Starting a business.

[Kryten]

Just wondered if any folks here have experience of starting a shop based business.

I'm looking at setting up a shop, selling new & refurb pc's, training and consultancy and what not - as a partnership with my wife, who will do the brunt of the administration/reception style work.

I just want to know a rough idea of the monthly costs that you would expect - mainly business rates, tax and what not. I've a good idea about utilities, setup costs and the likes, but I need an accurate figure of these other expenses that no website will divulge and usually involves me prodding people that already do it

Cheers

 

[Tom]

Are you sure there is a market for the services you will provide?

 

[MYstIC G]

Get involved with a local business project mate, places like Business Link, etc will be far better positioned to advise you on this sorta stuff.

 

[Paradroid]

Just wondered if any folks here have experience of starting a shop based business.

I'm looking at setting up a shop, selling new & refurb pc's, training and consultancy and what not - as a partnership with my wife, who will do the brunt of the administration/reception style work.

I just want to know a rough idea of the monthly costs that you would expect - mainly business rates, tax and what not. I've a good idea about utilities, setup costs and the likes, but I need an accurate figure of these other expenses that no website will divulge and usually involves me prodding people that already do it

Cheers

There's no money in it - selling new and refurbished PCs, that is.

Years ago I worked for Compaq (early 90's, when they overtook IBM in sales) and I saw an efficient process that the small guy can't compete with. I bought my first PC in 1997, which was custom built by a guy who had setup his own business working out of a dingy lockup in Castlemilk in Glasgow. This guy was an ex-senior manager at Digital and he had supplier contacts who sold him all the parts at rock bottom prices, but even he admitted there was no money in it and was packing it in.

Ultimately the best prices for components are had by the major corporations (the volume of purchases they make part-finance the supplier companies ffs). So, you'll never be able to compete price/profit-wise with the big-boys. As for after-sales service, you can't compete with the insurance cover they offer...but you can probably offer a more personalised service.

As for training, be careful with this one because there are loads of companies out there offering professional training services at reasonable costs - but many people qualify for grants/subsidies like ILAs, so you should be aware of these to help customers finance any training they need.

Are there technician qualifications for the building/refurb of PCs (ISEB)? ISO standards to adhere to? Check out any competition in your market (whatever that is), they may be qualified in certain areas and could offer a more rounded quality service.

Have you studied any aspect of running/managing a business? You'll probably need all the basics like Finance, H&S, HR, Risk, Change, ....Marketing wouldn't do any harm either , that should be your starting point really...

 

[Kryten]

Hi, thanks for the answers : 'specially Paradroid.

I've looked heavily into the competition, or the little of it in the area. Most folks seem to do it from home on a callout basis, and the high street store is vanishing in much the same way as other types of shops, f.ex supermarkets and the likes of PC World.

I have more ideas in my mind that would more than make up for the lack of income by the primary business as I said in my original post, rather a lot of originality therefore I wont go into them in detail

I've been on all sides of the coin : i've been doing just this privately for the last 10 years (on the side), I've seen how larger companies work, done the dirty deeds for the likes of Dell's B2B suppliers and worked with Jordan Grand Prix (and dealt with their suppliers) - and i've got rather a good idea about the efficient systems they build upon to do the work en-masse and as quickly as possible. Also worked for one of the ex-local companies that did this, but was constantly on the breadline and soon went bust.

There's certainly not enough local people who will repair peripherals - the average PC techy will venture into the PC box and stop there - I can do printers, psus, monitors, tvs, consoles etc etc - so theres a wider market available than the average joe. It would just need the right marketing and the right links, and could actually eliminate the remaining competitors by actually making them a customer too!

Things like insurance - it's not something I'm likely to look into too deeply, I'd consider contract work for instance - meaning all i'd need really is to cover myself with public liability.

"Training" was probably the wrong word : there's an excellent and free C&G training centre that my wife attends - i'd also be passing people their way as one of the business links - i mean't more along the lines of "a helpful hand" - people can come in "Im not sure how to do..." and go from there. Not sure its something I can perhaps charge for, at least easily, but once the customer is in the shop... rather like loss leading in supermarkets et al.

I'm fairly well clued up on the basics of business anyway - mostly due to common sense and knowing where to find the help I need - but as Mystic G rightly suggests, no doubt Business Link and respected counterparts would come in useful should the need arise.

I just need to get the ball rolling really - and one of the most important things at the early stages is feasibility studying - hence asking folks on here for opinions : after all, you may be the type of people ending up as a customer.
I'll keep folks posted anyway if this is succesful. Got a meeting with my bank on Monday so lets see what they say

Many thanks Paradroid, certainly nice to have a well informed opinion to look upon at all stages.

 

[throdgrain]

Im starting a business at the moment, but I dont want no shop or any other overheads. There lies the road to disaster.
All I need is my front garden and my PC

(Oh, and some stock!)

 

[Paradroid]

... - i mean't more along the lines of "a helpful hand" - people can come in "Im not sure how to do..." and go from there. Not sure its something I can perhaps charge for, at least easily, but once the customer is in the shop...

theh. Sounds like teh pron. Do you, by any chance, have a moustache? Moustaches help in these situations, or so the documentary led me to believe.