The £100 challenge – start a business

[pingu393]

I appreciate that the students have done very well and are to be congratulated, but how much did they make because they were able to use the "charity card" and how were genuine sales?

A cynical, but genuine, question.

[extraT]

^^^ I don't think that is cynical, its actually a very good question and gives their Teacher a perspective on if it is a scale-able business!! He may want to steal the idea for himself!!

Anyway, a quick and dirty update:

Currently making around £800 a month from my English business. I tendered for a contract which would have taken me to £1,500, but I didn't win (because distance was a factor, I am not local to the business) but they have promised me any "over-flow" business.

I have signed up two new students, with another starting next week. Another 5 more students and i will be very happy. The great thing is all my current students are studying English to gain another "life skill"- as opposed to wanting to pass a test. In other words they are long term students, not short term!

[spikeyhead]

Mine is still growing strongly, limited only by my ebay selling limit but that is rising steadily and so are my non ebay sales.

[8potdave]

This thread was only introduced to me yesterday following on from my idea to buy and sell cars.

It has got me thinking and I want to give something a go, however I am not sure I will qualify due to the time restriction! I am looking at an ebay shop initially buying and selling computer consumables that can be managed from home. I am aware it is already very saturated but the plan is to adopt a trial and error strategy and then specialise once I find my niche!

[Frimley111R]

You've got 2 months still to go. See what you can do!

This is not a serious competition, just something to motivate a few of us into trying something with minimal outlay. At the end people can tell us how they got on and hopefully it will inspire others.

[daemon]

8potdave said:

This thread was only introduced to me yesterday following on from my idea to buy and sell cars.

It has got me thinking and I want to give something a go, however I am not sure I will qualify due to the time restriction! I am looking at an ebay shop initially buying and selling computer consumables that can be managed from home. I am aware it is already very saturated but the plan is to adopt a trial and error strategy and then specialise once I find my niche!

One of the most saturated areas and totally overrun by cheap chinese suppliers.

[RtdRacer]

daemon said:

8potdave said:

This thread was only introduced to me yesterday following on from my idea to buy and sell cars.

It has got me thinking and I want to give something a go, however I am not sure I will qualify due to the time restriction! I am looking at an ebay shop initially buying and selling computer consumables that can be managed from home. I am aware it is already very saturated but the plan is to adopt a trial and error strategy and then specialise once I find my niche!

One of the most saturated areas and totally overrun by cheap chinese suppliers.

And very, very low margin.

[Wise]

Started my business for under £100.

Am a shop fitter/joiner by trade. And I seen how much the cleans were making for a days work for not a lot of 'hard' work. So decided to set up my own little commercial cleaning company, all done properly registered etc.

So bought all the chemicals, a few mops, buckets, rags etc. And done my first job, made £650 off the job, about £450-500 ish after tax, materials etc. if I remember right. Done a few more jobs over 6 months, no advertising or anything, just through people I know asking about wanting stuff cleaned. And am a perfectionist so always spend that wee bit long making sure everything is 100%.

Now I have just over £2000 in my business account after everything is paid and up to date, so going ok for not trying to get any work at all. Just being used to make a bit of extra money for my savings.

But today I decided to take it seriously because am getting fed up with my current job. So have been designing a logo for the last from weeks in my spare time, made a quick web site, signed up to google places and yell.com, and have just ordered 5000 flyers, and some business cards and going to see how it goes.

Only looking at commercial cleaning, windows, one off, end off tenancy, and builders cleans.

So will just need to see were it goes from here

[pingu393]

Wise said:

Started my business for under £100...

Well done. You will notice that when it stops being a "hobby" job and turns into a "real" job life starts getting harder. If you can ride the storm it will be worth it in the long term. Just don't expand too early too fast, especially with staff. Good luck to you.

[daemon]

pingu393 said:

Wise said:

Started my business for under £100...

Well done. You will notice that when it stops being a "hobby" job and turns into a "real" job life starts getting harder. If you can ride the storm it will be worth it in the long term. Just don't expand too early too fast, especially with staff. Good luck to you.

Very much so. I found that both in the computing sector, and subsequently motor trading.

[Hoofy]

An update I suppose...

I make a few pence every day. I feel no motivation to make more videos. I'll make back my money providing I live long enough. If I live even longer I'll probably make a few thousand out of it.

I suppose I could make more money more quickly if I made more videos.

[jammy_basturd]

You should do one of these Harlem Shake videos everyone else is doing!

[Hoofy]

jammy_basturd said:

You should do one of these Harlem Shake videos everyone else is doing!

I'd never heard of it until now. I am so not down wit da kidz.

[Rude-boy]

Why did i read up on the shaky thing and start to worry about the collapse of intelligent society?

Kids of today don’t even seem to be able to make a fad last longer than a few weeks

[Hoofy]

You looked into it more than me. I googled it, clicked "Videos", then closed the tab. Breakdown of society indeed.

[daemon]

Laughingman21 said:

Anthony Micallef said:

I used to pick a popular model of phone, work out its average price from the completed listings and then buy phones that were listed under value. I then just relisted them at the average price (or slightly more) for profit

What about all the eBay and PayPal fees? Didn't these eat into your margin?

I would have thought you would need to allocate an easy 10% for ebay and paypal fees, plus i think a lot of people just sort by cheapest nowadays.

[Frimley111R]

BUMP

[poprock]

Oh yeah. I forgot to update after our March club night.

Profit standing at £680 after February.

Venue hire = £100
Tip for the door girls = £20
Promotion = Online plus a few posters, all free

Door take = £360

Profit = £240

So by March we’re up by £920 and that’s us for the challenge. Our next club’s on April 5th and we’ll be keeping on going.

[Shrimper]

I'm still around the £400 profit mark, not much activity over last few months as the off season really. Will continue to make it a year, I'm confident I could hit the £1500 mark if I put my mind to it over the summer

[Frimley111R]

So........how did everyone get on?