View Full Version : Business ideas??
Danb1987
21-03-11, 08:41 AM
Well I'm fortunate enough to say my missus's grandparents are pretty well off!!
My other half hasn't been in a steady job now for around 3 months, so her grandparents have said they will buy us a small shop if we wanted to start our own small business up?
I have a few ideas on what to and not to sell but atm we are thinking about a baby shop.
There isn't a decent one in our town so we were thinking get all baby clothes in aswell as nappies, toys, certain foods and such...
Oppinions please
Dan
Hoochie
21-03-11, 09:11 AM
Not a bad idea, brand new or used items?
It depends where you live and what the economy is like but the "big" baby items as i call it like prams, cots etc are very expensive to buy new and hardly used when it comes to sell on.
a huge amount of baby stuff is sold at the out of town sheds, the supermarkets too, but second hand stuff has a market, as long as you buy it cheap enough, cos it will need washing & repackaging.
please do a massive amount of research to find out a market. there could be a very good reason why there isn't a baby shop in your area.....nobody wants the stuff????
, there is a local company that was doing well by selling only pink stuff, for girlies, they started on the web, then got premises, and lost big money on the shop, she is back to trading off the web & doing fine again.
edit. Morrisons are about to go into the baby gear business on a big scale too.
We did a car boot sale last year selling baby stuff and it sold like hot cakes,had massive tubs full of stuff,just told people to fill carrier bags with whatever they wanted for £2,made £80 that day
It sells really well does baby stuff,but it has to be good stuff.
We did a car boot sale last year selling baby stuff and it sold like hot cakes,had massive tubs full of stuff,just told people to fill carrier bags with whatever they wanted for £2,made £80 that day
It sells really well does baby stuff,but it has to be good stuff.
Agreed. If you're going to sell second hand stuff then it has to be in really good condition and decent stuff. I became very picky with buying stuff when I was pregnant. I was quite happy to buy second hand stuff but the smallest of marks put me off.
I think depending on what kind of area you live in and what sort of people live in that area a baby business is brilliant. Just make sure you do lots of research...maybe do a survey of people in your town and see how they would take to having a baby shop opened? Would also give you a chance to find out what sort of stuff they would mainly be after....whether it be baby furniture....pushchairs...clothes etc.
It would be lovely if someone opened a nice big baby shop here or one that sold maternity clothes as I really struggled when I was pregnant and had to go to other towns which is fair enough except I don't drive and took about an hour to do a walk that used to take me 10 minutes lol
Hoochie
21-03-11, 10:52 AM
I sold a shed load of baby clothes on e-bay,( many moons ago when it was fun to buy and sell on there) it was great, i ended up giving the bigger items( pram etc) away to someone as i didn't know what else to do with it...and needed the space...lol
There is always going to be someone who will buy second hand baby items as they grow out of clothes by the week, and there is bargains to be had.
good luck with your venture though...:)
good luck with the business.
ask you self why there isnt a shop in your town for babies. and people in your town must be having kids all the time, so must get their baby "needs" from some where.
put your self in the buyer's shoes, be the parent who needs to care for the baby. see where you can get bits from.
what kinda town is it. little village full of oldies, thrieving town full of middle age people. you have to know your market.
good luck.
You HAVE to know your shizzle when it comes to selling baby stuff.... Most decent baby shops have good staff on hand that know the stuff being sold (no I'm not talking about mothercare).
PLUS baby stuff is hugely popular as mail order so you will most likely get people coming in and trying stuff, then buying online.
One brand to consider is Concord, its excellent stuff with very few stockists in the UK.
Coffee shops seem to be doing well in the UK atm, start a starbucks franchise lol
Agreed. If you're going to sell second hand stuff then it has to be in really good condition and decent stuff. I became very picky with buying stuff when I was pregnant. I was quite happy to buy second hand stuff but the smallest of marks put me off.
I think depending on what kind of area you live in and what sort of people live in that area a baby business is brilliant. Just make sure you do lots of research...maybe do a survey of people in your town and see how they would take to having a baby shop opened? Would also give you a chance to find out what sort of stuff they would mainly be after....whether it be baby furniture....pushchairs...clothes etc.
It would be lovely if someone opened a nice big baby shop here or one that sold maternity clothes as I really struggled when I was pregnant and had to go to other towns which is fair enough except I don't drive and took about an hour to do a walk that used to take me 10 minutes lol
Hang on, you are like 20mins drive from Kiddiecare lol, plus N'hampton has a feck load of shops like M&P etc.
good advice there stu.
franchising is a great idea, but you need some college papers for catering & a quite high startup cost.. but definitely worth looking at.
decide what you are good at, then draw up a list of shop ideas.. even get out on the streets and ask tons of people what sort of shop they would like to see.. you'd be frightened at the failure rate of startup businesses...
i was driving thru nuneaton yesterday & saw 3 asian lads putting the signs on a little fruit & veg shop, it looks lovely, but it was 30 yards from a supermarket entrance. i wish them luck...
get round a few cash n carrys/ wholesalers too & see what they are offering
then don't even think of booking any time off in the 1st 12 months, or even hoping to make money for about 3 years..
good luck with anything u start
only thing i would say is research VERY carefully before signing for a shop - as if your paying rent and rates etc u got to be making money straight away which is hard for a new business
good advice stuart, the only problem with franchise is you have to pay a stupid amount up front for the franchise. i looked at a subway once and its like 200k for the frachise.
it might not be much for some business people. but its alot of dough lol.
edit - good advice also mowgli.
isnt the stat something like 2/3 rd's of business fail in the first year.
