Silvia Spross took a baby step into small-business ownership when she opened a jewelry kiosk on Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade.
It took just $11,000 to set up Lapzos Beads, including $3,500 for the first month's rent. So far the Swiss immigrant has hit her goal to average at least $200 a day in sales of the necklaces, rings and bracelets she makes from rough-cut semiprecious stones, polished rocks and beads from around the world.
"I would love to own a little store but figured this would be a great start, just to see if it works," said Spross, whose lease runs just through January. She started the business this month after quitting her job as a bead-store manager when her hours were reduced.
The Santa Monica resident is part of a growing band of mostly micro entrepreneurs who set up shop for as little as a month or two in the carts and kiosks that line the corridors of shopping centers around the country.
They sell jewelry, cellphones, hats -- even teeth-whitening services. Crocs, the ubiquitous plastic shoes, started as kiosk items.
It's a $12-billion industry in the U.S., said Patricia Norins, publisher of Specialty Retail Report, a quarterly magazine based in Hanover, Mass., that covers news about kiosks and temporary stores.
It can be a lucrative business, especially around the holidays. Jennifer Telfer, vice president of operations at CJ Products in Oceanside, Calif., said a single kiosk operated by her company to sell stuffed animal pillows she invented rang up sales of as much as $125,000 during the holiday season last year.
Some kiosks open just for the holidays. The hours are long, and not all operations are profitable.
But for those who want to get a toehold into retail ownership, it can be a good opportunity. Business owners typically lease their kiosks from property management companies. They might sell their own products, such as the stuffed animal pillows, or agree to hawk items that mall operators want sold. Hundreds of companies pitch kiosk concepts to mall owners and directly to kiosk owners at trade fairs.
At some kiosk locations, rents have come crashing down after years of steady hikes, thanks to the recession. A mall kiosk that might have rented for $8,000 a month last year can be had for $6,000, which is what it cost about 10 years ago, Telfer said. Many locations rent for even less, depending on foot traffic.
