Businesses come and go down here on the South End.\u00a0 Mostly go\u2026. Folks figure they can just empty out the kids\u2019 piggy bank or sell the old Chevy van that\u2019s been up on blocks 10 years behind the shed and scrape up the cash to hang a shingle out on their new storefront.\u00a0 Something about working for other people makes em yearn for the entrepreneurial dream.\u00a0 They figure if they work for themselves, their new boss will treat them a whole lot better.<\/p>\n
Starting a business, they suppose, is a snap.\u00a0 After all, this is a capitalist society and there\u2019s all those consumers up on the North End clamoring for sales and services.\u00a0 Wanda opened up the El Sol Tanning Solarium last year.\u00a0 Now you know and I know the sun doesn\u2019t shine much up on the cloud shrouded North End\u2026. And so did Wanda, so she put out the CostCo neon OPEN\u00a0 sign in a little 700 square foot storefront rental up by the Plaza Market where storefronts are opening up faster than real estate offices can move in, something Wanda mighta shoulda oughta factored in when she developed her business plan that night between dinner and Wheel of Fortune.<\/p>\n
She lasted about the time it takes to say melanoma.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know what tanning beds go for used on CraigsList, but someday the antique value should be right up there with Ozone Generators from the 1920\u2019s.\u00a0 Wanda did get a nice full body tan herself, better than the burn down at the bank, and now we got another FOR LEASE sign where the neon no longer says OPEN.<\/p>\n
When I last chatted with Wanda, she was heartbroken her dream died before\u00a0it even had a chance to blossom.\u00a0 \u2018People must stay indoors and figure the TV will give\u00a0them a tan,\u2019 she lamented.\u00a0 I said they go to Palm Springs or Albuquerque for the sun, not some coffin with full spectrum artificial lighting.\u00a0 Wanda was in full denial.\u00a0 More advertising maybe.\u00a0 A location closer to town.\u00a0 One free tanning session for every ten.\u00a0 Now her savings were gone.\u00a0 \u2018I don\u2019t want to go back to driving that school bus again,\u2019 she practically sobbed.\u00a0 In the land of capitalist dreams where Bill Gates whispers sweet somethings in every aspiring entrepreneur\u2019s ear, failure is hard to accept.\u00a0 Wanda will be fine.\u00a0 She\u2019ll dust herself off, take stock and probably launch into the next hot market.\u00a0 DVD rentals or an umbrella shop.\u00a0 Dreams don\u2019t really die down here on the South End, they just recycle.\u00a0 Worst case, she can do like most of the rest of us small businesspeople and become a working artist.\u00a0 Low pay but huge self esteem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Businesses come and go down here on the South End.\u00a0 Mostly go\u2026. Folks figure they can just empty out the kids\u2019 piggy bank or sell the old Chevy van that\u2019s been up on blocks 10 years behind the shed and scrape up the cash to hang a shingle out on their new storefront.\u00a0 Something about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[6008,6007,6006],"class_list":["post-17095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rantings-and-ravings","tag-flying-without-a-business-plan","tag-new-start-up","tag-tanning-salon-entrepreneur"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17095"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17096,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17095\/revisions\/17096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}