Business Ideas : What does City need ?

Scaldy Ned

Or subtitled "Inspiration Thread"

If you had money , what businesses have you seen on your travels that you feel would work in Waterford ??

I know we all feel that this city couldn't be improved on but if you were to start a business here what would it be ?

I tried to think of something to get the ball rolling....But i couldn't

dayshah

Now is a good time to open a business as you can negotiate a low rent.

There are some franchises that could be opened for clothes like Promod or Celio.
Also, I've been thinking of a pub with just a beer and wine licence. You save money on not having a spirit licence. It should be worth an experiment at least.

ziedth

A wine bar that isn't as pretencious as the wine vault was? I think it would be something a bit different.

Great idea for a thread OP, I actually do have what I consider a good idea for a business. But I'm not tell yee, you'll steal it

abouttobebanned

A pedestrian bridge from ferrybank over to the towerhotel.

Hells Belle

A proper 2nd hand book shop. The Book Centre is extortionate and I never remember to return books to the library so cheap books I can keep and then maybe swop for other books would be nice.

wellboytoo

Turn all of Cathedral square into a series of restaurants. cafes, artisan shops etc, with tables outside for the summer, artists selling their wares on the railings of the church, yer off

Crusty Blaa

ziedth wrote: »

A wine bar that isn't as pretencious as the wine vault was? I think it would be something a bit different.

Great idea for a thread OP, I actually do have what I consider a good idea for a business. But I'm not tell yee, you'll steal it

The Wine Vault was never really classed or advertised as a wine bar was it?

The last wine bar that was open in the town was completely ignored - down around Scotch Quay and what about the one that was further up the town (name escapes me) - also ignored. When opening a wine bar in Waterford you are clearly only targeting a minority market. It only works in a big city like Cork or Dublin in my opinion.

deisemum

Crusty Blaa wrote: »

The Wine Vault was never really classed or advertised as a wine bar was it?

The last wine bar that was open in the town was completely ignored - down around Scotch Quay and what about the one that was further up the town (name escapes me) - also ignored. When opening a wine bar in Waterford you are clearly only targeting a minority market. It only works in a big city like Cork or Dublin in my opinion.

The Footbridge wine bar was lovely when it first opened but then it went downhill pretty quickly and was a right rip off so I'm not surprised it didn't last long. I'll never forget going there one St Patrick's Day with my husband and 2 children and ordered the Irish Stew.

It was more like oxtail soup with 3 or 4 small chunks of beef, 2 chunks of carrot and quarter of an average sized potato in each dish but with Bodega prices. I also heard similar experiences from friends who felt they were ripped off and never went back.

Crusty Blaa

deisemum wrote: »

The Footbridge wine bar was lovely when it first opened but then it went downhill pretty quickly and was a right rip off so I'm not surprised it didn't last long. I'll never forget going there one St Patrick's Day with my husband and 2 children and ordered the Irish Stew.

It was more like oxtail soup with 3 or 4 small chunks of beef, 2 chunks of carrot and quarter of an average sized potato in each dish but with Bodega prices. I also heard similar experiences from friends who felt they were ripped off and never went back.

That was the one at Scotch Quay, right? Just from your post, I can spot one major failing of a wine bar - serving food. A proper wine bar should just serve wine and nibbles; cheese boards, olives etc. The wine should be the main experience and not the food.

foghlu

Hells Belle wrote: »

A proper 2nd hand book shop. The Book Centre is extortionate and I never remember to return books to the library so cheap books I can keep and then maybe swop for other books would be nice.

Saw someone is trying to set up a book swap type shop in waterford.

They have a facebook page 'the waterford book swap shop' sounds like a great idea

ROCKMAN

abouttobebanned wrote: »

A pedestrian bridge from ferrybank over to the towerhotel.

A small people ferry crossing ever 15 mins or so charging 1 euro return trip ,would make more money (new business ) and would cost a hell of a lot less that building a bridge,

Hells Belle

foghlu wrote: »

Saw someone is trying to set up a book swap type shop in waterford.

