Quick background introduction.
I'm 35 years old now and i've never worked for anybody. I left school and started my own business because like the majority of people who follow into entrepreneurship i wanted to be rich. I was always into computers so the logical step was to open a shop and start repairing them and reselling. (I did have a lucrative sideline of selling pirated cd's of music and office software until i ended up in court one day but that's for another day!).
If i knew then what i know now i would never have made that decision. Yes i would have started my own business but it wouldn't have been in that area. Don't get me wrong it had it's good times, i was able to afford (or should i say qualify for finance and afford the repayments) on a brand new $50,000 Mercedes at the age of 23 and always seem to have cash in my pocket but i was by no means where i wanted to be financially. Lessons learned!
As i'm sure you're all aware that by owning a small computer repair store one can only serve the needs of a small catchment of people. For some reason it took me a long time to realise this. I'd gone and spent years and years working "in" my business instead of working "on" it. I'd need to open more and more shops to compete. I started to hate the one i had. I was stuck there from 9 to 5 most days. Even had to work most Saturdays. Then the alarm would go off at all hours - i was broken into twice. The thought of opening more of these was not an option. I'd spent 13 years of my life working at something which was never going to provide the type of lifestyle i wanted and i didn't even realise it. I honestly don't know where the years have gone. I wish i had read Marco's book earlier.
One of the better things i did after a couple of years into my business venture was to start a sideline selling computer accessories online. To cut a long story short and with the help of @Vigilante i closed the shop in April of this year to concentrate solely on this internet business.
In the last 12 months i've completed the following steps in my journey in order of timescale -
1. I was selling "branded" products from China. They were probably sailing close to the wind with regards to whether they were black market products or actually high copies. My guess is a mixture of both. I realised i couldn't build a business on this model so we now only sell our own brand of these products.
2. I closed the repair shop and now use it as a warehouse and office which has allowed me to concentrate all of my time and efforts into one path. Before i was splitting my time between the two businesses which wasn't productive.
3. I've studied courses on selling physical products online. And after that I decided i wasn't entirely comfortable with sourcing new products that i knew little or nothing about. I felt it didn't give my business a USP and that it lacked identity. I know people who making a lot of money selling in different niches but to me this type of business is then built solely around Amazon which i know from experience isn't a good idea. A serious lack of control. I've therefore chosen a niche which is big enough to serve the needs of a lot of customers and has a large range of products i can source.
4. Since April my turnover has risen from around £35,000 a month to nearly £65,000.
5. I've recently commissioned a new website and ebay store to match our new brand identity and incorporate our new range of products. These will be ready just after Christmas.
Now in January 2016 i will be armed with a business that is doing £700,000 a year in online sales funded by carrying anything between £25,000-£40,000 worth of stock at any one point. I will have a brand new website and matching ebay store.
I now face my biggest challenge i feel to date to solve both a personal and business problem. It felt easy when i opened the shop. This is different. There is a lot of potential in my niche, i have a UK competitor who doesn't sell on Ebay or Amazon but still does £18m a year in sales and also another one who is actually based in France but does £8m via their UK site.
I am at my limits with my bank overdraft. I don't have colateral to put down to extend it any further. I can utilize loan sites like EZbob but they are high interest and short term (Max 12 months). I need funds to purchase more stock. My current premises is now pretty much at it's capacity. My Father actually owns the building so the rent is pretty cheap but it's a shop rather than warehouse so i'm going to have to move in the near future. Rent is going to increase 5 fold.
On a sidenote my Wife works a high pressured accountancy job and is finding the work-life balance really tough with 2 children. I really need to earn more money so she can either join me in my business or not have to work. From a financial point of view we cannot afford for her to leave her job at the moment.
I will update this thread as i make progress towards my goals. Which are listed below.
1. Attain funds to purchase more inventory.
2. Promote the new website to attract more sales.
3. Generate enough profit to be able to afford to move to a larger warehouse.
4. Employ a dedicated Sales person once i've got a large enough range of stock to offer potential customers.
5. Either bring my Wife into the business or be in a position to take more money myself so she doesn't have to work.
I hope i haven't bored anybody too much....apologies if so. For me now it's not a case of if i reach these goals more a case of when. I will do it. I have to. Like i said on a previous post i can pretty much do nothing for a year and my business would still produce £65,000 a month in sales. It's no good however if my Wife is stuck in traffic on the motorway for an hour on the way home from work whilst i've been working from home in my shorts and t-shirt. There are lot of customers out there with needs i should be filling.........TBC
I'm 35 years old now and i've never worked for anybody. I left school and started my own business because like the majority of people who follow into entrepreneurship i wanted to be rich. I was always into computers so the logical step was to open a shop and start repairing them and reselling. (I did have a lucrative sideline of selling pirated cd's of music and office software until i ended up in court one day but that's for another day!).
