Thinking of opening a business
 

I'm unemployed at the mo, and it seems the commercial rents on Union Road are quite cheap - starting at £75 per week for the old Bargain Booze.

Any ideas for a business which one could start, and where stock can be easily obtained? Or if anybody is interested in a partnership, I would be interested in hearing from you :)

Re: Thinking of opening a business
 

Don't let the rent deceive you, check out how much the business rates are

Re: Thinking of opening a business
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by lancsdave (Post 694357) Don't let the rent deceive you, check out how much the business rates are

Good point, just checked the Valuation Office website (www.voa.gov.uk)

Yeah it looks like the council want to stick a whopping £200 per month for rates, though I guess you could always apply for small business rate relief to knock it down 40% or so :)

Also if my brain serves me correctly, I am sure the government announced free business rate between April 09 - 10 for small businesses to kickstart the economy :)

Re: Thinking of opening a business
 

Hello, there, like the other member was saying this day and age with the tax on everything its not worth doing.

Re: Thinking of opening a business
 

good luck if you do go ahead with it

Re: Thinking of opening a business
 

If your going to start a business, then think about what people want to buy.
Every body has to eat, so a food business is the way to go, not a take away, they are closing as fast as they open in Acc.
Retlaw.

Re: Thinking of opening a business
 

as a general rule of thumb Poncho, "Partnerships" are NOT a good idea.;)

Re: Thinking of opening a business
 

Fair enough :p

Re: Thinking of opening a business
 

That is a tough decision to make at the moment, food yes, people will always need to eat, but there are lots of food shops around, so would need to be extraordinary food to be a real success. In any business at the moment, competition is fierce, so you need to be very good at what you do, or live a limited life in the pretence that you are good at what you do. Cashy is right I would say, because two people are not the same, so one will always feel they are putting more in than the other. I was once told, the business person who does not plan correctly, is the one who is most surprised when it all goes wrong! Good piece of advice that! Good luck.

Re: Thinking of opening a business
 

I'd think long and hard before signing anything at the moment, say your rent and rates are £125 a week and two of you want £500 a week between you and you make a net profit of say 5% then you are going to have to take over £12,000 a week every week month in month out, that's over £2,000 every trading day. You will need insurance fitting out the premises advertising etc etc. We should go back to my idea that when a big supermarket gets planning permission they have to provide a little row of cheap shops. Whatever you decide best of luck with it

Re: Thinking of opening a business
 

Thats ok if your selling houses wadey, but if it is food, the profit margins are more like 100 - 200 percent, and you would need to sell many more sandwiches to pay your way, it is outlet dependant, and volume is the key to many sales of smaller value, but you need to have a good product to turn the volume, to turn the volume, you need staff, wages, probably a delivery service, and would still need, in many business outlets, an internet sales website. One of the killers is advertising, £5,000 is not unusual for a small business to be in yellow pages, that alone is £100 per week.

Re: Thinking of opening a business
 

why does a butty shop need a web prescence? or in fat most websites. unless your clients come from > 5 miles away i'd say a website is rarely a benefit to your business...

whilst I'm all e commerce, I'm also sensible enough to see the benefit/cost ratio is not good on some businesses

Re: Thinking of opening a business
 

Cost of a website is minimal while more and more people use google over yellow pages.

BTW wadey arnt your sums wrong by over 10k .. 125 rent. 500 a week each and 5% isnt 12 thousand a week and 2 thousand a day.... Too many noughts :)

Re: Thinking of opening a business
 

its not bad spot for business it has to be some thing which is not in ossy . try speaking to lancashire enterprize i think they provide free advise and start up grant up to £2500
it will be worth a try ..
starting a business is not easy but it has rewards if u r willing to work hard. good luck---

Re: Thinking of opening a business
 

Not a bad spot if its anything other than food i'm afraid. You already have a butty shop at the end of that row, then Tesco will be opening soon. You then have another butty shop on the next block. Then the Co-op. Then four more butty shops before you get to the Rose & Crown. Then theres the chippys, newsagents & pizza/kebab shops.

I wish you all the luck in the world in whatever you decide to do, but I don't think it lies in food on Union Road.

The one thing involving food on Union Road that is missing is a decent fresh fruit & veg shop. At the moment you have to go all the way into Accrington to go to the market. So that might be an idea. :)

Re: Thinking of opening a business
 

Someone tried a fruit & veg shop near Rogreave Road, and worked really hard offering good quality fare and a friendly service, but couldn't make a decent living at it.:(

Re: Thinking of opening a business
 

if u workon 5% u will be bust in a month

Re: Thinking of opening a business
 

I wasnt meaning a butty shop in particular needed a web presence, I was just stating costs that some wouldnt think about, my business does receive a lot of calls through one website, and the other website we have will do the same when I have finished with it, to qualify the need for a website in my business, it is a fact, that we have no yellow pages ads in this year, work will come from word of mouth, and the website, with possibly a few leaflets delivered for good measure.

Re: Thinking of opening a business
 

mother in law used to own the fruit and veg shop that is now the reena's restaurant and she made an ok living, nothing major and had to work long hours though.

ive always thought a good computer game shop that offers game trade ins would do well at the top end of ossy, nothing flash mind keep overheads as low as you can.

think start up costs could be a problem though

Re: Thinking of opening a business
 

Where on earth can you make 100 - 200% on food??? That is impossible. If you are talking about selling something at retail at twice the cost price then that is 50% ie cost price £1 and sell for £2 is 50% gp. You can never make 100% profit unless you have no costs involved in producing what you sell!!!

