Start up retail business advice.

beauf

I stand corrected.

One characteristic of the Scooter market seems to be sheer number of companies that have come and gone trying to get into it. Until they are legalized, its a limited market, effectively a niche toy. If they become a serious transport option. The issue become a robust supplier and repair process. Too many manufactures build one model then disappear. So no parts and no repeat business for the seller. Same is true of eBikes.

dartboardio

Graham wrote: »

What differentiates your scooters from the 113 scooters available from Smyths, the 88 scooters available from Argos, the 75 scooters available at Halfords?

A really quick look tells me Adwords looks like an incredibly competitive market for anything scooter related. Advertisers today include; skatepro, 53degreesnorth, electripu, ezscooters, hoverboardx, urbanmovement, swiftscooters, manfirth, skatehut, skatepro, skates, ladpad, greenscooter, expooutletscooters, klscooters?

What do you expect your CPC to be for Adwords, what's your minimum conversion rate to break even?

Not trying to be awkward here dartboardio, if you can answer all of the above (not to me, to yourself) then you might have spotted a viable niche in the incredibly crowded scooter market

Well unlike Argos, Amazon, we would be focusing directly on just electric scooters and looking to stock some of the main brands, at better prices, think Phaewo, Evercross, Xiaomi, etc.

Also, we will reach out to instagram influencers or popular pages, to do shoutouts or run collab competitions, we already received an email from FM 104 looking to do a competition so they must have seen our name somewhere..


With my current google Ad campaign for example, there has been 124 clicks, with €1200 in sales, and a total of €63 spent on Google ads in 2 days. Now we may increase or decrease that google budget depending on how things go.

So now what I am really looking for is a small start up booster grant, so we can spend more on advertising and stock some more scooters in a unit.

(the handy thing about dropshipping is you can get started more or less right away)

beauf

beauf wrote: »

I stand corrected.

One characteristic of the Scooter market seems to be sheer number of companies that have come and gone trying to get into it. Until they are legalized, its a limited market, effectively a niche toy. If they become a serious transport option. The issue become a robust supplier and repair process. Too many manufactures build one model then disappear. So no parts and no repeat business for the seller. Same is true of eBikes.

Yeah was thinking if becomes a serious transport option you'll be seeing spades of escooter operators in europe establish themselves here to win market.

Zipp mobility i think is the irish start up but then you have the likes of lime etc in mainland Europe.

When I was in Stockholm the place was littered with them all you had to do was just go on app unlock the scooter using app and go where you wanted and just leave the scooter once finished.

dartboardio

Chacha97 wrote: »

Yeah was thinking if becomes a serious transport option you'll be seeing spades of escooter operators in europe establish themselves here to win market.

Zipp mobility i think is the irish start up but then you have the likes of lime etc in mainland Europe.

When I was in Stockholm the place was littered with them all you had to do was just go on app unlock the scooter using app and go where you wanted and just leave the scooter once finished.

Yeah me too, just got back from poland and they were everywhere.

beauf

Chacha97 wrote: »

Yeah was thinking if becomes a serious transport option you'll be seeing spades of escooter operators in europe establish themselves here to win market.

Zipp mobility i think is the irish start up but then you have the likes of lime etc in mainland Europe.

When I was in Stockholm the place was littered with them all you had to do was just go on app unlock the scooter using app and go where you wanted and just leave the scooter once finished.

Some similar companies have not survived long. But the rental market is very different, to selling scooters for personal use.

While you might be able to flip scooters until you get undercut or similar, make a fast buck if you don't get caught with a lot of unused stock. Thats very different to setting up a business for longevity. The latter with a lot harder in this market.

dartboardio

beauf wrote: »

Some similar companies have not survived long. But the rental market is very different, to selling scooters for personal use.

While you might be able to flip scooters until you get undercut or similar, make a fast buck if you don't get caught with a lot of unused stock. Thats very different to setting up a business for longevity. The latter with a lot harder in this market.

At the moment we aren't holding any stock, the customer orders the scooter from our website, and we place the order directly with our supplier and they ship the scooters to the customers within 7 days, so we don't deal with any stock at the moment at all, only the samples we have bought ourselves.

