What I have:

businessdit

What I have:

A secure and visible yard with road frontage and a portakabin in a working class area of West Dublin. Near Post office and near Shops. Good passing trade.Portakabin has access to electricity and water etc.

Any Ideas of what business I could start here - I have about €7-8k to invest in this and have a background in marketing.

I was thinking of something like a winter supplies yard but this is too sasonal and profit margins seem low.

Any Ideas of what business I could start here? - Suggestions vary much so appreciated!

Red Sheds

If you have all those things, and I presume yard has good parking. I would be looking at fast moving goods, that yhou can sell at a price lower than competition locally. That will bring you into the realm of some seasonal goods, but it can work. Wont take too much in terms of non stock investment to get into it, just some big signs with your prices. So I would look at something like:

Now - Christmas trees and accessories
Winter - Solid Fuel, Coal, briquettes, drums of kerosene, ice salt, etc
Spring - Bulky gardening products like, peat moss, compost, fencing trellis, fence posts, small DIY poly tunnels, that sort of thing
Summer - Continue the gardening stuff, maybe add limited range of paints in big containers, weedkillers etc
Autumn - Getting into Solid Fuel time again.

Keep the range of products small, ones that are not persihable and only stock ones that are fast sellers so as to avoid money tied up in stock. Make sure yard is very secure as well.

If you had more info on location, size of yard etc maybe could help a little more.

Best of luck in what ever you do

businessdit

Thanks for the detailed reply RedSheds,

To be honest I am looking to build a business that is more of a long-term business in a specific trade or industry, I looked into most of your above suggestions when I was considering opening a winter supplies yard and having looked into it in detail a seasonal model like this doesn't really appeal to me. Thanks very much for the detailed suggestions though!

Size of Yard: 25-30m Road frontage. Maybe 2000sq foot.
I also have a large unoccupied industrial building around the back.

zacseph

Could you give a more exact idea of where you are? There's quite a few options for a space like that, but it will all come down to what else is nearby - what ISN'T available to people directly near you... and what will they need that they'd rather not travel for...

PrintBob

Would you consider a car valet? Something like that has relatively low overheads and passing trade day in, day out will no doubt generate business. I would start with very keen prices and keep it all SIMPLE!

Kersh

Car valet sounds ideal, and perhaps car storage solution for people with classics outside over winter maybe.

Cianos

Does anyone know how much it'd cost to set up a car valet service? Is there extra work required to install the power hoses etc?