Re: Thinking of opening a business
 

What is that in answer to?
£1 against £2 is 100% on cost and 50% on retail.
That is the fist sum you must do before calculating expenses.
How miuch can I make and what will it cost me?
That is cost of sales.
Not an easy task and advice is needed.
100% is not possible whatever the situation.

Re: Thinking of opening a business
 

The computer game shop has be tried at the end of howarth street lasted about 3 months !!
ian

Re: Thinking of opening a business
 

I don't think it's that big a deal, you're just each calculating profit based on a different starting figure. Derek calculates profit based on his cost price. You calculate it based on the sale price.

Of the first three hits when googling for "profit calculator" two of them calculate it the way you've done it (profit as a percentage of selling price), and one calculates it the way Derek (and I) calculate it (profit as a percentage of material/labour costs).

Funnily enough, the calculator on the fourth link doesn't work, which doesn't bode well for the accountancy firm on whose site it appears.

Re: Thinking of opening a business
 

I've always fancied a fishmonger would do well on Union Rd. All those good catholics in Ossy wanting fresh fish on friday. :D

But what you also want to consider is using a shop as a front but finding something that is specialist on the internet for mail order. A good example is the second hand book shop - they actually do the majority of their business online but if you need a storage place for books you might as well have them in a shop so you get some passing trade as well.

That way you're not reliant on business in Ossy, or even within 5miles for that matter.

Re: Thinking of opening a business
 

I've got over the Fish on Friday for catholics thing Gayle, I just look at my steak pudding and chips, close my eyes make the sign of the cross and utter those immortal words "Your Cod and Chips, Your Cod and Chips" works for me:D :rolleyes:

Re: Thinking of opening a business
 

Thats in answer to a previous thread on this post stating you make 100-200% on food. If you do a business plan then of course its relevant. You have to calculate your GP and Net Profit.. So of course you have to deduct the cost of buying/making the product from your retail price hence the true GP figure. go to a bank and tell them you expect to make 200% GP and you will be shown the door, There is no such thing as 100% GP (or anythin in excess of) - its impossible

Re: Thinking of opening a business
 

So, if you buy a box of ten (anything) for £100, then sell them for £110 each, you havnt made more than 100% profit over your original costs?

Re: Thinking of opening a business
 

It depends on the base of your calculation. With your example, it depends whether you use the £10 cost price or the £110 sale price as your starting point. The way you and I work it out, it's a 1,000% profit, because the sale price of eleven times the cost price means a profit margin ten times the cost price.

With Bobs base of the selling price for profit calculation, the base price is 9% of the cost price meaning the profit is 91%

There is no "right" or "wrong" answer, but it does illustrate the need to understand how any given statistic is calculated.

Re: Thinking of opening a business
 

You're slashing his prices before he's even got going.:eek::D

In his example he said his original cost price was £100, not £10.

Re: Thinking of opening a business
 

I understand that Gareth, my point was, there are more ways to work out the figures, and I am not so blinkered as to think that the way I work them is the only way, but the bank manager would not throw you out based on those figures! Calculating the figures as I stated originally would result in good, base cost profits, it is well known that, with food, these are the margins many would, and do, use! I didnt intend for it to be a lesson in accounting, just a pointer that was understandable to anyone without the knowledge.

Re: Thinking of opening a business
 

he said a box of TEN of something for 100 quid hence 10 quid each.... :D

Garinda in pedantic mistake shocker!!!

:D:D:D:D:tongueout:D:D:D:D

Re: Thinking of opening a business
 

:D
It was an understandable mistake, though. The whole "box of 10" thing was a bit of a red herring...


Oh, I realise that. I was really pointing out to those who seem to think there's something wrong in the way we calculate margins that there are two ways to do it.

It seems to me that starting with the cost price is the more intelligent way to do it. IMHO it's better to use cost price and margin to work out your sale price. That way if something is not selling, you ditch it because it's not profitable.

My mother-in-law sells at what she thinks her market will pay, so she must use cost price and sale price to work out her margin.

No single method is right, it's just important that when you're talking to someone like your bank manager, you're using the same concept.

Re: Thinking of opening a business
 

Err, it was what we call humour, hence the smilies, because he'd given the cost price in a different form than Derekgas.;)

Re: Thinking of opening a business
 

Posted via Mobile Device
You dont get off that easily. The smilies were on the first sentence.! :D

Re: Thinking of opening a business
 

If I buy something for £100 and sell it for £200 it's 100% markup and profit in the way I'd work it out. As the amount of profit compared to what it costs is 1:1.

Re: Thinking of opening a business
 

Thats exactly how i work it out its hundred percent profit on what you purchased the item at as you state on the claim buy an item for 100 pounds and sell for 200 pounds, but really i guess you have to get the item for nothing then if you sell it for 100pounds it would be classed as 100 percent profit as i see it.

Re: Thinking of opening a business
 

True that is called on cost profit....100% mark up.
The cost on retail would be 50%.
You have spent £100 and recieved £200.
The equasion £100/200 will give you 50%.
Simple calculation but not one your accountant would be satisfied with.

Re: Thinking of opening a business
 

:confused::confused::confused:This thread lost me two pages back, maybe that's why I wanted to be a joiner and not a business man Roy:D:rolleyes: