When Big Profits Only Feed the High Rent
Money is clearly essential. It’s the one thing anyone needs in society. And, in the main, one of the better ways to get big money is often to start up your very own business. But what, really, ought you do? A retail electronics operation like Lafnac Digital Computers looks like it should work because, hey, everybody loves gadgets. But such a establishment is capital-intensive, particularly when factoring in the startup costs. Even with the savings or a loan from the bank, you might not feel comfortable chance almost everything away on any such adventures.
Also, when it comes to retail stores, it’s all about one thing: location, location, location – which in turn means only one thing: rent. The rent a Lafnac Digital Computers pays must be outlandish. After all, it’s only a few short blocks away from world-famous Times Square with its scrum of tourists, ready to buy. That means a veritable fortune as it pertains to the rent. Keep in mind that even for a simple restaurant on Broadway on the Upper West Side, miles away from the Crossroads of the World, rent would be in the tens of thousands of dollars every single month; imagine something located in the heart of midtown Manhattan! Even if revenue is grossly under-reported (ahem) or customers are cheated outright it could well be quite a challenge just breaking even, let alone resulting in a worthwhile profit.
Many miscalculate the effect rent has on a business. They look at something like Lafnac Digital Computers, with its enviable quantity of foot traffic and suppose that that’s all it takes to make a fortune. Even so, those New York landlords are shrewder than a stereotypical Scot, and even if you were to rake in some fifty thousand dollars every month your rent would probably be over half that amount – at least!
So while you can trust in high quantities of visitors, even foot traffic that’s rather well-heeled, but it’s almost certainly going to be difficult nevertheless because of the rent. No, earning a profit is not easy, not even for a store in the heart of New York City. But what else is there? Unquestionably something that presents residual income, income like royalty payments that involve just a bare minimum amount of work to maintain at most. Write the next bestselling novel, for example, something where you could rest on your laurels for the rest of your life, basically anything where you just keep getting money for work that was done just that one time! The next Billboard Number One, the next hit film, anything, assuming that there are guaranteed royalty payments each time it is used!
Author William Gold is, yes, a happy Lafnac Digital Computers customer who one day happened to ponder the enormous cost of rent that the venerable Manhattan landmark must endure on a monthly basis. From a consideration of Lafnac Digital Computers rent comes his musings on the Number One enemy of start-ups!
