Thinking of starting a new business - SURPRISE!

[Jo and flo]

Hello everyone!

This site seems very helpful and informative - once i figured out how to use it!

My name is Jo. Im 21 and im thinking of starting my own business in the equestrian trade, selling all manner of equestrian goods and country clothing.

The stumbling block i have is funding - like many people i have no real savings and don't come from a fortunate back ground. I work hard for my money as an adminstrator and count the pennies throughout the month - end up with very few, IF any left! (dont we all!)

I really do not know where to start. I've heard of Business link, which can give you lots of helpful advice and tips on starting a new business...but other than that i am well and truly stumped.

Ive been into various high street banks and picked up start up business plans - but have no idea what to put in them except the basics!

Ive been looking at premises and various planning licences you need to run a business - how do you go about seeing if you can change those licences? Through the local council?

Will my age affect my ability to gain finacial help? I have no assests and currently live at home. I have sound knowledge in the area of business i want to be in, and have the drive to stick to something.

So basically...........all the help you guys can give me, its very much appreciated!

waffle waffle waffle as im sure youve heard it all before.

Thanks

Jo

[accountantpete]

Hi Jo.

In my opinion selling products is the hardest way to start in business because it is so unforgiving if you make a purchasing mistake and buy a product that no-one wants.

This is especially true given the current economic climate.

I would advise you to start with goods that you can sell from home in order to minimise your expenses and before you dive in, some research is required to see if there is a market for these products and what profit may be expected.

Funding at present is a problem - check on the businesslink site to see if any grants are available in your particular area but don't expect too much.

The banks in due course may start lending again and it will be helpful if you assemble a business plan - ask the forum for advice if you get to this stage.

Good luck

[doconline]

Hi Jo,

Have you tried the Princes Trust? They may help you out, if not with money then with advice etc. I think they deal with people under 30, so will certainly have helped people like you in the past.

Hope this helps,
Paul

[Indizine]

PT is 18 - 30, so up to the day before your 31st birthday.

check out your local enterprise agency. To find your nearest go to www.nfea.com

also try your local business link.

[Jo and flo]

Hi guys, thanks for your reply.

I realise that its probably not the best time to start a business...but would still like to get as much info as possible.

So if i were to start selling from home...would i have to register as a business? could i still contact trade suppliers for goods?

[accountantpete]

Hi again Jo - is that Flo in the pic?

You don't have to register the business with anyone - but you do have to tell the Revenue you are self-employed within 3 months of starting.

You can contact suppliers etc but remember if you are self-employed then any contract will be personally binding on yourself.

[James Smith]

You have a major issue in that a trading business essentially needs lots of working capital.

If you have no savings and no assets you simply wont get a commercial loan, apart from the princes trust (who are very good incidentally if somewhat oversubscribed) It may be that it are simply unable to start a stock based business as you have no funds. The best thing to do is to address this issue right at the start and ensure that any business plan you have doesn't require you to pay for stock up front. There are ways around this but its a lot of hard graft and smaller margins.

In my experience most people start up from their own funds and savings in the first instance - background has not a lot to do with it - bank loans tend to come into the picture only at a later stage when they move from up the scale, eg out of the bedroom into premises etc. It may be that you will need a "stage one" activity on the side to the day job in order to earn the capital to put into what you really want to do if you are unable to save anything on a day to day basis. This may just be something lousy like evening bar work, or could be your own business, perhaps selling your services in the equestrian world....

In terms of actually doing a plan, well there is no real magic to it. You build up slowly what you want to do. This might just be a few lines to start with. Eg stage one plan is simply "selling all manner of equestrian goods and country clothing"

Then you need to think about who your customers will be, why they will come to you vs the competition, how you will reach them. Then think backwards from the sale, costs of obtaining the sale. How you will deal with stocks, where you will buy them from. If you do each in a little depth to start you can then go around it again and again adding detail and making sure its practical for your circumstances. Try to think through all the processes. From this you can then make a budget and try to work out your cashflow.

I should point out the reason I start at the customer and not the supplier is that is where the biggest challenge lies - anyone can buy a container of stock. Selling it at a profit is quite a different matter!

And then you will probably try different plans until you get one that works.

hope some of that helps (NB you should think the person who was supposed to call me at 12.30 for this post!)

Regards,

[AccountingBasics]

Make sure you check out your competition, especially if you are planning to sell locally. I noticed you are based in Berkshire, I know some areas of Berkshire have lots of equestrian shops. So unless you are planning to sell something different it may be difficult to break into the market.

[EA999]

I hate to be negative but I think that this is a non starter. My daughter was into horse riding as a teenager and all the equestrain shops etc seemed to be owned by relatives of families with large budgets and two we used to visit never made a profit from one month to the next and I rather suspect that is typical. No business then as such - just an acceptable way to spend the day in jospers.

Sorry OP but if you wnt o own your own business go for something more practical and forget premises for a start. The shrewd players these days work from hom to cut down on expenses. Rob

[Peter Bowen]

I think starting a business with very little capital is a great advantage. Let me explain:

Statistically most startups fail (I've done my bit to add to this statistic). If you've got a huge investment in the first business and it does fail (as is likely) you could find yourself taking a long time to recover. You might even be too scared to ever do it again.

However, if you start something, have some fun, and learn a bit more about business you've won whether you make any real money or not.

I get more excited about the £2/bundle of firewood my kids make of their little business than I do right now with the money we make from the regular businesses we have.

You must start a business, I think it's in your genes and you probably won't be happy unless you give it at least one try. Embrace the constraints and do more with less.

There are some household names that started with very little (Virgin, Microsoft, Apple, Dell, KFC)

Cheers

Pete