Plan B - Open a pharmacy

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

Although I have only been contracting for 18 months (and still not reached 28) I feel it is wise to start thinking about a Plan B. Every idea I have involving technology I give up with after thinking it through and realising it is not really worth it. Also I doubt I will want to be looking at a computer screen in 15 years time (if my eyes still work by then).

I have thought about it for quite a while and I am thinking I might go into that market as a plan B for the following reasons:
1) People always need Medicine (not affected by market fluctuations)
2) By coincidence I have several family and friends who have graduated as pharmacists (including other half)
3) I might use warchest to get the business going (not sure of tax implications here?)

Does anybody here have any experience in this field (I know it is a far fetch but what have I got to lose in asking?). Does anybody think it is a good idea and worth serious consideration?

[eek]

1 downside I've seen recently is that larger GP practices are setting up their own pharmacies attached to the practice. Its very hard to get a clientèle if people don't need to physically travel to get the prescription fulfilled.

[craig1]

We have a pharmacy near us that's not near any GP surgery and charges 10-15% more than the big chain pharmacies but the owners are doing very well for themselves. Their unique point is that they're open until after 9pm most nights and open at an indecent time in the morning while the other pharmacies nearby all shut by 6. This means that those of us with jobs can get to a pharmacy out of hours without having to bother going out of our way to a supermarket. They also do prescription pickup runs to the GP surgeries in a decent radius.

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

We have a pharmacy near us that's not near any GP surgery and charges 10-15% more than the big chain pharmacies but the owners are doing very well for themselves. Their unique point is that they're open until after 9pm most nights and open at an indecent time in the morning while the other pharmacies nearby all shut by 6. This means that those of us with jobs can get to a pharmacy out of hours without having to bother going out of our way to a supermarket. They also do prescription pickup runs to the GP surgeries in a decent radius.

Excellent point which I didn't mention in my post. I would have to open up a 100 hours pharmacy anyway in order to get the license. Also the idea of the delivery service is definitely the way forwards in terms of getting customers.

[stek]

Whatever happened to 'Chemists'?

[TestMangler]

Excellent point which I didn't mention in my post. I would have to open up a 100 hours pharmacy anyway in order to get the license. Also the idea of the delivery service is definitely the way forwards in terms of getting customers.

Make sure you budget for 'security' for delivery in your business plan

I had a friend who, while training as a GP, did a stint in Lockerbie, which most people see as a pleasant old retirement town. They had an unreal number of people on the methodone programme down there. They introduced a prescription delivery service based on peoples needs, like disabilites etc, but guess who ended up getting their medicines delivered ? The junkies and the jaikies. My mate had to witness the 'scripters' taking their methodone and said he's never been as scared in his life and threats were common place

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

Make sure you budget for 'security' for delivery in your business plan

I had a friend who, while training as a GP, did a stint in Lockerbie, which most people see as a pleasant old retirement town. They had an unreal number of people on the methodone programme down there. They introduced a prescription delivery service based on peoples needs, like disabilites etc, but guess who ended up getting their medicines delivered ? The junkies and the jaikies. My mate had to witness the 'scripters' taking their methodone and said he's never been as scared in his life and threats were common place

Yes something definitely worth considering......

[PAH]

Problem with any shop like this is you have to either be there most days or pay someone else to be.

Benefits of IT related ideas are that hopefully once live you can sit back and only do maintenance and support.

Hence I'm still holding out for a plan B success in the latter. Then I can have the money rolling in whilst sat in a warm country by the pool, with a laptop to take care of business.

Is there an opportunity to merge the two? An online pharmacy. I've received plenty of emails offering various pills so someone must be making a killing doing it that way.

[eek]

Is there an opportunity to merge the two? An online pharmacy. I've received plenty of emails offering various pills so someone must be making a killing doing it that way.

Its profitable but requires the odd email to make a sale. See How Many Spam Mails Does It Take to Sell $100 of Viagra?

and I believe the numbers are getting progressively higher.

[KentPhilip]

Running a real-world pharmacy should be an excellent cover for selling street drugs, I would have thought?