Scalability

"Sounds cool... but can you scale it?"

If you are in the entrepreneurship scene, it seems like everyone is concerned about scalability. Brick and mortar businesses are a thing of the 20th Century. Now, in the Age of the Internet, online-based businesses are all the rage.

Will brick and mortar stores start to disappear?

The United States has way more retail square footage per person than any other country. We have over 23 retail square feet per person compared to 16.4 square feet per person in Canada (the next in line).

Have we overdone the retail space? Stores are shutting down locations or at least being careful about building new ones. Will they soon be a thing of the past?

I don't think retail stores are over and done with, but they are on the decline.

That means that today's entrepreneurs need to be strategic. What services must have a brick and mortar location? Which industries can forgo that overhead expense?

The businesses that do not require the brick and mortar location, the businesses that can be 100% online based, definitely have the advantage of easier and quicker scalability. And that's what will ultimately make a bootstrapping entrepreneur the biggest dollars. The more people they can reach, the more customers they can have and the more money they will make.