2019 PCA Magazine

PREMIUMCIGARS.ORG JULY-AUGUST 2019 | P CA The Magazine 31 S SUCCESS CAN BE paradoxical, at once both rewarding and unnerving. On the one hand you’ve taken an idea, set it inmotion and managed to see your visionmaterialize into the reality of a thriving business. On the other hand, youmay have acclimated to your accomplishment and find yourself restless and looking for the next challenge. Perhaps your instincts tell you that this model can be successfully replicated elsewhere. Or maybe you’ve gotten wind of a location, which recently became available, and is just too good an opportunity to pass up. In either case, you find yourself confronted with a decision: do you take a leap of faith, stretch your resources and explore the possibilities of expanding your brand, or should you concentrate on what has worked for you thus far and build upon that? It can be both exhilarating and nerve-racking, and sometimes you have to go with your intuition, either to feed your entrepreneurial urges or to stand pat and be satisfied with what you’ve accomplished. Having operated several retail stores, this writer experienced firsthand both the joys and pitfalls of amultiple-branch operation. There was great satisfaction at having designed and executed a plan for a new location and watching it thrive. There were also the difficulties of staffing and supplying, as well as dealing with a corporate landlord, and the limitations and regulations imposed by a regional shopping center. In the end, the store prospered just enough to become attractive to a buyer looking for an established tobacconist, happily bringing closure to the experiment while allowing this owner to refocus on the core business. This is not every retailer’s experience. A number of retailers are either contemplating expansion, forging ahead with their plans or have already succeeded in opening a second, third or fourth store, and are reaping the rewards of their efforts. The rolling hills of sunny Escondido, California, form the backdrop B Y L A R R Y W A G N E R THE NE XT ST E P : OPENING A SECOND LOCATION