I would love to run a combination junk yard and machine shop where artists and inventors can buy scrap by the pound and rent machine tools by the hour to build their inventions.
Catering and party planning
Restaurant/bar somewhat along the lines of what zoid mentioned.
Here in East Timor, I have realized a very strong need for a “party facility”. In that I mean that a place that people can hold parties. You see, around these parts, there exist many problems with trying to hold parties…most people try to hold their parties at their own houses, but many problems pop up, like the guests not respecting the host’s house!!!
Parking, electricity, water, restrooms, rain, and many other problems could easily be cuerd by preparing a facility, much like an outdoor covered basketall court. The facility would offer 24-hour electricity guaranteed, an inhouse entertainment system which would include Karaoke (very popular round these parts), plenty of water, a kitchen with hired hands, a paved parking area, a paved and covered party area, and security from the non-invited.
I am guaranteed weekly utilization. The only problem is that I am not allowed to open any business here, because I am employed with the UN. My wife is looking for an appropriate area, though!
I’d love to start a sky-and-telescope store in my hometown (Kingston, ON.) There’s no such store there, which is really weird, because my hometown is the home of Terence Dickinson and SkyNews magazine. But everyone there drives to Toronto for their equipment.
It would be great. I’d have a big showroom with lots of cool equipment, and fathers and their kids would come in and ask for advice on starting up. That would be terrific. I’d have it right downtown on Princess St.
PEOPLE KIBBLE!
PEOPLE KIBBLE!
I can’t believe no-one’s mentioned this yet! Seriously, if I had the cash to do all the necessary research and development and get the stuff produced, I realy think it could be a winner. Shame I’m strapped for cash and have basically no contacts, but if anyone has any ideas on how to get started, let me know!
Failing that, I’ve often dreamed about owning my own bookstore. I loooove to read, so that would be perfect for me. Just a cosy, little bookstore with books on the ground floor, (comfy sofas, scattered around, of course) hobbies/rpgs/computergames on the second floor, and a coffe shop/jazz club on the top floor.
OR, I’d love to run a successful alcohol-free restaurant. I love to eat even more than I love to read (you can guess what kind of shape I’m in!), so it would be fantastic to greet all the faithful regulars, wander around the room and make sure everyone’s happy, and serve amazing delicacies that keep people coming back for more. However, because I’m a muslim, I can’t sell or handle alcohol, and real-world economics mean an alcohol-free restaurant would flop like a fat man off a high diving board. But as long as I’m dreaming…
My husband laughs at me for this, but for 20 years now I’ve dreamed of owning a truckstop. One with a decent enough restaurant that locals would come, and food so good truck drivers look forward to making the runs that take them by there. I’d have the best coffee, the friendliest (yet sassiest) waitresses, and damn good pie. The bathrooms would be large and clean with great showers, and the work area with phones (for truckers to do paperwork) would be very comfortable.
I’d also like to do a catering/carryout thing, but I’m especially interested in a business that sold healthy prepared food for kids. Foods with wholesome organic ingredients that sneak in extra nutrients. I spend a lot of time trying to get vegetables into my picky eater but I don’t always have the time to add carrots to spaghetti sauce and make sweet potato muffins and the like. I try to add flaxseed meal and wheat germ and stuff to my dishes, but I don’t all that much time to cook. I’d gladly pay for such stuff as a mom, and think others would, too.
Finally, I love the coffeeshops around here with their couches and comfortable conversation arrangements, so I’d love to take this idea to my hometown in Nebraska which has nothing like it. Open an awesome coffeeshop and let people know that yes, it’s okay to sit for an hour a nurse a single latte while they read a book or tackle homework. Or to have a book club meeting there. In fact, I’d coordinate some book clubs, and also sponsor special nights where people can come in and do their thing. Maybe a scrapbooking night, a knitting night, etc.
I would like to have a curiosity shop. I could fly all over the world, poking around looking for weird wonderful things to put into my shop.
I would also like to have a small intimate restaurant. One where people would know me by name and I would stop at each table and chat for a few minutes. There would not be a menu really, I would fix whatever I wanted to fix for the day. Attatched to the restaurant would be a book store, complete with fireplaces, and windows that look out into the forest. People could sit and watch Nature after dinner, or read, or gather and talk. No time limits. There would also have to be the resident dog and cat. A big happy, fat dog that likes to sit at your feet, or sits and listenes to your problems. And the cat would do what cats do.
An ice cream/dessert shop in the middle of my north-side Chicago neighborhood. We’ve already got Baskin-Robbins aplenty, but my shop would have some character – a bar with chrome flashing and spinning stools, a few tables outdoors, apothecary-style cabinets behind the bar reminiscent of 1920s drugstore ice cream bars. During the cold season, I’d offer rich hot cocoa and baked desserts. No fluorescent lights, no technicolor posters on the walls. It’d be a charming and cozy place where folks can take their kids after a baseball game or a cute place to take a date.
There’s a shop something like this not far from my apartment that I’ve visited a few times. They have all of these little oddities – boxes carved with skulls, little glittery devil tchotchkes, punched tin mirrors, beaded jewelry and bags, wind chimes – from all sorts of crazy places. It’s nifty.
If anyone would please be so kind as to open an authentic Greek Gyros shop here in Dili, East Timor, I would be incredibly grateful!!!
