One of my personal favorite business ideas that I'd love to make happen some day is the "Dad Garage".
Basically, there are a lot of towns like mine where there's a relatively dense, relatively walkable area, but it's otherwise pretty suburban in nature. However, most of the housing is TOO dense for people to have their own hobby spaces. BUT, regardless of how they appeal to nerds like myself, I don't think "maker spaces" are actually all that huge of draws; typically they're nonprofits that get relegated to edges of urban areas, where suburban forms start to negate the walkability advantage.
Enter the Dad Garage, which is centered around "dad hobbies", instead of solely narrow technical subjects. Buy up open retail spaces, and with minimal rehab work you can convert them into a sort of multipurpose hobby area. The business idea would be modular: different locations could serve different local interests. You'd grab local artisans and have them teach classes -- perhaps the head brewer at the local brewery teaches a brewing class, and so the franchise buys some brewing gear to make it happen. Or the local carpenter teaches woodworking. Members would pay a base rate and then sign up for various add-on activities. As members gain experience, you give them discounts and/or let them start taking a cut to teach classes as instructors, so the franchise builds its own value over time.
To be clear, the tech stuff could work out fine too. I wouldn't be shocked to see most Dad Garages have at least a few 3d printers as value-adds, and computers for doing CAD work etc. But the idea isn't to have it be about "making", but rather just "have some fun doing something dumb but interesting on your Saturday... sip a craft beer with your game on in the background -- and you're doing all of this with your community, not sitting on your couch". A place to fart around and have Dad Joke contests.
Not to mention... childcare could be a reasonable investment. Imagine if a husband could tell his wife on a Saturday morning, "Hey honey, I'm taking the kids down to the Dad Garage so we'll be out of your hair today."
Of course, here's when someone comes along and tells me the insurance would be exorbitant.
This is a very interesting idea. Will your Dad Garage logo include a (Girls welcome too!) line? My wife, for example, would be interested; hell, my wife could TEACH a class in furniture repair or drywall installation. I can see the appeal of a mostly guy space, but you'd also have women interested. Just sayin'...
For me the appeal is a space with tool I might not have for wrenching on bicycles or a motorcycle, with other people who might have skills I don't, and someone to socialize with while working on things. But yeah, insurance for the organization and the structure will probably be the big factor. Let us know how it goes...
I mean, as a publicly open business, it would absolutely have to abide by non-discrimination law as the baseline.
But beyond the legalism, I think it absolutely makes business sense not to ignore female customers! I take inspiration from Patrick Wyman's "Pursuit Of Dadliness" podcast, where he averred that "Dadliness" wasn't gender-exclusive, but merely a role based on archetypal "dadly" characteristics: mainly, characterized by an un-self-conscious deep interest in one's hobbies, no matter how esoteric or ridiculous, and with an eye towards cultivating an attitude of honing one's talents and both smart risk assessment but also reasonable risk tolerance.
So yeah, your wife would ABSOLUTELY be welcome to teach furniture repair or drywall installation; those kinds of projects could also be integral to keeping the franchise's cost base down by simply having members perform that kind of labor -- not to mention, it'd increase the value proposition by providing a diversity of local flavors and inspirations for decor.
I think as far as logos go, I'd want most of the art to be "male-coded, but not explicitly male-centric". Instead of a logo of a dad wearing a baseball cap, a simple baseball cap would suffice! If we've got a sign with a cartoon thumbs-up, we'd show the palms and fingers to be toughened, but not covered in man-hair. What I'd be going for is subtly inclusive, but unmistakeably "daddish".
The archetypal "dadly" characteristics... I like it. I recognize that a lot of the welcoming feel will depend on the attitude of the tribe you assemble, but leadership on this can go a long way toward making people feel welcome. But I think a lot of "dads" have a similar attitude toward a girl crafting a perfect finish on a cabinet: "there's no arguing with results. You're one of us..."
"I had previously written mostly about the idea of “go walk around town with a cup of beer!” as an economic development strategy. I’m not sure about that, and I’m not sure we can answer definitively whether it really works."
James Fallows, who's on substack, had a piece called "Our Towns" where he kinda surveyed smaller cities - think, like, Holland, MI, or Sioux Falls, SD, or Redlands, CA - during the Great Recession to kind of see what they were trying, what was working, what was struggling. It was a good set of stories/good book, and one of the interesting things was - craft breweries DO kind of indicate a healthy economic environment. Maybe not the solution to economic growth, but certainly an indicator that a place is doing well and attracting economic and cultural attention. Highly recommend.