Just longer term we would like to have some stock in a unit or maybe set up a pop up shop in the city centre to see how it would go, as an actual store and see if it's worth looking into.

beauf

beauf wrote: »

Some similar companies have not survived long. But the rental market is very different, to selling scooters for personal use.

While you might be able to flip scooters until you get undercut or similar, make a fast buck if you don't get caught with a lot of unused stock. Thats very different to setting up a business for longevity. The latter with a lot harder in this market.

Yeah I see where you are coming from.

I would be the kind of person to use the rented model than own one to be honest. I might use it to nip to a meeting somewhere or something in city if whether was good but other than that I don't see the need for one personally and don't feel our cities are suited to that kind of transport YET.

OP, may I ask are you just aiming for ireland at beginning or shipping throughout Europe? Does your supplier supply others within mainland Europe could you gain exclusivity with them for island of ireland?

dartboardio

Chacha97 wrote: »

Yeah I see where you are coming from.

I would be the kind of person to use the rented model than own one to be honest. I might use it to nip to a meeting somewhere or something in city if whether was good but other than that I don't see the need for one personally and don't feel our cities are suited to that kind of transport YET.

OP, may I ask are you just aiming for ireland at beginning or shipping throughout Europe? Does your supplier supply others within mainland Europe could you gain exclusivity with them for island of ireland?

Shipping throughout Europe ideally, so we offer free shipping to Irish, UK and EU customers as the main warehouse is located in Germany so its just as handy really.

We are able to get customized scooters with our brand / logo if we buy over a certain amount.

beauf

Chacha97 wrote: »

Yeah I see where you are coming from.

I would be the kind of person to use the rented model than own one to be honest. I might use it to nip to a meeting somewhere or something in city if whether was good but other than that I don't see the need for one personally and don't feel our cities are suited to that kind of transport YET.

OP, may I ask are you just aiming for ireland at beginning or shipping throughout Europe? Does your supplier supply others within mainland Europe could you gain exclusivity with them for island of ireland?

I would say that rentals like Dublin Bikes only suits certain routes and people. I tried that and could never rely on it. So I bought my own folding bike. But that then over time was less an option with overcrowding on the trains. I was actually thinking of a eScooter as an alternative, but never pulled the trigger on it. I was also thinking an eBike could replace both train and scooter.

So there is a market for personal sales vs rentals. How large. No idea.

beauf

beauf wrote: »

I would say that rentals like Dublin Bikes only suits certain routes and people. I tried that and could never rely on it. So I bought my own folding bike. But that then over time was less an option with overcrowding on the trains. I was actually thinking of a eScooter as an alternative, but never pulled the trigger on it. I was also thinking an eBike could replace both train and scooter.

So there is a market for personal sales vs rentals. How large. No idea.

Oh yeah no doubt it suits other people.

Was only my personal feeling towards them but for all I know I could be the minority!

Quite hard to know really. Do you still have to have insurance for them or are they legal now? I haven't looked at them since a few years ago i think.

beauf

No not legal. There was some talk about making them legal before Xmas by Eamon Ryan I think.

But I think that unlikely to happen. Who knows. Its a shambles. Wasted opportunity.

dartboardio

They are illegal on public roads and highways (this is clearly stated on our website too similar to the other scooter companies) they are legal on private roads and properties.

beauf

Enforcement is minimal. But you might be unlucky.

beauf

beauf wrote: »

No not legal. There was some talk about making them legal before Xmas by Eamon Ryan I think.

But I think that unlikely to happen. Who knows. Its a shambles. Wasted opportunity.

I think they'd be brilliant if we didn't have such a claim culture. Think law makers and councils are frightened they'll leave themselves open for claims.

Graham

dartboardio wrote: »

With my current google Ad campaign for example, there has been 124 clicks, with €1200 in sales, and a total of €63 spent on Google ads in 2 days. Now we may increase or decrease that google budget depending on how things go.

So now what I am really looking for is a small start up booster grant, so we can spend more on advertising and stock some more scooters in a unit.

(the handy thing about dropshipping is you can get started more or less right away)

Assuming you're working with a reasonable margin, that's good going.

I'd just keep doing what you're doing for now.

Don't worry about grants (there are none for retail anyway).
Don't hold stock.
Don't think about premises.
Do advertise on Facebook if you're not already. Ignore the boost this post option, go straight to learning Ads Manager.

