AIBU to want to give it all up and start a shop on the Main Street in our village.

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Sitting here listening to all the doom and gloom on the radio about brexit and the cliff we are all going to fall off in a few months and it’s got me dreaming of a life reboot.

I’m returning to work after a maternity and I just can’t face the horrendous commute, full time away from the kids, au pair/full time nanny taking all my income and the day to day drudgery of working in a soul destroying office job for someone else to profit. (And I’m likely to lose my job anyway if all the hype is for real).

I live in a lovely little town around 30 minutes from Belfast. We still have a busy Main Street where people do actually shop still as we are remote enough.

AIBU to want to pack it all in and open a little shop?

I have a fairly major problem though... I don’t know what to sell. In your dream country village what shops would you like to see?

I know starting a business and getting it profitable is a hard slog but at least it will be for me. We’re all going to have to buy local as we won’t be able to afford to import things anyway!

A café, surely?

Historically speaking, craft supply businesses tend to do well in a recession/difficult times. How about a knitting supplies shop, perhaps with a café and classes?
When times are hard, there is an almost instinctive rush to make things both as a way to save money and as a way of feeling in control and like you are able to take care of your own needs.

I'm going to have a little shop, in about 5-6 years time. I know what I will be selling (specialist books) and I know where (near the seaside). I'm working my way towards it by building up my bookdealing business on and offline.

But I don't know how well a bookshop of the sort I aspire to would do in a little town in NI, TBH.

Cafe is a terrible idea for someone with no experience of restaurant/hospitality and one of the most likely to fail.

Do you have a lot of holiday parks and lets near you? Commercial cleaning!

Poor transport links but you have a people carrier? Private hire taxi.

Automatic car? Driving instructor.

We have an excellent eco shop near us but we have plenty of footfall from hippie types.

Depends what is missing. But be prepared to diversify!

I dream of opening a cafe but the rent, rates, and wages needing to paid out puts me off as I'm not sure how much profit I will make.

It also depends on what shops are already in the street.

If I was going to start a business it would be something centred around entertaining children as that seems to be a big thing these days. Childrens books and clothes with a corner devoted to painting pottery or some other craft activity, and then I'd have a little old fashioned sweet shop in the corner with colourful jars and lollipops (like Honeydukes from Harry Potter but in miniature). That way you appeal to kids, to their parents and also the doting grandparents who like to buy treats and clothes for the grandkids. You could do kids parties in the craft corner also.

What is your target demographic, OP?

I would steer clear of a bookshop/cafe type shop, I've seen a lot struggle and eventually close round my neck of the woods.

It's a cold hard world out there for small independent anything.

I’ve always had a dream of having a book shop with a little coffee shop attached. We’d serve Home made quiches and cakes plus books and I’d do a weekly storytelling session for children. ....sigh....

Well cafes, with seemingly high prices for coffee and cake, do seem to be a licence to print money until you read things like this:

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/12099760/TripAdvisor-York-Bennetts-cafe-owner-leaves-brilliant-response-to-one-star-review.html

On a personal basis, I'd love a craft shop, ideally combined with a bakery/coffee shop, where you could set up craft lessons, knit & chat sessions, etc. But I'd have serious concerns about whether it would be financially viable.

Craft/pottery workshop places are doing well in my small town.

I'd take a drive round N Ireland and look at villages of a similar size and demographic to the one you live in and see what's doing well there.

Eg Moira and Hillsborough are well known for having attractive businesses. Or somewhere like Randalstown, which doesn't have the 'upmarket' reputation of those places but is nevertheless attractive and prosperous.

The trouble is, it all sounds so easy if you read stories of these lovely friendly cafes / bookshops / craft centres combined in chick-lit stories. Real life is much tougher, I would think.
People will spend on pets, children, weddings. (Dog treats, dog daycare, dog grooming, childrens' parties, wedding planning and associated weddingy-must-have tat or, wedding / christening / party venues)
Workers always needed for good in-home elderly / disabled care.
Get a catering qualification / food hygiene cert and do batch cooking for the busy who want proper food but lack time? (That would be my business choice, combined with dog daycare)

Depends on the town I think, I'm in Belfast and will happily travel 30 mins to other towns for stuff that I can't get or can't get as much choice in around here. I go to Ards for wool, Coleraine for shoes, Ballymena for big department store shopping and Carrickfergus for fabric. Holywood and Comber for a nosy round the kitch shops and cafes.

