Thinking of starting up an online store

Hello all,
Cristos here. I've been lurking around the forums here and at various other places for a while now, but this is my first official post on the pipes magazine forums. I'm posting here to ask for advice. I don't know if this line of questioning is welcome in the forums, so if it's not then let me know and I'll take it down immediately. I'm a single guy in my mid 20's and for a long time now, I've been kicking around the idea of starting up my own business. I've looked into various businesses such as coffee shops, wine bars, etc., but my real passion is for pipes, cigars and tobacco. Now, I know I'm not the only one who visits forums like this who has daydreamed of owning his/her own B&M, and as anyone who has done a little serious research knows, starting a B&M from scratch is a bit of a pipe dream (no pun intended). However, I've read that internet business is on the rise and now is a great time to get into the online business.
I'm doing my best to come at this idea from all angles and gather as much research as possible, and I figured the best place to do that was to ask my fellow tobacco enthusiast what their thoughts on the idea are. I'm not naive enough to think that I will get rich by doing this, nor do I want to. I would be happy enough to be able to earn a decent salary working for myself in a business that I'm passionate about. Can anyone give advice? Any business pros out there who can give me some guidance? I'm open to any constructive criticism of course, but please don't just say something like, 'It's a bad idea.'. Please provide a reason.
Thanks in advance for any responses! I look forward to meeting new people on here!
Cristos

Wow, you guys are quick on the replies lol! Onepyrotech, I was thinking that, if I did move forward with this, it would only be a part time gig. I have a part time job right now that pays decent for what it is, but I need a supplemental source of income. My best friend is a graphic designer who has offered to design and lay out the website free of charge, so at least part of the startup cost has been cut already. Sallow, the wine and cigar/pipe bar is definitely something I have entertained. However, I'm afraid that I wouldn't attract the kind of customer that I would want to deal with. In other words, I'm afraid that it would either 1.) become just another bar and have to deal with drunks all the time, or 2.) be such a niche bar that sales would plummet and the bar would go belly up.
Ideally, I would like something like a coffee bar where you could come in, get a high quality cup of coffee and have a smoke inside. It's still legal to smoke in bars and restaurants here in my town. I just think that the start up cost and overhead would be much cheaper if I worked online and started out in my garage and just see where things went.

Good advice guys! I love hearing all these different opinions and ideas, so keep 'em coming.
What about doing something on ebay? Is there still a profit to be made by selling through them? I know I get on there, and so do most of you probably, to check out what's available. Maybe I'm wrong but most people that sell on there seem to be selling refurbished estate pipes. I wouldn't know the first thing about selling through an auction site for profit. Anyone know if it's something I should look into?

Woodsroad, pretty much my whole adult working life has been in retail of one form or another. I haven't had that many jobs but I guess that attests to my ability to hold a job for long periods of time. I have never experienced the stresses and ins and outs of running a business...I've always been on the associate level. Having said that, I feel like my experience with everything from department management to cash office work should count for something. It certainly is a lot to absorb and a lot to mull over.
And to answer your second question, I'm on the Gulf Coast. Currently residing in Gulfport, MS. There really isn't any market saturation around here B&M wise. We have one shop in the local Mall and another that is exclusively a Cigar shop/lounge that happens to carry Davidoff and Drew Estate pipe tobacco. I can see benefits and flaws in both shops. The cigar lounge has a very upscale feel to it, and keeps a pretty steady flow of customers, offers memberships to its club with an exclusive lounge separate from the shop itself, etc. The drawback to them is, obviously, that they don't cater to pipe smokers saleswise.
The other B&M that's in the mall is a very small operation that caters equally to both pipe smokers and cigar smokers. Problems that I see with them is that they have a very small selection of pipes, their humidor seems to be over humidified (I stepped in there today and it was hard to breathe), they offer only blended tobacco (some they blend there in house and others are popular blends on the market that they are renaming i.e. Lane's 1Q=IQ 140, etc.). No tins. I know this is not the case, but it seems like I am the only one that darkens their door to check out their pipes and sniff their tobacco jars. I really don't see how they are still open. Most that come in there are workers in the mall that duck in for a cigarette and a cup of coffee so they don't have to step outside. I think that a well built, open floor, well stocked, clean B&M MIGHT have a chance. I'm just afraid that there just isn't enough of a market down here to sell to.
That's why I was playing around with the idea of combining the coffee shop with the B&M. A quality coffee bar would do well down here. Starbucks has the monopoly in that business. And if I can somehow combine the two, I would have the ONLY shop in miles where patrons could smoke indoors.

The way I understand it, business owners in the Gulfport city limits have the freedom to allow patrons the option of smoking. If I were to go an hour north to, say, Hattiesburg (the next decent sized town/small city going north), the combined coffee/B&M wouldn't be an option because all smoking indoors is banned regardless of the establishment. That being said, there is a greater potential for market up there because there is no B&M at all. And Hattiesburg is a decent sized place. New Orleans is also an option I have looked at. As far as legal leniency goes, you would be hard pressed to find a city that is as loose and free as they are. No smoking in restaurants and government buildings, but anything else goes. The problem is, of course, there are already a few well established B&M's in the Big Easy...alas, frustrations abound. I can see why so many in the hobby just look at this idea as a daydream. It's enough to make you go grey early.