My turn! Being a business person first is the most important thing you can do to keep any business going. No matter what your selling.
The things I like and have never seen in any store I have been in is:
Good lighting
A place to audition fabrics that you are choosing. So many times the only place to look at fabric groupings is by piling them on top of other fabric in an isle that other people are trying to use.
Class equipment: I have been in classes where there was one broken iron and an ironing board that looked like it had been through a war. have enough heavy duty extension cords to handle a crowd. Cookies are great but I would rather be able to plug in my DSM that I dragged to class.
Don't be setting up class while people are arriving to take the class. It looks so unprepaired.
One LQS has the notions, thread and books along a wall in a classroom. Now really. Am I going to interupt a class so I can brows the notions and flip through the books. NO!
Wide isles: enough said
Understanding that space costs money and cramming as much stuff into every little inch of space you can, just looks messy and unfunctional. I don't really want to move ten bolts of fabric off of something I want to see.
My perfect shop would be more like a B&B and general store or campus for quilters. I would live over top of the store and you could come and go as you pleased to use tables for cutting, sewing or marking quilts any time there wasn't a class, and there would be a back room for quilting bees on an old fashioned frame and a room with an assortment of longarms for rent. I may sell a few basic machines and leave those fancy ones for someone else to sell.
fabrics would run through all styles from civil war repros to the modern large print florals
My DH would repair and recondition treadle and vintage machines in the back of the house.
There would be someone sewing most of the time. That would be part of the job. When you see it happening you get more interested.
I would contract with local schools to have people from the art department intern at the shop and have free range to create whatever they want limited only by the rule that it mst be created from stuff at the shop and have art shows as special events for the community.
There would be special discounted fabric corner for people who work on relief quilts to exchange finished quilts for fabric, batting and thread at minium cost.
Enough for now. I'm exhausted!
peace
Oh! one more thing.
There would be cloths lines in the side yard to hang a few quilts on for display where they could be seen. It would be like a small park with benches where passersby could enjoy a few minutes viewing the show.