Despite these obstacles, some still venture into the untried waters.

In 2007 Melissa Kirk quit her job as the manager of a motorcycle shop in Tombstone. Although the store was doing well, Kirk and her longtime friend Kacey Whitman saw an opportunity to start their own business and enter an untapped market.

The motorcycle shop sold motorcycle accessories, Kirk said, "T-shirts, leather jackets, that sort of thing."

The most popular items the store carried were the customized T-shirts, which tourist favorite.

Kirk noticed that the shop spent most of its money ordering T-shirts and assumed that other tourist-oriented businesses in town were in the same situation.

Tombstone is a tourist town, and T-shirts are a big part of that, said Kirk. "You come, you visit, and you buy a T-shirt for your friends."

"We made all our money selling T-shirts, so I figured we'd make more money printing our own," Kirk said.

After discussing the idea with her friend, Kirk and Whitman decided to create 4
Monkeys Screen Printing, a business that printed T-shirts and supplied them for
retailers in town.

Kirk and Whitman had little knowledge in the printing field, but figured it would be simple to learn the tricks of the trade once the business was up and running.

"We thought it would be real easy to print T-shirts 'I mean, how hard can it be?'"

Turns out, it was a lot harder than they thought.

At Whitman's urging, the business bought up some of the best printing equipment that money can buy.

The logic was pretty simple, she said.

Better equipment means better quality.

The best printing equipment, however, tends to be complex and difficult to operate, even for a skilled professional.

Kirk found herself learning to operate the machinery through trial and error, and several orders were botched in the process.

Local businesses that were trying out the new company for the first time found their orders flawed and often had to re-order.

"Printing shirts turned out to be a lot harder than I had imagined," Kirk said.

"It's not the same as telling someone 'go dig a hole, here's a shovel, and anyone can do it.'"

Despite initial difficulties with getting the business off its feet, Kirk eventually learned the ins and outs of the trade and hired a staff of seven to help run the business.

The business now had an edge over the competition. They could produce a quality product and sell it for less than their competitors, because of their close proximity to their clients.

But, there was a flaw in the business plan.

Kirk and Whitman had estimated that catering to local businesses would generate enough revenue to keep 4 Monkeys afloat.

This was not the case.

"You'd think that there's a ton of T-shirts in Tombstone, but there isn't really enough to support a business like we thought," Kirk said. We tried to expand into other towns in the area, but had little success.

So, they decided to move to Tucson, an idea that had a lot of promise at the time.

Tucson offered a much bigger market and the opportunity for success seemed
to be high.

Yet, the competition in Tucson proved immense and 4 Monkeys was unable to offer the lowest price to retailers.

"Moving to Tucson killed the business," said Kirk. "It was a bad decision."

The company closed its doors and Kirk now works hauling copper 12 hours a day to a copper mine on the outskirts of Tucson.

"I think if we had stayed in Tombstone we would have been fine," Kirk said.

"Although the market was small, it was sheltered and we were getting better at marketing ourselves."

Kirk hopes to re-open a business in Tombstone in the near future.

"The motorcycle shop did really well, so I think I'll try that again," she said. "I'll still print my own T-shirts and maybe do some printing for other businesses in town, too."