currently in isla vista (santa barbara) in UCSB's college town one of the bigger sandwich shops went for sale. it's near all the other shops and is selling for about 149k. i was wondering what business ideas would be good for a college town? the more i think the more i realize there is almost everything already here. i guess the only way to do this is to do it better than everyone that's already here..

would anyone have suggestions? in terms of food there is......

starbucks + 2 other cafes
philly cheesesteak place
seems like 800 mexican food places
2 copy shops (kinkos-ish)
subway + 2 other sandwich places
middle eastern food/deli
bike repair
2 bars.

can anyone suggest anything that would fit well here that i haven't mentioned? i'm sure i've missed a couple of things as well.

gym

strip club

InNOut burger imo...

Barron

College age girl escort service. aka Freshman Gone Wild

no joke i talked about doing this with one of my (girl) friends freshman year of college. it was mostly a joke, but we came to the conclusion that we could make some serious dough if we did it right. thank god i decided to start playing internet poker instead.

but seriously -- good luck creating a successsful small business in santa barbara. for one, it's an affluent and well populated area so it's going to be harder to compete in general. there's obviously more opportunity because of the money flowing in that area, but there's people smarter and more experienced than you trying to do the same things you are thinking about.

a gym is a good idea but i am positive there are a few gyms in that area and i don't think that's a good business to just jump into, especially in a place like SB.

an idea that i always thought would work at any college is this: a quick/casual place that serves breakfast all day. make sure there is free wi-fi, quick service, greasy-ish food with a few seemingly healthy options for the girls, delivery optional. i am positive that place would work at the school i went to.

good luck and if you do that, send me a t-shirt or something.

taylor

edit: quick/casual would be like a panera/cosi type place -- no waiters, but nicer than fast food. average meal might be 6-10 bucks. breakfast food is also really cheap to make.

This tilts me to no end how running a gym to make money results in the worst sort of cookie cutter trash box gyms known to man. Its like the average person loves the worst aspects of fitness and it forces 99% of gyms to instantly become the nut low.


/rant

Competing with the free and superior campus facilities seems like a wonderful plan.

Niche markets do really well. Like one catered just to women.

A head shop that also specializes in mountain bikes , snowboards, and disc golf.

You can perhaps even attain a medical marijuana license but I have absolutely no clue how that works out there.

New York hot dog stand

Pizza Parlor

Indoor rock climbing. College kids would love it.

chipotle

lol

as you guys mentioned your suggestions it made me realize how many things we have i couldn't even think of. there is a free gym on campus and one kick boxing place that recently closed down. there is a domino's pizza as well as woodstock's which seem to take care of that market. we have 2 sushi restaurants. Taylor, i like your suggestion about the quick breakfast joint with the healthy options. unfortunately one of those just opened a couple of months ago but is a little far from being in the "prime" location. also it doesn't seem like they are doing too well. maybe business will pick up for them eventually but for now they look like they're running slow. i've eaten there a couple of times and food is pretty decent so their location may be the problem.

also, we have a headshop here called hempwise that specializes in all those fun things. maybe a sex shop would have a lot of business considering most of the chicks here are.. ya know. also medical marijuana sounds cool but i'm not sure what the requirements are here. we also have rock climbing at the gym on campus and there is a rock climbing wall in the park in this town.

thanks again for all your replies. i'm going to try to think of more things and i'll post here if i can think of anything cool.

*edit: how would you guys think an arcade would do in a college town? like traditional games with air hockey, etc. maybe even a bar or it'll be next to a bar.

Bagel place?

IMO, your best bet is some kind of food establishment. Even if you have a lot of competition, people get tired of eating in the same places. So, a new place always has a chance to be successful. And, since you're in a college town, you'd probably want the food to be inexpensive, as college kids tend to be broke.

I think that with todays available entertainment at home and the DUI laws that people like to do their gaming and drinking at home on the cheap.

Now a Bar if you could swing a liquor license would be a gold mine. You could even have PuB donkaments twice a week to bring the nerds out from their p.c.s. You could also serve a limited menu but offer something unique that you are famous for. A famous hamburger would do the trick and that could be your niche.

In a college town you don't even have to deal with slow weekdays. The summers might be a little thin but you could even close during the summer and open one week after school starts each year to build up anticipation.

You probably don't have the $, but a micro brew type-place that brews its own beer could do very well there...the one in Princeton (similar demographic) was killing it when I was there.

Open a bookstore that competes with the college bookstore, only lower the price slightly. Offer other stuff college kids need.

The college I went to had this and they seemed to be doing quite well. They had the same exact books as the college store...new..used..class #...teachers name...looked just like the school one but was a little bit cheaper and was located about 50 ft off campus. The people who founded the place were ex-students.

They named it The Other Bookstore. A gold mine IMO. Open a coffee shop inside with wifi and you may make a killing.

always thought a bar with free arcade games would be a good idea

When I was in college the big thing was renting hot tubs for parties to the frats and clubs. The liability might be a problem.

Also rent out foam machines for parties. Girls like wearing their bikinis and the guys love the girls.

we already have two of these off campus :-/

the hot tub/foam machine thing sounds pretty awesome. i'll look into this. liability will def. be a huge issue though with the hot tub rental.

The gym I got to is about 1 or 2 miles from the University of Texas. Probably half of the people there are college students.