Running a Post Office

[dazco]

Anyone know anything about buying a Post Office and running it?

I am after a lifestyle business and am trawling through the usual pubs, cafes, guest houses etc, and I keep seeing POs for sale with the salary that the PO give you. Some of the salaries are quite good considering.

How does it work? I cannot find much about it on line concerning courses or qualifications or what is required of you. Do they vet you? Do you have to buy the PO and then do any courses? Can anyone help please?

[Eric Mc]

Does the Post Office have a future?

[mcflurry]

Eric Mc said:

Does the Post Office have a future?

They have been closing many of my local ones for years, one by one.
The ones near me that remain open spend so much time upselling that the queue snakes out the door

[V8TVR]

dazco said:

Anyone know anything about buying a Post Office and running it?

I am after a lifestyle business and am trawling through the usual pubs, cafes, guest houses etc, and I keep seeing POs for sale with the salary that the PO give you. Some of the salaries are quite good considering.

How does it work? I cannot find much about it on line concerning courses or qualifications or what is required of you. Do they vet you? Do you have to buy the PO and then do any courses? Can anyone help please?

From what i understand its a huge ammount of work for very little in return

[OdramaSwimLaden]

Eric Mc said:

Does the Post Office have a future?

No.

OP, if your looking for an "easier" life, I would suggest PO or pub will be about as stressful as you can get!

[scratch pervert]

OdramaSwimLaden said:

No.

OP, if your looking for an "easier" life, I would suggest PO or pub will be about as stressful as you can get!

Genuinely interested to hear why you believe running a PO is as stressful as running a pub...?

[rog007]

The evidence is presented to you in the number you are seeing for sale! To be successful (highly profitable) in business you have to provide what is scarce. The PO model no longer services any unique sector and thus is not providing anything scarce; I can get everything it provides elsewhere and often more conveniently and cheaply. There will of course always be exceptions, but they're unlikely the ones to be up for sale! Good luck!

[MonkeyBusiness]

The appeal of running a PO died when you could get your pension/giro paid into your bank.
My Father had a PO with a newsagents bolted on. Customers would get their money and spend it in his shop.

Long hours especially on a Friday when the books don't balance.

[HB17]

I remember the long hours spent by father sorting out the books in our family PO...though its all electronic now and balance is produced in seconds...

[skeggysteve]

My information is from about 15 years ago so please take that into account.

The PO will train you and you will need to pass certain 'exams'.
PO salary is based on the PO turnover.
The PO will vet you very hard, you are dealing with a lot of 'their' money.
No problem with selling other stuff.
You have to open at times they say and can't open at other times.
Sorry, buts thats all I can remember but I do remember that the PO were helpful when I asked questions.

My local village PO sells very few other things (cards, paper, postcards, etc.) but I have never seen anyone buying them. There are two other small village shops.

It is very busy, and I mean very busy. There are alway two counter open, lots of people getting stamps, posting stuff abroad etc.
But I think the biggest thing that has helped the small PO is Ebay, my village PO has people coming from larger towns because they can park right outside.
One other thing to check is the pick up times - Ebay sellers are at my local PO just as the van get there - 16.30.

[dazco]

rog007 said:

The evidence is presented to you in the number you are seeing for sale! To be successful (highly profitable) in business you have to provide what is scarce. The PO model no longer services any unique sector and thus is not providing anything scarce; I can get everything it provides elsewhere and often more conveniently and cheaply. There will of course always be exceptions, but they're unlikely the ones to be up for sale! Good luck!

How many are for sale? I have not noticed a massive amount, there are (I think) 14,000 post offices n the UK, obviously there are always going to be some for sale.

As I said at the top, I am not bothered about being 'highly successful' I just want a lifestyle business.

I really do not know why people consider a post office to be more stressful than any other self employed venture, in fact you even get a salary from the Post Office.

I do not see the stress in running a pub either, fair enough it might be stressful but I shouldn't imagine it is any more stressful than having a shop or a garage etc etc.

[Simpo Two]

skeggysteve said:

PO salary is based on the PO turnover.

That's handy, you can sell everything at cost, make no profit but collect a massive salary...

[skeggysteve]

Simpo Two said:

skeggysteve said:

PO salary is based on the PO turnover.

That's handy, you can sell everything at cost, make no profit but collect a massive salary...

PO turnover.
Sorry if I didn't make that clear.

[Meoricin]

skeggysteve said:

PO turnover.
Sorry if I didn't make that clear.

You did - he was pointing out that turnover isn't the same as profit.

[Simpo Two]

skeggysteve said:

PO turnover.
Sorry if I didn't make that clear.

