Thinking of opening a business

[poncho]

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

[lancsdave]

Originally Posted by poncho

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

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

[poncho]

Originally Posted by lancsdave

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

[mallard]

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

[flashy]

good luck if you do go ahead with it

[Retlaw]

Originally Posted by poncho

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

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.

[cashman]

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

[poncho]

Originally Posted by cashman

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

Fair enough

[derekgas]

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.

[wadey]

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

[derekgas]

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.

[entwisi]

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

[K-P]

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

[bargains4u]

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---

[Lolly]

Originally Posted by bargains4u

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---

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.