Wanting to start a business, but my credit history is very poor

BrassicWoman

I applaud your initiative, but think you may nee a business that requires less outlay - so reliant on sweat, not assets. dog sitting/ walking if your partner can come out with you? looking after small animals at home during vacation season? ironing service?

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/201588

stuart30

The Obvious answer is Dragons Den...failing that wave ya willy at Debra and im sure you"ll soon have plenty of Bones to sell..hee hee hee.

iammumtoone

Why pet food suppliers?

Are you an expert in pets? Can you relate to customers about their pets issues and advise with knowledgeable and helpful advice how to manage those conditions/concerns (without getting yourself into a situation of giving bad/wrong advise you could later be liable for)

If you can do the above you might have a small fighting chance those are the things customers are prepared to pay slightly more for at an independent retailer. If you are just going to sell stock whats your USP why should customers choose you (at higher prices) than going to a big chain.

motorguy

topaztiger1983 wrote: »

I see the point, but some people like to see a friendly face not a computer screen

Also I was going to set the company up as a Limited Company

Sadly thats very naive in todays market.

People buy from the cheapest pretty much end of. And the small percentage that dont arent enough to build a business around.

You can now order pet supplies online from amazon easily, or from ebay. We get a load of fish products and cat products from both those sometimes for a fraction of the price of a local store.

Our usual choice for the dogs is one of the big pet superstores as there is so much variety they are the only ones who carry the food we use.

If you're going to insist on going ahead with this, buy a lottery ticket for saturday night to double your chances of success.

Try ebay but i would almost guarantee after 3 months :-

You'll be exceptionally frustrated
You'll have less money - after fees, postage costs, paypal fees and compensating customers - than you started with.

Sorry to be harsh, but better finding out now rather than when you're £20,000 in debt

mrmagooooooo

With all the respect in the world and and i commend you for wanting to be able to look after your partner whilst working. I hope your dream comes true i really do but (here comes the brutal part)...

At the moment that's all it is. A dream.

You come across as if you have done no research at all, maybe im wrong, but that's how you are coming across.

Starting your own business from scratch is difficult, it takes a lot of time and effort and as you have found out, Money. At the moment you have a bad credit history so you cant borrow but more so would you really want to gamble a loan on a punt anyway?

Look, like others have said, start out small with some low stock online... or.. Start buying small amounts of stock when you can and do car boot sales? this will give you an idea of what sells.

Again as others have said, the pet shop industry has 99% been eaten up by the big boys. Pets at home etc etc There is no market for a pet shop / supplies store's as you will never get the margins they have. Yes some people do prefer a personal service of a small local business and that does ring true for many things but i can assure you if they can save money by shopping elsewhere they will.

At the moment you are thinking too big and have your head in the clouds, but, don't be disheartened. If you have the drive and the will to get there then there is always that chance that you will.

Just start small and see if you can make that grow. If it doesn't work then try selling something else.

Ive done the Ebay selling and that grows old pretty quickly with the tiny profit margins.
Ive done the market stalls and car boot sales, that grows old fast too.

I too had the dream of having my own business but ya know what, when i actually started doing it i realised id earn a ton more in I.T and only have to work (usually) 9-5 for it without the stress or the hassle.

What im saying is.... give it a go.. if it doesn't work it doesn't matter, you tried. But have a back up plan consider re training in a field that are crying out for workers, plumbing or a different trade or even I.T?

Anyway hope that helps and good luck but please do heed the advice you have had on here, they may sound harsh but they are realistic.

motorguy

BrassicWoman wrote: »

I applaud your initiative, but think you may nee a business that requires less outlay - so reliant on sweat, not assets. dog sitting/ walking if your partner can come out with you? looking after small animals at home during vacation season? ironing service?

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/201588

I think those are brilliant ideas - we used to use a dog walker for when we were at work. He got paid a decent amount and had usually 6 dogs on the go at any given time between him and his wife.