You already have a benchmark for your customer acquisition cost (ad spend / number sales), try new adverts to see if they perform better/worse. Try facebook, does it perform better/worse?

Are you remarketing (ads targeted at previous site visitors that haven't purchased yet)?

JMR

dartboardio wrote: »

With my current google Ad campaign for example, there has been 124 clicks, with €1200 in sales, and a total of €63 spent on Google ads in 2 days. Now we may increase or decrease that google budget depending on how things go.

So now what I am really looking for is a small start up booster grant, so we can spend more on advertising and stock some more scooters in a unit.

I would urge you to stand back and think rationally about this.
Your original post suggests you are very early days in this venture, with questions asked about whether you should operate as a sole trader or set up a Limited Company etc.

It's great that you have obviously done your initial research into the idea and have built your own website but I would urge you not to think about spending any sort of big money on premises etc for now.
You seem to have sold maybe 3 units so far?
Invest your time in proving the concept, bootstrap the business, do not hold stock yourself for now.
In a few months time, you will have learned a lot about your market and will ne in a much better position to decide on taking it to the next level and whether you need funding.

All the best with it, love to hear stories of people who are genuinely excited about new ventures

dartboardio

JMR wrote: »

I would urge you to stand back and think rationally about this.
Your original post suggests you are very early days in this venture, with questions asked about whether you should operate as a sole trader or set up a Limited Company etc.

It's great that you have obviously done your initial research into the idea and have built your own website but I would urge you not to think about spending any sort of big money on premises etc for now.
You seem to have sold maybe 3 units so far?
Invest your time in proving the concept, bootstrap the business, do not hold stock yourself for now.
In a few months time, you will have learned a lot about your market and will ne in a much better position to decide on taking it to the next level and whether you need funding.

All the best with it, love to hear stories of people who are genuinely excited about new ventures

Yeah I think we will definitely stay online for the moment and try build the brand, focusing more on advertising and keeping our main expenses for google ads, facebook etc then maybe look at how things go down the line, thanks!

BalboBiggins

Tbh you will work 5 times as hard in your own business than you will in most other jobs.

dartboardio

BalboBiggins wrote: »

Tbh you will work 5 times as hard in your own business than you will in most other jobs.

Thats not something that would stop me. I value my freedom and being able to earn money on my own terms

dartboardio

dartboardio wrote: »

Thats not something that would stop me. I value my freedom and being able to earn money on my own terms

I am of the same opinion. Currently researching my own idea in order to develop it and hopefully start something.

Going to first see can I take part in new frontiers phase 1 programme as allows me to keep working and arrive at a go/no go decision of the venture idea.

Meant to add i know its not freedom far from ot but want to create something which benefits others

BalboBiggins

dartboardio wrote: »

Thats not something that would stop me. I value my freedom and being able to earn money on my own terms

That's the thing though, the majority of self employed people are less free than those working in a steady job.

JMR

BalboBiggins wrote: »

That's the thing though, the majority of self employed people are less free than those working in a steady job.

What is your point?
You seem to be encouraging the OP to forget about starting a business as it's too much hard work, when the original question was nothing to do with this.

Starting and running your own business can be extremely rewarding, albeit hard work.

I could understand your response if the OP had asked for advice on whether to pursue starting a business versus staying in permanent employment but he/she didn't

dartboardio

BalboBiggins wrote: »

That's the thing though, the majority of self employed people are less free than those working in a steady job.

Yeah but it's not as time consuming running the online store as it would be if I had an actual shop, like most days are spent researching, adding bits and bobs to the website, keeping an eye on my traffic etc and processing orders, so it's not THAT time consuming, maybe when we get busier yes, but there will be two of us working at it


Besides, that's not the point at all, I'm not afraid of hard work, I'm willing to work endless hours in order to keep that freedom you have while working for yourself, being your own boss etc.

dartboardio

since I have been blagging on about it all morning, here is the actual website

please feel free to give me criticism and feedback, what I should/could add/takeaway to the website, or similar. I am trying to work on the website everyday.

https://e-scooter.ie

I do think we have a good name though, and domain.

jimmii

dartboardio wrote: »

Thats not something that would stop me. I value my freedom and being able to earn money on my own terms

Good luck with the freedom part if you can figure it out I'm sure there's a good few of us who would like to know what it is! Last day I had off was sometime in mid November and my next day will probably be maybe Christmas week.

