Start up costs for business idea

[tmdigitalart.com]

hi

ive recently had an idea which i reckon could make a nice amount of money, but the startup costs are high, about 10-12 thousand.
might not seem high to some of you, but for me only being 18 its massive. Not sure if i should try and get this money and buy what i need,
or start lower down and buy more from the profit, sorry dont really whant to give much info away yet. Are their anyways i can look at for getting such a large amount to start a business. Think i might be best to start lower down with the same idea, but just worried some else will come along with loads of spare cash and beat me to it.

any thoughts would be great

tom

[tinman0]

borrow the money some how, and take a part time job in the evenings/weekends delivering pizzas. its what i did, although i didnt borrow the money as everything the company made was ploughed back in. and i delivered chinese takeways rather than pizzas every weekend for 2 years.

if nothing else you can turn around with smug satisfaction in a couple of years that you had the quality to dig deep when you needed it.

kills the social life though

[jconsta6]

Hi,

In reality a I'm sure someone, somewhere will lend you the money, the amount of unsecured lending is unbelievable at the momment - even if you are only 18 - maybe even if you can't could you get a family member to be gaurantor(spelling?)?

The other thing you could do is revaluate your costs.

I set up a business and the costs were circa 20k and I had my website done for free! However I learnt a lot from that, and my latest business I have paid to have the web design done etc, yet the costs so far have been a fraction of that. It's amazing when you first start up how you think you "really" need stuff to make your business work.

Obviously I don't your plan, and you genuinely may NEED that amount of cash, but really, go over the figures again. Every 1k you can save now, is 1k less you have to make profit to make your money back.

Cheers,

JC

[srebbe64]

I've looked at a few things in the last year or two which people have wanted me to ivest in - mainly friends, and friends of friends. Most recently, I went out for a beer with a bloke last weekend who wanted me to invest in a particular product for the catering sector.

The biggest oversight I've observed is not overestimating the costs but under-estimating them. Particularly the sales & marketing costs and overheads.

Tmdigi... if you want to email me through my profile your business model - but exclude any references to the product - I'll might be able to give you some pointers.

Steve

[tmdigitalart.com]

thanks everyone for advice, i reckon i should start allot smaller, reckon i could start with 4-5 thousand, i reckon it will soon start to make profit then maybe try and buy more.
My idea without giving to much away is to offer a service to the customers of an allready large outdoor activity business. I think it could bring more custom to them and also give them an even better name. Im sure many of their customers would whant to use the service.
The problem is how do i go about telling the owners my idea, without them taking it and doing it themselves.

cheers for any help

tom

[rico]

I read a great piece of advice the other day that clicked big time.

It's a LOT easier to spend money you're lent, than to spend money that you've worked hard for.

I'd go with JC and say that its best to work out the cheapest way of funding a business initially, then when profits come in, you can invest in new equipment etc.

>> Edited by rico on Sunday 22 January 19:18

[rico]

tmdigitalart.com said:

My idea without giving to much away is to offer a service to the customers of an allready large outdoor activity business. I think it could bring more custom to them and also give them an even better name. Im sure many of their customers would whant to use the service.

Research Research Research. Before you spend a penny, get out there and make sure the business is viable and its not already been tried and failed. Look at similar companies and how you can improve on what they offer. The way you say "think" and "I'm sure" isn't what you want when borrowing 5 figures of cash. Lots of "I know" and "Definitely" is much better

tmdigitalart.com said:

The problem is how do i go about telling the owners my idea, without them taking it and doing it themselves.

Thats easy. Get a legally minded friend to write up a contract for them to sign before you let them into your idea. It's rarely watertight but is a good start.

Good luck

[Wacky Racer]

Expenses down, profits up......


Peter Grant (Multi-millionaire manager of Led Zeppelin.)