I Had No Idea!

Have any of you ever thought, "I should start a snow cone shack!" Well that very thought has crossed my mind recently and apparently Mom's and Dad's too. Mom came home from a bee meeting and said that the snow cone lady in fort smith asked if we would buy into her franchise. She wanted 20,000 $$$ and we would get... Recipes I guess. Not much else. We decided to look into starting one for ourselves.
We found a shack for sale in TX near where G-pa and Nana live and I started to look into the legal side of it. The city doesn't require a permit but only that we call on the day of opening to let them know. We have to register online to pay taxes which doesn't seem to hard... I think if the government wants me too pay taxes, then I shouldn't have to set it up. They should hand me a form that tells me everything I need to know and all I have to do is sign. But it doesn't happen that way. So I called the health department to see what I needed to do about them and guess what, there is a fee. Of course. 35$ a year. Not too bad but still an extra cost. And I had to fill out a report and a floor plan and schedule an inspection on the day of opening. Thats all the legal work. Register for taxes, call the city, pay some money, done. The shack we wanted sold which was kinda unfortunate cause it looked perfect. A good shack will cost about 14,000 plus a paint job and probably some little fixes.
Then Mom went to talk to the snow cone lady again to ask about how she got a spot in front of harps and how they get electric and water. They pay a rent of 500 $$$. A MONTH! Just to park in a parking lot. They have to pay their own electric bill with whatever place they are staying at and they bring in their own water. So we have a one time $14,000 payment for the shack, $500 or so a month for a place to park it which totals to $6000 a year, and a yearly fee to the health dep. for $35. Lot's of money that a snow cone stand in the great metropolis of Charleston probably can't make.
If we do it, it will probably be next year at the start of the cone season, and maybe we can buy a tiny strip of land from that cow pasture guy next to CV's.