Doing it yourself is definitely rewarding and its great when you get great feedback from customers. It sounds like you've put a lot more work into this than it appeared at the start so fair play for that.

Your results from ad words so far look really good if you can keep that sort of return then you might just have yourself a business thats a promising start.

dartboardio

based on 264 sessions in the last 2 days , 40% bounce rate, average duration of session 3 minutes. What are these figures like?

dartboardio

jimmii wrote: »

Good luck with the freedom part if you can figure it out I'm sure there's a good few of us who would like to know what it is! Last day I had off was sometime in mid November and my next day will probably be maybe Christmas week.

Doing it yourself is definitely rewarding and its great when you get great feedback from customers. It sounds like you've put a lot more work into this than it appeared at the start so fair play for that.

Your results from ad words so far look really good if you can keep that sort of return then you might just have yourself a business thats a promising start.

Haha thanks a million! I'll just keep doing what I'm doing so and hopefully things will go well from here.

JMR

dartboardio wrote: »

since I have been blagging on about it all morning, here is the actual website

please feel free to give me criticism and feedback, what I should/could add/takeaway to the website, or similar. I am trying to work on the website everyday.

https://e-scooter.ie

I do think we have a good name though, and domain.

Good move, you will get valuable, actionable feedback here.
Some initial thoughts from myself

1. Your contact page refers to a contact form which doesn't exist
2. The use of '9' in your email address (gmail) looks a little unprofessional - can you get a better one?
3. The popup detailing recent purchases is very off putting, maybe the cycle time is too short?
4. Not sure you need to mention this on the home page - "Stock warehouse based in EU". It may be a barrier to your potential customers
5. I would remove the 'Get Directions' link as it is only linked to Waterford, rather than a specific store location
6. Gift card sales has a timeout?
7. In general, not so sure about the colour scheme, feels a bit weak, if that makes sense?
8. The home page needs a bit of work, the video below the banner picture seems to be hanging in a lot of vacant white space

dartboardio

JMR wrote: »

Good move, you will get valuable, actionable feedback here.
Some initial thoughts from myself

1. Your contact page refers to a contact form which doesn't exist
2. The use of '9' in your email address (gmail) looks a little unprofessional - can you get a better one?
3. The popup detailing recent purchases is very off putting, maybe the cycle time is too short?
4. Not sure you need to mention this on the home page - "Stock warehouse based in EU". It may be a barrier to your potential customers
5. I would remove the 'Get Directions' link as it is only linked to Waterford, rather than a specific store location
6. Gift card sales has a timeout?
7. In general, not so sure about the colour scheme, feels a bit weak, if that makes sense?
8. The home page needs a bit of work, the video below the banner picture seems to be hanging in a lot of vacant white space

Thanks! yeah I know, I need to get a new official email hooked up with the actual domain if that makes sense. The recent purchase pop up I can remove too.

All of it needs a bit of work. I am trying to add bits here and there, we are still getting sales but obviously could be getting alot more if the website was stronger.

Graham

Have you looked through some of the 3rd party Shopify themes? Could give the site a pretty instant facelift if that's what you're looking for.

dartboardio

Graham wrote: »

Have you looked through some of the 3rd party Shopify themes? Could give the site a pretty instant facelift if that's what you're looking for.

I've looked through a few themes yes and I'm in the middle of doing up some examples on a few themes I like but haven't really picked one yet, for now I am happy with the theme I have but just looking to make the overall website more appealing

dartboardio

JMR wrote: »

Good move, you will get valuable, actionable feedback here.
Some initial thoughts from myself

1. Your contact page refers to a contact form which doesn't exist
2. The use of '9' in your email address (gmail) looks a little unprofessional - can you get a better one?
3. The popup detailing recent purchases is very off putting, maybe the cycle time is too short?
4. Not sure you need to mention this on the home page - "Stock warehouse based in EU". It may be a barrier to your potential customers
5. I would remove the 'Get Directions' link as it is only linked to Waterford, rather than a specific store location
6. Gift card sales has a timeout?
7. In general, not so sure about the colour scheme, feels a bit weak, if that makes sense?
8. The home page needs a bit of work, the video below the banner picture seems to be hanging in a lot of vacant white space

I have added the contact form, removed the 'our store' part and mentioning about EU warehouse you're right it may put people off!

