Raffle of Company Assets

[Deleted User]

I'd rather have paid £2 for a 1/300,000 chance of this old farmhouse!

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7878797/Couple-raffle-500-000-Shropshire-farmhouse-2-ticket.html

There've been a few 'Enter a raffle to win a mansion" enterprises which have gone bust because they haven't been able to sell enough tickets.

EDIT - Nice to see that this raffle was actually a success!  Apparently it's only the second time ever that one of these raffles has actually sold enough tickets and the house has been handed over:

https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/property/2020/02/17/shropshire-farmhouse-raffle-winner-in-shock-see-pictures-of-celebration-and-home/

Vestraun

At £100 a ticket, I would be surprised if you sold 1. 

[Deleted User]

Vestraun said:

At £100 a ticket, I would be surprised if you sold 1. 

Mum, Dad, Siblings, Aunts, Uncles?

gary83

Jonwilding1 said:

Its not just a trailer, the trailer is fully fitted out and could start up as a business tomorrow if it wasnt for social distancing.
I am looking to sell maybe 3-400 tickets at £100 each, hopeful that it would appeal to the industry and the more affluent maybe. Its a big unit.
If not enough tickets are sold then all monies would be refunded.

Firstly that’s a pretty big IF, there is social distancing, that’s not going to change so it couldn’t start as a viable business tomorrow or anytime soon.

your figures seem a bit over ambitious to me, you seriously expect to find 300-400 people to buy a ticket at £100 each so you pocket somewhere between £30,000 - £40,000 for the trailer that you, or nobody else can use at the moment?
where will you find these 300-400 punters?
how will you promote it?
Do you think a trailer as a foot in the door of an industry that’s struggling with all events basically cancelled for the foreseeable future is a prize worth winning for £100? It’s not aspirational and won’t appeal to people in the same way as winning cash/cars etc.

[Deleted User]

Finding one person who will give you eight grand for it, is probably a more realistic plan!

hb2

It sounds as if this would be classed as a 'lottery' which is probably not legal - https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/for-the-public/Fundraising-and-promotions/Commercial-schemes/Thinking-of-raffling-off-your-home.aspx

jfinnie

Jonwilding1 said:

Advice needed.  Due to Covid19 my business is nil until the start of next year potentially. I am a concession, working at large events and have a trailer set up as a cocktail bar.
Nobody would want to buy it right now, understandably, so, i came up with the idea of doing a raffle to win the trailer. This would make enough money for me to pay the debts and effectively close the business.  I had thought of selling tickets at £100 each with a timescale and or ticket number limit.
The winner would gain themselves a brilliant prize for £100 and i would be free from the financial burden.
My accountant is unsure of the legal parameters/competition rules etc and i have no idea who to turn to for advice.
Help gratefully received.

There are companies specialist in setting up such events and they are well versed in what you need to do legally in order that you don't fall foul of relevant legislation or get accused of nepotism.  PromoVeritas is one such company (I'm not connected with them other than having won a competition they ran once, so I'm aware of them from that).  I'm sure there are many others.
As others have said though, unless you have a very good pre-existing network for promoting and selling your competition entries you could be either in for a very long slog, or doing a load of advertising which ultimately might still see you not selling your asset if you can't meet your target (and undoubtedly incurring costs from the company providing services to you).  

Hermann

How much is the trailer really worth?

I've seen a few for sale recently, £500 knackered horse box trailers given a lick of paint and a shelf put inside and suddenly it's supposedly worth £10k ....