Bittersweet Candy Bowl Forums

Hello people from the BCB forums.

I've been wanting to work on opening a business of my own and stuff, but I lack much money.

I estimate that if things stay as they are, I should be able to save up around $1400~$1500 by the start of July. I said $10000 budget on the title because I aim to get the rest of the money from a loan (The $10000 represents how high I'm willing to go for loans, however, I would feel much more comfortable if it was below $5000 total).

Anyways, basically I just need some ideas. Developing the project, planning, and all that stuff I'm going to be doing it myself (with some help from a certain someone).

What I have thought of so far:

Street Hamburgers - Very common in Mexico, could give variety such as offering chicken burgers and other different stuff. Problem with this idea is that the food market is really saturated here already, though on the other side, I also very likely wouldn't need to get a loan.

Custom T-Shirt printing - There do exist many of these around here, but I consider it a problem that people have to look for them instead of the other way around. I have yet to see a single ad in my lifetime regarding these kinds of businesses, so a good marketing campaign should easily push me to the population's top of mind. Additionally, the way they do business is very outdated, as they don't have prices listed anywhere and you have to call just to get an estimate of how much it will be (in the best of cases you only need to write an email and wait for a response). Printess kinda comes to mind, but apply that to shirts. It should be easy and comfortable to do business with us. Can save money and use my own skills by making the business website myself.

That's all for now, I'll be adding more ideas when I think of them, and any ideas you propose that I like, with comments such as the above. Thanks for your help!! ^^

This post has been edited by ZoeStellan: 10 January 2012 - 06:39 AM

Well you could try having a contest at some elementary schools for best stories. You can buy the stories from the kids for 50 bucks if they're good enough and then put together about 10 of those into a book.

This post has been edited by falconboy99: 10 January 2012 - 06:55 AM

You sound unsure, and I'd hate to give advice on something you'd risk a loan on without knowing much about that type of business. I guess the ideas depend on your surroundings. Have you researched your area? What kind of customers do you want...what's your demographic, region, costs of setting up shop, fees, etc.

I'll try and help you think of a list of shit you need to get this thing done:

Business functions -> Number of functions -> Number of employees necessary to complete those functions -> Employee wages ($)
From where will you operate? -> Cost of occupation, you should look for an estimation regarding a lease to a specific building ($)
Advertisement -> What kind of advertising campaign will draw attention to you -> How much will it cost you? ($)
Supplies -> What will you need to operate and maintain your business -> Supply / maintenance costs ($)

Ideally you don't do this with $100,000. You draw up a professional business plan and apply for something like a small business loan once you've determined which banks are the most fair in this category. The reason being is that the initial costs should be much higher than the operation costs, so once you have a regular stream of profit you can pay back the loan at your leisure until you own your building and so on. Custom T-shirts and burger stands? C'mon. You really have to take the loan (i.e. a risk) in order to get the full trajectory possible for expansion. But you need a good idea first. Neither of those are good ideas. Be ambitious. What the fuck do you like? What are you good at? What's fun for you? What do you think the people around you want/need? Those are some things you need to think about.

You may not want to hear this, but here is my advice and the cold hard facts.
Don't do it.

With the economy as bad as it is right now it is a bad idea to try and start a business. Most new businesses that try to start now will almost certainly fail, especially if it is an already saturated market. The businesses that have been in that market for a long time have already paid down debit and startup costs so they can keep their costs down and thus profit on lower prices. Something a startup cannot do. You would almost certain be out of business within a year. The only new businesses that can startup in this economy are new creative products that people need or are willing to buy despite their lack of spare cash. Neither food or custome T-shirts fit this.

Now for the cold hard facts. Your chances for getting a loan are almost zero. I am assume because you are young that you have not had a chance to build your credit rating and that you have no experiance running a business. Any bank that looks at your status will not loan you the money you are asking for.

Sorry to be blunt, but it would be better to not get to invested (both mentally and financially) only to have it later effect you finacial future.

This post has been edited by JHawkNH: 10 January 2012 - 03:30 PM

I sort of disagree with JHawkNH. With the economy as it is, people are desperate to get out of debt. People also want to do everything the fast and easy way, so they'll even pay money to get "assistance" for debt elimination. Like a lot of fat people, they look for the easiest and fastest way to get fit.

What I'm saying is that you should take advantage of people's emotions, as well as seeing what has enough demand but not a lot of competition. If anything, those things should come before thinking about what kind of product or service you should offer.

Thanks Jerk for the list, however, I wasn't completely oblivious to that.

I know the basics, and I also have someone who is willing to help me develop the business plan whenever I get stuck in something. So... stuff like listing initial investments, fixed costs, variable costs, revenue streams, NPV, unadjusted recovery period and all that stuff.

So from what you mentioned, employees, rent and advertisement are all fixed costs, while most supplies can be considered variable costs.

Literally, you have to think of everything, and I am aware of that.

I've noticed however, that there's an area of opportunity in the entertainment sector in this city. I'll list all businesses related to entertainment:

Night clubs
Theaters
"Meeting points" (These are places where people hang out at, but isn't the purpose of the place, such as malls or gaming stores)

And the list kinda ends there. Was working on a project during the last 4~5 months, it was a small video game arcade (there are nearly no arcades in the non-shady part of the city) with about 7~8 games. The initial investment was going to be something around $70k~$80k, and the plan was going good... except that the NPV was dangerously low (but still positive) at 4 years with 10% interest, and a slight decrease in sales would leave me in red numbers. That of course, made me and my tutor nervous.

The problem I was having with said business was the rent (3k monthly for wanting to be in the only mall in the city) and the initial investment on machines. I could look for a cheaper place, but my credit sales would also suffer a lot (the mall is a big meeting place, achieving a guesstimated density of people of about .5 per square meter on weekends, it's hard to walk in there). A better solution would be to look around for used machines and buy the machines locally (they were being imported from japan and korea). Sadly, there are no arcade machine providers here that provide the games that I want (outdated machines and lack of variety).

Trying to make this project work can also be a consideration.

Back to JHawk's point of getting said loan Zoe. You won't have the credit to get a straight 10k loan. If you cannot save 10k on your own, how would the bank justify giving you that amount. At your age as well, can't imagine your credit is high either.

Loans are based off the validity of requiring loan, credit, current income and your financial status/equitable (House, Car, Stuff).

Comic book and toy shop - People re willing to pay a lot of money to have a piece of there childhood back. There a lot of money in vintage toys.

Sex shop - Porn and toys always make money.

Banks will not provide loans for the adult industry if you do consider that one

There are already 2 pretty good comic book stores in town. Both seem pretty successful as they are full all the time.

Also, I do not wish to be associated to a sex shop. ^^;

Is there a reason that you are set on starting your own bussiness?

If you are really dead set on starting your own bussiness, here is my suggestion to you.
Do not start it now. (for the reasons I stated before) Figure out what you really want to do and see if there is a market for it. Find a job in the field of the bussiness that you want to start. This will allow you to start saving up money to start the business. The more money that you have saved up the less you will have to get a loan for. The less a company is in debt from the start, the better chance it will have to survive. It also means that your finacial future will be less at risk if the company goes under.

Also if you work in the field you will be able to see some of the unknow problems that can happen in that business and ways to solve them without you doing trial and error on your own business. It will also allow you to get contacts in the field that will help when you start your own business.