I see what you mean about the video just hanging around a huge white space on the homepage, I'm wondering where/what to do with it now instead, maybe add the product as a featured product to the homepage with the video beside it or something?

JMR

dartboardio wrote: »

I have added the contact form, removed the 'our store' part and mentioning about EU warehouse you're right it may put people off!

I see what you mean about the video just hanging around a huge white space on the homepage, I'm wondering where/what to do with it now instead, maybe add the product as a featured product to the homepage with the video beside it or something?

Yes, sounds like that might work.
I have also just noticed the raffle / giveaway callout on the homepage. If you're keeping it, the wording needs to be revised, currently ends abruptly mid-sentence.
I would remove it as, to me anyway, it identifies your brand as less than professional and slightly frivolous

dartboardio

JMR wrote: »

Yes, sounds like that might work.
I have also just noticed the raffle / giveaway callout on the homepage. If you're keeping it, the wording needs to be revised, currently ends abruptly mid-sentence.
I would remove it as, to me anyway, it identifies your brand as less than professional and slightly frivolous

Thanks, yeah the raffle/giveaway is more so for building engagement on our socials. We done a competition and the engagement was insane, something like a few hundred followers in a few days, so we might just remove the raffle aspect and leave it as another free competition to win a scooter

gibgodsman

Just had a look at your website and can safely say I would avoid a website like that when buying anything, too many errors and silly issues. Can I ask if you designed it yourself or got a 3rd party to do it?

Yeah I think you need a different theme to stand out. Just looked up an other escooter website in ireland and it is incredibly similar

dartboardio

gibgodsman wrote: »

Just had a look at your website and can safely say I would avoid a website like that when buying anything, too many errors and silly issues. Can I ask if you designed it yourself or got a 3rd party to do it?

Strange as we have had around 7k gross sales so far, can you tell me in detail what would turn you away? Just so I can take a look and fix up things, as I said I'm looking for feedback here so I can take action.

Gonna need more than 'I would avoid it' I'm afraid...

November Golf

dartboardio wrote: »

It is me and my partners idea, should we setup as a limited company? what are the tax rates like?

Just a few point that might be of use to you:

1. A limited company can be good in that it provides limited personal liability if the business fails, however there is a greater administrative burden.

2. A company is a separate legal entity, you need to treat it like a child and act on its behalf: If you fail to meet statutory obligations it can be taken off you (Involuntary Strike-Off or Wind-down).

3. You will be proprietary director if you own more than 15% of the company. In addition to filing the companies tax returns for Corporate Tax and possibly VAT, You will also be registered as self-employed and be required to complete a personal tax return each year. Even if you are paid through the PAYE system, a self assessment will be required.

4. The company will pay 12.5% on its profits, however you will still be personally liability to the Income Tax, PRSI (S - self employment rate) and USC on your salary from the company as well as any dividends you receive from the company.

5. In addition to your tax obligation, you will need to file an annual return with the companies register office and attach the companies financial statements which you will likely need to get an accountant to prepare for you.

dartboardio

Mike Foxtrot wrote: »

Just a few point that might be of use to you:

1. A limited company can be good in that it provides limited personal liability if the business fails, however there is a greater administrative burden.

2. A company is a separate legal entity, you need to treat it like a child and act on its behalf: If you fail to meet statutory obligations it can be taken off you (Involuntary Strike-Off or Wind-down).

3. You will be proprietary director if you own more than 15% of the company. In addition to filing the companies tax returns for Corporate Tax and possibly VAT, You will also be registered as self-employed and be required to complete a personal tax return each year. Even if you are paid through the PAYE system, a self assessment will be required.

4. The company will pay 12.5% on its profits, however you will still be personally liability to the Income Tax, PRSI (S - self employment rate) and USC on your salary from the company as well as any dividends you receive from the company.

5. In addition to your tax obligation, you will need to file an annual return with the companies register office and attach the companies financial statements which you will likely need to get an accountant to prepare for you.

Thank you. That information is really handy to know! Do you mind if I ask a few questions about being a sole trader? as that's what I've decided to go with, for the moment, I know I can change it down the line,


I am now registered with revenue for income tax, so in order to pay tax as a self employed person, is that just done in October of each year through a self assessment/Form 11? Do I need to do anything before then?

