ikonia leave it alone lol, ur post didnt bring anything to the discussion so i didnt bother answering it, im 18 and my friends are 19-21. I supose its not such a great idea, ill still try handing out flyers in town for pc repairs and researching into the new businesses part see how it goes, probably nowhere but it wont cost me anything to try hehe
asking your age was very relevent as it effects an awful lot, like eg: can you get a rented shop, what your credit line will be like for buying stock, how serious people will take you that sort of thing.
So it was a relevent factor, which you chose not to answer suggests that you already knew the answer.
It is Inevitable.....
m0onKniGht,
If you're thinking about opening a shop, I'd suggest you think VERY carefully about that. You will need a serious credit line, you'll need a not-inconsiderable budget to fit it out if you don't want it to look like a junk shop, you'll need a substantial amount of money/credit for stock, and you'll be taking risks on slow-selling items or those that don't shift at all, and far worse, you'll be saddling yourself with a level of overheads to pay rent, business rates, utilities and insurances, and you'll need a decent security system (both to try to stop people getting in and to sound the alarm if they succeed anyway). All that'll mean you'll have trouble even competing with PC World on prices, because you won't have their buying power or warehousing infrastructure.
Retailing covers a range of options, from a mail-order operation, through to high street, to small-scale selling to existing repair customers. The latter might be practical, but they'll be issues with the first two. If you try to set up as a mail-order business ..... well, imagine I'm a customer. How are you going to convince me to buy from you, whom I've never heard of, as opposed to, say, Scan, who've been around a good few years and have a decent reputation? And don't imagine that saving a pound or two on an order is going to be enough to swing it because, at least with me, it isn't. And that's even if you could compete with Scan on price, which I honestly doubt. If you want to get price breaks from distributors, you're going to need to be ordering a significant monthly volume, and without a serious amount of money behind you (and customers buying) you can't do that.
What might be a way into retail (especially mail order) is to see the next big thing coming, and specialise. It worked for OcUK, it's worked for companies like Carphone Warehouse (boy, did iy work), it's worked for those doing SatNav systems, it's worked for the iPod/MP3 operators, it worked for those selling ink refill systems for colour inkjets, and so on. But you need to be ahead of the game, not playing catch-up once those with money or an established reputation get in on the act.
So that's (some of) the problems with mail-order as business model. It typically depends on either specialisation, on or high volume, low margin (and minimal service costs) to work.
And the problem with the high street is the level of set-up costs and admin. Do you form a limited company? Do you understand the legal implications of doing so? Do not, I mean seriously do not open a shop unless you have a limited company to hide behind. But even if you do, you'll almost certainly have to give a certain amount of personal guarantees to get things like decent initial stock levels, and probably the lease itself, and as soon as you give personal guarantees, you lose a large part of the legal protection from the limited company?
What about VAT? Do you register? If you open a shop, and you aren't selling enough that you MUST register for VAT, you aren't selling enough for the shop to be viable. Bear in mind, the market you're talking about is a relatively high price, low-margin market, so you're profit on £60,000 of sales (which is about the VAT registration threshold) is unlikely to be enough to run the shop, let alone live on.
And if you do form a company, who will be the company secretary? You either have to do it yourself, or pay someone, like an accountant. And if you do it yourself, you'll have to complete the annual return required by Companies House, and you'll have to complete the PAYE/NI returns required by HMRC, and so on. And there will be financial penalties if you fail to do so on time, and as a company director, there's a whole poopload of criminal offences that only a director can commit. So you need to watch out for those, and understand what you are and are not allowed to do.
Have you done any business planning? Do you have any idea of what premises will cost to rent, and insure? Have you spoken to wholesalers to even see if you can get a trade account? What sort of margins will you get? You may well get a surprise there. Work out what the premises will cost you for, say, a year and work out how much you need to sell in order to make enough profit to even break even. Then consider how you'll eat while doing it.
Also, check out what your liability will be for the shop premises. Suppose you take out a lease, and after 6 months or a year, the shop closes. How long was the lease? Who pays after you close the shop? Suppose someone else take over the shop, and then defaults .... can you still be liable? Seriously, check that one out. You may get a nasty shock.
m0onKniGht, I have no idea of your background. Maybe you're wealthy. Maybe your parents are, and will finance this or at least provide personal guarantees. But if not ....
Ikonia is right. At 18, you're going to have a credibility problem when it comes to business bank loans, property rental companies, finance houses and even wholesalers for trade accounts. That's not to say it can't be done, but it won't make things any easier.
Oh, and don't forget that as a retailer, you have all sorts of other laws to comply with. For a start, anything you sell will have the consumers protected by the Sale of Goods Act (etc) and, if not sold face-to-face, probably the Distance Selling Regulations. You'll have Trading Standards to worry about, you face regulation in advertising and pricing, you may have Disability Discrimination issues, Health and Safety, etc.
On the other hand, working from home, and perhaps selling to repair customers, can be different. You can, for instance, advise personal customers on what to buy and where to buy it, and let them do the buying and you install or build. If they bought, their Sale of Goods Act rights will be with the seller, not you. You WILL, however, be legally liable for advice you give, so be careful what you say or advise.
But I said it before and I'll say it again, You CAN make a success out of this type of operation IF you do it right, and have a little bit of luck. Ideally, you need a few local business customers who are prepared to pay for service. You will not establish this overnight, though. It'll probably take several years, and you'd better get used to jumping when the customer says hop, even when the customer is being a bit unreasonable, because the reason these business customers will pay is that they want problems solved. They don't want to know about your problems, or why it'll take longer than they want, or why it can't be done. They just want it done. If you can get your foot in the door, and IF you can achieve that level of satisfaction, then it's a viable business model. But don't make the mistake of thinking it's an easy way to make money. Running ANY sort of business can be, and usually is, damn hard work and pretty stressful, especially in the early days. In fact forget that - it's pretty stressful, period. It's just that over time, the stresses change in nature.