Even stuff like cat sitting and fish sitting might be an idea. These big money in fishkeeping these days and i know i would pay for someone to come in and feed / keep an eye on mine.

Same withe cat too. She needs fed / litter tray cleaned out / water changed. Could be an easy few £.

Once you'd a small base of customers you could start pitching for supplying pet food to them - funded by the monies raised from pet sitting / dog walking.

iolanthe07

They do not stay open, and if they do, it's because the owner either lives on borderline poverty line or in severe debt that will soon crush them.

Or the owner's spouse/partner has a full time job, which is often what keeps the business going as it becomes, in reality, a hobby.

motorguy

iolanthe07 wrote: »

They do not stay open, and if they do, it's because the owner either lives on borderline poverty line or in severe debt that will soon crush them.

Or the owner's spouse/partner has a full time job, which is often what keeps the business going as it becomes, in reality, a hobby.

+1

Assuming a rent of say, £800 a month, then another £400 a month for rates. Say £200 a month for electric.

Theres £1400. Assuming 20% margin, thats £7,000 of pet food that needs to be sold just to break even.

So lets say we're happy with £1200 a month net pay (roughly speaking minimum wage), so thats £1500 gross thats required before tax. Thats another £7,500 a month turnover, giving us almost £15000 a month turnover required to draw pretty much a minimum wage.

Oh, and then you'll be over the VAT threshold, so you'll be losing 1/6th of your profit to the VAT man. So you'll need to be selling £18,000 of pet food a month. Lets say on average people spend £30 a month on pet food, so thats 600 paying customers each month every month to draw a minimum wage job.

Limited company you say? Thats £1200+VAT for an accountant per year assuming you can do your own VAT returns, or maybe another £400+VAT a year if you cant.

:eek:

System

topaztiger1983 wrote: »

I think that is a bit harsh Tarambor, you know nothing about me

No but I do know about pet supplies and every week there's a new one springing up on Facebook on my local XXX for sale groups. My parents have run a successful dog grooming business for decades and have been approached by the people who actually manufacture pet foods to ask if they'd be interested in having their own branded range and from this they found out its quite easy to do.

topaztiger1983 wrote:

I am talking about pet supplies for the public not supplying to the pet stores themselves,

I know that's exactly what you were talking about and as I said the sector is flooded because every Tom, !!!! and Harry thinks its a good idea. If you'd done even basic market research you'd find several already supplying your area. Many of the suppliers of raw foods for dogs for example will even deliver direct to your door in their own vehicles.

winspiration

Sorry OP, I'm going to go with the general flow here.

I've made my living by selling online for over ten years, including ebay but mostly my own website. Ebay as already mentioned has cut throat competition in most areas, unless you are in a particular niche or perhaps can make your own stock.

If you have to include the cost of paying back a loan for your stock, then you're already at a disadvantage. You'll find there are plenty of competing sellers who are happy to engage in a race to the bottom in prices, either because they don't factor in all the costs and don't realise they are making a loss until it's too late (by which time someone else has usually popped up to take their place) or for more calculated reasons (thinking of a former huge ebay trader who really drove down the prices for packaging and other products, I won't name them, but I'm sure many ebay sellers will know who I'm thinking of!). It's increasingly common too for manufacturers / wholesalers to cut out the middleman and sell direct at low prices on third party sites. Of course they won't tell you that, while they are busy persuading you to spend your money with them.

Even if you don't have a bricks & mortar shop, you'll have overheads and need to factor in various costs - including the obvious like selling and payment processing fees, postage, tax etc. But you also need to factor in the less obvious, such as resolving customer issues because not everything will run smoothly and ebay / Amazon will generally side with the customer. With perishable stock, there's likely to be some wastage. Both ebay and Amazon can decide to hold back on paying out to new businesses, until they are satisfied that everything is legit & running smoothly.

I'd agree with others that something like one of the businesses already suggested, dog walking, cat sitting, ironing, cleaning and the like, which relies more on your time & effort would be far more practical to get off the ground with little capital available and potentially a lot more profitable too.