Mook Gets Into the Yak Industry

So I bought a large retail business yesterday. It's that wireless/cellphone store I mentioned previously. It's called "Yakety Yak"-- a franchise, actually. Catchy name. We'll sell cellphones by the sea shore-- all the name brands-- Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, etc., in one place. It'll be in a really high traffic location-- a packed strip-mall ten minutes from my home, right next to a Blockbuster, a laundrymat, and one of these mega-health food grocery stores. The space is huge, given our needs, but the lease is very affordable. My very good friend Matthew and I are going in on the thing as partners and plan on owning two more stores by the end of '05. He's the "master licensee" for this company already, so we were able to buy in to the franchise for nothing, believe it or not. Zero dollars--they usually charge $10,000. Yakety Yak doesn't take any royalties, either-- just a $250/month administrative fee, which is peanuts. And they're the biggest wireless store in AZ, so we'll have all their advertizing, expertise, training, and presence behind us. Basically, our only costs up front will be first and last months rent, inventory, and incidentals-- the landlord will pay for most of the expense of refurbishing the store, and we've negotiated for free rent for the first couple months of business. I'll be the one running the place, for the most part-- Matthew will be back up, especially while I'm in class (and I will still be going to school-- that hasn't changed), but mostly he'll be dedicated to his job of finding more store locations and selling them to people-- except the choicest spots, which he'll cherry-pick for us. An average store makes about $100,000/year, and we think this one will do much better. Once we have three stores, we'll hire a general manager, step back, and enjoy the show.

Cheerio!

Mooks