They have a facebook page 'the waterford book swap shop' sounds like a great idea

I'll investigate that, thanks! I love the idea about Cathedral Square, that gets my vote.

ROCKMAN

Hells Belle wrote: »

I'll investigate that, thanks! I love the idea about Cathedral Square, that gets my vote.

+1 for both . Cathedral square with a bit of effort could be a fantastic step in the right direction for the city.

Ps If your username inspired by what I think... then you also have great taste in music.:):D

ziedth

Crusty Blaa wrote: »

That was the one at Scotch Quay, right? Just from your post, I can spot one major failing of a wine bar - serving food. A proper wine bar should just serve wine and nibbles; cheese boards, olives etc. The wine should be the main experience and not the food.

This is kinda my point, no food or anything like that and I wouldn't gear it to the snooty end of wine drinkers either. I think there must be people who like wine but none of the **** attached to it.

It would prob bomb so I'd never risk it but I'd love to see something like that.

Or and I'm fully convienced it would print money:

A captin America's/TFI Fridays near storm cinema. I'm simply amazed nobody has done it yet.

witless1

A Starbucks wouldn't go astray at all. Would be a good market for it in and around the center of the town. The small kiosk that sells coffee in the square seems to do well, but a franchise carrying the Starbucks name and reputation would do very well.

Santan

one problem with the TFI Fridays, is you must commit to having a premesis that is close to €1000000, commit to hand over 10% of yearly turnover not profit which can go massively wrong very quickly, and the really big issue is you must give a commitment to open a further 2 units within 5 years of the first one opening, I think then all combined units can add up to 1 million to get around the first problem, cant remember if they give starting money to fit out the kitchen for the first unit, memory tells me they do as a lot of it comes from US, but there is clauses in the contracts that if you dont open more shops in the timeline the % goes up on your 1st unit. I checked this out in the boom about 6 years ago now so not sure if it has all changed.

abouttobebanned

ROCKMAN wrote: »

A small people ferry crossing ever 15 mins or so charging 1 euro return trip ,would make more money (new business ) and would cost a hell of a lot less that building a bridge,

At the moment if you want to walk from anywhere in ferrybank, slieverue etc it's a fairly long walk whatever age you are. Whether you work in town or just want to go in to shop, or socialise it makes sense that if we can dramatically reduce the walk time then we'll have a lot more people coming into town.

How often would you run a ferry across that river...would it be a 24 hour thing? If not what's the point? And charging a €1 a pop? Are we going to privatise it? Or put more money into the council coffers.

There was a plan in place to build a "Viking foot bridge" at the tower...it was a brilliant idea, but they ran out of money. Rather than charge everyone a euro a pop I'd prefer to ask them all to pay €5 each to partly fund the perdestrianised crossing.

Santan

witless1 wrote: »

A Starbucks wouldn't go astray at all. Would be a good market for it in and around the center of the town. The small kiosk that sells coffee in the square seems to do well, but a franchise carrying the Starbucks name and reputation would do very well.

im almost 100% Starbucks is not a franchise cant buy in to it they have to come to the town themselves, know a guy who was trying to get them here in 2005 - 06 but they refused as rents did not reflect the market at the time

ROCKMAN

abouttobebanned wrote: »

At the moment if you want to walk from anywhere in ferrybank, slieverue etc it's a fairly long walk whatever age you are. Whether you work in town or just want to go in to shop, or socialise it makes sense that if we can dramatically reduce the walk time then we'll have a lot more people coming into town.

How often would you run a ferry across that river...would it be a 24 hour thing? If not what's the point? And charging a €1 a pop? Are we going to privatise it? Or put more money into the council coffers.

There was a plan in place to build a "Viking foot bridge" at the tower...it was a brilliant idea, but they ran out of money. Rather than charge everyone a euro a pop I'd prefer to ask them all to pay €5 each to partly fund the perdestrianised crossing.