Is it just my actual profits that are taxed? upto 40%?

(I am aware of VAT but haven't registered for that yet as we have not sold 75k worth of products yet)

And if I was to add my partner as an employee to the company, what sort of figures would be be talking in regards PAYE etc..

Axwell

Some suggested updates on the design etc..

Remove the snow - its tacky and set too frequent and the opacity too high that its actually distracting and off-putting. Should be set to much slower and barely visible if you really want to keep it.

Hero image - Use a darker overlay and change the text to white. The black text on a darkened image is hard to read, more so for anyone with accessibility issues.

Products - put the label under the images, not on top of them. Same issue as above, very hard to read and e-kids crosses the image and gets lost in it. Remove the text-shadow also - it's probably there because you are trying to make the text pop a bt when on top of the product but it would be better to just move it.

Contact Us - mentions a contact form which users are going to expect to be there on the page to fill in so it looks like its missing or you dont have one. Instead its on the little pop up tab which is also called contact us - its confusing. Put the contact form on the contact page.

Scoot and Earn - page is missing, gives a 404 error.

Read More buttons on blogs and features posts is hard to read - its a very light colour against the white background, outlined buttons make it hard to see - if you can do filled buttons would look better.

dartboardio

Axwell wrote: »

Some suggested updates on the design etc..

Remove the snow - its tacky and set too frequent and the opacity too high that its actually distracting and off-putting. Should be set to much slower and barely visible if you really want to keep it.

Hero image - Use a darker overlay and change the text to white. The black text on a darkened image is hard to read, more so for anyone with accessibility issues.

Products - put the label under the images, not on top of them. Same issue as above, very hard to read and e-kids crosses the image and gets lost in it. Remove the text-shadow also - it's probably there because you are trying to make the text pop a bt when on top of the product but it would be better to just move it.

Contact Us - mentions a contact form which users are going to expect to be there on the page to fill in so it looks like its missing or you dont have one. Instead its on the little pop up tab which is also called contact us - its confusing. Put the contact form on the contact page.

Scoot and Earn - page is missing, gives a 404 error.

Read More buttons on blogs and features posts is hard to read - its a very light colour against the white background, outlined buttons make it hard to see - if you can do filled buttons would look better.

how do you mean by 'hero' image, as in, the main image on the homepage with the text over it? I shall change it to a lighter colour now with the image darker.

thanks for the feedback, going to place the contact form on the actual page now.

Axwell

dartboardio wrote: »

how do you mean by 'hero' image, as in, the main image on the homepage with the text over it? I shall change it to a lighter colour now with the image darker.

thanks for the feedback, going to place the contact form on the actual page now.

Yes, that's the term for it.

Fighting Tao

Just noticed that www.e-scooter.ie does not work. If people are entering your website by memory, that is probably what they will enter.

drunkmonkey

dartboardio wrote: »

And if I was to add my partner as an employee to the company, what sort of figures would be be talking in regards PAYE etc..

Sorry I need to jump in here on 2 major points.....one being your partner is that a business partner or your hot water bottle. If this is a 50/50 thing with a friend your already gone wrong as it never ends up in a situation where someone does 50% of the work and gets 50% of the income.

Nail down what each of you are bringing to the table and agree a fair split it won't be 50/50.


The next is your business model, it's selling electronics online, your exposure to fraud is huge, when your putting your cash flow forecast together budget in you will lose one in ever 300 euro sale to fraud and see where that leaves you.



If your starting plan is a straight forward retail premises in a key location make that the nub of your plan and see can you burst a living out of it and have the potential to grow, with this I think you may possibly have the makings of a business in the correct locations. Put a 3yr plan together excluding the online part as I don't really see it as a runner unless you can absorb the fraud costs through sales.



I don't want to put you off as there's absolutely business out there in an lot of towns that have been forgotten over the last few years, 3yr plan, 4 locations, 200k salary for yourself at the end of it and a healthy mix of full and part time staff.

Park the online for the moment, your out of your debt on that one unless your partner knows how to spot the fraud trends

garrettod

Hi Dartboardio,

To give you a bit of credit where its due - you've started a small business, made some sales, and are clearly willing to ask for help / take constructive criticism, while also defending your business idea.

