dominattorney

Antifragile by Nassim Taleb The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsy Gravity Rainbow by Pynchon Fearful Symmetry or Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell by Zee. Excellent reads, all

You're right, and again I'm guilty of making this up as I go with an eye toward regulations in the state in which I live, where you can't sell booze or anything except tobacco accessories if you allow smoking indoors. The workaround is a members only club. Elsewhere, you'd have more options. I still think faux leather chairs and sell cigars is not going to get you too far, as there are plenty of chain stores that already have this experience to sell and they can undercut you on price of cigars and selection. It's like how to operate a successful liquor store once grocery stores get into selling booze. You have to set yourself apart somehow.

@Çnote and @BrightonCorgi make some good points here. I hadn't even considered the most obvious point that you can't sell CCs. I took that as a given, even in a non-embargo country. You'd be working with new word cigars. If that's a deal breaker for you, well, just move on right away. Considering US regulations trying to vanquish your business, you have to deal with that however you can. The best way would be in a membership situation, where de minimus you sell a day pass to enter the lounge and are looking to capture monthly members. That keeps you pulling in a stable monthly amount. Try to presell memberships that will cover your lease and general expenses before you open. If you're allowed to sell alcohol then you absolutely should. If not, try to figure a way around it, like by leasing bottle lockers or shelf space behind the members only bar area (employee pours liquor members bring in). Lease cigar locker space but make sure you know how to babysit a humidor. Stay open noon through 8 pm on weekdays and to 1030 or later Friday and Saturday. Most members won't come in until 3 or later, which means you can possibly perform other tasks from your computer in the management office for a supplementary income stream. Possibly. This is more possible if you can afford to pay a guy to pour drinks and wipe tables and dump ashtrays between noon and 6 Monday thru Friday. Of course, you'll have a steep learning curve in the beginning just managing your cigar and other retail inventory. The biggest mistake I see places like this around me make is skimping on the initial build out. You want to create a space that people feel comfortable in. Like a living room away from home. Ideally there will be numerous rooms with their own feel. The ventilation has to be spot on too. The furniture has to be comfortable and inviting. If you're doing booze, the bar has to be beautiful as well. If you sell memberships, you want to make people think 100 bucks a month or whatever you're charging is a bargain. Consider that some people will be office orphans and might just want to spend the money to have a corner to plug in a computer and work on. Be careful because other members will see this and try to hassle everyone for a job or an investment or what have you. Don't be afraid to kick people out who are not a good fit. I cannot stress this enough. Getting rid of one or two annoying paying members will save you money in the long run, because they will scare away the people who you really want to come to your business. Let members bring in cigars from elsewhere. Figure out a way to make this cost effective for you but don't he belligerent about it. Either make it a locker member only thing or charge a cutting fee. Locker member only is probably easiest and less intrusive. Promote events on certain evenings. Whether it be football on Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays or something else. Cigar tasting events can be fun and lucrative, and an opportunity to grow your membership base. An idea I've not seen implemented by a business owner but one which would be cool is to have like Tuesday night discussion groups about certain topics. Maybe like a Tuesday night group about the nature of existence. I've got a group of guys at my spot who I love talking physics and math with. It's a hoot. You could also have Thursday night conspiracy hour. We've got an unofficial one of those which is fun too with a different set of guys. Pick a conspiracy each week to either support or pick apart. Even a gentleman's book club would be a draw. Get really good at brewing coffee and consider investing in a top notch espresso machine. You can sell coffee and espresso to a captive cigar audience and every town has a local roaster who'd be more than happy to link up with you to assist in this capacity. Put out a tip jar if you don't sell the coffee. Maybe it's a perk of membership, and that way a guy will leave a 5 spot after a nice evening spent there. Everything you do has to work seamlessly together for something like this to make money. You can't just open a shop that sells cigars and has a few faux leather chairs.

Curious to hear more about your reasoning here. I'm not saying I necessarily disagree, but it strongly depends on the state you live in, and what business model you are looking at. I don't think there's a lot of money in selling cigars in states with high excise taxes, because people will just order online. That said, even in such a state, you might still get by if you find a niche and put your heart into it. I own my own business and I don't think I'd ever venture into cigar lounge territory because I personally don't think the juice is worth the squeeze in my state. But I do frequent a very nice club/lounge in my city and the owner is happy with his decision. He's not pulling mad money out of it, but he does ok.

I don't think it's a sham, necessarily. But I do believe that it's something that would ultimately be more useful in bigger cities, where people mostly use their vehicles within city limits and can charge them at home every day. That's what I feel we don't hear enough about--the limited niche of usefulness where owning one would make sense.