My ferry would be a business idea (as the op asks for ) so would more than likely be privatise .
But I see See your points.. 24 hours ,enough customers etc , And I agree a bridge would be the better options in theory
but I would have to big worries
A. the cost of construction and more important IMO B. A bridge at the tower would close off most of the Quay to any large vessels or hamper future events such as Tall ships etc.. Losing the city valuable income .

mike65

A fixed bridge at the Tower would be a disaster of an idea, while a non fixed bridge would be prohibitively expensive esp these days days. A cute passenger ferry with a capacity for about 20 seated people on a cable fed system would be much wiser.

A big Marks and Spencer, there I said it.

abouttobebanned

Well yeah..it would have to be a raisable bridge. But as I say...there were plans in place before.

(And I missed the part about it being a business opportunity)

mike65

Nah it wouldn't be a draw bridge I'd hope, a swing bridge would be cooler.

Psychedelic

Commercial rates need to be reduced. This might happen for a lot of businesses once the re-valuation of properties is complete (this is already underway in Waterford). The property valuations are factored into how the rates are calculated so that is only one side of the equation. The City Council are too afraid to reduce their side of the rates now unfortunately. They just think: If we reduce the rates, we reduce our income. They don't seem to get the idea that by reducing the rates they would help businesses stay open and encourage new businesses to open. They could actually end up increasing their rate base.

One thing the city/county really needs is a 5-star hotel to cater for large conferences and events. Not going to happen any time soon though, probably not for another 5-10 years, if ever.

wellboytoo wrote: »

Turn all of Cathedral square into a series of restaurants. cafes, artisan shops etc, with tables outside for the summer, artists selling their wares on the railings of the church, yer off

That would be nice but we already have a series of restaurants in that area, along High Street and Henrietta Street. There are already quite a few cafes in that area too, but yes, a few in the square would be a nice addition. The art thing could be easily done.

Hells Belle wrote: »

A proper 2nd hand book shop. The Book Centre is extortionate and I never remember to return books to the library so cheap books I can keep and then maybe swop for other books would be nice.

I'd love one too but we had a small one beside the Munster Express and one on Gladstone Street, but they had to close down, presumably because they were not supported enough.

O Riain

The number one thing this city needs, is a hostel, a good hostel, we are not tapped into the young tourist market in slightest, it wud help the pub trade out here no end, young tourists would bring something fresh to the town and having a hostel doing a nightly pub crawl would bring in a few bob into the pubs. It is something that is needed and needed soon, the city council are doing alot of great work tourism wise but who do I need to talk to to make it clear that we need a hostel. Young people do not travel to a place unless it has a hostel. Fact. (maryland would be unbelievably ideal if your man got a clue)

ziedth

O Riain wrote: »

The number one thing this city needs, is a hostel, a good hostel, we are not tapped into the young tourist market in slightest, it wud help the pub trade out here no end, young tourists would bring something fresh to the town and having a hostel doing a nightly pub crawl would bring in a few bob into the pubs. It is something that is needed and needed soon, the city council are doing alot of great work tourism wise but who do I need to talk to to make it clear that we need a hostel. Young people do not travel to a place unless it has a hostel. Fact. (maryland would be unbelievably ideal if your man got a clue)

I thought of that before too, what's the hostel like over in the portee? I came across the name once.

I'm actually not a fan of Starbucks. To American for my liking.

Tragamin2k2

sushi

O Riain

ziedth wrote: »

I thought of that before too, what's the hostel like over in the portee? I came across the name once.

I'm actually not a fan of Starbucks. To American for my liking.

as far as i know its more b and b type stuff and its out of the centre. if someone doesnt open a hostel I feckin will! but really though, who could i email in order to highlight the importance of this?

dashboard_hula

Maybe some newly elected political candidates? I know that we're trying to move away from "local" politics but FG are supposed to be a pro-business party, yeah? Mightn't do any harm - especially if they can point you in the direction of any local business support groups, chamber of comm etc.

Nolanger

Scaldy Ned wrote: »

what businesses have you seen on your travels that you feel would work in Waterford ??

