Wealthstore.com,
I would like to open a kiosk at my local mall selling candy and other similar items. It seems like a nice and simple business to run. How do I start?
Geoff from Houston
First before you do anything, I would go look at the people operating the kiosks at the mall. Don’t go on a Friday or Saturday night. Go look at them on Monday – Thursday before 5 PM. They look miserable. That’s because they are. Im not saying don’t give this a try, I’m all for the entrepreneurial spirit. I’m just saying that sitting there stationary in a chair for hours on end every day with nothing to do, is VERY difficult. You have no employees to manage, no floors to clean, no inventory to count. Nothing. You just sit there. All day every day. Most people can’t mentally handle this, and they under estimate how difficult operating a kiosk really is.
If you think you’re just going to hire someone to to sit there for you, think again. If you do that, what you’re doing is putting your entire business in this persons hands. THEY are then running your business, not you. Do you want a high school kid who does not care about your business to be running the entire operation?
Mall kiosks are expensive too. Most people seem to think because kiosks are are small, they have low start-up cost and cheap monthly rents. Not true. They can cost as much as retail space in a strip center. Meaning rent can cost thousands per month. And the malls increase your rent during the holiday season.
So think about these things before you go dreaming of making easy dollars with a mall kiosk. There’s nothing easy about them.