There is a bar in Loganm New Mexico that I have always wanted to buy. It has the absolutely, hands down, perfect name for a dusty bar in a little town…
Whiskey - The Road To Ruin
Damn, I get misty just thinking about it <<sniff>>
You remember how much fun it was to play dodgeball at school or church when you were a kid? And remember how you couldn’t play it anymore once a couple of kids got hit in the face pretty hard?
Well, at TaxGuy’s Dodgeball Emporium, you can play dodgeball to your heart’s content, and no administrator will shut the place down. The facilities will consist mainly of several dodgeball courts (of about the same size as a basketball court), locker rooms and restrooms, and I guess a snack bar of some sort (heck, maybe I’ll serve liquor on weekends).
The locals will probably have a pickup game going all the time, and we’ll have organized leagues, tournaments, and occasionally the best dodgeball team from the town over may come to challenge the local gang.
Everyone signs a waiver on the way in so I can’t get sued.
We could use the standard elementary red activity balls most of the time, and maybe substitute volleyballs every once in a while. Maybe we could put obstacles on the court (and have the mats as the flooring in case someone trips), and maybe the walls could start right at the edge of the court and be in play so that someone could be hit with a bounced shot even if hiding behind an obstacle.
One or two refs per court ought to be enough to insure fair gameplay.
Players set the rules for each game, or they can play with the standard house rules.
I’ll charge on a per-time or per-game basis, depending on traffic.
On Friday nights we could do Rockin’ Dodgeball (turn the music up, the lights down, and get the blacklights and white balls out).
Anyone wanna invest in this with me?
Two options:
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A game shop, but focused on strategy board games. Maybe a bit of RPGs or CCGs in a dusty corner. No warhammer. Space for open gaming, and REASONABLE PRICES.
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a chain of Kosher versions of popular restaurants. i.e., a Kosher McDonalds-like place, a Kosher TGI Fridays-type place, a Kosher Chinese Buffet, a Kosher Ponderosa Steakhouse, Kosher Mexican, etc…
It’d have to be something having absolutely nothing at all to do with the buisness of broadcasting, advertising, news or other public brain-washing.
Honestly, I think I’d love to own a campground - you know, like a KOA or something similar. I don’t mind hard work as long as it’s accomplishing something concrete and tangible.
If it wasn’t that, I want to build custom motorcycles. Only problem there is that there’s a thousand other guys out there doing the same thing - hard to be distinctive and gain a customer following.
I think the top of the list for me, however, would be to write for a living so I could live where I want, work when I want and live the life of a slightly whacked, slightly eccentric, slightly bizzarre old kook all by myself with my books. Oh, wait…
LOL TVGuy, we’re opposites, apparently! 
My dream business is a small town radio station, providing local programming to a community.
A refreshing change to the ClearChannels of the world, with their pasteurized processed cheese food cookie cutter programming.
Local personalities, local news, local contests, and a strong presence in the community.
This was my business for 15 years, I left Radio 10 years ago, and miss it terribly, but I don’t miss the low pay and impossible hours.
This is kind of an oxymoron, but along the lines of **Cranky **:
A healthy drive thru restaurant that features organic, vegan, healhty foods. No soda, no fries, no fried tasteless meat.
It would go out of business the first day.
Organic clothing and hemp clothing. It would be in my strip mall with my toy store, coffee /book shop and healthy food eatery with a drive through. ( I cannot afford organic, natural stuff, but my store would be affordable somehow.)
And there is always my brilliant idea of a Drive Thru coffee shop. Kinda like in the old Fotomat booths of days gone by. **Java to Go Go ** Bring your own cup and save the earth and money. Need a cup, it is more mula and we only do travel mugs.
Along the KIDS stuff: the indoor Playscapes would also have party areas to rent that the staff take care of the set up ( parents supply decorations to keep costs down) and the healthy food options (no pizza) are available. There would also be a bowling alley and the bar games like skittles, indoor table top shuffle board thingie that is absolutely addictive, skee ball and other non-video games. Some how prizes that are not crap would be won. 25 points= a dollar off at Borders or my toy store next door.
Oh, I would also want, along **Shirleyville Main Street USA ** a yoga place. I know it is oh so trendy right now, but yoga is something that has lasted 4,000 years and such a benefit.
I really want to own a folk art gallery. There would be wonderful handmade peices from around the world (all purchased from Fair Trade co-ops or directly from the artists). It wouldn’t be any kind of snooty gallery, either. I’d offer books and demonstrations and all sorts of Educate the Consumer type functions. I’d have price points for everyone - from $10 chiclet retablos to wildly expensive origami displays.
This is a serious goal - now I just have to find the capital!
There are several distinctly different types of businesses that I have dreamed of owning & operating, but startup capital and overhead expense issues have always stood in my way. Remove those barriers and I would seriously go for (in no particular order:
A campground/boat rental/fishing guide service in the woods on a big lake. Probably with some rental cabins, snack bar, and store thrown in for good measure.
Or maybe an equipment rental yard renting out all the cool tools & man toys homeowners need for specific construction-type projects or would just love to play with for a while but can’t afford to purchase for themselves.
Or a custom jewelry store specializing in unusual colored gemstones and hand-made goldwork.
Or an old-timey Mom & Pop style hardware store in some small town somewhere.
Any one of those, minus the inherent money problems, would make me a truly happy man.
SC
Have gun.
Will travel.