Ideas for a small business?

[Noggin]

My goal out here is to find somewhere with a small bit of terrace, south facing to set up a tea shop!! I have specific plans for the type of food and drink.

Obviously a licence BUT - no inclination to compete with the bars in winter or even in summer (mostly cos I do so hate drunks!!!).

However, I would 100% want to be open through the interseason, especially on weekends. There is a huge gap in providing a place for locals in the interseason.


I'm still working out how to staff it (as in numbers/trust/attitude/languages!) and I know that rents up here are mad.

But - it's only a dream. If pigs fly and life falls into place, then I will try very very hard to make it happen as I am sure that I can make it work. But I'm pretty passionate about cooking/baking and miss a certain type of cafe/tea shop that I can't get here!!


In my few - you have to find something you really WANT to do. Something that interests you. Something you won't get bored of. Something that will make you smile

I reckon that without those, it will be a trial and struggle to get going.

But I am probably wrong!!! I'm not really a business person (much more of an ideas and plans person!!)

[KungFooBob]

Geek Club

A safe space for geeks to come play D&D and Catan without getting beat up, the profit comes from the nerds paying Iccy protection money.

[Buckaroo]

There's a real ale pub-type place near me that doubles as a flower shop during the day. Totally different to a cafe granted, but it's a clever way of increasing the usage of a unit.



Another place near me is a cafe that doubles as a cycling shop.

That was what I had in mind. My son runs a cycle service, build and repair business and without ever advertising, makes as much in a four day week as he did as a secondary school teacher. He taught science and was on a good salary. If he took on every job that he was asked to do, he'd be working 7 days a week. He's very good and meticulous. That certainly gets business.

It doesn't matter which cycling themed cafe, plus workshop and components outlet we go to, they're busy, especially at weekends for the cafe and week days for spannering. Components mark up is crazy.

Just need a good mechanic, not a huge investment in workshop tools and parts (we helped set our son up and it wasn't a huge amount) and away you go. Add a small seating area, couple of TV, coffee and locally sourced cakes and savoury options and you should be able to make a reasonable business in a fairly short time.

[Yorick]

Undertakers. People are dying to get into that game!

It's a dying trade.

[Felix]

Sod the shop it costs to much. Get a van and start a dog walking business. Lots have popped up where i live and they are all in demand. More so if you can look after them all day. Earn money while keeping fit and being outdoors. Probably a bit shit in the winter months but spring is just round the corner they say.

[Wscad]

Hey up my old sparring partner

Two suggestions for you

If you can design and make a Electrical control panel have a look see at that. I’m talking 3 phase stuff, motors, proxy’s, limit switches, interlocks, hmi and a plc.

It’s what I do and I work out of my garage so my overheads are low. Last one I did was 55 kw motor, forward/ reverse control interlocked with a screw conveyor and pumps.

Dedicated control panel wire company’s cannot compete with me on price, because of operating costs

Not a huge upfront outlay. I have all the crimping tools. Wire numbers... stuff like that.

I also provide schematic drawings using dedicated software. Looks professional and the one I use is called WSCAD.

I always try to put in a plc to look after the control side of things. The reason I do this is I put a time related time bomb into the program. If I don’t get paid after 30 days, the time bomb runs out, the program stops and the machine doesn’t run.

The second one is 3D printing.

A good mate of mine makes 3D stuff for Star Wars models, starship enterprise models, thunderbird stuff, fireball xl5 stuff, stingray stuff, captain scarlet stuff.

He exports things like this all over the world and I mean all over the world. All done from his spare bedroom / garage

He does a few exhibitions. At one a guy a came up...... I’m making 1/40 a model of a James Bond model of Aston Martin db5
Can you sort it?

My mate got 18k out of it

[Wscad]

Hey up my old sparring partner

Two suggestions for you

If you can design and make a Electrical control panel have a look see at that. I’m talking 3 phase stuff, motors, proxy’s, limit switches, interlocks, hmi and a plc.

It’s what I do and I work out of my garage so my overheads are low. Last one I did was 55 kw motor, forward/ reverse control interlocked with a screw conveyor and pumps.

