Thought I would openly discuss something I have been working on. My retirement date is comming up in 7months and I want to have a pretty good start on this so I can hit the ground running. Have run small businesses most of my life so really nothing new here. What is new to me is the concept of turning a hobby into business and instead of going after established market shares I want to build my own market and customer base by creating and recruiting new devotees to this hobby. This is a rather specialized field and I will be concentrating in a relatively small area so I am not too concerned about my idea being stolen, I think the feed back I get may be more valuable.
My idea is bonsai supplies, tools, pots, soils, books, etc, one stop shopping. Presently it is not difficult to go on line and find products if you are looking for them. There has always been a bit of mystery about bonsais, folks like to look but just assume it is beyond them. Bonsai enthusuasts have done little to dispel this myth, they tend to relish in the uniqueness of what they do and like any art they enjoy being reffered to as an artist. My approach will be the opposite. I plan to hold workshops in public areas with high traffic weekend crowds. I am blessed to live in area where there is a street fair within a few miles of my house every weekend. The crowds that attend these street fairs seem to be very receptive to arts crafts, gardening etc.. I live in a So Cal beach community where incomes are very high. I have allready been able to recruit some very experienced skilled japanese bonsai enthusiasts who are retired and would commit to one workshop per month. Over the course of a year my goal is to establish retail outlets within existing private nurseries maybe about 10 ft of shelfspace floor to 6 ft high and hold weekend workshops at these nurseries maybe once a month or so. I would like to build it up close to a $1,000,000 annual gross and then concentrate on fine tuning and refinements in marketing etc. Have done two trial runs with almost no product and had excellent response. Some of the problems and decisions I am dealing with involve should I go high end, medium end, low end, My thoughts are medium with everything, avoid all low end and have cataloques avail for high end with some personnal samples we use at the workshops. Any Feedback? Steve