Advice needed for despondent youngster!

worried48

Ryaen wrote: »

I appreciate what you're saying and I can understand how it might seem like that, but my point was less a complaint of how things are hard on startup, it's more that ten years(?) ago I'd have been able to approach the bank with exactly the same business plan and practically pluck a figure out of thin air to borrow.

Would you? We couldn't. We have a business that has been well established for over ten years and we found the bank reducing our overdraft every month. As for Barclaycard, I have exactly the same credit limit as you - started with £400 - same APR as you too, and I had no defaults, no missed payments beyond one month and then immediately put right, about eight years history of self employment (at the time I first got the card), and I was in my late 40s. So don't feel too sorry for yourself!

Thrugelmir

Ryaen wrote: »

Any advice, answers, sympathy, or similar stories would be greatfully received.
I realise there are people out there much worse off than me, but five years of frustration, disgust, anger, perplexion and despondency, I'm beginning to lose the will.

Read some auto biographies. Alan Sugar for an entrepreneur and John Harvey Jones who rose from the shop floor to become CEO of ICI in it's heyday. You'll find that the route to sucess isn't easy. Keep learning. Take the knocks on the chin, pick yourself up and move on. Find a mentor. Nothing like to advice from someone who has the complete set of teeshirts. With age comes wisdom.

triple_choc_chip

[QUOTE=Ryaen;62649907
I've got three written contracts as my business stands that add up to just over £20k/yearly, my overheads are currently only my internet bill (and of course petrol, etc and the imponderables) so at least 90% of that is profit, and that's not to mention the extra (smaller) jobs I'm likely to get through word of mouth.

My business plan works and has worked for the last two years without a blip,

people like Zuckerberg weren't willing to play the waiting game and have been rewarded as a result of it..[/QUOTE]

If everything quoted here is correct, you won't have to wait long. Your profit is £18k a year and you only need £5k so in 12 months your problems are solved and you can do it or yourself.

Except that's not the reality is it? And any bank manager worth his position will know it.

I was 24 when I started my first self employed adventure in 1984 and it was as difficult then as it is now. I was taking over an existing business in which I worked and therefore it was my goodwill, established trade etc etc but I only got my loan to buy it because my GrandFather stood as guarantor.

Just recently I've negotiated a £300k commercial loan over 15 yrs but I saved £130k before asking for the rest and the paperwork, the checks, references from accountants, and other hurdles to jump are stringent - and I've been with this bank since 1998.

So take heart that your problems are not just down to your age and take heed that another 22 years from now the criteria will be the same.

Good luck.

WellKnownSid

Zuckerberg would never have got where he is today without the help of fellow students and all the free computing resources at his university.

Part of experience is to make the most of what's available rather than moaning about what you cannot have.

Your £5k advertising and expansion budget is probably light to the tune of £495k.

Getting to where you want to get to will therefore take creativity or a VC / angel fund. Or you need to switch to plan B and get a job.

chubsta

The very best business ideas are those which require no risk in starting them up, and in software and web development you have an ideal opportunity to create something with no risk.

I have worked full time shift work for 30 years but 3 years ago i had an idea for a peice of software, i taught myself coding and now have a very nice monthly income from it to supplement my wages. It is over 2 years since i actually did any coding work but the income still comes.

The significant thing for me was that i didn't risk anything, only my time for a couple of months. There was no outlay for anything so if it didnt work out then i wouldnt have lost anything.

I know many people will say you have to speculate to accumulate but if i were you i would be thinking of ways to get everything going without getting into debt at all, just get a 'day-job' and try to build the business up in your free time.

Dovah_diva

A TL;DR is desperately required at the end of the OP. I can't bear people laying out their entire lives, rambling on before reaching the point. Please, be succinct.

Apples2

Dovah_diva wrote: »

A TL;DR is desperately required at the end of the OP. I can't bear people laying out their entire lives, rambling on before reaching the point. Please, be succinct.

1. Finished school

2. Great idea for a successful business

3. Banks won't lend money

4. Bah humbug, the world hates youngsters.

Dovah_diva

Apples2 wrote: »

1. Finished school

2. Great idea for a successful business

3. Banks won't lend money

4. Bah humbug, the world hates youngsters.

Thanks! Is there a question in there at all?

[Deleted User]

NO matter how good your business plan OP the banks wont lend unless you have a)cash of your own to invest and b)real experience
do as has been suggested get a job even a mc job and save some real money then think again

Cycrow

or take your idea to Dragons Den and get funding from one of the dragons