Starting Up Mobile Locksmith & Glazing Repair Co

NewBalance

Call me brave - call me stupid, but in the midst of the global/irish recession I am setting myself up as a sole trader as a Locksmith & Glazing Repair Co.

I have an advert going into the Golden Page and online soon - I have finance for a used Van, and finance from the bank (hopefully) for specialist tools etc.

Registered the Co name and Website - (I can build my own website and design logo's & ad's etc myself).

Is there anyone out there who can offer some good extra advice to me at all -a Ben Dunne/Alan Sugar type?

Thanks

dennistuam

shrink save survive

an old jewish man told me once the best time to set up a business is in a recession

good luck

in your line of biz its no harm to be in with the local cops there is going to be big spike in break ins ect

Thoie

I'm neither Ben Dunne nor Alan Sugar, and am nothing like either of them, but from day 1 get into a routine of managing your finances. Collect every receipt, note down all income. You can start off with something as simple as a spreadsheet. If someone pays you cash and you slip it in your pocket and then buy petrol and a newspaper with it later, keep the receipts and remember what you did with it.

Obviously a proper accounting package would be ideal, but if you're not ready for that yet at least have a list as follows:

Item#|Description|In|Out
1 | Tool purchase | | 200.00
2 | Mrs Murphy's lock (123 Fake St)| 50.00
3 | Petrol | | 30.00
4 | Drawings | | 2.00The 2 quid drawings is for the newspaper

Write the item number on the back of each receipt so that you can cross reference them later if needed.

Most companies have problems with their cash flow in the beginning - for example you'll probably have to pay the loan on the van each month, even if no money comes in - so having a good record of where the cash is coming and going is crucial.

For ease of use later you might want to add a "Type" column in there as well, and add a type against each item - in the list above I'd make Tool purchase a capital expense, Mrs Murphy's lock as service income, petrol as Motor-running costs, and have Drawings as a type, with the description being newspaper.

You might also want to break down the job into parts and labour (eg Mrs Murphy, 20 quid - parts, 30 quid - labour) as when/if you get around to estimating VAT returns you can then easily sort out which bits are at which percentage.

DubTony

OK, a bit of guerilla marketing here.

Every time you have a customer, ask his permission to send your business card to his mobile. When he has a friend in trouble he does the same, and if the friend calls you, you give your man 10% (or whatever) of the value of the job. Always ask a new customer how he found you and note the referral. Do that with every customer and in no time you'll do almost all your business through word of mouth, instead of being lumped in with all the other locksmiths in the phonebook.

(Don't forget to send out the cheques)

random.stranger

Would you settle with Dennis O'Brien? Here's a link to a summary of a speach he made last year (there's a link to an mp3 of the speach itself on the bottom of the webpage):

http://www.dit.ie/hothouse/newsevents/latestnews/news2008/o’brien%20inspires%20new%20entrepreneurs/