I've always wanted to design and open my own coffee shop, particularly since I enjoy sitting at them for hours on end. However, I'm not so naive as to think I

I've always wanted to design and open my own coffee shop, particularly since I enjoy sitting at them for hours on end. However, I'm not so naive as to think I could make such a whim profitable without a massive amount of hard work — an amount that would probably end up destroying the romanticism associated with opening a coffee shop in the first place. My plan is to instead wait until I hit the tech startup lottery and then just operate my dream coffee shop at a loss. All jokes aside, I'm amazed at the number of cute little places opening up where I currently live (Knoxville, TN). When I moved here five years ago, there were maybe one or two independent coffee shops. Now there's about ten of them, and all of them seem to be doing quite well. I suppose there's enough college students around here to keep them profitable though. Not to mention the low cost of living means rent probably isn't too bad.