A small hot dog stand right on main street on the sidewalk for easy access. The stand is needed because more food options are needed in the town, and especially one that can capitalize on the increasing traffic that goes through Lamoni's downtown.
The total cost for this project is roughly under $4,000, which covers the stand itself and supplies. The stand will be member operated in the beginning and offer service for lunch and dinner, but if it reaches sales targets of 20 hot dogs a day then more hours will be considered.
Workers will get the chance to improve the downtown atmosphere with the stand, giving visitors a chance to get out, walk and enjoy the downtown . As a small project it is expected to offer one style of hot dog and a small assortment of toppings. Specialty dogs will be considered if sales hit projections.
A portion of all sales will go to launching another small business to help create momentum. The stand will be seasonal and operate for spring to fall.
With a nice 7-mile recreational bike trail, state park with network of trails, and a mountainbike park nearby, there seems to be potential here for a rental business.
The most expensive aspect of this will be general liability insurance for the project to cover any edge cases. The liability for the project is the greatest roadblock, and so the project will be legally one of the more difficult rural projects.
The interesting aspect of this project will be discovering how profitable a recreational rental service can be in rural areas, and whether it will be desirable by locals and those passing through.
The good part of this project is that all rides are considered assets and can at very least be sold to cover costs of startup to recoup much of the money. Because of this this project is considered to be relatively low-cost for startup.
The greatest expense will be purchasing unique rides and bikes, and will likely need to be made up front. To start off we would purchase a handful of rides, a scooter, mountainbike, and kickbike. Other potential rentals include unique longboards, perhaps the Chub skateboard, and freeskates. This would make the project in par in cost with the hot dog stand, which makes it an acceptable small business to start in a rural community..
We will measure what is the most popular rental, and acquire more to serve demand. The reason for acquiring different rides is to increase rentals amongst fewer customers, enabling the business to profit more off less people -provided renters wish to try multiple rides.
With a state park with trails available, and a mountainbike park, it is expected that our off-road kickbike. and mountainbike will be the most desirable. To capitalize on the campers at this park, which sees a dozen campers a day at the least on average, we will advertise our service out there and offer online rentals with free delivery.
Another potential rental is horses, as there are a number of horse trails at the state park available. This offer would of course require the rental of others horses as a middleman, but potentially be a nice source of income for both us and the horse owners.
Monthly rental memberships can also be made available to allow consistent income and give locals a convenient way to recreate without having to own their own equipment. The cost would be relatively low at about $30/month, and be targeted to those wanting a way to recreate and exercise easily.
Another membership offer to evaluate is a ride-share, in which members can include their own rides in the pool of rentals in exchange for membership. This would be an extremely low-cost way of increasing the rental pool and increasing options.
When you consider all of these offers, the business starts to look more than viable, which is exciting.