Small business start up loans

pagepool

hi, i'm after some advice, my partner and i run a small pick and mix business, we currently rent a small Kitchen area and have a shelve to sell our sweet boxes on in a shop in town. we do home deliveries, and offer a custom box's and gift jars, with over 40 different sweets in stock.
we would love to have our own shop and due to covid a well placed retail shop in town has become available. 
i should add there are no other sweet shops in town and we have customers from surrounding villages and towns.
is there anyway of applying for help to start up our shop dreams? i personally have a rubbish personal credit rating - i had to go bankrupt 4 years ago due to an ex partner and his drug issues.
we currently pay £180pm for the kitchen rent,  are prices are very competitive with other local "bedroom sellers" and customers often tell us we are the cheapest in the area. we have a good level of returning customers, and have expanded to sell on site at local caravan parks, with sites permission we are just looking at taking the next step

any advice would be helpful. thanks

bris

You pay £180 a month, this is buttons. You get your own unit and this will be a whole different ball game.

rent, rates, utilities, commercial waste removal amongst other things you don't even think of when running a proper shop, you need to sell a lot of sweets. 

Your position to get the shop right now would be difficult due to the bankruptcy, so you would need a lot of start up cash and personal guarantees which still probably not be enough unless they are truly desperate to get the shop rented out.

You will need to plug away until the defaults drop off and you can save the cash you will need but no harm in getting in touch with the letting agent and see what they say. There are often rent free periods when negotiating a new lease but it all depends on the interest in the unit.

Savvy_Sue

What bris said, PLUS quite possibly additional staff: you might think two of you is enough, but unless you are open quite short hours and willing to either close for any holidays you want to take together or never holiday together, then it's not. 

Especially in the early days, you've GOT to be open when you say you will, and that's not easy ... 

Mistral001

There was a post a few years ago from someone doing pick and mix.  If you are packaging them as you own brand, you could have problems with the manufacturers of the sweets if they become aware that you are doing this.  

Grumpy_chap

The OP rents a kitchen so must be making their own sweets

jonesMUFCforever

A friend of mine used to do something similar. She gave up as she could not make it pay. People used to buy once then decided a sweet is a sweet and its much cheaper at the supermarket.