Rented a tiny retail space to test my product idea, the lease killed me
I signed a 6 month lease for a 200 sq ft spot in Austin to sell my custom planters, thinking foot traffic would cover the $1,800 rent. Instead I made maybe $300 a month and spent all my time just standing there waiting for someone to walk in. Has anyone else found that testing with a pop-up or farmers market beats a real storefront every time?
$1,800 a month for 200 square feet? That's $9 a square foot in Austin, which sounds insane for a spot selling planters. Those numbers are brutal too, $300 in sales against $1,800 rent means you were down $1,500 every month just on the space, not even counting your time standing around. Six months of that is like lighting nine grand on fire. Farmers markets or pop-ups make way more sense for testing something like this since you only pay for the days you actually show up.