I don't know whether it has a lasting impact on the local businesses or whether it's just a gimmick, but it certainly doesn't hurt. That is until the knuckleheads ruin it with bad behavior. Sadly it doesn't take many to kill the idea. I know I really like this when I have done it in places (and during COVID in Annapolis).
As a self professed "beer guy" I hate these cups too. There is nothing better than drinking (good) beer from a pint glass. Probably not a great idea to allow real glass as people walk around since it makes a mess if you drop it, but there are really good thick plastic pint glasses that look and drink like real pint glasses (I have one for "travel" beering). This seems like a good marketing opportunity to build into some promotion like buy the "glass" and get free/reduced cost first beer etc. They could be branded with the particular establishment that sold them or something Flemington themed.
What an awesome idea! I might even pass this along to someone. Yeah, I'm not really a snob but I think avoiding that "low budget" feel is really important to making a good impression with this sort of thing. Especially if some folks are a little bit reticent or prudish about the idea of public drinking - making the glass feel like a real beer glass gives it a touch of sophistication over the dollar-beer cup I think.
Another reason to keep the coffee shop open: non-drinkers! I have friends I wouldn't invite out for a beer but who would certainly tag along for a latte. Missing the opportunity to expand the field of interested folks.
Yes. This is a really good point. My friend and I from Jersey, when we were both in Flemington talking about this stuff, actually brought that up. He said there was some herbal tea place in New Hope, I think, that had a bar-like atmosphere and interesting drinks but was all non-alcoholic, and how drinking alcohol shouldn't be a price you have to pay if you don't want to for that sort of social setting. I might even write a whole follow-up piece about this.
Also, maybe one of these days I could do a guest column with pics from my own neighborhood. I *love* doing these sorts of "walk around and take pics of things you're pretty sure you could imagine better ways of doing".
And I've been at it for YEARS in my neighborhood at this point... with my marathon training, one thing I resorted to to keep things interesting was running the length of every single street and side street in the entire grid, so I've literally seen at least a good >30% of my town from the ground level.
Minor comment on signage: there's an aphorism in the design world I learned that signs make up for what design lacks. When you need to write "pull" on a door, it means the door handle isn't communicating "pull." Signage is great because there's so much that design can't communicate (especially when you're redesigning a neighborhood and its social norms) but an alternative is having someone out front tabling and goofing around - that needs no reading and can be interpreted from a long ways away, too.
Do these events actually HELP? I think they can in certain situations. First, for small towns in an area that lives by tourism having events like this can get new people interested in the town. I'm thinking as example of the little town of Crosby MN, a former mining town central Minnesota that has redrafted itself as a center for outdoor sports - turned old iron mine pits into lakes for boating and fishing, created mountain bike trails on the slag hills, etc. Having a festival can bring people to town, let them see that there are bike shops, coffee places, a brewery, decent restaurants, and lots to do. Hey, we should come back.
Second, in places like the town I live near a festival draws in people who live in the area and showcases what's new and interesting, and maybe just previously unnoticed, in town - new restaurants, new shops, when did that building go up, and etc. Meet people, maybe make new friends, hook up with old ones, be social. For the record my town still doesn't have a brewery. What the hell is the problem guys?!
To speak to one of Addison's comments, I think if a community is going to do events like this, monthly or at longer periods, business people need to show up. If the idea is to showcase the community then people have to be able to walk in, see what the place is about. Having a closed shop or office isn't the kiss of death, but it's less of an advert for the community. That may argue for not doing a monthly event; even the organizers can get burned out. OTOH, sometimes it's just an outside party for locals with the community's blessing; not everyone has to participate. But lighting is key and those crap cups have to go.
Interesting re business owners needing to be there - yeah, not just the shops open, but you actually meet people with a stake in the town.
Part of the issue with Flemington, which I wish were not the case, is the local business scene is just a little sparse and week. So people show up for the specific events, but even as someone who wants to rep the town, I'm not sure how much they're "discovering" that will make them want to come back. I'd be curious how many of the people who show up are locals versus visitors who could conceivably bring a lot of value - tell their friends, come back in a group, spend a long weekend, etc. The problem is there's hardly anywhere to eat or shop that in my estimation would make that worth it, at least until the big project in town is done.
One of my personal favorite business ideas that I'd love to make happen some day is the "Dad Garage".