Dedicated control panel wire company’s cannot compete with me on price, because of operating costs

Not a huge upfront outlay. I have all the crimping tools. Wire numbers... stuff like that.

I also provide schematic drawings using dedicated software. Looks professional and the one I use is called WSCAD.

I always try to put in a plc to look after the control side of things. The reason I do this is I put a time related time bomb into the program. If I don’t get paid after 30 days, the time bomb runs out, the program stops and the machine doesn’t run.

The second one is 3D printing.

A good mate of mine makes 3D stuff for Star Wars models, starship enterprise models, thunderbird stuff, fireball xl5 stuff, stingray stuff, captain scarlet stuff.

He exports things like this all over the world and I mean all over the world. All done from his spare bedroom / garage

He does a few exhibitions. At one a guy a came up...... I’m making 1/40 a model of a James Bond model of Aston Martin db5
Can you sort it?

My mate got 18k out of it

[ZRX61]

BDSM sex dungeon.

[Wossname]

Get a van and start a dog walking business.

Tie their leads to the towbar?

[Wossname]

Potty: just don’t. There are 2 problems- the first one you’ve already found: you don’t have a clue where your retail enthusiasm lies. And second: the big C will be a problem - commitment. On your part and/or that of the family members you rope in. Open 9.00, there all day, all week, all year, maintain the place, cash up etc. You’d be bored in a week.

[Potter]

pain free

Currently, you're starting from an empty building and trying to fill it.

Start from the other end, with a few questions along the lines of:
- do you need extra money?
- does it need to earn enough profit to make it worthwhile? Or just cover costs?
- how much time and money are you willing to put in before it even covers running costs, let alone profit?
- what would you be happy doing? Is this something you can monetise?

You talked about employing family. That makes it, for you, a long-term investment. You can't get bored, or fed up with annoying customers, and just shut it down.

But you know all this.

I don't need the money, I just want to do something that covers bills and keeps me busy.
I'd give it five days a week, six or seven if it's fun and I'd bung a hundred grand at it over 12 months to see if it works out, if I lost the money it wouldn't be the end of the world, but I'd pull the plug at that, I don't want to lose any more.

Dunno what I'd fancy, but I don't want to take on fixing broken shit, the customer will bring a bag of shite that he can't fix himself and it'll be all crappy jobs and they'll want it done cheaply. Most things (like lawnmowers and washing machines) are largely disposable items these days, fixing them isn't worth it.

It's pretty brutal out there.

It is.

A motorist themed cafe opened by us last year, it catered to bikes and Caterham type cars, it was mentioned a lot on the forums and WhatsApp groups and always seemed busy, but whilst the car park was always full I reckon cups of tea and toast weren't generating enough revenue and it went bust within six months.

Very popular by us are fishing lakes with cabins, they're springing up all over the place and the cabins sell/rent for silly money, but this is an investment of millions and not for me.

Bicyclists are very popular by us, there are always hoards of them blocking the roads, but I'm neither a big fan of bicycles or particularly skilled or passionate at fixing them.

[Potter]

Hey up my old sparring partner

Two suggestions for you

If you can design and make a Electrical control panel have a look see at that. I’m talking 3 phase stuff, motors, proxy’s, limit switches, interlocks, hmi and a plc.

It’s what I do and I work out of my garage so my overheads are low. Last one I did was 55 kw motor, forward/ reverse control interlocked with a screw conveyor and pumps.

Dedicated control panel wire company’s cannot compete with me on price, because of operating costs

Not a huge upfront outlay. I have all the crimping tools. Wire numbers... stuff like that.

I also provide schematic drawings using dedicated software. Looks professional and the one I use is called WSCAD.

I always try to put in a plc to look after the control side of things. The reason I do this is I put a time related time bomb into the program. If I don’t get paid after 30 days, the time bomb runs out, the program stops and the machine doesn’t run.

The second one is 3D printing.

A good mate of mine makes 3D stuff for Star Wars models, starship enterprise models, thunderbird stuff, fireball xl5 stuff, stingray stuff, captain scarlet stuff.

He exports things like this all over the world and I mean all over the world. All done from his spare bedroom / garage

He does a few exhibitions. At one a guy a came up...... I’m making 1/40 a model of a James Bond model of Aston Martin db5
Can you sort it?

