Not opening a print shop
I got excited because I though a print shop was opening near me. How convenient! But, it turns out, it's not a print shop at all, despite having the word 'print' in the name. So instead of me being excited this is another Fran-fantasises-about-being-a-small-business-owner like not buying a secondhand bookshop, I am not opening a print shop. The secondhand bookshop is still for sale though.
My wife, attempting to describe me to a friend, said if we had been in the thenadays I would have a printing business, and print seditious pamphlets in the middle of the night. It's so true.
I use the word 'fantasise' very deliberately. I know it is a fantasy. That's why I'm not actually doing it.
I'd try to do the real basic printing for individuals as cheap as possible. There's a university just up the road - when I did my dissertation we still needed them properly printed and bound. Probably not now. But I bet the art students and suchlike still need physical printing doing, in a format larger than A4.
Obviously, since I went on my letterpress afternoon, I'd want to have some letterpress stuff. An old Adana press. Maybe we can bring back broadsides, just for fun. Probably I would learn bookbinding. Bookbinding is so crazy popular. Bookbinding classes would sell out immediately. Maybe a darkroom for developing photos! That would be cool. And we could have classes and clubs and a little shop of people's zines and work they'd done there.
Once again this goes out to all the independent, niche, local businesses trying to do something different and interesting.