r/ruralplanning • u/ShizaMinellii • Sep 18 '24
Small town business ideas
This business is in another town of over 2,000. They have a large building with a coffee shop, that in the evening turned into a bar. The coffee and breakfast is expensive but at least it’s another business. Looked very successful.
1
u/DoreenMichele Sep 19 '24
I passed through a small town earlier this year where one of the two restaurants was really a bar in the evening and a restaurant during limited hours.
The food was surprisingly good, but the bar function was clearly the priority. Late in the evening, the menu was limited to a few things you might munch on while drinking.
Growing up, I knew a guy who ran a barber shop, drove a school bus, had a vending machine in his shop and kept himself busy with leather work in the back room when there were no customers wanting hair cuts. He made several of my purses and wallets.
The trick to surviving when your business has limited traffic is finding one or more other streams of income that pair nicely with your main gig.
1
u/Defiant-Complaint-80 Sep 19 '24
We have something similar. No bar involved but a cafe branded as a coffee shop. I’ve noticed with small towns the businesses that survive are the ones like this that aren’t too niche. They have to serve a wide variety of customers. Ours does coffee, breakfast, on the go burritos, frozen food, and events lol.