I know some folks who own a Fleet Feet...It's corporate. Another incarnation of "The Man." You have their buying power, but you also have to follow their lead. Your Freedom could be limited...
Go work retail for awhile. Best way to get experience and to find out if it's for you.
I managed an outdoor shop some years ago, and grew up with parents who had their own business...
it's one hell of a lot to work.

I worked at a running store through college. It wasn't a franchise, just a store a local runner opened several years ago that is now doing quite well. Although he had experience with physiology and PT, the analysis we did isn't actually all that complicated (which may be why you can't find much). Some shoe manufacturers may have some info for vendors but will probably include more marketing hype than useful info.

Our general assessment went like this:
- Check out the shape and structure of the person's foot, paying attention to heel and forefoot width and arch height. We tried on every type of shoe that came in so we had an idea of how each model fits.
- Ask about shin, plantar fascia, or other pains (indicators of uncorrected overpronation)
- Put customer in a pair of minimalist racing shoes and watch them run (away from you or on treadmill from behind--we had a camera on it for a while) paying attention to the movement of the foot. Basically, if it rolls inward beyond neutral (overpronates) you need a stability or motion control shoe with a strong medial post (big, usually grey, thing on the inside of these shoes), depending on severity. That's about the extent of the analysis we did (and I haven't seen much else at other stores).
Towards the end of me working there the manufacturer reps (or maybe our boss) started talking about "late stage pronation" meaning the foot just rolls in later than most of the time. The only thing they shoe companies did to fix it was extend the medial post further forward. I'm not convinced this was much other than marketing.

Related, but perhaps getting a bit off-topic: Of course, even following the industry standard approach of using the crutch of orthotics/stability/motion control to fix my issues caused by overpronation I was never able to get to the point where I could do any kind of significant mileage without being in the ice bath twice a day. I've since abandoned it in favor of a more natural running form in more minimalist shoes.

I would suggest visiting other stores and seeing how they work as much as possible before attempting to open one on your own. Studying physiology, sports medicine or a related subject, even if informally would be a great help as well, IMHO. I never did anything with ordering or finances so I can't help you there.

i have read a couple of articles online about specialized running stores all claiming difficulty in competing with online shoe sales. if analysis is all roughtough said and nothing more, then what does a specialty running store offer aside from a place of like-minded individuals?
i was thinking that since there are none here(specialty shoe stores in the area), the ability to offer such advice would be a mainstay of the store.
i looked into fleetfeet BTW, and don't fell like it is a "fit" that i am looking for.

i went to another town to get my shoes (and advice) after reading articles about overpronation and after seeing a photo of me running in a tri... definite overpronator. i m very happy with the results.
i intend to return there to help their business even if i can get a better deal online. but i'm wierd that way.

This is a very important question to be answered before trying to open any kind of specialty store! I think many people try to open a specialty store and apply the same old generic retail business model then blame capitalism, competition or the internet for their failures. You have to have something to offer that makes people want to shop there.

Even if the analysis is fairly simple, fit and comfort are still very important, so the try-before-you-buy aspect of a B&M store is very helpful. Even with the simple analysis most people either don't care to research it and just trust the running store guys or don't trust themselves to do the analysis and research a good matching shoe. Beyond that, how would a person know if whatever particular shoe fit comfortably and *actually* had the proper amount of support? We always watched people try their shoes (we always had them run around the parking lot to try them out), and occasionally we would recommend a shoe that didn't work as well as we had expected. We were able to immediately give feedback and offer another suggestion, something you certainly can't get online. Similarly, we would get comments like regarding fit, such as "it's too tight," "the arch rubbed," etc. and could bring them a different shoe that fit better. I think this interaction and feedback helps to gain the customer's confidence.

We got many people who came back time after time asking for the same shoe they had before. Why did they keep coming back instead of buying online cheaper? Laziness? Ease? Loyalty? Whatever it is, it might be the answer to your question.

As for other offerings, we always offered discounts to local schools' teams, military, etc. The owner always met with as many high school teams as he could at the beginning of each XC season to talk with the runners and their parents about biomechanics and shoes, holding little seminars for them and loading his van up with shoes. We also had a guarantee policy on shoes--30 (?) days to try them out; if you have a problem, bring them back for a refund/exchange. Most manufacturers allow you to return them to them, which made it pretty easy to offer this. (I'm not sure if this is specific to specialty stores, or is a general policy). We kept records on what people want so we know what worked (or didn't) for them before, or we would know what to get if they just came in and said, "give me what I had last time."