RE: The Store I Will Never Have

The important thing is to never give up on your dream and make it happen.

I found this article quite interesting and timely, as I recently shared with some families about one of my interests when thinking about creating a business. First, I always think about something that interests me and that gives me pleasure to do and how I could monetize this activity and where I would do it. I have a long-standing dream of buying a small plot of land and building a house in Alentejo, an area I love in my country. From a very young age I developed an interest in a very ancient art, pottery, which happens to be very popular in this part of the country. So the idea came up of, together with moving house, creating a small pottery business, first as a hobby and possibly monetizing this activity :) this comment may seem like a series of loose thoughts, but in my head it is all connected and makes perfect sense. Now I just have to focus and make it happen. I hope you can create your business too and that you share all the progress here, it would be very interesting to follow. I'm thinking about doing the same when I decide to create mine, and sharing all the steps and its evolution here.

Something like this:

https://programasaberfazer.gov.pt/tag/olaria-de-mafra-1

I also share some of your concerns and after investigating, I found that 80% of sales are made online and the pieces are exported to all corners of the world :) there is still hope :P

Pottery is a wonderful thing to do. The photos I posted in this post, the pottery ones were tajen not long ago in an area where the whole region is living off creating and selling pottery, but to be able to make ends meet, they are now selling a lot of garbage too, that has nothing to do with the local tradition, it's kitsch imported from China. It's a huge shame it came to this, because it ruins everything, but I suppose this is the compromise they need to make to be able to live.

Selling your pottery or whatever you're creating is not a bad thing, but when you do that, to cover the costs of running a local shop, that otherwise would not be profitable, it tells you your potential buyers are not in the same location as your shop, so then why run a shop at all, right?

I wish you all the best and I hope you can make your dream come true.