Jeff16v
21-03-11, 01:14 PM
Coffee shops ftw, coffee and sandwich costs are stupid, maybe also sell local faye\organic crap. people love organic crap:thumb:
iirc you can pull £2Million in with a Dominos franchise in 2 years.... granted the startup costs are bonkers but hell its good money.
think this... what does everyone else in this town want to buy........
are there any post office franchises available?? a well run post office is a gold mine,
there is a great business idea i have.....parcel office.. open late & saturdays, work out a rate for people to drop off parcels for collection, or for taking delivery of parcels... because people are always having to wait in for them, or take time to go to the main post office or parcel hub. then sell packaging too, and even take on a home delivery franchise... there is a need for this service with people working long, odd hours, and they are ordering more & more online.. i reckon with some good marketing, it would be a winner.
or get the daltons & see what shops are for sale as a going concern.
the thing with sandwhich shops is you rely on a heavy trade of business people coming in on lunch breaks. which depending on the area could be excellent or terrible.
i always think a news agents would be a good idea. you always see people in newsagents. and its useful if you just want a magazine, paper etc and not go to a super market. it all depends on location again.
edit - Mowgli, a lot of rural post offices around here do that already, ok its only royal mail that do it so far, but a friend lives in the sticks and its very useful. possible was to kill the idea would be what me and you already do and get it delivered to work (not suitable for all people). also, you would need quite abit of space to look after peoples items when they have them delivered. ok 3-4 mobiles in boxes would be small. but what about 3-4 sets of wheels lol.
stuart. that seems like crazy money lol. but dominos is always busy when ever i go past.
martin, the main thing is that most people don't have a ready made goods in dept... there are shop, office, catering, education, building site workers, then travelling workers, night shifts.. the list is endless, but we all suffer the same problem.....
Our post office changed its hours to be more reasonable actually. Granted they now shut the collection part at 1400, but it does open at 7am which fits nicely with collecting on the way to work.
A baby shop is a good(ish) idea, but its going to take a LOT of research and graft as I believe a lot of stuff is price fixed by the MFR and you get shag all headroom to play with the numbers. Buggy refurbs and repairs on the other hand.... BIG money to be had there imho.
Buggies are such piss poor engineering (if you can call it that) for the cost. Plastic joints, unsealed bearing packs, spring but no damper 'suspension' etc It soon starts to feel saggy and rubbish, so a place that will service and repair/upgrade things would coin it in IMHO
stu... we are talking about young mothers as a customer demographic here.... they want to pay thru the nose for something that looks amazing, and when it breaks, there is another fantastic looking shiny thing to buy..... ever noticed how much celebrity product placement there is for baby gear in those celeb mags..........
only a bloke would be bothered to repair
stu... we are talking about young mothers as a customer demographic here.... they want to pay thru the nose for something that looks amazing, and when it breaks, there is another fantastic looking shiny thing to buy..... ever noticed how much celebrity product placement there is for baby gear in those celeb mags..........
only a bloke would be bothered to repair
I know a few people who went through 5 different buggies and still werent happy... Thats nearly £2.5K they spent lol.
We hate our 'big one' but it was the best built one at new, but has worn the worst, whereas all the others were crap in the shop and just as crap now.
I want the Concord Carbon buggie, but £1200 is a little steep
and then you'll get an argos umbrella buggy for when little un is more mobile, and parasol and wonder why you ever bought expensive.........
we got a couple cheap for a family florida trip & were pestered all day long by yanks asking where we got the parasols from, as no-one sold them in the states.. yet another missed opportunity...
pfft, blanket draped over the buggy... None of this posh umbrella ****.
Shortstuff has got a Mamas and Papas 'stroller' which is fine (although still piss poorly engineered).
stu, it will be used as a dolly trolley, then hopefully a go kart, and as with all kids stuff, unless they are really odd, it will get royally trashed, snot, ketchup, fromage sodding frais, stuff you can't identify, etc and then given willingly to the pikey scrapman on a sunday morning
Hang on, you are like 20mins drive from Kiddiecare lol, plus N'hampton has a feck load of shops like M&P etc.
But I don't drive and Lukes at work all day :p
stu... we are talking about young mothers as a customer demographic here.... they want to pay thru the nose for something that looks amazing, and when it breaks, there is another fantastic looking shiny thing to buy..... ever noticed how much celebrity product placement there is for baby gear in those celeb mags..........
only a bloke would be bothered to repair
That's not always true. All of the expensive "nice" buggies I looked at I hated...we ended up with an extremely cheap Mamas and Papas travel system in the end which is perfect and exactly what I want/need but it's not exactly a looker. I'd never go for something just because it looked amazing regardless of the price. I think it's ridiculous how over priced baby things are simply because they look nice.
Hoochie
21-03-11, 05:48 PM
But I don't drive and Lukes at work all day :p
Oh i didn't drive when i had my kids in prams either...and what a ball ache public transport is with prams and pushchairs.
Oh i didn't drive when i had my kids in prams either...and what a ball ache public transport is with prams and pushchairs.
i'm dreading the first outing on a bus with Daniel. I was hoping to start lessons once i'd had him but need to wait atleast 6 weeks for my cut to heal.
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