I'm planning opening a pasty shop - what are the profit expectations?

PasturesNew

Conrad wrote: »

I want a day time biz which the pasty thing lends itself to. I don't want to be serving evening meals!

Baking involves getting up and into the kitchen at 2-3am at the latest to fire up those ovens, then you have to bake.

Then, once your shop's shut you've got a whole raft of cleaning.

Then there's the stock-taking, ordering and being on the phone to the suppliers and doing the paperwork.

Can we do this again when you've taken those attractive pink glasses off...

mewbie_2

Hmm. Good job a young Branson didn't come on here and say "I'm thinking of investing my pocket money in a record called Tubular Bells". I suspect a lot of businessess don't look so good on paper, or in practicality even, but a steep learning curve and some luck, and maybe a life enriching experience at the end of it.

I feel a bit guilty about rubbishing people's ideas, even if they do seem to be crap. What do I know? At least they are trying.

Cleaver

Frankly, I think that anyone wanting to work in pastry is a bit of a puff.

Cleaver

mewbie wrote: »

Hmm. Good job a young Branson didn't come on here and say "I'm thinking of investing my pocket money in a record called Tubular Bells". I suspect a lot of businessess don't look so good on paper, or in practicality even, but a steep learning curve and some luck, and maybe a life enriching experience at the end of it.

I feel a bit guilty about rubbishing people's ideas, even if they do seem to be crap. What do I know? At least they are trying.

I thought exactly the same thing. If every person setting up a business had thought "what if..." too much then we'd have no businesses.

I guess the balance is thinking "what if..." to a certain extent whilst also thinking "sod it, let's give it a whirl as I think I have a brilliant product / service / idea here...".

dopester

Conrad wrote: »

What items? I thought about solar panels, yes even in grey Britain.

That would be for you to work out and decide upon.

Then there are niche areas, with little competition, where you can be nimble and initial capital costs are kept down. Where you can quickly retreat if things turn down.

Gangs 'creating' car accidents are on the rise, so they can cream off a big injury insurance claim. Also genuine accident incidents... help to prove what occurred.

Supplying and/or fitting these in cars maybe. (Not saying this would be a business profit winner whatsoever - still has many risks)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHpqhXzrIFc

They are becoming much cheaper than you might expect. Find supplier at discount and then say £40 markup with supply and fitting. (So £110 all in) A5 leaflet drops door-to-door ect. The quality versions are falling in price. Just supplying and/or mobile fitting, hard-wiring in, if you're good enough.

PasturesNew

I know somebody up in the W Midlands who told me today that he's raking it in with the whole TV changeover thing. But, to be fair, he did have a head start. He's doing nothing and his dad had been in the TV business and now his ex customers are phoning his dad up and asking him for help, so this guy's going out to sort out ad hoc needs. If you're sat on your bum taking free referrals from your dad, most businesses must be easy.

PasturesNew

Yes, the entrepreneurial spirit ... is why yesterday I earnt 51p and worked 10+ hours and today have earnt 10p and have worked 8 hours so far and have another 3-4 to do tonight ... because I am working on the "what if ..." of "what if I somehow am on the right track".

Potentially, my 10p today has the ability to grow into £120 for the work I did yesterday, within 3 years. So, I work for 3 hours today - and in 3 years' time I hope to receive £120 for that ... I actually already have proof/evidence that one thing I did in half an hour 30 months ago has already paid me £140.

Entrepreneurs, we might seem mad, but we keep doing what we are doing because it just might work.

Thrugelmir

Conrad wrote: »

Certainly the 2 bakers in the town are rammed from morning until about 3pm. Hundreds of customers per day, 6 days per week. I reckon after all costs inc one offs and annual only costs, you could make about £2000 per week before Tax.

Not wishing to burst your bubble..... but that is an exceptional profit for a sandwich shop.

If you made a net profit of 50p per pasty. You would need to sell around 200,000 a year to make your pre tax profit.

On a 6 day week thats around 640 a day :eek:

lostinrates

re not knocking someone: sure I agree, but making them look for flaws in their plan to tackle in advance, so the business is a success.....surely thats a good thing?

eta: if we all said to Conrad it is a great idea, he'll be the Pasty king by next year we'd be like some of the backslapping boards some shudder over. By testing his plan on a reatively tough crowd he's getting an oppertunity to not just have a plan for problems, but avoid some of them altogther.

Snooze

lostinrates wrote: »

re not knocking someone: sure I agree, but making them look for flaws in their plan to tackle in advance, so the business is a success.....surely thats a good thing?

Yes you are right. Trouble is that often your advice gets poo-pooed as scare-mongering and they ignore it and carry on regardless. People say I'm a fairly negative minded person - and they may well be right - but I prefer to call it being realistic. As Thrug has noted above, I don't care how good you think you're gonna be, you ain't gonna be flogging 640 pasties a day to make your £2k net profit . In fact I'd be surprised if you could even flog that many a day with ten shops, never mind just the one ! Who knows though, I could be wrong, it has been known!

R