Brno is a town with population of 360,000, attracting much more people several times a year. Rents and wages are still lower than in Prague and your competitors may be less skilled and experienced than in bigger towns. It looks like a great place to start a business – I have spotted seven opportunities:

Selling affordable alternative fashion

An indie fashion boutique may have a great success in Brno (photo by Luiz Alberto Fiebig Junior)

There are tens of thousands of students and young “hipsters” in Brno. When they want to buy new clothes, they go to H&M or Zara – or they travell to Vienna to get something more unique. So why don’t give them an indie boutique?
You can import clothes from Asia or America – or hire young local designers.

Guided bicycle trips

There are dozens of kilometers of bike paths around Brno and many of these lead to great destinations, like Mikulov, the gardens in Valtice and wine bike paths. Yet there is no company offering guded bicycle trips for Czech or foreign tourists. You may buy 5-10 ordinary bikes, an used pick-up and try your luck. I think the question is not whether you get your investment back, but when does that happen.

Segway tours

I have seen many people riding Segways in Vienna and Prague – but not a single one in Brno. Consider that walking from the main train station to Špilberk castle is pretty exhausting, and Segways can solve this problem out.

This business may be risky, as new Segways cost $5400+. However, you may try to buy used ones and sell them if you do not succeed.

Licencing the first franchise of its kind in Brno

With only McDonald’s, KFC, Subway and Burger King in Brno, there is still opportunity for bringing another international food chain to the town. Brands to consider:

• Starbucks
• Wendy’s
• Hooters

Delicatessen

There are no delicatessen offering snacks based on the traditions of Czech or Moravian cuisine – bread with smoked meat or pork fat, hand-made pies, blood soup… Something what Katz is doing in NY City.

Rent a small place downtown, start offering great, simple meals, set reasonable prices (traditional ingredients are really cheap in the Czech republic) and think about your marketing – I think it is possible to make your delicatessen popular among blue-collars during day and among the creative class on evenings by offering different menus etc.

Simple service for buying tickets online

I do not know about any website allowing you to buy tickets to all concerts in Brno (including those taking place in really small venues) online with your credit card and PayPal, print these tickets at home and then bring it to the venue, without any stress.

It would be a lot of work to make deals with all these clubs and agencies, but after that this would be a hard-to-copy business that would make big revenues with even a small team.

By the way, no Czech ticket-selling service offers simple and fair affiliate marketing for bloggers such I am. Programming this killer feature, which is not really complicated, can bring you dozens or hundreds affiliate marketers, linking to your site every day.

Buying oddments in local antiques, selling it on eBay

The last tip may be good for students. You can buy many Soviet-era cameras for less than CZK 100 in Brno – and sell it on eBay for much more. Thanks to large supply and small demand for antiguities in Brno, the same can be with old furniture, insignia, old photos and paintings etc.

I discovered this video of powered paragliding, taken at (or rather above) the water reservoir in Bystrc, and I knew I had to share it:

Later I discovered somebody who is recording his downhill biking accomplishments and uploading the stomach-rising videos to Vimeo:

I absolutely adore these young fellas, jumping and skipping at park “Denisovy sady”. Actually I think that this sport, called “le parkour” is the most dangerous one out of the three sports mentioned in this article:

If you know about any other extreme sport achievements captured on film anywhere in (or near) Brno, let us know in the comments.

A biker cycling through Pisárky

Enthusiastic bikers will hold the 20th annual bicycle parade on Thursday 23 to point out poor biking conditions in Brno. The event will also be a celebration of the Earth Day.

A happening begins at 3 p.m. at Moravské sq., the ride itself starts 2 hours later.

Source: Brno na kole

Related article: Biking in Brno: map of paths, trip ideas, safety advices

Some people consider Brno to be a bike-unfriendly town. It is not true. Brno certainly isn’t Copenhagen, but you can enjoy utility cycling and bicycle touring as well.

Map of trails

A handy map of segregated cycle facilities has been published on the official web page of Brno:

There are two main paths, going alongside the two rivers of Brno: Svratka and Svitava. You can also bike around Brno. Sadly, the paths are sometimes interrupted by crossroads and other obstacles.

So, you want to commute by bike

Great idea, but you should know about some risks:

There is not enough segregated cycle facilities in Brno. You will probably have to bike on public roads used by cars as well. Sadly, Czech drivers are not used to deal with bikers – so allways be prepared to use a brake and the middle finger.

There is not enough bike lockers, parking stands and bicycle storage racks in the public buildings. It is quite dangerous to leave your bike locked to some construction in the street – there are more bike thieves than in the 1940s Italy :-/

Brno is quite hilly. Be sure you can take a shower in your company or your school.

Finally: remember that it is illegal to ride a bike under influence of alcohol in the Czech republic! Drinking and bicycling can result in a fine of CZK 50,000 (€1,870) and what is more, you risk one-year prison sentence! (However, I have never heard about a single person fined by police for biking under influence. It is quite common to have a refreshing beer somewhere in the middle of your journey. I wonder if there is any other nation with so huge disrespect to its own laws.)

Smoking while bicycling is illegal as well. Remember that you have to walk (not ride) with your bike in the historical centre, on pavements and over crosswalks.

So, you want to bike on weekends

Biking is one of the best recreational sports for people living in Brno, because the town is surrounded with nice, clean nature.

Do you hate biking to long hills? Have a nice ride alongside the banks of Svratka. You can start in the western part of the town and bike southern direction, finally leaving the town and going to the pretty lowlands of the southern Moravia. If you feel like two day bike, continue to Vienna!

Do you enjoy mountain biking? Try the woods located in the northern and the western part of the town.

Want to explore the Tuscany-like atmosphere of the southern Moravia? Then get a train to Břeclav (you can even hire a bike in Břeclav), Hrušovany u Brna, Vranovice, Popice or Březí and explore the famous biking paths leading trough wineyards.