Tourist reps: people wearing coloured jackets walking the streets helping tourists with directions and what to see in the city.

Psychedelic

O Riain wrote: »

as far as i know its more b and b type stuff and its out of the centre. if someone doesnt open a hostel I feckin will! but really though, who could i email in order to highlight the importance of this?

I don't think it would really matter who you email, whether its the Council, Failte Ireland or whoever, they cannot setup a hostel. It's really up to someone with money to set one up and run it as a business. Unless maybe the Council or Failte Ireland might know various hostel owners in other areas and could ask them to consider setting up a hostel in Waterford.

dayshah

We need underground car parking in central locations. (It would need a big investment).

Also, make use of the river. Was there once a river boat restaurant that went up and down to New Ross or Passage and you had your dinner on board?

Maybe some river tours for the tourists on a boat?

I also think O Riain's hostel idea is a really good idea.

RxQueen

dayshah wrote: »

We need underground car parking in central locations. (It would need a big investment).

Also, make use of the river. Was there once a river boat restaurant that went up and down to New Ross or Passage and you had your dinner on board?

Maybe some river tours for the tourists on a boat?

I also think O Riain's hostel idea is a really good idea.

river tours about what though?


seen a guy going for a swim in the river, ( in his speedos) coming across the bridge the other day... thought it was strange!

dayshah

emo!! wrote: »

river tours about what though?


seen a guy going for a swim in the river, ( in his speedos) coming across the bridge the other day... thought it was strange!

It looks pretty up towards Mt Congreve. Tourists would love it. Combine it with the restaurant too.

babystrawberry

emo!! wrote: »

river tours about what though?


seen a guy going for a swim in the river, ( in his speedos) coming across the bridge the other day... thought it was strange!

As Dayshah said the area up by Mt Congrave is very pretty, tourists would love it. Thikn the idea of river tours would be lovely actually. I actually remember that boat that used to do that, think it was called 'Galley tours', Boat looked a bit worse for wear in the end but as far as i know it did well in its heyday

dayshah

Maybe some sort of multi-day cruise, along the Suir, Nore and Barrow. Eg stay one night in Waterford, one in Kilkenny. How long would it take to travel between the two by boat?

ziedth

dayshah wrote: »

Maybe some sort of multi-day cruise, along the Suir, Nore and Barrow. Eg stay one night in Waterford, one in Kilkenny. How long would it take to travel between the two by boat?

Couldn't take that long surely. Would it be a few hours? Could have a meal on board. I think you could sell it fairly well on the summer.

O Riain

Psychedelic wrote: »

I don't think it would really matter who you email, whether its the Council, Failte Ireland or whoever, they cannot setup a hostel. It's really up to someone with money to set one up and run it as a business. Unless maybe the Council or Failte Ireland might know various hostel owners in other areas and could ask them to consider setting up a hostel in Waterford.

Of course I realist the first step in fixing any problem is recognising there is a problem. I'm sure they could try and influence someone or highlight the Market to, as you said, another hostel owner. What is the possibility of them offering some incentive to an owner of a building to start a hostel??? One of the most short sited things ever done, changing the use of the Viking house. Typical Waterford stuff.

Dum_Dum

River tour in conjunction with the extended Suir Valley railway. From town on the train to Mt Congreve; return via boat back to the Quay (and alternate route the other way) and a look around the Crystal centre / Tower + any museums all on a combined ticket for the day. Every visitor can relax, no hidden extras, take your time - everything made easy.

anplaya

O Riain wrote: »

as far as i know its more b and b type stuff and its out of the centre. if someone doesnt open a hostel I feckin will! but really though, who could i email in order to highlight the importance of this?

i thought some german hostel company bought the homeless hostel in lady lane and were converting it into a tourist hostel? there was somethin about that a while back cause theyre buildin a new homeless hostel somewhere else in town

ziedth

anplaya wrote: »

i thought some german hostel company bought the homeless hostel in lady lane and were converting it into a tourist hostel? there was somethin about that a while back cause theyre buildin a new homeless hostel somewhere else in town

Would be handy it's a great location.

savina10

Bring back a train along the Atlantic corridor, link Cork, Midleton, Youghal, Dungarvan and Waterford (any chance the river could be diverted a little). Shame to deprive people of the beauty.
Waterford needs its version of the Bertie Bowl. Leisure and recreation is where Waterford is at.