My mate got 18k out of it

Going back on the tools is not attractive to me, especially not stuff like that, plus I'm well out of the game, I expect PLCs and controls stuff has moved on a lot since I used to do it twenty-odd years ago, I don't have the recent skill set, the interest or the industry connections.

We started a small 3D printing thing which is doing ok, it's my wife's hobby and it pays for her materials and stuff, to compete properly you need to spend a lot, but to cover your own expenses it's ok, she does craft fairs and stuff as well, but it's her thing, it doesn't interest me much.

[Potter]

Hard isn't it - thinking of ways to earn a living on your own money and not go bust or stress yourself to death.

It's not that lucrative either, I've looked at the books of two companies that I used to work at years ago, contracting businesses that employ around 150 people, and it surprised me at how little the owners make, I wonder why they do it, it's reasonably easy to make six figures running a decent sized business and these guys will have the skill set to do that, but they run their own businesses and both owners make around £60-80k a year.

I have a fantasy of running a small family shop in the village, I chat to customers and drink tea all day - but the reality is most of these owners are either treading a razors edge of going broke on a daily basis or they're foreign owned money laundering enterprises, I suspect most of these car washes and village barbers places are exactly that.

My mate (best man at my wedding) runs a barbers shop in a trendy town on the south coast, he's doing well and he's 100% straight, he's making about £40k a year working six days a week, he loves it and I don't think he sees it as work, but I don't know if I'd fancy it.

[Mr. Dazzle]

My mate (best man at my wedding) runs a barbers shop in a trendy town on the south coast, he's doing well and he's 100% straight

I know we southerners seem different, but in this day and age you don't need to specify things like this.

[Potter]

My mate (best man at my wedding) runs a barbers shop in a trendy town on the south coast, he's doing well and he's 100% straight

I know we southerners seem different, but in this day and age you don't need to specify things like this.

I meant it's not a money laundering enterprise, which I think a lot of these shops are - and I said that because you'll hear of barbers making mega bucks and driving around in Range Rovers, one near our old house was exactly this, but he got twenty years in jail for organised crime, but a completely straight one doing reasonable business makes about £40k in profit after overheads.

[Mr. Dazzle]

I know

Totally agree on the money thing, I can't see how loads of these shops make any sense otherwise.

[Count Steer]

Hard isn't it - thinking of ways to earn a living on your own money and not go bust or stress yourself to death.

It is. If you can avoid the drain of expensive rented premises it's a start. I know a couple of businesses that survived longer than expected (one opened in the 1860s and closed in 2021!) because they owned their High Street premises. Eventually the children didn't want to struggle on and they cashed out, pretty successfully and the site is being redeveloped as housing at the back and 2 retail units at the front.

Others doing OK tend to be specialist...eg a bookbinder, restorer with a workshop in the garden. Does a lot of restoration of antiquarian books, so there's a fair bit of money available in the market.

I know a couple of craft materials supplier businesses for sale that pay OK if you're prepared to put the hours in, do the craft fairs etc. The owners are getting old and it's a lot of work. If we were younger we'd be interested in one of them, quite fancy going on the road doing the fairs each season. It would probably need a longish handover learning the ropes though.

[Pirahna]

If I were going to do something it would be web based with all the stock kept at home. Orders roll in 24x7, stuff packed and dispatched same day, Monday to Friday. I've a mate who does well from car fasteners, nuts and bolts and the relevant tools to fit them. Another friend was doing ok with selling coffee associated stuff aimed at stressed out mums, she sold the business when her children started school and she went back to work.

[Scud]

I’d also not even give the slightest bit of consideration to employing relatives, I won’t even have my parents in the window cleaning rounds.

[weeksy]

The wife showed me something the other day, a Cacao shamen.... No, really.

He's charging £50 for some Cacao with different ways of making it, all with non-animal products and a 'lifestyle' that goes with it... Apparently it is the greatest thing in the world .... Bemused... oh yes. Spiritual healing and all that shit.

https://www.keithscacao.com/pages/meet- ... ate-shaman

This was the guy who this guy got the idea from..

https://www.google.com/search?q=cacao+shamen

I bet he's raking it in !!!