Life begins at ?

After having an awful “job” in the bottled gas industry for many years, surviving 4 takeovers and by default ended up “repping” all over the south coast of England, I decided to change direction completely and open a furniture shop. Couldn’t be that difficult surely !!

To cut a very long story short, I did a business plan, got a bank loan (not the best way of borrowing money) and persuaded a landlord to assign a 1 year lease on premises in a town about 15 miles from where I was living.

Now the fun part, I went shopping, with a very good friend, we travelled all over the country going to all the trade shows looking for things that were different and eye catching.

I had this dream of an exclusive furniture shop selling something different, from all the usual shops on the high street.

I have since found out that there is a reason that all the shops look the same, they all sell the things that are “safe” and people want to buy.

If you have something that is “different” people certainly like it and it does bring them through the door, but the amount of people willing to be “different” is very limited, so you have a beautiful shop that everyone loves but very few people “buy” and the rent has to be paid.

I think rent should be paid pro rata on sales but I doubt many landlords would agree….