Some Oppinions Wanted

[Juz]

Hey SAU!

Well it's coming to a stage where i'm wanting to start a buisness, however with my young age my dad is coming to his retirement stage but he still wants to work so he has offerd to buy me a franchise so we can work togethor.

Now my job is to find a Established or non established buisness under 100k and get all the infomation, start up cost's, client history etc and find which way I want to go.

Some of my idea's is to buy into Mobile car detailing for my region, or start up a new buisness, I don't really want to buy a cafe or bar as such and I enjoy cleaning/detailing my car.

Now my question to you is what is your advice on how I should go about setting up this kind of buisness , I have done my homework etc. (mobile car detailing) or buying into an established company and becoming a franchisee. The only downside with this is i'm still on my P plates and will be risking it a hell of a lot.

My second question is are there any other buisnesses you guys could recomend?

Thanks,

Justin

[Liz]

There is a franchise fair coming up in march that might be good for you to attend.

[Juz]

There is a franchise fair coming up in march that might be good for you to attend.

please go on?

[SHANE666]

Good move Juz. Get all the advice that you can.

My opinion is to establish a business and brand on your own terms. Being a franchisee sometimes means your business operations run on the basis of your franchisor's terms, not your own.

Good luck with it mate!! Hope all is well.

[SECURITY]

one thing i havent seen is a mobile dent remover as well as a detailer. diversifying is the key!

good luck mate.

[XKLABA]

You can't beat worhing for yourself, you make your own hours and if you want a day off you don't have to answer to anyone. francises are genrally not a goodidea you have to follow there rules and methods which i don't think that it is then your own business. My best man brought into a francise involving car parts and stuff and it was the rules off the francise that sent him under, it was to do with the stock he had to keep instore that didn't sell in his area.

Start your own business with your own ideas by looking around your local area and seeing what is needed, no point starting something that your area already has some a few of.

You like washing YOUR car but do it 10hrs a day 5/6 days a week and see how good it is

As for partnerships they very rearly end well as one side always think they are getting ripped or over worked, i was in a partner ship with my father for 8 years before i had to buy him out or disown him.

Deversity is always a good idea, my dad would say "the more strings in a bow the better tune you can play"

What have you got to lose, still on Ps so i'm guessing you live at home with your perants so at best you will lose you car if worst happens it's alot less then if you did it in 5-10 years and were risking a house and had a wife and kids to support, the younger you are the more time you have to recover if it does not work out which is always a possiblity when starting and running your own business

[GTScotT]

Do not turn your hobby into a chore, that is the most important thing I can say.

Good mechanics are hard to come by, because the majority of them end up hating what they thought they would love.

Buying a business is a great idea, yet you should look into a well established franchise and you should try to go it with a partner, preferably a wife or your dad. Good franchises these days are places like Subway and Easyway. Theres 2 of each in both Liverpool and Parramatta westfields and the places RAKE it in. Theres basically an Easyway ever 5 mins walk on George St in the city and, you guess its, they are all busy.

[MBS206]

f**k working for yourself.

We run a family business from my fathers, I have nothing really to do with it anymore, except for some discussions and minor paper work.

We now employ a full time manager, as well as 3-4 staff...

My father STILL works 8 hours a day himself, doing what he can (Major injuries, isn't meant to be working at all), and he STILL comes home, and will be doing paper work 4 hours later.

People think working for yourself is "glorious", but EVERYONE I know who works for themself, hates it. Everyone thinks that these owners can take days when they want etc.

The difference is, if you employ people, and you take a day off, most of them will f**k around and you go backwards $$$ wise. If you are only employing yourself, you take a day off, you get no $$$.

My boss owns the business I work for. He is at our office at 8:30 everyday basically, works till 5:30 at night, with no lunch break, and I am STILL getting emails from him, on work related stuff from 10PM - 3AM every night, and he STILL doesn't have enough time to do everything he needs to!

Working for yourself is NOT the bees knees as everyone thinks.

Most who think it is awesome, have never worked for themself...

[Daleo]

Good franchises these days are places like Subway and Easyway. Theres 2 of each in both Liverpool and Parramatta westfields and the places RAKE it in. Theres basically an Easyway ever 5 mins walk on George St in the city and, you guess its, they are all busy.

Subway was a good thing 10-15 years ago.Increasingly restrictive franchise rules and incredibly expensive equipment ($3000 each for the toaster ovens? $9000 for a proofer? ) Rules on how long you can keep stock even when it's non perishable. Startup cost of a Subway now is enormous. Most of the early franchisees don't run them anymore; made their money & moved on. Do you have any idea what it cost to rent shopfront space in either of those locations? You'd BETTER be making some coin, you're gonna need it to pay the rent.

Generally, if you can see the opportunity starting to boom; you're too late to get on the wave.

[Liz]

http://www.franchisingexpo.com.au/about.asp

I'd get yourself to this one. Most of the new business owners we come across started by attending this event.

[Liz]

Subway was a good thing 10-15 years ago.Increasingly restrictive franchise rules and incredibly expensive equipment ($3000 each for the toaster ovens? $9000 for a proofer? ) Rules on how long you can keep stock even when it's non perishable. Startup cost of a Subway now is enormous. Most of the early franchisees don't run them anymore; made their money & moved on. Do you have any idea what it cost to rent shopfront space in either of those locations? You'd BETTER be making some coin, you're gonna need it to pay the rent.

