Opening A Small Bizz

Question

I want to open a small Bizz in San Antonio Texas.

About how much money will I need to start a little convience store, and what legal papers do I need, and where can I look for a little building?

Answer 1

Before you go any further, I STRONGLY recommend you contact the Small Business Development Center (at your local community college) and talk to them; the counseling is free.  And sign up for the NxLevel Entrepreneurial program.  it's a 12 session course that walks you through the ins and outs of starting or growing your business, and as part of that you will write a business plan.  At the end of the class your plan will be reviewed by a lending professional, and will be critiqued, telling you the strong points of your plan AND the weak points.  Part of developing your business plan includes finding a suitable site for the business.  Suitable doesn't mean just that you can afford the rent; it also means that you will have customer traffic that will come into your store.  A high traffic count can be misleading if it's nearly all non-local traffic such as commuters on a highway.

Then you can work on the weak points and hopefully get it into shape to actually present to a lender and get the loan you need.  There is a cost ($375.00 last year at my SBDC) for the NxLevel program, but it’s a lot cheaper than losing your investment.

Even if you hire a professional to write your plan, you should still take the NxLevel course.  It saved me from going into a business that would have failed within a year or so, taking my investment with it.  

Business plans may be a pain in the butt to prepare, but without one, your business is doomed to failure.  To start with, you won't know what your startup costs are going to be, what kind of income to expect, what your ongoing expenses are, who your competition is, what kind of customer traffic you can expect and even whether or not you can make a profit.  Without a GOOD business plan, you will not be able to get a business loan to get your business off the ground.

Answer 2

The first thing you need is a business plan - without that, you are pretty sure to fail.  Part of the business plan will be an estimate of all of your expenses, so that will give you your answer - e.g. rent, utilities, stock, furniture and equipment (don't forget the cash register), cost of hiring workers unless you plan to be the only one working there.

Good luck

Answer 3

Not sure about that.

could be quite costly, you may need to take out a loan.

you need to buy stock and buy/rent a property

theres also usually a licensee which im not too sure about.

you might want to consider starting an online business first to make enough cash for the shop - because loans can be risky.

i know a decent web designer if you want i can give you his e-mail address.

thats what i'd do anyway

Hope i helped

- Dave