Small Business Ideas

Chelsea1

Hi Everyone,
Does anyone has any Ideas for starting up a small retail business?
e.g. Newsagents, Lauderette, etc

Axwell

Any ideas? Those arent new business ideas they are existing retail options.

What ideas are you looking for exactly? Are you looking for people to suggest to you what you could put in a small retail space which you are looking at renting? You will have to be a bit more clear what you are asking.

Chelsea1

Hi Axwell,
Yes i am looking for ideas or suggestions as to what i could put into a small retail unit which i would like to rent.
thanks

Axwell

Is the unit plumbed or not?

Depends on whats around locally and already available and on your own experience.

Dry Cleaners/Laundrette...small newsagents..coffee shop...barbers.

Chelsea1

My Fiance has good experience in newsagents style shops. but one of her ideas was to open a coffee shop. to open a coffee shop do you need any kind of health of safety or food handling certs, etc?
Thanks

Axwell

I am not 100% sure as its not an area I know a lot about but I would assume you would need some sort of certification from the Food Safety authorithy.

Did a quick search and came across this which might be worth reading over.

http://www.westmeath-enterprise.ie/download/1/A_Guide_to_Setting_up_a_Restaurant.doc

TheCostumeShop.ie: Ronan

I think you're going about this all wrong, you don't seem to be very fussed about what product you sell. Its almost impossible to succeed in business without being passionate about your business. Starting a business just to make use of space seems like a very short sighted approach. In 5 years you will tire of running a business you don't care about and wonder why you wasted your life focusing on a business sector you didn't care for.

Try working backwards, think about what would make you spring out of bed every morning to go to work and then figure out how to make that a business given your resources.

Chelsea1

Hi Ronan,
I was just looking for other ideas. But my Fiance has her heart set on a coffee shop.

onedmc

the first thing she has to do is work in a coffie shop for at least 6 months.

See what works, what dos'nt etc

LK1

Hi

You definitely need to follow legislation(EU & National)from the food safety authority for the manufacture or suppy of any food product. You will need to comply with HAACP guidelines in particular. Local health boards enforce the legislation.But I would agree with previous posters. Your OH would need to think this through first and detemine whether it is a viable venture to begin with.Go to your local County Enterprise Board. Get the relevant start your own business books from them.Go on a Start your Own Business course.Get as much information as you can from the food safety authority who have Start-up manuals for those going into the food industry. As they say failing to plan is planning to fail....

DoMyBooks

Google Maps shows 100km between Galway and Limerick when (if!) theres a motorway it will be less than an hour.

I live in Ardrahan and can reach Limerick in an hour off peak.

Those journey times make the whole project a complete waste.

Alex Swan

In what area are you looking for a premises?

Axwell

DoMyBooks wrote: »

Google Maps shows 100km between Galway and Limerick when (if!) theres a motorway it will be less than an hour.

I live in Ardrahan and can reach Limerick in an hour off peak.

Those journey times make the whole project a complete waste.

Have I missed something? Where did the OP say anything about Galway or Limerick? If you are referring to the document I linked to it was only in relation to the certs for selling food, not the rest of the document or setting up a restaraunt in westmeath.

albacete

TheCostumeShop.ie (Ronan) wrote: »

I think you're going about this all wrong, you don't seem to be very fussed about what product you sell. Its almost impossible to succeed in business without being passionate about your business. Starting a business just to make use of space seems like a very short sighted approach. In 5 years you will tire of running a business you don't care about and wonder why you wasted your life focusing on a business sector you didn't care for.

Try working backwards, think about what would make you spring out of bed every morning to go to work and then figure out how to make that a business given your resources.

I wouldnt agree with you 100% there Ronan. What youre not seeing is the general thrust of the business is retail customer service. I have ran 2 such businesses, and they are a lot more similiar than you would think. If youre passion is serving the general public, beit preparing coffee, washing their clothes, photocopying or printing their documents, its a lot more similar than you think. Ive learnt this from experience; the passion is serving the public, listening to their complaints and making sure they leave your establishment happy with plans to return.
My own advice to the original poster is that you must love the public, even the nasty ones. Ask your fiancee to complain at you and criticise you for something you didnt do, and see how you react ) that will give you a good indicator if you are made for retail service.

Incidently to follow up on one thing mentioned, does anyone have any statistics on which SMEs are most likely to succeed/fail or is that more owner/location dependent?

antoinolachtnai

The problem with all these service businesses at the moment is that it is difficult to do them on a small scale. You need a fair bit of scale to make any money. For a coffee shop, for instance, your minimum wage is EUR 9.20 + employer's prsi, which brings 10.30 euros. To pay this alone, you will need to sell around 6 cups of coffee in the hour, every hour. (Remember, 11 percent or so of the cost of the cup of coffee goes directly to the VAT man.). That is only the first, most basic thing you have to pay. There are so many things after that - your costs of sale, your general overheads, your management overheads, and your return on the original capital -.

The resolution to this is to have a bigger operation in a prominent location. However, this is a much bigger investment to take on.

You need passion to start a business, but the only thing that will keep it open is money!

If you want a small business for a tiny unit, located in an area with a lot of pedestrian traffic, there's donuts in winter, ice cream in summer. The rent will surprise you though, you'd easily be looking at 30k or 40k for such a unit.

DoMyBooks

Axwell wrote: »

Have I missed something? Where did the OP say anything about Galway or Limerick? If you are referring to the document I linked to it was only in relation to the certs for selling food, not the rest of the document or setting up a restaraunt in westmeath.

I was replying to a thread in relation to the Limerick - Galway railway line but for some reason I replied to this thread instead.

Sorry for the confusion!

Evolution Enter

Well I've been self employed a long time, and I agree with the sentiment that enjoying working with the public is the most important factor.

I work as a freelance darts journalist, and although I enjoy playing the game (badly most of the time) it's the contact with everyone that makes it fun more than the writing.

I also have my own bar, which trust me is a tough game to be in at the moment, but if you enjoy chatting away with the customers even when the place is dead, then it's not too bad.

I also have a beauty salon with my fiance, there I limit myself strictly to the business side of the salon, and enjoy just dealing with that. Two things that have worked really well for us there have been introducing vibro or powerplates to the salon, and the retail side of our business has really picked up since we started selling herbalife.

Vibro-gyms seem to be really taking off at the moment, and depending on how much you want to put into it can be a great business to get into at the moment. Herbalife has built up really well for us but you don't really need a premises, you can sell it from home if you like, but if you're pursuing a retail business it can be a great little side line

Hope that at least sets a few cogs in motion for you, god knows it's the greatest time in the world to start a business