Generally, if you can see the opportunity starting to boom; you're too late to get on the wave.

rental...it's not as bad as you think

[Liz]

I reckon Bakers Delight has it's shit together right now.... shit hours, but geez they make some dough (haha, get it, get it!?!?! lol)

[Daleo]

rental...it's not as bad as you think

Parramatta Westfield has some of the most expensive shopfront rental in Australia.

[Liz]

it's slightly down the ranks actually but with one of the highest sales per m² (level 5 is the highest sales per m² for that category of centre in the country) and one of the highest traffic flows in the country... so it's all relative

[XKLABA]

f**k working for yourself.

We run a family business from my fathers, I have nothing really to do with it anymore, except for some discussions and minor paper work.

We now employ a full time manager, as well as 3-4 staff...

My father STILL works 8 hours a day himself, doing what he can (Major injuries, isn't meant to be working at all), and he STILL comes home, and will be doing paper work 4 hours later.

People think working for yourself is "glorious", but EVERYONE I know who works for themself, hates it. Everyone thinks that these owners can take days when they want etc.

The difference is, if you employ people, and you take a day off, most of them will f**k around and you go backwards $$$ wise. If you are only employing yourself, you take a day off, you get no $$$.

My boss owns the business I work for. He is at our office at 8:30 everyday basically, works till 5:30 at night, with no lunch break, and I am STILL getting emails from him, on work related stuff from 10PM - 3AM every night, and he STILL doesn't have enough time to do everything he needs to!

Working for yourself is NOT the bees knees as everyone thinks.

Most who think it is awesome, have never worked for themself...

like i said partnerships rearly workout, everyone you "know" that works for them self must have there businesses set up wrong i am in the building industry and everyone i know that works for themself loves it and wouldn't look back.

If you can't make enough money to take some days off then you are doing it wrong, i take 4 weeks every christmas with no dramas and yeah while there is no money getting earnt i make enough and have the business set up so it doesn't matter.

i only take enough work so i start at 7am and am at home by 2pm most days depending on much has to be done any given week i only like to do 4/5 days a week i refuse to work saturdays unless its for mates, with only one hour of paper work a day by thetime my 2 year old wakes up for his arvo nap i've got the rest of the day to spend with him, so yeah work for yourself is the "bees knees"

[oweban]

like i said partnerships rearly workout, everyone you "know" that works for them self must have there businesses set up wrong i am in the building industry and everyone i know that works for themself loves it and wouldn't look back.

If you can't make enough money to take some days off then you are doing it wrong, i take 4 weeks every christmas with no dramas and yeah while there is no money getting earnt i make enough and have the business set up so it doesn't matter.

i only take enough work so i start at 7am and am at home by 2pm most days depending on much has to be done any given week i only like to do 4/5 days a week i refuse to work saturdays unless its for mates, with only one hour of paper work a day by thetime my 2 year old wakes up for his arvo nap i've got the rest of the day to spend with him, so yeah work for yourself is the "bees knees"

Guess it's a YMMV? Spose it would depend on the trade (and therefore the demand for it in the area)?

Either way, if you've made it work for yourself, good on you

[Daleo]

it's slightly down the ranks actually but with one of the highest sales per m² (level 5 is the highest sales per m² for that category of centre in the country) and one of the highest traffic flows in the country... so it's all relative

Interesting, A friend of mine is a National Sales manager for a childrens wear company, and she showed me some pretty ludicrous numbers Was a while ago, maybe things have normalised a bit. Definitely traffic flow is huge.

[XKLABA]

Guess it's a YMMV? Spose it would depend on the trade (and therefore the demand for it in the area)?

Either way, if you've made it work for yourself, good on you

YMMV? what the, like i said in first post look at what is needed in ya local area and work with it

[MBS206]

Interesting, A friend of mine is a National Sales manager for a childrens wear company, and she showed me some pretty ludicrous numbers Was a while ago, maybe things have normalised a bit. Definitely traffic flow is huge.

Liz works in retail leasing... I'd go with her figures...

[SECURITY]

like i said partnerships rearly workout, everyone you "know" that works for them self must have there businesses set up wrong i am in the building industry and everyone i know that works for themself loves it and wouldn't look back.

If you can't make enough money to take some days off then you are doing it wrong, i take 4 weeks every christmas with no dramas and yeah while there is no money getting earnt i make enough and have the business set up so it doesn't matter.

i only take enough work so i start at 7am and am at home by 2pm most days depending on much has to be done any given week i only like to do 4/5 days a week i refuse to work saturdays unless its for mates, with only one hour of paper work a day by thetime my 2 year old wakes up for his arvo nap i've got the rest of the day to spend with him, so yeah work for yourself is the "bees knees"

+1

i work in property development/project management which is a family business. i've also worked for many different companies and definitely prefer working for myself. i've come to realise that if your company is set up wrong then you will have nothing but long hours and a shitty working life. my first boss was like this. 30yrs old and running a multi million dollar construction/architecture company by himself while hiring backpackers to do random labouring and office work. it was an absolute nightmare, i had to leave to save my own sanity.

the last place i worked had it all going for them. great management, perfect filing system, neat and very organised and everything had a due date in terms of payments and invoices. it ran like clock work.

if you've got the critical operational tasks organised the rest will follow. you'll make your own business logic that flows from that.

p.s. keep a day-to-day diary.