Wanting to invest £15000 in to something which has potential

[Chiddo]

I've just sold my car and just bought a cheap runner, I have £15,000 which I am looking to invest In a new start-up and I am open to starting something up either online (App, entertainment website of some sort) or just a offline venture.

I am 21 years old, in part-time education and have nothing else to do in my spare time. I know £15,000 is nothing much but I REALLY want to start a new business up.

Any suggestions?

[Simpo Two]

What do you enjoy/what are you good at? Do you want to invest in someone else's business (which may fail) or start your own and that way keep all the profit? £15K play money at 21 is pretty good.

[Chiddo]

Simpo Two said:

What do you enjoy/what are you good at? Do you want to invest in someone else's business (which may fail) or start your own and that way keep all the profit? £15K play money at 21 is pretty good.

I really enjoy the online side of things, creating social websites where people can engage with one another. I'd loved to own and manage a forum myeself but it's a very saturated niche and not worth going into unless something big happens like a new tv program/computer game comes out and usually the hype calms after a few months.

I was considering creating a paid to click website, similar to www.swagbucks.com users fill in surverys and in return get rewarded with prizes. However, It would be much simpler, less crowded version of swagbucks and would only cost arond $1,500 - $2000 to develop and this would be done by extremely talented web developers who know exactly what are doing.

Offline wise, I am not fussed really, I'd be happy to get my hands stuck into anything. I believe the food industry, namely the desert industry can be extemely profitable, there's a desert place around where I live - Heavenly Desserts, extremely busy every day but the customer service I hear Is terrible so I'd love to have a crack at that and be different by being cheaper and providing first class customer service though I'd doubt £15,000 would be enough to actually get things going.

I'd also love to crack out a APP - a friend of mine suggested I develop a terrorist game where you can kill terrorists and inlcude in app game purchases and ads to bring in the dough - but I don't think it would be appropriate to make money off something that Is currently so sensitive right now.

Edited by Chiddo on Saturday 17th January 22:52

[alfabadass]

There are about a billion dessert places in Birmingham. A place like HD probably cost several hundred thousand pounds to set up mot £15'000....

[russ_a]

put it towards a deposit for a house

[Haggleburyfinius]

alfabadass said:

There are about a billion dessert places in Birmingham. A place like HD probably cost several hundred thousand pounds to set up mot £15'000....

A friend of my Mrs opened one of these in one of the Subcontinental parts of the city. £500k was invested.

[Undirection]

Take your time, gets lot of advice and investigate every business area thoroughly. At 21 you know very little (not being condescending, its just that there's a lot to learn about business and I lost £15k almost instantly at your age). Minimse start up costs, if it goes wrong its better to lose a little than a lot.

[ModernAndy]

It's great you have that amount of cash but there's generally a very low return on cash savings and investments nowadays which is caused by relatively low borrowing costs so it isn't a particularly good form of leverage just now. What you need is a bit of knowledge in a particular area and an investment formula otherwise I'd be inclined to say you and your money may part ways quite soon.

I really started in earnest with my wee business empire when I was your age and there's a hell of a lot I've learned in just 5 years. I really started off with very few skills apart from an inquisitive but polite manner which in the early days didn't give me very much in the way of reward but after spending a lot of time developing myself and really sorting out how to run businesses (and just jumping in on any opportunity going), we're doing quite well.

My boiled down advice would be take it slow to start with, see what you really have a knack for and after investing/doing small amounts kick it up a gear with a proper business system which you will be able to construct after collecting a bit of experience.

[gregf40]

Why not invest in a start up which is already running?

Check my profile - I am an angel on Seedrs and there are some great companies on there you can invest in.

Obviously, if you want to work in the business this isn't much use - but certainly something to think about.

[Evolved]

Out of interest Gregg, what sort of money are we talking as an investment to get started? I've not had chance to look at the Seddrs site properly as I'm on my phone but will do tomorrow when in the office.

With regard mentoring startups, how would that work?

If you want to mail me it may be easier than clogging up this thread.

[e-mail]

[gregf40]

Evolved said:

Out of interest Gregg, what sort of money are we talking as an investment to get started? I've not had chance to look at the Seddrs site properly as I'm on my phone but will do tomorrow when in the office.

With regard mentoring startups, how would that work?

You can invest from £10 (I think) through Seedrs - I often see people investing very small amounts.

I currently mentor around 5 start-ups but unfortunately just don't have the time to take on any more.

[Evolved]

So little? Is it even worth it?

[glasgowrob]

the big business gains for 2015 are going to be those who act as intermediaries between various parties.

our minicab company uses a number of these who take between 10 and a whopping 23% referral free. for sometimes nothing more than an automated email

[otherman]

Chiddo said:

I was considering creating a paid to click website, similar to www.swagbucks.com users fill in surverys and in return get rewarded with prizes. However, It would be much simpler, less crowded version of swagbucks and would only cost arond $1,500 - $2000 to develop and this would be done by extremely talented web developers who know exactly what are doing.

I'm thinking if that was true, the talented web developers would be doing it for themselves

[b0rk]

The dev side of swagbucks (or similar) will be relatively straightforward attracting the right type of users and advertisers willing to pay is the hard bit. Plenty of sites have tried same thing and failed for various reasons.

[Undirection]

glasgowrob said:

the big business gains for 2015 are going to be those who act as intermediaries between various parties.

our minicab company uses a number of these who take between 10 and a whopping 23% referral free. for sometimes nothing more than an automated email

This is nothing new though and I don't see 2015 being any more significant in this area than 2014. It's a good business model if you have good referral commissions and can provide cheaper leads than businesses can themselves though. One of our businesses works on one of these models.

[gregf40]

Evolved said:

So little? Is it even worth it?

£10 is just the minimum - you can invest as much as you want.

I have put 6 figure sums into 2. One of which went on to raise institutional funding at a value around 5 times what I invested at - so I am pretty happy with that so far!

[Charlie1986]

Ive looked in to a company to invest something who are on Seedr, Called POD charge looking to move in to the EV market they seem to be a good set up but its just a risk with the market

[youngsyr]

russ_a said:

put it towards a deposit for a house

Agreed.

I think property is a pretty safe bet for the next 10 to 15 years at least, plus you have to live somewhere, so you may as well be paying off your own mortgage rather than your landlord's.

If you're likely to be moving long distance within the next couple of years, consider a small buy to let using your capital as a deposit, preferably near somewhere you have friends/family who can be relied on in an emergency to help you out.

[anonymous-user]

Obviously we don't know your full circumstances, but personally, I think investing in somebody else business is something that you should do with money you can afford to lose.