Yes, it can be done. And it’s been done, many times. But, it sure isn’t for the faint-hearted.

Exactly how does it happen? Generally, it happens like this:

• You find a landlord that will lease a place to you with the first several months of rent deferred.
• You supply a great deal of the manual labor and construction skills to renovate the space.
• If you have credit, you can finance the fixtures. If you don’t have good credit, you can buy used (or very used) fixtures for very little money. Hopefully, it won’t need replacement before you have revenues.
• Some suppliers will finance their own inventory, or, send stock to you on consignment, or, again, deferred payment terms – you use those companies.
• Everyone (or almost everyone) works for free until there’s enough cash flow for paychecks.
• You get free advertising or marketing through word-of-mouth, viral internet marketing, media reporting, etc.

Now, the question is; should you do this? The answer is easy. Probably not. You have to have a lot of research backing up your belief that the business will work in that location, and then, a lot of faith that everything will go pretty much right from the start for you. Not to mention that you will have to work so very hard; as hard, or harder, than you’ve ever worked in your life, and the knowledge that even that may just not be enough after it’s all said and done.

But, people have done it. And they’ve succeeded.

Some of them.

Most of those people with a big dream and plenty of toughness have not succeeded, unfortunately. Because the chances of all the planets lining up, and everything going your way all through all the first six months of your new retail business are very small. You need a cushion for when something goes wrong, as it invariably does.

However, it can be done…