What about Culi Computers on Camden Road, or Evesham opposite Argos?Originally Posted by m0onKniGht
I now live just out of T.Wells, but while I lived there 99Flake and I looked at starting a company like you're suggesting. I even got as far as checking out the tax details, 99Flake had a word with Scan about a supplier account and we visited HSBC for some advice. In the end we decided not to bother, it's too close to the mark of whether you'll make enough to keep going or not.
I've forgotten the name now, but another shop on Camden road appeared a couple of years ago with the whole fancy-pants look to everything and top-end PCs on display (and offering web-access). They lasted about a year then had to close because they were overpriced and when you went in asking for something specific they'd constantly try to sell you up to some other make/model. If you do decide to start a shop, make sure you don't follow their example!
TBH, if you have a shop then Culi will be your biggest competitor. If they ever go bust then you definitely don't stand a chance because he's got a lot of experience to lean on.
Last edited by chicken; 23-07-2007 at 12:04 PM.
1.21 GIGAWATTS!!!!!
i'd say get a renault kangoo or some other mini-van and offer a collect/return service. you go out to their house, pick up the pc, fix it and drop it off again. Charge them what it costs you in petrol, then your rates on top of that?
I didn't count Evesham as they are a chain like PC World, as for Culli well yes he has been there years and has a firm user base and does a lot of businesses. I think you will find that he also does it as more of a hobby than a serious trade down there, he is out the way (you really have to look to find his shop) and he stands around smoking in it (well did until July 1st).
To make a good go of it you need lots of capital and huge amounts of patients and as I said before in TW you need a prime location to even stand a chance.
patients?
*idea*
walk-in GP clinic whilst getting your pc fixed?
mind isn't on the ball today, couldn't even spell ridiculous! Monday mornings damn them!
its still a good idea though
Well thanks for all the help everyonemost of the things saracen mentioned are infact a bit over my head. This was just an idea anyway i posted on here to get a few things straight and altho i didnt get the answer i wanted i didnt throw money down the drain at something that probably wouldnt work, i supose ill leave the shop idea and just work from home, with my current job i have alot of free time in the afternoons anyway so i might aswell hehe thank you again for all the information
I'm late to the party here, I've been following the thread with interest and on the whole its solid advice, particularly Saracen. You (M0onKnkGht) mentioned that some of what Saracen mentioned was a little over your head but these are the very things that you need to understand before you can even think about opening a business so I'd think you'd do well to just hang back and think a little more. There are bodies out there who can offer advice, local young enterprise schemes for example. If you still want to have a go at this then perhaps talk with these people. Good luck boss.
What we share with everyone is glum, and dark...
There have been a few small businesses that have performed very well doing onsite pc repairs.
They'll go to homes and businesses and try to fix on site, and if they can't they'll take it away, work on at home then drop it back for the customer.
Very convenient for the customers and along similar lines to what you doing from home now.
It also means you can start off small and work your way up slowly. So no big money up front.
Just a few of you with a van and a room turned into a workshop.
Can we not just step on this? It's a bad idea full stop, particularly the idea of selling to local businesses, never mind retailing.
I own a small business, why should I pay a hobbyist a monthly retainer to keep my computers functioning as opposed to Dell? I can choose between an on-site and RTB service and I can be confident that I won't be left leaving voicemails on the mobile of someone who is stuck at home revising for exams or something.
Say I have a 24hr service contract, and you breach it, then I will sue you for loss of earnings. And this will not be just lost trade during the fault, say you fail to support my PCs and I am unable to submit a tender for a large contract, then you will be liable for the whole value of that contract. You can buy insurance for this kind liability, but I doubt you'd be able to afford it with the sort of fees I would be paying you - and if you aren't the absolute cheapest around (to reflect your lack of track record and experience) then I wouldn't even sign the contract in the first place.
I wouldn't assume small businesses are easy customers at all, just because they have deeper pockets than Joe Bloggs. I don't think people who are mugs stay in business very long, so this leaves putting a card in your newsagents and selling your services to the public - many of whom will have at least one mate who is just as good with computers as you are, or know someone at work whose children will do the same job for pocket money.
As for selling parts - why would anyone buy from you when they can just as easily buy direct from Scan? I'd much rather have a guarantee with Scan than with some 'broker'. Would you enjoy refunding £300 on an 8-month old graphics card that would be worth maybe one third of that on e-bay if it wasn't faulty? Can you sell keyboards and generic consumables cheaper than Tesco? Are you going to stay open 24 hours a day every day like the guy who sells car parts on the corner of my old road (or for that matter, Tesco)? Why would anyone buy from you then?
Being a technology forum, we all like our gadgets and fiddling with PCs. It's a hobby - something that generally costs money, not makes money. Unless you're a pornstar or very lucky musician you won't make money from a hobby or anything you enjoy doing. It won't work.
best and most real response.
It is Inevitable.....
It's so funny that you think Dell employ proffesionals lol
Most people dell employ are hobbyest, i've even had the misfortune to speak to people at dell a few years ago and i knew more about PCs than him (and i'm no expert)
Many just read instuctions from a screen and follow a set plan of 'things to do' when they are advising you over the phone.
My post was about servicing peoples and businesses old PCs that are not bound to a service contract, a one off fix for fee. And that idea has succeded in many places around the country and would be a viable alternative to the shop.
dell professional services are not "hobbyests"
It is Inevitable.....
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