As some here know, while my wife and I have jobs in the city, we also have a small ranch. One of our side gigs, as it were, is to board horses. Currently, we board 8 horses on the property, which basically pays our mortgage (when our boarders actually pay us)...but that's another bit...
Another side business used to be a tack shop (selling horse gear, saddles, etc.). This was because my wife's father, when he owned the place, ran such a shop. The first year, it still made a little money, but even after a remodel and new products, etc., it just wasn't worth it to us, especially as it didn't make enough for one of us not to work. But, we had a ranchhand who could run it during the day, so wasn't too bad.
Anyhoo, once she left, it just became not worth it. But, it's 800 square feet of shop space, has a display counter, slatwall walls for merch, even it's own bathroom, etc. So, we wanted to do SOMETHING with it.
Well, we knew we'd only be able to do something with it on weekends, and even then, wouldn't be EVERY weekend...so we needed something that:
1) Was FUN to do
2) Was something we could do just a few times a month
3) Something we could do without carrying a lot of stock
Well, my wife is an avid scrapbooker. She'd often pay about $15 to $25 to go to these multi-hour "crops" (basically, a bunch of gals getting together socially and working on their scrapbooking, so pics of family, etc.) Obviously, a little more to it than that. But, we figured, get some tables, some nice chairs, and it'd be a pretty easy endeavor (and she wouldn't have to pay someone ELSE for them).
The nice thing is though, this setup (tables and comfy chairs) also lends itself to another fun thing we've gotten into. You may have seen those Paint and Sip places, where you bring your own wine, and an instructor provides a canvas, paints, etc. and walks you through doing a painting (where the whole class does the same one). These typically charge about $35 a pop or so, which is nice if you figure about $5 worth of materials....then just the instructor's time. Well, I'm an artist, and can probably do these just fine!
So, that's the plan. We went ahead and consolidated the existing tack stock to try and clearance it all out. Anything we can't sell by end of Feb, is getting binned and going online to sell. We already got enough long tables, and just this weekend, got a GREAT deal on chairs (which previously, was going to be the BIGGEST expense). We didn't want just any chairs, but as middle-aged ladies who aren't size 8 would be the likely sitters, we wanted nice adjustable office chairs. This was previously going to be about $700 budgeted, but then we found some clearance chairs for (after wheelin' and dealin') $12.50 each! So 12 of these, for $150!
So, I'm super excited this is all coming together. Hopefully, we'll be repainting and doing the floors in Feb, so we can actually open up the first week of March. At least with the scrapbooking piece of it. May take longer for the expense of initial materials for the Paint & Sip, but just happy it's coming to fruition. It may not make a TON of money, but even if it nets just a few hundred a month, it's still well worth it, and while doing something that we enjoy. I'll have to post pics once it's all up and going!
Another side business used to be a tack shop (selling horse gear, saddles, etc.). This was because my wife's father, when he owned the place, ran such a shop. The first year, it still made a little money, but even after a remodel and new products, etc., it just wasn't worth it to us, especially as it didn't make enough for one of us not to work. But, we had a ranchhand who could run it during the day, so wasn't too bad.
Anyhoo, once she left, it just became not worth it. But, it's 800 square feet of shop space, has a display counter, slatwall walls for merch, even it's own bathroom, etc. So, we wanted to do SOMETHING with it.
Well, we knew we'd only be able to do something with it on weekends, and even then, wouldn't be EVERY weekend...so we needed something that:
1) Was FUN to do
2) Was something we could do just a few times a month
3) Something we could do without carrying a lot of stock
Well, my wife is an avid scrapbooker. She'd often pay about $15 to $25 to go to these multi-hour "crops" (basically, a bunch of gals getting together socially and working on their scrapbooking, so pics of family, etc.) Obviously, a little more to it than that. But, we figured, get some tables, some nice chairs, and it'd be a pretty easy endeavor (and she wouldn't have to pay someone ELSE for them).
The nice thing is though, this setup (tables and comfy chairs) also lends itself to another fun thing we've gotten into. You may have seen those Paint and Sip places, where you bring your own wine, and an instructor provides a canvas, paints, etc. and walks you through doing a painting (where the whole class does the same one). These typically charge about $35 a pop or so, which is nice if you figure about $5 worth of materials....then just the instructor's time. Well, I'm an artist, and can probably do these just fine!
So, that's the plan. We went ahead and consolidated the existing tack stock to try and clearance it all out. Anything we can't sell by end of Feb, is getting binned and going online to sell. We already got enough long tables, and just this weekend, got a GREAT deal on chairs (which previously, was going to be the BIGGEST expense). We didn't want just any chairs, but as middle-aged ladies who aren't size 8 would be the likely sitters, we wanted nice adjustable office chairs. This was previously going to be about $700 budgeted, but then we found some clearance chairs for (after wheelin' and dealin') $12.50 each! So 12 of these, for $150!
So, I'm super excited this is all coming together. Hopefully, we'll be repainting and doing the floors in Feb, so we can actually open up the first week of March. At least with the scrapbooking piece of it. May take longer for the expense of initial materials for the Paint & Sip, but just happy it's coming to fruition. It may not make a TON of money, but even if it nets just a few hundred a month, it's still well worth it, and while doing something that we enjoy. I'll have to post pics once it's all up and going!
