Opening a new business is risky proposition. No matter how much you educate yourself, or how many long days you put in running the business, unforeseen personal or macroeconomic events can crop up to present significant obstacles. One method to minimize unforeseen problems is to brainstorm and come up with as many pros and cons about operating the business that you can, especially if it is a specialty retail business. For: Successful Business Owners Make Money: Making money is a primary goal of all small business owners, and seeing all your hard work pay off in a successful store that makes a lot of profits would be a dream come true for most. The markup in the business is relatively high, which means you do not have to sell a huge volume to make a reasonable profit. Against: Losing Your Investment or Owing the Bank Money if the Shop Fails: It is important to be honest with yourself and admit that your a business can fail despite your best efforts, and that is especially true with a small specialty business like a retail outlet. Also make sure that you are only investing personal funds that you can afford to lose and that you are only borrowing money you can afford to pay back. For: Entree to the World of Retailing: One wonderful fringe benefit is the entree to the world of retail is you get by owning a shop. You will not only get regular visits from salespeople and company reps (and occasional free samples), you often also get invitations and/or discount admissions to events in your area and in major cities. Against: Long Hours and Little to No Pay at First: One major disadvantage to starting a business is the near certainty of long hours and little pay when you first open up the business. If things go swimmingly, you might start to make some decent money in a few months as your clientele builds (and businesses do tend toward repeat customers), but realistically you should expect to have a quite limited income for at least a year or so. For: Establishing Relationships with Customers and Employees: Another advantage of owing a business is the opportunity to meet new people. A retail business owner has all sorts of public interactions, both with customers as well as vendors and employees. Networking and establishing working relationships with people in the industry and business community can serve you in good stead in the future. Against: Employees, Taxes and Insurance Means Paperwork: There is a lot more to running a business than buying stock and selling it. You also have to to hire, manage and occasionally fire employees; buy the appropriate insurance; pay the utilities; calculate and pay sales and income taxes and much more. All of these activities are paperwork intensive.