Basically, there are a lot of towns like mine where there's a relatively dense, relatively walkable area, but it's otherwise pretty suburban in nature. However, most of the housing is TOO dense for people to have their own hobby spaces. BUT, regardless of how they appeal to nerds like myself, I don't think "maker spaces" are actually all that huge of draws; typically they're nonprofits that get relegated to edges of urban areas, where suburban forms start to negate the walkability advantage.
Enter the Dad Garage, which is centered around "dad hobbies", instead of solely narrow technical subjects. Buy up open retail spaces, and with minimal rehab work you can convert them into a sort of multipurpose hobby area. The business idea would be modular: different locations could serve different local interests. You'd grab local artisans and have them teach classes -- perhaps the head brewer at the local brewery teaches a brewing class, and so the franchise buys some brewing gear to make it happen. Or the local carpenter teaches woodworking. Members would pay a base rate and then sign up for various add-on activities. As members gain experience, you give them discounts and/or let them start taking a cut to teach classes as instructors, so the franchise builds its own value over time.
To be clear, the tech stuff could work out fine too. I wouldn't be shocked to see most Dad Garages have at least a few 3d printers as value-adds, and computers for doing CAD work etc. But the idea isn't to have it be about "making", but rather just "have some fun doing something dumb but interesting on your Saturday... sip a craft beer with your game on in the background -- and you're doing all of this with your community, not sitting on your couch". A place to fart around and have Dad Joke contests.
Not to mention... childcare could be a reasonable investment. Imagine if a husband could tell his wife on a Saturday morning, "Hey honey, I'm taking the kids down to the Dad Garage so we'll be out of your hair today."
Of course, here's when someone comes along and tells me the insurance would be exorbitant.
This is a very interesting idea. Will your Dad Garage logo include a (Girls welcome too!) line? My wife, for example, would be interested; hell, my wife could TEACH a class in furniture repair or drywall installation. I can see the appeal of a mostly guy space, but you'd also have women interested. Just sayin'...
For me the appeal is a space with tool I might not have for wrenching on bicycles or a motorcycle, with other people who might have skills I don't, and someone to socialize with while working on things. But yeah, insurance for the organization and the structure will probably be the big factor. Let us know how it goes...
I mean, as a publicly open business, it would absolutely have to abide by non-discrimination law as the baseline.
But beyond the legalism, I think it absolutely makes business sense not to ignore female customers! I take inspiration from Patrick Wyman's "Pursuit Of Dadliness" podcast, where he averred that "Dadliness" wasn't gender-exclusive, but merely a role based on archetypal "dadly" characteristics: mainly, characterized by an un-self-conscious deep interest in one's hobbies, no matter how esoteric or ridiculous, and with an eye towards cultivating an attitude of honing one's talents and both smart risk assessment but also reasonable risk tolerance.
So yeah, your wife would ABSOLUTELY be welcome to teach furniture repair or drywall installation; those kinds of projects could also be integral to keeping the franchise's cost base down by simply having members perform that kind of labor -- not to mention, it'd increase the value proposition by providing a diversity of local flavors and inspirations for decor.
I think as far as logos go, I'd want most of the art to be "male-coded, but not explicitly male-centric". Instead of a logo of a dad wearing a baseball cap, a simple baseball cap would suffice! If we've got a sign with a cartoon thumbs-up, we'd show the palms and fingers to be toughened, but not covered in man-hair. What I'd be going for is subtly inclusive, but unmistakeably "daddish".
The archetypal "dadly" characteristics... I like it. I recognize that a lot of the welcoming feel will depend on the attitude of the tribe you assemble, but leadership on this can go a long way toward making people feel welcome. But I think a lot of "dads" have a similar attitude toward a girl crafting a perfect finish on a cabinet: "there's no arguing with results. You're one of us..."
Yep. Perhaps the instructors could be called "Dads" or something like that, regardless of gender, to help drive the point home.
"I had previously written mostly about the idea of “go walk around town with a cup of beer!” as an economic development strategy. I’m not sure about that, and I’m not sure we can answer definitively whether it really works."
James Fallows, who's on substack, had a piece called "Our Towns" where he kinda surveyed smaller cities - think, like, Holland, MI, or Sioux Falls, SD, or Redlands, CA - during the Great Recession to kind of see what they were trying, what was working, what was struggling. It was a good set of stories/good book, and one of the interesting things was - craft breweries DO kind of indicate a healthy economic environment. Maybe not the solution to economic growth, but certainly an indicator that a place is doing well and attracting economic and cultural attention. Highly recommend.