Are there any similar towns to yours that have a shop that's thriving that yours doesn't have?

Our market town has a reasonably busy high street. Shops that are doing ok (well not closing down) are either necessary such as newsagents, haidresser, hardware shop, chip shop, off license (posh), Co-op, undertaker, butcher, gift shop, 2 cafes, and multple charity shops.

Or they are a shop that also does classes/online something added extra and the shop is only part of their business. eg fancy cake shop that also does kids classes, kids clothes shop that does a lot of online (though I've heard that is in trouble and going fully online and closing their store), Material/Yarn shop that also does alterations, antique furniture shop that also does upholstery.

The ones that have closed are: book shop, endless cafes, photographers, kitchen fitteres.
I think the rates and overheads are a complete killer.

You are much better off providing a service than selling goods.

Online shopping has destroyed most High Streets - which is why you tend to see lots of hairdressers, beauty therapists etc. now.

Does your High St have a tattoo parlour? They are very popular in my area.

It really depends on what sort of shops your town already has.

Looking at some of the shops that have opened near us in recent years make me wonder whether the owners have even thought of walking down the High Street to see whether someone else has had the same idea. For example, in a smallish town like ours there might be enough business for one old-fashioned sweet shop - but three opening within months of each other? Not surprisingly we are back to just one.

I was about to recommend a pottery craft painting place but MrsMrsMrsMrs beat me to it!

There are 2 where I live and they are both packed all the time. Both miss out by not doing enough drinks/cakes for the adults (one does tea & water, the other has a very small range of biscuits)

This kind of place appeals to a fairly broad age range of kids and can also be hired out for birthday parties (birthday parties are big business where I live)

On the down side I would imagine the set up cost is high as you need to buy quite a lot of stock and have some kind of kiln/firing contraption to make the paint go shiny

I'd also go for coffee shop, no idea why someone posted it will fail if you don't have experience in hospitality,

Nice coffees, great cakes, then you could expand to lunches.

I'd focus on pets before I focused on kids. And I'd go for a service, too.

I know Belfast very well and the towns within a 30 minute drive. In every town I could list the shops/boutiques that have closed due to lack of business. Even Upper Lisburn Road is feeling the hit. Bangor (which is perceived as wealthy) has more charity shops on the main street than any other. Loads of these places have an influx of hairdressers/beauticians that shut within the year.

Unless you know the demograph thoroughly something like an ecoshop could bankrupt you. Remeber you need to compete with online shops who aren't paying rent/rates and salaries.

I dream of opening a coffee shop with amazing traybakes that I would eat all day with a cup of coffee. Working in one doesn't appeal to me at all though.

*I'd also go for coffee shop, no idea why someone posted it will fail if you don't have experience in hospitality,

Nice coffees, great cakes, then you could expand to lunches.*

Because anyone with hospitality experience would know how tight the margins are with cafes and what's involved in running them.

Personally I wouldn’t OP (I’m also not far from Belfast)

The only independent shops that are surviving in my town are the hairdressers, barbers, beauty salons and the established food spots. The shops that opened up as giftware stores and an old fashioned sweetie shop have had to start serving food to keep going. The sweetie shop even stopped selling sweets and just served food after a while.

I live in a small town which has a pretty good high street. The shops that seem to have a really good footfall are the lingerie shop, the gift/card shop that has lots of really nice different things (and is super friendly and gift wrap your stuff), the designer clothes agency (I suspect they also buy on ebay to supplement stock) and the pet shops.
Every childrens shop has failed apart from the toy shop.

The speciality shoe shop and chiropodist does a fantastic trade, and a number of the shops also have an online presence