT SIDE OF THE STREET????! By that, I mean, you'll be wanting the side of the street that is likely on the "commute home" not on the "morning commute" side (which is what you'd want if you had an espresso place, or newstand, etc.). Is it easy to get in and out of the parking lot? Does it seem like the parking lot has enough spaces (I hate shopping on Ventura Blvd in Encino)? Is it an attractive parking lot? No unsavory types hanging around? Have you seen it at different times of day, different days? To write your business plan, call the broker, how much is the price per square foot? The square footage of the available space? How much is "triple net" (aka NNN...the additional amount you have to pay the landlord for maintenance)?

You should be writing your business plan as you get this information, because you'll need to know how much it's going to cost you for everything every month. You'll need to find out how much utilities cost, employees, workers comp insurance, liability insurance, etc.

If you google "location analysis", you'll find many firms that can do a GIS location analysis for you. If you want to figure out some of the variables, look at some of those results that are from college classes!

Really, though, I recommend that you contact SCORE, or at least visit their website. I've got 3 bus ideas and I'm going to do their online tutorials and write 3 business plans. Good luck to you!

Oh - design firms. I recently attended the Coffeefest tradeshow in Seattle. If you google coffeefest and go to their website, they should have links to vendors there, I know there were some design firms listed.