Mama Always Said
Lone Tree, Colo.
AnnaMack Hardison opened her handmade gifts kiosk, Mama Always Said, in January 2010. Her tiny kiosk sits in the upscale, Denver-area Park Meadows Mall.
Hardison's kiosk costs a fraction of what she'd pay for a full retail store in the mall. But having a physical shop helps her capture customers that would otherwise bypass her wares. "You get so much foot traffic that you would never get at a brand-new website," she says.
Some of those customers cross over and become virtual shoppers at Hardison's online store as well, where she creates customized headbands. Business has been strong enough that she has brought on two part-time employees.
Few retail spaces will let you rent for a term as short as three months -- but a mall often will. That lets aspiring entrepreneurs test out their concept and adapt their approach. "The whole first month, we had to figure out what people liked," Hardison says.
Why it works: "Rents in malls are very expensive," says Randy Allen, consultant in residence at the advisory council of Cornell University's Johnson School. Allen spent 22 years with Deloitte Consulting, focusing on consumer businesses.
When you're launching a new business, a kiosk reduces your initial outlay of cash. "You won't need furniture or fixtures, you won't need to invest in improvements," she says. "Your rental cost is way down and your staffing costs are smaller. You may only need one person to manage these."
But Hardison was wise to pick a popular, well-trafficked mall. "Small companies need to think critically whether this space going to be in a place where I meet the right kind of customers and enough of them to make sense for me," Allen says.
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