Oh, you mean the TO of the PO (that rhymes!) as a whole, not your branch? So you could work your nuts off all year but if some drongo at Head Office loses £10M investing in Gilt Edged Trouser Bonds you lose?

[dryden1407]

there are always post offices for sale because there are a lot of them,if you think selling stamps and posting parcels is stressfull,there is something wrong with you. you have to balance the po once a week which is computerised and usually takes an hour
the po salary is based on how many products(stamps etc) that the branch sells,base salary plus commission,one person can run a branch with a salary of £25k easily,if a branch has a salary of £50k plus then you will have multiple staff
the retail shop side of things is where the real money is,a po shop can pull in anything from £10k weekly to as much as £250k,with gross profits between 20-25% of that
the myth that the post office are closing branches is somewhat true in that they are looking at the sustainability of non profit making branches which are close to another, busier, profit making branch
for anyone looking for a lifestyle change this really is something to look at,type in christie.com,they cannot keep up with demand

[dazco]

dryden1407 said:

there are always post offices for sale because there are a lot of them,if you think selling stamps and posting parcels is stressfull,there is something wrong with you. you have to balance the po once a week which is computerised and usually takes an hour
the po salary is based on how many products(stamps etc) that the branch sells,base salary plus commission,one person can run a branch with a salary of £25k easily,if a branch has a salary of £50k plus then you will have multiple staff
the retail shop side of things is where the real money is,a po shop can pull in anything from £10k weekly to as much as £250k,with gross profits between 20-25% of that
the myth that the post office are closing branches is somewhat true in that they are looking at the sustainability of non profit making branches which are close to another, busier, profit making branch
for anyone looking for a lifestyle change this really is something to look at,type in christie.com,they cannot keep up with demand

Thanks a lot for that. I could not understand the stress thing either, we have all seen Post Office owners and they are rarely high flying coke heads

Hmmm, maybe something to think about.

May I ask, are you more or less your own boss or is there quite a lot of being told what to do? If I had a pub or a guest house etc I would be 100% my own boss, which anyone would like, is it the same with a post office?

[dryden1407]

you are absolutely your own boss,the post office have nothing to do with your retail shop,you can run that how you like,the products and money in the post office belong to the post office,you are an agent to sell the products which they pay you a commission on,the more you sell the more you make,having the po brings customers to the shop
the shop sales could be like this
lets say the shop turnover(total sales) is £20,000 per week
gross profit upto 25 percent = £5000 per week
off of your weekly gross profit will be wages,electricity,insurance,telephone,maintenance,bank charges and any personal expenditure,the wage bill will range from you and family working all hours to being fully managed, fully managed stores wage bills could be from £800 to £2000 each weekly depending on how many staff you have
gross profit is how much profit is made,,net profit is how much is left after the bills are paid
there is a fully managed shop and po on the east coast of scotland within a mile of the beach which shows a net profit of £90,000 which is currently for sale with christie.com for £315,000,if i was looking for one this would be it

[dazco]

dryden1407 said:

you are absolutely your own boss,the post office have nothing to do with your retail shop,you can run that how you like,the products and money in the post office belong to the post office,you are an agent to sell the products which they pay you a commission on,the more you sell the more you make,having the po brings customers to the shop
the shop sales could be like this
lets say the shop turnover(total sales) is £20,000 per week
gross profit upto 25 percent = £5000 per week
off of your weekly gross profit will be wages,electricity,insurance,telephone,maintenance,bank charges and any personal expenditure,the wage bill will range from you and family working all hours to being fully managed, fully managed stores wage bills could be from £800 to £2000 each weekly depending on how many staff you have
gross profit is how much profit is made,,net profit is how much is left after the bills are paid
there is a fully managed shop and po on the east coast of scotland within a mile of the beach which shows a net profit of £90,000 which is currently for sale with christie.com for £315,000,if i was looking for one this would be it

Wow, you nearly hit the Bullseye there, about £250,000 and over on the west coast.


I intend not to work myself to the bone, yet still have a comfortable life. This should be manageable shouldn't it?

[OdramaSwimLaden]

scratch pervert said:

Genuinely interested to hear why you believe running a PO is as stressful as running a pub...?

You will be getting into an profession that is slowly dying out. The stresses are different but you have to ask how much fun it would be watching your chosen "low stress" career disappear from under you. PO's are closing nearly as fast as pubs! On that, very few landlords make a good living, I know many. Some with one pub and some with many.......brewery's are s. The more you make, the more they take.

The OP wanted a lifestyle business. I read, low stress!