That's very interesting, I will have to read that!
A couple things on the open container idea:
I don't know whether it has a lasting impact on the local businesses or whether it's just a gimmick, but it certainly doesn't hurt. That is until the knuckleheads ruin it with bad behavior. Sadly it doesn't take many to kill the idea. I know I really like this when I have done it in places (and during COVID in Annapolis).
As a self professed "beer guy" I hate these cups too. There is nothing better than drinking (good) beer from a pint glass. Probably not a great idea to allow real glass as people walk around since it makes a mess if you drop it, but there are really good thick plastic pint glasses that look and drink like real pint glasses (I have one for "travel" beering). This seems like a good marketing opportunity to build into some promotion like buy the "glass" and get free/reduced cost first beer etc. They could be branded with the particular establishment that sold them or something Flemington themed.
What an awesome idea! I might even pass this along to someone. Yeah, I'm not really a snob but I think avoiding that "low budget" feel is really important to making a good impression with this sort of thing. Especially if some folks are a little bit reticent or prudish about the idea of public drinking - making the glass feel like a real beer glass gives it a touch of sophistication over the dollar-beer cup I think.
Another reason to keep the coffee shop open: non-drinkers! I have friends I wouldn't invite out for a beer but who would certainly tag along for a latte. Missing the opportunity to expand the field of interested folks.
Yes. This is a really good point. My friend and I from Jersey, when we were both in Flemington talking about this stuff, actually brought that up. He said there was some herbal tea place in New Hope, I think, that had a bar-like atmosphere and interesting drinks but was all non-alcoholic, and how drinking alcohol shouldn't be a price you have to pay if you don't want to for that sort of social setting. I might even write a whole follow-up piece about this.
Also, maybe one of these days I could do a guest column with pics from my own neighborhood. I *love* doing these sorts of "walk around and take pics of things you're pretty sure you could imagine better ways of doing".
And I've been at it for YEARS in my neighborhood at this point... with my marathon training, one thing I resorted to to keep things interesting was running the length of every single street and side street in the entire grid, so I've literally seen at least a good >30% of my town from the ground level.
Send me a PM!
Minor comment on signage: there's an aphorism in the design world I learned that signs make up for what design lacks. When you need to write "pull" on a door, it means the door handle isn't communicating "pull." Signage is great because there's so much that design can't communicate (especially when you're redesigning a neighborhood and its social norms) but an alternative is having someone out front tabling and goofing around - that needs no reading and can be interpreted from a long ways away, too.
Do these events actually HELP? I think they can in certain situations. First, for small towns in an area that lives by tourism having events like this can get new people interested in the town. I'm thinking as example of the little town of Crosby MN, a former mining town central Minnesota that has redrafted itself as a center for outdoor sports - turned old iron mine pits into lakes for boating and fishing, created mountain bike trails on the slag hills, etc. Having a festival can bring people to town, let them see that there are bike shops, coffee places, a brewery, decent restaurants, and lots to do. Hey, we should come back.
Second, in places like the town I live near a festival draws in people who live in the area and showcases what's new and interesting, and maybe just previously unnoticed, in town - new restaurants, new shops, when did that building go up, and etc. Meet people, maybe make new friends, hook up with old ones, be social. For the record my town still doesn't have a brewery. What the hell is the problem guys?!
To speak to one of Addison's comments, I think if a community is going to do events like this, monthly or at longer periods, business people need to show up. If the idea is to showcase the community then people have to be able to walk in, see what the place is about. Having a closed shop or office isn't the kiss of death, but it's less of an advert for the community. That may argue for not doing a monthly event; even the organizers can get burned out. OTOH, sometimes it's just an outside party for locals with the community's blessing; not everyone has to participate. But lighting is key and those crap cups have to go.
Interesting re business owners needing to be there - yeah, not just the shops open, but you actually meet people with a stake in the town.
Part of the issue with Flemington, which I wish were not the case, is the local business scene is just a little sparse and week. So people show up for the specific events, but even as someone who wants to rep the town, I'm not sure how much they're "discovering" that will make them want to come back. I'd be curious how many of the people who show up are locals versus visitors who could conceivably bring a lot of value - tell their friends, come back in a group, spend a long weekend, etc. The problem is there's hardly anywhere to eat or shop that in my estimation would make that worth it, at least until the big project in town is done.