If i knew then what i know now i would never have made that decision. Yes i would have started my own business but it wouldn't have been in that area. Don't get me wrong it had it's good times, i was able to afford (or should i say qualify for finance and afford the repayments) on a brand new $50,000 Mercedes at the age of 23 and always seem to have cash in my pocket but i was by no means where i wanted to be financially. Lessons learned!
As i'm sure you're all aware that by owning a small computer repair store one can only serve the needs of a small catchment of people. For some reason it took me a long time to realise this. I'd gone and spent years and years working "in" my business instead of working "on" it. I'd need to open more and more shops to compete. I started to hate the one i had. I was stuck there from 9 to 5 most days. Even had to work most Saturdays. Then the alarm would go off at all hours - i was broken into twice. The thought of opening more of these was not an option. I'd spent 13 years of my life working at something which was never going to provide the type of lifestyle i wanted and i didn't even realise it. I honestly don't know where the years have gone. I wish i had read Marco's book earlier.
One of the better things i did after a couple of years into my business venture was to start a sideline selling computer accessories online. To cut a long story short and with the help of @Vigilante i closed the shop in April of this year to concentrate solely on this internet business.
In the last 12 months i've completed the following steps in my journey in order of timescale -
1. I was selling "branded" products from China. They were probably sailing close to the wind with regards to whether they were black market products or actually high copies. My guess is a mixture of both. I realised i couldn't build a business on this model so we now only sell our own brand of these products.
2. I closed the repair shop and now use it as a warehouse and office which has allowed me to concentrate all of my time and efforts into one path. Before i was splitting my time between the two businesses which wasn't productive.
3. I've studied courses on selling physical products online. And after that I decided i wasn't entirely comfortable with sourcing new products that i knew little or nothing about. I felt it didn't give my business a USP and that it lacked identity. I know people who making a lot of money selling in different niches but to me this type of business is then built solely around Amazon which i know from experience isn't a good idea. A serious lack of control. I've therefore chosen a niche which is big enough to serve the needs of a lot of customers and has a large range of products i can source.
4. Since April my turnover has risen from around £35,000 a month to nearly £65,000.
5. I've recently commissioned a new website and ebay store to match our new brand identity and incorporate our new range of products. These will be ready just after Christmas.
Now in January 2016 i will be armed with a business that is doing £700,000 a year in online sales funded by carrying anything between £25,000-£40,000 worth of stock at any one point. I will have a brand new website and matching ebay store.
I now face my biggest challenge i feel to date to solve both a personal and business problem. It felt easy when i opened the shop. This is different. There is a lot of potential in my niche, i have a UK competitor who doesn't sell on Ebay or Amazon but still does £18m a year in sales and also another one who is actually based in France but does £8m via their UK site.
I am at my limits with my bank overdraft. I don't have colateral to put down to extend it any further. I can utilize loan sites like EZbob but they are high interest and short term (Max 12 months). I need funds to purchase more stock. My current premises is now pretty much at it's capacity. My Father actually owns the building so the rent is pretty cheap but it's a shop rather than warehouse so i'm going to have to move in the near future. Rent is going to increase 5 fold.
On a sidenote my Wife works a high pressured accountancy job and is finding the work-life balance really tough with 2 children. I really need to earn more money so she can either join me in my business or not have to work. From a financial point of view we cannot afford for her to leave her job at the moment.
I will update this thread as i make progress towards my goals. Which are listed below.
1. Attain funds to purchase more inventory.
2. Promote the new website to attract more sales.
3. Generate enough profit to be able to afford to move to a larger warehouse.
4. Employ a dedicated Sales person once i've got a large enough range of stock to offer potential customers.
5. Either bring my Wife into the business or be in a position to take more money myself so she doesn't have to work.
I hope i haven't bored anybody too much....apologies if so. For me now it's not a case of if i reach these goals more a case of when. I will do it. I have to. Like i said on a previous post i can pretty much do nothing for a year and my business would still produce £65,000 a month in sales. It's no good however if my Wife is stuck in traffic on the motorway for an hour on the way home from work whilst i've been working from home in my shorts and t-shirt. There are lot of customers out there with needs i should be filling.........TBC
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