Is it a good time to start your own business ?

[stewart38]

'My friend' has recently been made redundant and wonders now if its a good time to start out on his own.

Anyone gone down the Franchise route ? Or just done their own thing

Setting up a Estate agency and selling cars at present is probably not the best thing but even in a economic recession people are still going to want things.

There are a lot of people keen out there to take your money e.g give us £12,000 (+VAT of course) and Ill give you enough car cleaning stuff to wash 500 cars and a 'free' seminar on how to wash them. Do these type of Franchises really work ?.

[philsmove]

I would not let the fact, we are about go to go in to a depression, put someone off starting a new business. There are a lot more important considerations to take into account.

First and foremost, does he have an in depth knowledge of the business he is about to start

[Feelingpink]

I would not let the fact, we are about go to go in to a depression, put someone off starting a new business. There are a lot more important considerations to take into account.

First and foremost, does he have an in depth knowledge of the business he is about to start

At the moment, the economy is probably less forgiving of start-ups, so you would have to be extremely careful about your target market and that what you're offering it is niche, provides value or preferably both. Also, believe that most of your competitors have probably been listening to the news ad infinitum about bad business times and are far more likely to discount or undercut, even if their businesses have not been yet hit. With their existing client or customer bases, they are therefore in a much stronger position than a start-up.

Given that your friend sounds as if they have not been in business before, I would tread very, very carefully and be more likely to see if I could find a job in an area where I wanted to trade, to learn how it is done. Then I could (a) start my own business in it if I wanted and (b) walk away if I decided I didn't want to run one or didn't like the sector.

There are many ex-'City' workers who have entered photography because it is their passion - and spent most of their redundancy package on advertising and a course on how to set up their business and are struggling in an over-saturated market where every other graduate of the same course has the same business model. They're either going to have to change their model or do something else.

[philsmove]

Guess who, having sold his balloon ride business has returned to Photography

Really Glad I am not relying on it for my income

[Feelingpink]

Guess who, having sold his balloon ride business has returned to Photography

Really Glad I am not relying on it for my income

Have fun!

[stewart38]

Guess who, having sold his balloon ride business has returned to Photography

Really Glad I am not relying on it for my income

You did not find it a uplifting expereince then.

[David Franklin]

You did not find it a uplifting expereince then.

Yeah, he kind of sounds a bit deflated.

[philsmove]

You did not find it a uplifting expereince then.

Have to admit after 30 years I felt a bit let down

To be honest, ballooning started as a part time business, in order to get the deposit on a house

One year later, my part time business had earned more money, than my full time job as a photographer

(30 years ago we just going into recession)

[bigdjiver]

Guess who, having sold his balloon ride business has returned to Photography

Really Glad I am not relying on it for my income

A photographer turned up with a customised van set up for digital photo printing at a local kids football tournament and made a lot of money. The guy ran around taking photos and his wife took orders and made up the photos with frames or onto mugs or keyrings or whatever with about an hour turnaround time to delivery. That was a franchise business. I did ask if he was willing to do dance events, and he was. I lost his card though. My guess was that he made well over 1000 pounds.

[Feelingpink]

A photographer turned up with a customised van set up for digital photo printing at a local kids football tournament and made a lot of money. The guy ran around taking photos and his wife took orders and made up the photos with frames or onto mugs or keyrings or whatever with about an hour turnaround time to delivery. That was a franchise business. I did ask if he was willing to do dance events, and he was. I lost his card though. My guess was that he made well over 1000 pounds.

It can be profitable, although you need to look at what you're investing: two people for x number of hours including travel, buying products, signage & packing it in, as well as the van, equipment, franchise percentage and merchandise. If you don't get the pricing right, you could be spending all this time & effort for less than £50 - and might find that the two of you would be better off stacking shelves & earning interest on your investment (even at today's rates).

[philsmove]

......My guess was that he made well over 1000 pounds.

It can be profitable, although you need to look at what you're investing: two people for x number of hours including travel, buying products, signage & packing it in, as well as the van, equipment, franchise percentage and merchandise. .....).

Very important, do confuse turnover with profit

[philsmove]

He is not think about opening a Lapland is he

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7760982.stm

[philsmove]

Edit .....

Very important, do NOT confuse turnover with profit

[stewart38]

Well my friend use to give PFI advise re NHS and all goverment type stuff and his company would charge £250 an hour.

With the goverment wanting to spend its way out of inflation , good time to start me thinks as a Independent.

Most of the advice was cut and paste from other contracts so they could use that as a base

Whats going to be big in 2009

[Trouble]

Guess who, having sold his balloon ride business has returned to Photography

Really Glad I am not relying on it for my income

Sold ya balloon business.. not surprised the money being quoted for rides on those things.

Scarface has always wanted to do it. I checked out a balloon ride for two.. I know this is a luxury to go up on your own but ive always thought, if ya gonna do it do it properly. Well, i nearly fell over. The price quoted for a half hour balloon ride with (champagne) was something like 700pounds.

HELLO... i want a ride in it, not bloody buy it.

[stewart38]

Sold ya balloon business.. not surprised the money being quoted for rides on those things.

Out of interest how much would someone pay to have their teeth whiten ?

[Martin]

Setting up a Estate agency and selling cars at present is probably not the best thing but even in a economic recession people are still going to want things.

Well yes and no.

People always need to rent properties, an Estate agency offering rentals can do well at any time, plus when selling an Estate agency, you are really sellling the rental roll.

So to start up a rental only Estate agency, and in 4 years time offer house sales, would not be so dumb.

[bigdjiver]

... Very important, do not confuse turnover with profit

He was there for seven hours. He was selling for at least 6 hours, , 4 of them with a continuous queue.. He was taking between 2 pounds and 4 pounds a minute during his busiest time. I was estimating profit, and I believe conservatively.

Another way - over 200 kids competing, the biggest day in the season ...

[philsmove]

Sold ya balloon business.. not surprised the money being quoted for rides on those things.

Scarface has always wanted to do it. I checked out a balloon ride for two.. I know this is a luxury to go up on your own but ive always thought, if ya gonna do it do it properly. Well, i nearly fell over. The price quoted for a half hour balloon ride with (champagne) was something like 700pounds.

HELLO... i want a ride in it, not bloody buy it.

I agree, having a balloon to yourself is very expensive. We normally only sold them to couples getting engaged. but if you join a group and go midweek am it would cost £170 for two

[Lory]

Out of interest how much would someone pay to have their teeth whiten ?

My friend paid £400 for her dentist to make a mold and supply 10days worth of home treatment....I saw the kit she was given... granted she did have the professionally made mold but I brought the 'identical' stuff, with a homemade mold kit (which works fine) for £12 on Ebay (it gave me awful ulcers though and made my teeth really sensitive but my friend suffered the same too)