How to start up business

Flyonthewall

motorguy wrote: »

You're right.

What people in the UK do is go in to a local shop, touch and feel the item, see if it does their job, then go home, check on line, and usually get it cheaper delivered to their door.

Even if its not cheaper, if they're at their computer they'll order it anyway rather than go back to the shop.

Very true lol

Percy1983

To get a shop you can either.

A, Buy one
B, Rent one

If you don't have the money for A or B you need a good proven business model... back to selling online as a 0 overhead idea.

And so the circle is complete.

Flyonthewall

In answer to all other posts:

1. Items cost too much to post
2. I've yet to work out a cheaper way to post them
3. People don't like to collect items from random peoples houses
4. People don't like to travel far to collect lower value items
5. I may sell higher value items for collection on ebay, people may travel further if it's worth it
6. People are quite happy to go to a shop
7. People are happier to go to a shop than a house
8. I would be selling other items to boost earnings and cover costs
9. There is some competition online
10. There's pretty much no competition in my local area
11. There is a market for the items in my local area
12. Market stalls might work, but they cost money. I will consider it.
13. I understand shops have costs I need to cover
14. I know a lot of people shop online
15. I get buy low, sell high and what I sell needs to cover all my costs
16. I will consider Gumtree to see how collection goes before I try ebay for collection
17. I have a lot of research written down that includes more items, better profits, costs of selling online and a list of places to sell and ways to market...and possibly other things.
18. I know now there aren't really any grants or loans to help me open a shop which was my original question that I wanted an answer to.

I think that covers everything...

Flyonthewall

Percy1983 wrote: »

To get a shop you can either.

A, Buy one
B, Rent one

If you don't have the money for A or B you need a good proven business model... back to selling online as a 0 overhead idea.

And so the circle is complete.

Thanks lol

Percy1983

Flyonthewall wrote: »

10. There's pretty much no competition in my local area

Is this down to a lack of market for such products or have you found something amazing nobody else has ever thought of?

Flyonthewall

Percy1983 wrote: »

Is this down to a lack of market for such products or have you found something amazing nobody else has ever thought of?

There's just a lack of people selling the items in my area, but there are people who want the items. I know that. The few odd stores that sell similar/the same items don't stock other items I want to sell and they're all miles away. People travel to them because they prefer going to the store rather than shopping for them items online and the shops do fine, but if I could set up a shop more local and offer other items too then people are more likely to come to my shop.

Savvy_Sue

Flyonthewall wrote: »

See that's the type of answer I was expecting. Short, to the point, tells me whether I can get a shop. So I know there's nothing to help if I have no money.

Yeah, but ...

I think what we're trying to do is help you explore if there's a way round the fact that you have no money for a shop, and no quick way of getting any, given that there are no grants (unless as I've said somewhere you're in the Prince's Trust age range and even then I don't think you'd get anywhere near enough) and you wouldn't get a loan.

Even if there were grants, and even if you could get a loan, you would need to be aware of all the issues we've mentioned, especially how high the fixed costs of fixed premises are. Maybe you were already aware of all these things, but let's go back to your first post:

Flyonthewall wrote: »

I have an idea for business, but I need stock and a shop. I can't afford this. I don't have any debt and never have, but I don't work and I don't own any property or anything so I can't imagine a bank would give me a loan.

How can I set up my own business with no money?

Thanks.

Personally I think that if someone had replied "You can't", that would have been true but spectacularly unhelpful. So we're suggesting ways in which you could perhaps start to fill that niche market you've found without first amassing a small fortune.

Actually, if this is the kind of 'niche market' which meets up at regular intervals, there may be mileage in getting the product to the people you know would be interested. As a random example, DH plays Go. Very few places reliably stock the boards or the stones - I've just looked at the list of 'real' shops and it's less than 20! - and yet being able to feel the stones and look at the board would be better than buying blind online. Also the stones in particular are not cheap to post.

There are lots of books on Go available! Also not cheap to post out, and you'd probably want to look and see if something was right for your standard of play.

So, whenever there's a tournament, there's often someone there with the BGA bookshop, offering advice, the chance to browse etc.

Whether this model would work for you I have no idea, but it's another 'thought' to put into the pot.

Flyonthewall

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

Yeah, but ...

I think what we're trying to do is help you explore if there's a way round the fact that you have no money for a shop, and no quick way of getting any, given that there are no grants (unless as I've said somewhere you're in the Prince's Trust age range and even then I don't think you'd get anywhere near enough) and you wouldn't get a loan.

Even if there were grants, and even if you could get a loan, you would need to be aware of all the issues we've mentioned, especially how high the fixed costs of fixed premises are. Maybe you were already aware of all these things, but let's go back to your first post:

Personally I think that if someone had replied "You can't", that would have been true but spectacularly unhelpful. So we're suggesting ways in which you could perhaps start to fill that niche market you've found without first amassing a small fortune.

Actually, if this is the kind of 'niche market' which meets up at regular intervals, there may be mileage in getting the product to the people you know would be interested. As a random example, DH plays Go. Very few places reliably stock the boards or the stones - I've just looked at the list of 'real' shops and it's less than 20! - and yet being able to feel the stones and look at the board would be better than buying blind online. Also the stones in particular are not cheap to post.

There are lots of books on Go available! Also not cheap to post out, and you'd probably want to look and see if something was right for your standard of play.

So, whenever there's a tournament, there's often someone there with the BGA bookshop, offering advice, the chance to browse etc.

Whether this model would work for you I have no idea, but it's another 'thought' to put into the pot.

Actually, saying "you can't" would have been helpful or "there are no grants available" or "you need money or the bank to be willing to loan you money". Something along them lines. I'd have thought ok then, time to think of a new way to sell/new item to sell.

I know you're all trying to help by adding extra advice and that's great, but I had already looked into selling online and I'd much rather do that if possible. I hadn't thought of market stalls and obviously I can't say whether that thought would have eventually popped into my head or not. I was researching into other things while wondering how possible to would be to get a shop right away.

That is an interesting thought, thanks.

I think with online selling, no matter what you sell you have a lot of competition so really to do well you need to be selling stuff elsewhere too unless you can somehow beat all the competition in price.

I also think you need to know everything about the products you sell and it really helps to have an interest in them.

Sadly the one thing I know all about and have an interest in is the one thing that is stupidly hard to make any profit on, has a lot of competition and prices that are very unpredictable

Percy1983

I can see a hole in your logic, yes online there is a lot of competition, what you are failing to link is a shop is also in direct competition with online.

There are 2 models both of which lead to similar results.

Online = smaller profits, bigger audience, more sales.
Shop = higher profits, smaller audience less sales.

IE, you sell 10 online and make £1 profit on each, or sell 2 instore at £5 profit each.

I would be asking myself why you can't beat the competition online, what do they know which you don't?

Flyonthewall

Percy1983 wrote: »

I can see a hole in your logic, yes online there is a lot of competition, what you are failing to link is a shop is also in direct competition with online.

There are 2 models both of which lead to similar results.

Online = smaller profits, bigger audience, more sales.
Shop = higher profits, smaller audience less sales.

IE, you sell 10 online and make £1 profit on each, or sell 2 instore at £5 profit each.

I would be asking myself why you can't beat the competition online, what do they know which you don't?

I know online would still be competition, but I'd sell odd smaller, lightweight items online and have my own site where there's no fees and I can add any postage costs I want.

I don't know for sure they know anything I don't know. They may just be selling far more different items, get a discount on postage from sending in bulk and be sending it all out second class.

I, however, wouldn't have that discount and I wouldn't want to send out things second class.