For what's it's worth, I think that's all very commendable. Others might have just stopped posting here, or refused to take on board, some of the comments posted here. But so far, I think you've been doing very well, for someone who I suspect is quite young, and after starting their first business venture.

Well done... keep at it!

dartboardio

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Sorry I need to jump in here on 2 major points.....one being your partner is that a business partner or your hot water bottle. If this is a 50/50 thing with a friend your already gone wrong as it never ends up in a situation where someone does 50% of the work and gets 50% of the income.

Nail down what each of you are bringing to the table and agree a fair split it won't be 50/50.


The next is your business model, it's selling electronics online, your exposure to fraud is huge, when your putting your cash flow forecast together budget in you will lose one in ever 300 euro sale to fraud and see where that leaves you.



If your starting plan is a straight forward retail premises in a key location make that the nub of your plan and see can you burst a living out of it and have the potential to grow, with this I think you may possibly have the makings of a business in the correct locations. Put a 3yr plan together excluding the online part as I don't really see it as a runner unless you can absorb the fraud costs through sales.



I don't want to put you off as there's absolutely business out there in an lot of towns that have been forgotten over the last few years, 3yr plan, 4 locations, 200k salary for yourself at the end of it and a healthy mix of full and part time staff.

Park the online for the moment, your out of your debt on that one unless your partner knows how to spot the fraud trends

Hi, the 'partner' is more so someone that created the idea with me, however everything is in my name and they were happy to do that so I think it will more so be that they will work for me as and when I need it, after some discussions.

Yeah I am definitely tied between the idea of online, and a physical location, I do like the idea of an actual shop, much more than online but I suppose I would be happy to build the brand up a bit first using online store, and advertising etc then try out a pop up store for a few months maybe early next year if we continue getting sales.

I hadn't even thought of fraud to be honest with you so there's another thing for me to do my research on and look out for. I'm sure there are many pros/cons with online and vice versa for the shop.

dartboardio

garrettod wrote: »

Hi Dartboardio,

To give you a bit of credit where its due - you've started a small business, made some sales, and are clearly willing to ask for help / take constructive criticism, while also defending your business idea.

For what's it's worth, I think that's all very commendable. Others might have just stopped posting here, or refused to take on board, some of the comments posted here. But so far, I think you've been doing very well, for someone who I suspect is quite young, and after starting their first business venture.

Well done... keep at it!

Cheers it works out better for me to want feedback of all types, instead of being stubborn, I'll learn much more! :pac: plus it helps me see what others may think

drunkmonkey

dartboardio wrote: »

Yeah I am definitely tied between the idea of online, and a physical location, I do like the idea of an actual shop, much more than online but I suppose I would be happy to build the brand up a bit first using online store, and advertising etc then try out a pop up store for a few months maybe early next year if we continue getting sales.

I hadn't even thought of fraud to be honest with you so there's another thing for me to do my research on and look out for. I'm sure there are many pros/cons with online and vice versa for the shop.

On physical location, you need to be where the footfall is, do not go down a side street you need to front and center that means higher rents but it should be able to justify itself with higher sales.

I'm going to be a bit blunt here as i've some experience, you could lose your shirt before you even know it's happened selling electronics online.

There was a report out earlier in the year some websites are experiencing 20%+ of orders presenting as fraud.

dartboardio

drunkmonkey wrote: »

On physical location, you need to be where the footfall is, do not go down a side street you need to front and center that means higher rents but it should be able to justify itself with higher sales.

I'm going to be a bit blunt here as i've some experience, you could lose your shirt before you even know it's happened selling electronics online.

There was a report out earlier in the year some websites are experiencing 20%+ of orders presenting as fraud.

Yeah I do have a couple of places in mind already for premises, there is one available on basically the main cork road through Waterford, a small, glass door/window office style unit which would be perfect.

what kind of fraud are we talking about here, people scamming me with some sort of dud orders, or what?

drunkmonkey

You name it they'll find away, I got hit with over 20k in the space of a few hours, luckily only a small bit had gone out but 24hrs later and I was goosed. That was in my early days like you are now.

Just on the main road one, it doesn't matter about the amount of cars it's the amount of people passing your door on foot. It's worth spending a couple of days checking out foot traffic at various locations.