Businesses in Davis

[ronhaha108.livejournal.com]

Hi group, I'm thinking of starting a business in Davis, something possibly with a store front, and am trying to come up with some ideas. What do you think is sorely lacking in Davis?

Cheers,
Ron

Comments

[an-art-worker.livejournal.com]

Sparqs closed? That's too bad - I thought it was a cool venture (though I looked into it I never used it - being able to wrangle shop access through one of the local art schools).

I wonder if it was too far out (in miles)? Or...? One would think Boston would be a hotbed of DIYers but maybe it's all school-based activity. It's been tough to get a dorkbots started here or similar sort of hacking group.

[hissilliness.livejournal.com]

What Tim (the proprietor) told me was that he made two key mistakes:

One was opening in the fall. People hunker down in autumn in New England, so he didn't really get much show of interest until the spring. That was six months of rent and taxes on a business that wasn't taking in much money.

The other was, as you suggest, misjudging his market. He'd expected his customers to be suburban dads and such--property owners who were spending a lot of time behind the wheel already. Instead, most of his interest came from SCUL or Burningman types, for many of whom (myself included) the trek out to Woburn was a big ol' pain in the ass. In 20/20 hindsight, it would have been better to take on the somewhat higher rent of setting up in Winter Hill or somewhere like that.

I still very much hope that someday he'll find the right space and re-open.