You can basically have the dojo you want if you have the time and will. You need at least the time you spend on the mat to do this, at least in the initial stages. Getting buyin form the whole dojo is pretty important(and can be the biggest barrier i've seen in a few cases) and then a willingness to tweak all the variables. Having had the good fortune to open/grow a few dojo over the years I penned the following which you might find useful along with some stats on demographics, retention etc...
http://www.aikidorepublic.com/aikido...ikido-students
look forward to hearing how it goes