Serious question, does it depend where you live? While I've been kicking the tires on an ultrafast EV, I'm nervous that my driving use will get in the way of fully enjoying it. I frequently travel to rural areas with low infrastructure and enjoy unplanned spirited road trips through and along the rockies. Winters also create potential problems for me.

I'll spare us all. Thanks for answering what I know is a fundamentally dumb question so respectfully. I appreciate that.

What about a double capped cigar meant to be cut in half as a novelty giving two minuto sized sticks? I'm mostly joking, but curious.

I think half corona or a minuto would be a great idea. Minuto is a great size and the cuban minutos are starting to be priced too high. If you could get a ringer for the bolivar corona junior at the price they were selling for in 2018 you'd have a winner.

Yea, but I'm usually like, waiting on my wife to buy something, get out of the shower, etc when I'm on the forum so it's just not feasible to me to come off as a reasonable human being. I recall one thread I felt strongly enough about to engage in dialog, with you I believe, that I took to my computer to type it out. Usually I am a more casual participant. Especially with photo posts, all my photos are on my phone and I'm too lazy to figure out a swift means to send them to my computer and make those posts from there.

99 percent mobile. I could never commit as many grammatical mistakes otherwise.

My first thought as well. How do you even 💩?

This is probably the reason why older cigar smokers appear less tolerant to younger ones. They've heard every new kid walk into the shop talking about "fake" this, or "authentic boxes of sublimes/Solomons in boxes of 25" and they just don't have the patience for it anymore. Hell, I'm in my mid 30s and it gets to me. There's a grumpy old man at my lounge who thinks all my stuff from FOH is fake though. Idk about him.

If it weren't for those 5 questions, we'd all just be looking at stuff @El Presidente posted for us to put in our man caves.

Let's assume this is all true. I'm not sold on that point, but it's possible. What does it matter without bringing politics into things? ::rhetorical:: To me, this level of spending is irresponsible. If you can afford to do this and don't spend the money helping others, I decline to appreciate your personal worth to the fullest extent that you would like. I recognize that there are other ways to look at this, but this is mine.

That's awesome

Natch

Just looked for one and they're like 800 bucks.

Glorious

This. Or HVAC sales with an ability to do the install. There's probably plenty of other opportunities in this area I'm not even aware of. Paralegals do well also, especially in states where certificates are not required. I laugh in private at younger lawyers in my circle who tell me about a new job they landed. Never heard of one earn more than I pay my lead paralegal.

Having been interested in rolex watches for some time and sitting on the sidelines, I don't see the parallel between the watches and habanos. I've bought one rolex but immediately sold it on when I realized I could make about a grand more than I paid for it. I doubt I'll buy another because no one watch speaks to me that much to justify the expense. I've had a soft spot for Tudors but having handled a few and hearing about quality control issues and awful servicing I couldn't justify the price tag. My solution was in the homage market in the form of the San Martin brand. The look scratches the itch and I don't worry about it breaking, getting lost, or stolen since replacement cost is a third of the servicing cost of the genuine article and about a twentieth of MSRP. I don't wear the same watch every day so the certified chronometer or high level time keeping isn't an issue for me. I hear people complain about a watch gaining or losing 4 seconds a day and I chuckle. The habanos on the other hand. I'll bitch about the price increases like all the rest of us, but there's no way I'll ever transition to 100 percent non cuban.

Wish I checked the forum before today, as I would have had more photos. Thanksgiving wife and I went to the country club as her kids were with their father. Blissful and easy, with wonderful food and service. Friday her kids were over celebrating the middle ones birthday. Our wine cellar took a beating that day. Saturday took her kids to the nutcracker downtown. Not bad, though i never understood the allure of the piece myself aside from the music. The thematic elements always struck me as trite. Today? Down with November decorations, and in with December. Hope everyone had a great holiday.

I will garner ire by saying it. In and out is just ok. It's fine, but it's nothing to wrote home about. I'd take smashburger or larkburger any day over in and out. What a burger I think is ok but the patties are often dry. Five Guys is best, in my book though. You are usually close enough to one od them that it's not a regional issue.

In this situation, dealing with a lunatic, taking the sticks back is essentially admitting wrongdoing in their eyes. I don't do this type of business precisely to avoid idiots.

If anything I feel it is right leaning, but not in an extreme or hokey sense. The general consensus was wear a mask and get a vaccine, though there were some thoughtful counterpoints on vaccination that certainly weren't out of right field during the covid threads. I suppose it's all relative though. In my community of criminal defense and plaintiffs lawyers, I'm an outlying "far right" voice, according to many members.