If you have a local quilt shop close by I would contact them.

As with any business, start out with what the hard costs will be to set up (lease, furniture, deposits), then the costs to open (inventory, advertising), and then the monthly costs (rent, utilities, banking/credit card fees). This does not include salary. Since this is just a dream idea, what would you need to sell to cover these costs? And, we know that a LQS will not sell this much (why they are dying out!) what will you do to supplement this income? Best idea is classes or LA services. If you have a quilt class meeting one day a week with 4 - 6 students, it can generate $100 - $200 per week. Check with a local LA'r and see what they charge for their services (MSQC was charging penny per inch) and estimate how much a long armed quilot per week would generate. These would be your 3 sources of income. (And possibly add in a mail order element.) This is your base costs/incomes for the business. ( I had a brick and mortar for 29 years and now just do the online store - so much easier!)

All I can give as advice is Good Luck. I am sure you will do fine and please let us know the outcome of your presentation

Selling machines is also a valuable source. The shops that do the best are those where the owner also owns the building. Don't forget all the taxes some local some state and federal too.

Some states have small business information.

Will any permits/licenses be needed?

If using borrowed money, remember the cost of interest.

Lawyer fees? Accountants?

The start up costs are "just the beginning" of running a business.

Where would you get the funds to start this business? Borrowed? Savings? Beg from relatives?

Family run/owned? Publicly owned? (I don't think any LQS are publicly owned.) Sell shares?

If doing a brick and mortar shop -

location? parking? access? demographics of area? (can people afford to buy quilting supplies?) competition? Hobby Lobby, JoAnn, and/or other quilt shops?

Would your location be near something a lot of people would probably stop at - such as a chain/large grocery store - or would it be a "destination" - such as in a house in the middle of a pasture 20 miles from the nearest town. (There is a shop in Florida that seemed to have those characteristics.)

How to display/store inventory?

If "real" store - please nothing that you want me to buy any higher than five feet off the floor.

Unless tax information is available through the library resources listed above, this isn't information you'll probably be privy to. Most quilt shops are personally owned businesses and I don't know anyone including me who would share my revenue info, and the expenses involved can vary so widely by location.

Please do let us know the outcome of your class! thanks, Sharyn

keep in mind, this is a class project and not for real. It's going to be Ok for you to guesstimate at some things that you can't find hard data for. This was one thing I always struggled with when taking classes, I treated it as if it was "real" and put way more time into projects than I should have. My classmates would do great with much less effort because they were younger and had not been in the "real word" yet so everything was still pretend and they didn't have the problem with that.

Figures my first post would be about something other than quilting (I'm new to the quilting world). I did win the business plan competition in business school though (not for a quilt shop). A good sources of this type of information are trade organizations. Most shops are unlikely to share any real number for you. One source for quilt shops is https://fabshopnet.com/ Hopefully you can find something there. They have an article on shop benchmarks that may be helpful