[Mustang]

There are some people that should not run a business or consider running a business. Like my friend's wife.

This is the friend that has offered to help out, without pay, for three months while the business is going. (Which is going to amount to probably 40-50 hours a month and for which I'm extremely grateful for).

So, last night we were going over details of the store, specific lines, fixtures, hours and things of that nature when she started asking questions.

"I think it would be a good idea to serve cookies."

I'm thinking cookies? What the hell? Before I have a chance to say anything, my friend chimes in "So, he is going to work 40 hours in a regular job, 40 at this job and then go home and bake?" She then suggests that my wife bake them to which he replies that my wife will be doing items during the day like customer service tasks, packing and oh.. taking care of the little one.

"What about incense, you should be incense.". Incense? I'm not opening a Amsterdam coffee shop here, let alone want something burning in my shop. "No, sorry, no incense. Some people might not like the smell so"

"Muzak, will you have that pumped in?" Oh, hell no. Maybe I'll have music in there, but it will not be Muzak.

"Oh, I know how you could decorate, in this section, you could run tire tracks up the wall and do blood splatters." How about a human head on a pike? Should we do that as well? Maybe we could advertise by having a guy being disemboweled yelling SAAAAAAAAAAAAALE!!! "No, sorry, not really productive to having a family atmosphere."

"Comics. You need comics." I wouldn't wish my enemies to have a comic book store. You buy 10 Wolverine #295, sell one and 1 year later you have 4000 sq ft of sh-tuff. "No, too much space and startup costs"

Then we get into one of the main lines and I explain it. I could tell she has a look of amusement on her face as I explain it to her. "Well, I wouldn't do that, anyone that would buy that is stupid." That is where the gnashing of the teeth start. "Look, you don't have to like it.. you don't have to understand it, you don't have to do it, but the bottom line is this demand exists. You know how I know that? Because it is what I'm doing now."

That is probably why a lot of businesses fail (and why people like my friend's wife should never contemplate opening a place). You can't just throw things into your business because you like it or think it is cute and you have to ask yourself what the general public will think about your place.

Lady opened a place in town, called it "Lisa's Cafe". Opened it down the street from Starbucks on the outskirts of town. The week she opened, she was a dead man walking and I told my wife who agreed. She had to have dropped $50K plus into it (if not more.. coffee equipment isn't cheap). She also had named it Lisa's Cafe so, it implied a place to eat. She only served coffee so, by the time she realized this mistake, she had to take out more money to rev up a food line and increasing prices across the board.

At the end of the day, while your perfect place might have cookies, blood splatter, incense and Chicago's If You Leave Me Now playing 24/7 your customer base might not be keen on that and it will kill you. Hopefully I can separate myself from my ideas and look at them from a business standpoint objectively.