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.
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