It is still subject to the same factors as most other small retail businesses, include a high likelihood of failure within the first year. What you happen to like may not be the most profitable thing to sell, rent may be extra high in sight of the beach, many shops there target tourists with impulse items, shades, tshirts, etc. your shop may do as well in a lower rent district. Take a tour of similar shops ask their operators how things are going...

A franchise shop like a Subway sandwich shop has a much greater chance of succeeding than some unproven store idea, a franchise store can cost $80,000 to open.

My best frient and I really want to open up a skate/smoke shop on one of the beaches on the Golden Coast aka California. (Venice, Santa Barbara etc.) So I was wonder what should be study in college, what should we expect? How much initial investment would we need? Is it actually likely for us to make profit? Should we start out as employees of an existing shop and take over later on or what. We're both 17 and almost done with school just one more year. So we're young and fit into the type of people that would be shopping at these shops so I feel like customers would relate to us more than like some 50 year old immigrant who barely speaks English. Not shitting on immigrant but you'know, wouldn't young people who usually occupy these beaches rather buy and talk to same minded young people? So any advice would be great.