Scaldy Ned

Some really good ideas there
A Toll bridge from Ferrybank to the Tower is i think a great idea, incorporate it into a 5k walk or something ? Also i think people from Ferrybank would use it big time to come into town....think of the traffic it would ease ...good one

River Cruise....Great
Anyone remember the Crystal Cruise in the 80's ? He had the edge in that because of a loophole he could open the bar at 11am on Sunday morning, and Gino Hearn would be strumming away, it was great and could easily be developed into having meals or parties and occasions...definitely a runner i think.

Cathedral Square for Restaraunts....The problem with this one is that Restaurants are expensive these days and won't pull in punters because of their location...But i do agree that Cathedral Square could be utilised more.

A hostel is a great idea also but would need a theme or an edge to get people to come here....Viking Nights maybe , get pishd drinking from cowhorns in Reggies Tower ? (another underused resource)


Tourist Reps...Great Idea, Easily Recognisable and able to tell the tourists what the literature doesn't....Sad to see all the drenched tourists walking around lost and taking photo's of Reggies Tower and too scared to know where to go for a good night out........"Hi folks how are you , what do you feel like doing tonight ? A good meal here , a good pint there"....a good experience will get them to spend more and stay longer....By far our most underused asset is our friendliness and gift of the gab and ability to give visitors a god night out.....Local Restaurants and Innkeepers isn't this worth a try ???? We are the Oldest City in Ireland and have not yet learned how to exploit this fact.

Keep em coming , surely we can stimulate some idea's for new and innovative projects.

I'm going to open a Market Research thread also ....I will explain how this works there

Scaldy Ned

Think out of the box or inside the box....whatever works

http://www.powerhomebiz.com/BizIdeas/bizideas.htm

nkay1985

Dum_Dum wrote: »

River tour in conjunction with the extended Suir Valley railway. From town on the train to Mt Congreve; return via boat back to the Quay (and alternate route the other way) and a look around the Crystal centre / Tower + any museums all on a combined ticket for the day. Every visitor can relax, no hidden extras, take your time - everything made easy.

Great idea. Any city you visit as a tourist, you can buy combination tickets that work out cheaper than the total individual cost. I never understood why Waterford haven't done that. You could have all the attractions priced individually and then customisable combinations. In Barcelona, you have this sort of thing and, as part of it, you also get coupon brochures with some decent deals for local restaurants and other attractions in the city.

We definitely need to make Waterford more tourist-friendly.

STIG83

savina10 wrote: »

Bring back a train along the Atlantic corridor, link Cork, Midleton, Youghal, Dungarvan and Waterford (any chance the river could be diverted a little). Shame to deprive people of the beauty.
Waterford needs its version of the Bertie Bowl. Leisure and recreation is where Waterford is at.

It was a sin closing down the Waterford to Dungarvan Railway line, would love to see it re opened but i know it will never happen, even have a set up like what is in Kilmeaden out in Kilmac have it going over the viaduct.

Psychedelic

O Riain wrote: »

Of course I realist the first step in fixing any problem is recognising there is a problem. I'm sure they could try and influence someone or highlight the Market to, as you said, another hostel owner. What is the possibility of them offering some incentive to an owner of a building to start a hostel??? One of the most short sited things ever done, changing the use of the Viking house. Typical Waterford stuff.

I don't know what kind of incentive they could offer. I don't think it's possible to do a rates based incentive anyway (something to do with competition law). They could surely do something though, like free/discounted advertising and promotion of the hostel. I know a few people you could email and I have their email addresses if you want to contact them? Let me know and I will PM them to you.

What's the Viking house?